Producing a Black Oeuvre: Narratives of Black Grassroots Cultural Organizing in Boston

Abstract

Amidst a bevy of nonprofits and governmental actors that support and facilitate cultural and aesthetic production in the City of Boston, a vanguard of Black artists and cultural organizers are developing structures and organizations to help local members of Boston’s Black communities steer their own cultural production. This thesis develops an understanding of actions being taken by these organizers and organizations through interviews, and builds a set of participatory action research frameworks by partnering with these organizations (specifically: Thrill, Black Cotton Club, and 5Thou), to conduct further research as to how Black Bostonians can continue to self-determine in the realms of arts and culture. Drawing from a lineage most directly traceable to the Black Arts Movement of the late 1960s, and to hip-hop cultural production in ensuing decades, these organizers are furthering Black-led, community-controlled arts, and fostering community-building. Borrowing theorist Henri Lefebvre’s conception and declaration of a right to creative expression and participation, characterized as oeuvre and as a critical aspect of a “right to the city,” I hypothesized that these actions toward cultural self-determination could be seen as the establishment of a Black oeuvre. This assertion was expanded upon by research partners, to include a broader array of strategies and conceptual frameworks for producing Black place, community, and culture in Boston.