You’re invited to Lanterns & Luminaries: a special evening at the historic Old North Church celebrating the anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous “two if by sea” lantern signal in April of 1775. Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, will accept the Third Lantern Award, which is presented annually to an individual who embodies the values symbolized in Old North’s iconic signal lanterns: leadership, courage, hope, tenacity, and active citizenship.

The Lanterns & Luminaries program will include festive music, a dramatic reading of “Paul Revere’s Ride” by PBS’ Roberto Mighty, the presentation of the Third Lantern Award, and an inspiring keynote address from Mr. Lockhart. The evening concludes with a fun gathering where guests can enjoy refreshments and witness the lighting of the lanterns in the church steeple.

Lam is a journalist and short story writer, currently serving as the web editor of New America Media. He is a regular contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered and blogs for the Huffington Post.

How do stories and songs carry knowledge across generations? How does art hold space for healing while challenging systems of oppression? This panel explores how narrative and music function as radical tools for Black liberation—both historically and today.

Kelly Sims Gallagher directs The Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University, dedicated to identifying which climate policies work, which don’t, and why in countries around the world, with particular emphasis on major emerging economies including China, India, Ethiopia, South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil.

The field of industrial archeology (IA) is now about 70 years old and has passed through stages of life, from an exuberant youth filled with discovery – the period when the Charles River Museum of Industry was founded – to its sedate present. Interest in the field seems to be waning, judging from declining membership in IA groups, and even the name of the field confuses people. Those of us who would like to see the field survive and flourish wonder how it can be re-energized, in what direction should it go?

This presentation explains what industrial archeology is. It traces the history of the field, from its beginnings in England in the 1950s and the founding of the U.S. Society for Industrial Archeology in 1971, to the present, and describes some of its contributions, like the early surveys of historic textile mills. It covers its connections to allied history and practice fields, like history of technology and historic preservation. Sara Wermiel concludes by presenting her ideas for what the field might focus on, to have a purpose that can sustain it.

The Lowell Humanities Series at Boston College welcomes Sherene Seikaly to discuss themes from her forthcoming book project, From Baltimore to Beirut: On the Question of Palestine, and raise the question: How do we understand conflicting claims to land and its relationship to colonialism?

Cosponsored by the Boston College History Department.

The Lowell Humanities Series is sponsored by the Lowell Institute, Boston College’s Institute for the Liberal Arts, and the Provost’s Office.

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and commentator Eugene Robinson shares a rhythmic history. Moving beyond headlines and isolated shocks, Robinson draws on the two‑century journey of his own family — the heart of his memoir, "Freedom Lost, Freedom Won,"— to show how national politics are lived, felt, and carried across generations.

The Lowell Humanities Series at Boston College welcomes Rogers Brubaker, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at UCLA, and author to discuss how digital hyper-connectivity has reshaped political life by transforming ways of knowing, feeling, and governing. He explores the tension between the technocratic premises of algorithmic governance and the populist regimes of digitally mediated knowing and feeling, and specifies how hyper-connectivity can promote both populism and its seeming antithesis, technocracy.

The Lowell Humanities Series is sponsored by the Lowell Institute, Boston College’s Institute for the Liberal Arts, and the Provost’s Office.

"America’s Founding Son" tells the tale of Adams’s turbulent government career and his evolving views on slavery. Adams, along with lesser-known abolitionists Benjamin Lundy and Theodore Weld, found himself at the center of the coalition that leveled the first blow against slave power in the United States.

Mac Whatley, historian, and Director of Local History and Genealogy Resources at the Randolph County Public Library, takes us on a deep dive into the rich history of the power loom.