Past Events

Livable Streets is holding their 14th annual StreetTalk 10-in-1. As the tradition goes, ten speakers will take the stage to talk about topics like Boston transit history, public art, new approaches to housing, and more.

Light refreshments will be availble, along with a cash bar.

This year's speakers:
-Maha Aslam
Program Manager: Streets + Transit, LivableStreets
A Day in the Life of a Transit Advocate

-Julia Campbell
Deputy Chief of Streets for Infrastructure and Design, City of Boston
Fixing Boston's sidewalks, one intersection at a time

-Lorraine Fryer
Senior Content + Culture Manager, LivableStreets
How to Create a Cohousing Community in 10 Easy Steps

-Reynaliz Herrera
Founder & Director/Composer/Scriptwriter/Lead Performer of "Ideas, Not Theories"
Reynaliz Herrera’s Bicycle Music & her company “Ideas, Not Theories”

-Emily Isenberg
Founder & Creative Director, Isenberg Projects
Power to the People: Tactical Urbanism for a More Connected City

-Jarred Johnson
Executive Director, TransitMatters
Commuter Rail Is Doing Well, But Here's Why I Want It To Disappear

-Liz Luc Clowes
Director of Engagement and Food Forest Construction, Boston Food Forest Coalition
A network of 30 Food Forests in Boston builds a future of environmentally and socially resilient communities that thrive in many ways.

-Monica Tibbits-Nutt
Secretary of Transportation & CEO, Massachusetts Department of Transportation
The Intersectionality of Safety and Empathy

-Pete Wilson
Senior Policy Director, T4MA
Transportation finance and what it means to your community

-Giovanny Zuniga Piamba
Transit Justice Organizer, GreenRoots
Inclusive transportation begins when communities are part of the conversation

Gain insight into the life of Ira Gershwin, the man behind some of the most memorable lyrics of the Great American Songbook. Biographer Michael Owen reveals the life of this remarkable American, the son of first-generation immigrants, who has often been in the shadow of his brother George Gershwin.

The first lyricist to win the Pulitzer Prize, Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) has been hailed as one of the masters of the Great American Songbook, a period which covers songs written largely for Broadway and Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s. Now, in the first full-length biography devoted to his life, Michael Owen draws on extensive archival sources to craft a rich portrait of the modest man who penned the words to such well-loved songs as “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” Owen’s book celebrates George and Ira Gershwin’s collaboration and Ira’s extensive work with other songwriters. Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words brings the publicity-shy lyricist into the spotlight he deserves.

What is graffiti – is it vandalism, ornament or art? Anthropologist, Rafael Schacter proposes that we think of it as a monument – and it is indeed an ancient phenomenon. Originally thought to have come from the Italian archaeological term Graffito, meaning a deliberate mark made by scratching or engraving on a large surface such as a wall - nobody really knows. While the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians may have first coined the term, the definition and origins of modern-day graffiti continue to be debated, and Cambridge Forum is delighted to continue the discussion.

Schacter’s newest tome, Monumental Graffiti is a hefty and heavily researched read. In it, he shows why graffiti demands our urgent attention as a form of expression that challenges power structures by questioning whose voices are included in, or excluded from, the public space.

Schacter is joined by Cambridge graffiti artist, Caleb Neelon, co-author of The History of American Graffiti.

“We are over-protecting children in the real world while under-protecting them online” says Jonathan Haidt, author of THE ANXIOUS GENERATION who maintains that the environment in which kids grow up today is hostile to human development. Haidt traces the current mental health crisis to the mid-2010s when smartphones and social media began to reshape the social landscape for adolescents. Cambridge Forum explores these troubling developments in The Anxious i-Generation.

Furthermore, Haidt argues that smartphone technologies have led to over-parenting e.g. constant notifications and GPS tracking of children’s whereabouts. This in turn, has robbed an entire generation of the resilience, coping skills and independence needed to navigate everyday situations and in turn, created unprecedented levels of societal anxiety. The dramatic decline in mental health in teens has been accompanied by decreases in academic scores for math, reading and science. CF asks what happens when we take phones out of schools and replace screen time with normal extracurricular activities that encourage independence and healthy risk-taking? Well, some forward-thinking teachers and psychologists have been doing exactly that with very promising results.

Our panel consists of Catherine Price, science journalist, founder of Screen/Life Balance and author of How to break up with your phone; Camilo Otiz, Associate Professor of Psychology at Long Island University and licensed psychologist in private practice; Lenore Skenazy, president of the nonprofit, Let Grow and author of Free Range Kids plus Shane Voss, Head of Mountain Middle School in Durango, CO. where he has created a phone-free school environment since 2013.

A rapidly changing Arctic is reshaping everything. Polar bears navigate shrinking expanses of sea ice, thawing permafrost threatens coastal villages, destabilizes infrastructure, and exhales methane, and warming temperatures push more species northward into a greener arctic. These transformations are profound, and their impacts can extend far beyond the region’s ecologies that depend on them.

What do these changes mean for wildlife, humans, and the climate? How is all of this going to play out in different regions and ecosystems around the world? Does understanding these changes and seeing them with your own eyes change the way you see everything else?

Join Biodiversity for a Livable Climate for a conversation that convenes story and science, writer and researcher to help shape our understanding of what this means for the Arctic, our climate and the webs of life that depend on both. Jon Waterman, writer for both Patagonia and NatGeo, and author of Into the Thaw, is by Dr. Flavio Lehner, Chief Climate Scientist at Polar Bears International—one a storyteller of the Arctic’s systems, the other a researcher of them.

Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University welcomes author Miles Borrero, upon the publication of his new book Beautiful Monster: A Becoming. The afternoon’s moderator is Pascale Florestal, director, dramaturge, and education director and associate producer of The Front Porch Arts Collective.

Nearing the age of forty, with an entire life already lived as a woman—half in Colombia, half in the US—Miles Borrero comes face to face with his father’s impending death. Suddenly realizing that he has been stalling his transition for fear of losing his family’s love, this moment catalyzes Miles’s determination to be fully known as his father’s son before it is too late.

In Beautiful Monster, Miles chronicles his unusual childhood, by turns riveting and hilarious, in ’80s and ’90s Colombia during the Pablo Escobar years, as well as his move to Salt Lake City to pursue acting and the winding trajectory that eventually lands him in the New York City yoga scene. Within these very different cultures, the realities of being queer and trans echo poignantly through the triumphs, heartbreaks, family dynamics, spiritual pursuits, and relationships that propel Miles along his path.

Sublimely nuanced and written in ravishing prose that is as unique and irresistible as its subject, Beautiful Monster is one person’s story of navigating the pressures to perform femininity while becoming a gender outlaw. Brimming with wonder, humor, and mythos, entertaining and enlightening in equal measure, this book offers a compelling case for embracing one’s true nature.

Bring your smartest friends to the GBH Studios at the Boston Public Library for a nerdy night of NOVA science trivia! Get ready for creative categories and exciting prizes as we test your knowledge of the natural world, space, the history of science, and more!


Registration is encouraged for this free event.

Join the Charles River Museum for a journey back to Waltham’s railroad heyday, when the advent of the railroad was deeply entwined in the industrial history of the region, and the Boston Manufacturing Company specifically.

Presented by Rick Kfoury.

GBH News Politics Editor Azita Ghahramani moderates a discussion with local leaders for a look ahead at what is to come after Election Day. Hear from women already rolling up their sleeves again to hold space and address the issues.

Go behind the scenes of a three-year project linking computer scientists and religion scholars as they harness the power of computer simulation and modeling to explore solutions for global conflicts rooted in religious violence.