130 Years of Shiloh: Celebrating Black History in Medford

Free performance and conversation in celebration of West Medford's historic Black Church.

The Opening Doors Project, in collaboration with the Club Passim Folk Collective, presents a free performance and conversation in celebration of a historic Black Church in Medford, MA. Featured performers include Reverend Dr. Jaron Green, poet Terry E. Carter, and two Opening Doors musicians, Stephanie McKay and Anand Nayak.

Shiloh Baptist Church is the epicenter of West Medford's historic Black neighborhood known as The Ville, a close-knit community which has been in continual existence since the Civil War. The 130th anniversary of the church presents a special opportunity to talk about, and celebrate through music, Black history in Greater Boston.

Reverend Dr. Jaron Green, Senior Pastor at Shiloh Baptist, is a preacher and academic who has spoken at Harvard and Brandeis Universities, among many others, and was recently inducted into The Martin Luther King Jr. College of Ministers and Laity at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Terry E. Carter is a former Poet Laureate of Medford whose poem "Hard by the Mystic" is memorialized on a Medford city mural near where Terry grew up in The Ville. Stephanie McKay is a singer-songwriter whose unique blend of folk, soul, and jazz has led her to collaborations with artists as diverse as Toshi Reagon, Roy Hargrove, and Mos Def. Anand Nayak is a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter and Grammy-nominated producer living in Western Mass.

The show will be hosted by Opening Doors co-founder Alastair Moock.

This program is made possible by the Mass Cultural Council, Someone Else’s Child Foundation, Antonia and Vladimer Kulaev Foundation, Nine Athens Music, Club Passim, and Filmmakers Collaborative.

Admission to the event is FREE, but we kindly welcome donations. Your support enables us to continue making our work accessible to all, thank you!