Gatherings & Events
Temple Israel of Boston
Boston, MA
Friday, March 7, 2025, 7:30PM EST
To Those Who Shape Us: A Ten Toasts Dinner
For members of Bethel AME & Temple Israel of Boston | Part of In Our Words
Join fellow travelers from Bethel AME and Temple Israel for a dinner as we regale each other with meaningful conversation and stories in the form of toasts reflecting a theme: “To Those Who Shape Us.”
Here’s how the game works:
Guests will dine in groups of 8-12 fellow travelers (hopefully whom you do not know or know well). At some point in the dinner, each guest is invited to ding their glass and share a brief story or experience that ideally no one at the table has heard before, relating to our theme: A story about a person that shaped the teller, and about a way the teller was changed. At the end of their story, the teller raises their glass and toasts to an element or value their story highlights (ex: to those who taught us resilience!) and invites all others in their group to raise their glasses as well.
The only other rule is that the last person has to sing their toast!
Sunday, March 16, 2025, 11:00AM EST
Bethel AME Church
Boston, MA
Listening Lab: Storysharing to Strengthen Community
For members of Temple Israel of Boston & Bethel AME Church | Part of In Our Words
Be moved and inspired at morning services at Bethel AME starting at 9AM and then stay for a Listening Lab!
Listening Labs are gatherings in which moving stories told through powerful spoken word, music, and theatrically projected sand animation facilitate generous listening with fellow participants in conversations that are honest, intimate, and alive.
Around the World in Song!
For students of the Page Hilltop Elementary School
Joyous, interactive performances nurture children’s musicianship and multicultural inquisitiveness. Through traditional and original songs and stories from around the world, together with purposeful movement, Around the World in Song gives children tools to engage even more actively with music they love and to tap into the thrill of their own musical discoveries. Fun and pedagogically thoughtful, Around the World in Song is built on principles of Dalcroze Education and Fred Rogers’ philosophy.
Page Hilltop Elementary School
Ayer, MA
Wednesday, March 12
Different Ships, Same Boat
Different Ships, Same Boat is an interactive, multidisciplinary performance combining powerful spoken word, music and song to explore the multifaceted ways Americans risk, live, love and laugh. Unfolding through a series of chapters — each curating real world stories — literary performer Regie Gibson and composer/storycatcher Guy Mendilow guide audiences with podcast-like narration, at turns humorous, poignant or poetic, over an evocative musical score. With stories from small towns, cities and ports of entry, along with music spanning lyrical American Blues and songs from older homes from which today’s Americans came (e.g. Ottoman Jews from present-day Greece and Hungary), Different Ships, Same Boat offers a stirring exploration of the joys, tensions and complexities of who we are and who we wish to be.
As we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, Different Ships, Same Boat invites audiences to celebrate not only America but Americans. This is for those craving a powerful artistic performance of captivating music and stories — a moving, finely-crafted, anthology that connects audiences to American histories, perspectives, and experiences both familiar and different from their own.
North Carolina Museum of Art
Raleigh, NC
Thursday, March 27, 7:00PM EST
Temple Israel of Boston
Boston, MA
Sunday, March 30, 2025, 2:00PM EST
Ponder to Page
Youth Workshop For members of Temple Israel of Boston & Bethel AME | Part of In Our Words
A fun, easy, safe step-by-step process for writing small meaningful stories out of small, meaningful moments — even those experiences that may seem ordinary.
(This workshop was created with the “non-writer” in mind)
After writing their story, selected participants are invited to a filming. Participants tell their story off-page, in a warm, one-on-one conversation. These stories will be theatrically projected, backed by a live original musical score and framed by live original narration as part of a moving multimedia performance culminating In Our Words.
In Our Words only shows people in their best light. To make sure this is the case, filmed storytellers approve their segments.
It is of course fine to participate in the workshop even if you do not wish to be filmed.
Temple Israel of Boston
Boston, MA
Monday,March 31, 2025, 6:30PM EST
Adult Workshop For members of Bethel AME & Temple Israel of Boston | Part of In Our Words
A fun, easy, safe step-by-step process for writing small meaningful stories out of small, meaningful moments — even those experiences that may seem ordinary.
(This workshop was created with the “non-writer” in mind)
After writing their story, selected participants are invited to a filming. Participants tell their story off-page, in a warm, one-on-one conversation. These stories will be theatrically projected, backed by a live original musical score and framed by live original narration as part of a moving multimedia performance culminating In Our Words.
In Our Words only shows people in their best light. To make sure this is the case, filmed storytellers approve their segments.
It is of course fine to participate in the workshop even if you do not wish to be filmed.