Happenings

     Beginning last Friday, July 1, the Mandela/Washington Fellowship for Young Africa Leaders kicked off American Independence Day Celebrations at South Boston’s Paraclete Center.  The Celebrations were held in McDevitt Hall, newly named (Friday, June 17) by The Paraclete for Southie resident Paul McDevitt. The Paraclete was one of the sites selected to work in partnership with Cambridge College, which is located just outside of Harvard Square.  The South Boston location was chosen because it is a good host site for demonstrating community service to the visiting Nelson Mandela Fellows.  Cambridge College is conducting a six-week institute for academics and leadership for 25 Mandela Fellows, who are some of Africa’s brightest young business leaders and entrepreneurs. Approximately 1,000 of these Fellows came to the [...]

Apparently, all is forgiven, even though we declared our independence from England an even 240 years ago on July 4, 1776.  One of the key flagships in the British Cunard fleet, Queen Mary 2 (see photo) with her home berth in Southampton, UK, docked here at South Boston’s Black Falcon Pier, specifically so her passengers could disembark for Boston’s 2016 Fourth of July festivities.  We trust that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves – the Pops Concert and the fireworks were both excellent.

The FPTC (Fort Point Theatre Channel) is a group of performing artists, loosely arrayed along the South Boston side of the Fort Point Channel.  Its most recent production was “DREAMBOOK:  A New Orleans Story”, by Dan Osterman (Book) and Nick Thorkelson (Songs).  “Dreambook” was directed by Jaime Carillo and produced by Marc Miller.  The venue for its six June performances was the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre on Commonwealth Avenue. “Dreambook” is a drama with music – good music.  It deals with issues of free people of color on New Orleans, free thinking and its consequences, and artists and poets like Walt Whitman, who fell in love with (and in) New Orleans on his first visit there in 1848 – 13 short years before the Civil War.  [...]

It was an event filled with joy – there’s no other word but “Joy” for Father Joseph M. White’s 25th Anniversary as a dedicated Catholic priest.  Last Saturday, around 500 people, many of them from South Boston, joined him in a jam-packed Mass of Gratitude at St. Joseph Catholic Church, which is located in Father Joe’s new parish in the West End on Cardinal O’Connell Way.  A sumptuous, and again a jam-packed, Celebration then followed in the Church Hall.  Fr. Joe’s 25th was truly spirited, in the deepest meaning of that word. The two early readings in the Mass came from Elijah and St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians.  Father Joe read Luke’s Gospel of the village in Samaria, where each listener asked Jesus questions [...]