Getting Around Town is officially open!

We are one week into our new exhibition, Getting Around Town: Four Centuries of Mapping Boston in Transit! Have you visited yet? In the upcoming weeks, we’re hosting three tours of the exhibition with guest curator Steven Beaucher, featuring an opportunity to explore the material on display, discuss, and ask questions. We hope to see you there!

Sign up for a tour → 

Identity, Empowerment, and Resilience in San Francisco’s Chinatown

“The response of marginalized communities to infrastructural challenges is evolving into a form of resistance, a reclamation of identity and a demand for inclusion in public spaces and networks,” writes Deland Chan, Director of Research at the Chinatown Community Development Center, in this new digital publication looking at the history of infrastructural advocacy in San Francisco’s Chinatown. This digital work is part of the Leventhal Center’s Small Grants for Early Career Digital Publications program.

Read the article → 

How Communities Resisted Institutional Expansion in Boston

“Though not the sole reason, college expansion contributes heavily to the increasing cost of living and decreasing amount of space in neighborhoods,” writes Boston Latin School student Salman Uddin in this article on academic institutions in Cambridge, Chinatown, and Roxbury.

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A Journey Through Boston’s LGBTQ+ Safe Spaces

“In the 1950s, Park Square and Bay Village in downtown were essential to the development of queer Boston through its clubs such as The Punch Bowl at 12 Carver St., Jacques at 79 Broadway St., the Napoleon Club at 52 Piedmont St., and Mario’s at 69 Church St., which were all within a few blocks of each other,” writes Boston Latin School student Zoe Colimon in this article mapping LGBTQ+ spaces of twentieth-century Boston.

Read the article → 

In Person: Roundtable on Idea City· September 26, 6:00 pm ET

How would you make Boston more livable, equitable, and resilient? Join us on Tuesday, September 26 at 6:00pm EST for a for a roundtable talk on the newly-released Idea City: How to Make Boston More Livable, Equitable, and Resilient with editor David Gamble and contributors Marie Law Adams, Alice Brown, Michelle Danila, and Andres Sevtsuk.

Reserve a spot → 

In Person: Lunch & Learn Book Club · October 4, 12:00 pm ET

We’re starting a new, thematic book club centered around geography, history, anthropology, and more. Unlike conventional book clubs where everyone reads the same book, this book club invites folks to select any book that falls within the designated theme for the month. This month, we’re reading books under Subclass GA covering mathematical geography and cartography. Check out our list of recommendations or find a title on your own!

RSVP here →