Boston, MA - (November 30, 2022): On Wednesday, November 30, Embrace Boston captured the beginnings of The Embrace monument installation on the Boston Common as Imari Paris Jeffries, executive director of Embrace Boston, showcased the historic process. Taking place on America’s first public park, the Boston Common, The Embrace links to the park’s vibrant 400-year history as a gathering space for Boston residents.
The Embrace symbolizes the hug Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared with his wife, Coretta, after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and celebrates their time in Boston when they met as students.
“This represents an incredible milestone in our journey towards Boston's future. We’re excited to see this historic monument finally take shape after years of tireless efforts from our key partners, the City of Boston, supporters and our staff,” said
Imari Paris Jeffries, Executive Director of Embrace Boston. “This sculpture will complete The Embrace Memorial and allow us to pay homage to our heroes.
This is the latest step of our work and embodies our organization’s vision of creating a transformed Boston. Huge thanks to all the supporters and visionaries for helping to bring this monument to life.”
The 20-foot-tall, 40-foot-wide Embracemonument made a cross country journey from Washington state, where it was built, in multiple trucks each carrying pieces of the monument after its recent completion at the Walla Walla Foundry. The monument will be welded and assembled throughout December in time for its long-awaited unveiling on January 13, 2023, a few days before MLK Day.
The Embrace will be an important cultural symbol of equity and justice for Boston residents and all those who visit the city and region. It will serve as a permanent monument representing the Kings’ time and powerful presence in Boston, a time that helped shape their approach to an equitable society.
The monument, and the tribute to 65 other civil rights icons on the 1965 Freedom Plaza, are critical elements of Embrace Boston’s spatial justice efforts and will advance their collective work toward a ‘New Boston’. It will also symbolize a Boston transformed, and recognize an inclusive, welcoming, and anti-racist city as it moves toward its 400th anniversary in 2030.
About The Embrace Boston
Founded in 2017, Embrace Boston is a nonprofit with a missionto dismantle structural racism through their work at the intersection of arts and culture, community, and research and policy. Collectively, the work is intended to create a radically inclusive and equitable Boston where everyone belongs and the BIPOC community prospers, grounded in joy, love, and wellbeing. The organization is a deeply collaborative, BIPOC-led organization that is working toward an ecosystem which fosters equity, opportunity, and wellbeing for a transformed Boston by 2030, the city’s 400th birthday.
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