The Black Lives Matter movement has been blasted by the political right since protests took to the streets in 2020, and centrists and pundits have scapegoated it for political losses in 2022 and 2024. Even Cambridge’s The Black Response organization has mixed feelings in a show that runs through February—Black History Month—called “The Black Lives Matter Era: A Critical Reflection.”
Curated by the organization’s Stephanie Guirand and designed by Roxanne Jingco, the show uses archival research, oral histories, and documents from Cambridge, Boston, Amherst, Worcester, and Springfield dating from 2013, after the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida, to look at how the movement reshaped public discourse around race, policing, democracy, and Black political life. The team has been working toward the exhibit for nearly three years. When the Democracy Center closed in Harvard Square in July 2024, members rescued BLM organizing materials left behind in the basement, Guirand said.
“Trump being reelected and public killings by law enforcement and the reincarceration of migrant families, all of these things are sort of recycling,” Guirand said in a recent phone interview. “These debates are starting up again. At the same time, people have expressed real disappointment and anger—lots of different thoughts—about the BLM movement. It seems like the perfect time to make this public.”
The show has opening and closing programs from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 3 and Feb. 24, respectively, and the second event looks especially potent: an Oxford-style debate on whether the “Black Lives Matter Movement was successful.” (Registration is required.) The style includes teams and is more freewheeling than the Lincoln-Douglas approach.
“We lived through the movement and had some positive experiences where we met other people and shared camaraderie—but we also have a lot of harm,” Guirand said. The debaters should be able to take either side just as the exhibit tells both sides, including “the failure of the structure, the lack of infrastructure for the organization and the chapters and people taking money, the interpersonal issues—all of that sort of weaves throughout the different elements of the exhibition.”
“I’ve come to a position on it,” Guirand said, “but it requires me to make some concessions.”
“The Black Response presents … The Black Lives Matter Era: A Critical Reflection,” Feb. 3-Feb. 28 at The Foundry, 101 Rogers St., East Cambridge. Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday, 2 to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. (857) 998-2063
