Historic Site Events
Throughout the year, Old North Illuminated hosts authors, professors, and other experts for Speaker Series events. To mark the 300th anniversary of Old North as a faith community and church, this year’s Speaker Series will include talks that touch on the ways that religion has shaped history and look at how religious practice has reflected the changing times — and changing community. We hope you’ll join us.
The Myth of American ‘Chosenness’
Join us for the 2023 Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lecture on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State, delivered by Harvard Divinity School’s Dr. Catherine Brekus.
Explore the myth of American “chosenness” in a special event hosted by Old North Illuminated, Old North Church, and BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty). Dr. Catherine Brekus, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America at Harvard Divinity School, will be our keynote speaker for this year’s Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lecture on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State. She will deliver one lecture, which will be followed by a panel discussion and then a reception.
Schedule for the evening
5:00 pm – Doors open
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm – Lecture
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Panel discussion
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Reception
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
5:30 – 8:00pm
In Person at the Old North Church and Online
193 Salem Street, Boston, MA
Register online (Free)
Wilderness Series: Reconfiguring God
(Sonic Performance Installation)
Join the innovative artist Dzidzor for a 60-minute sonic experimental live performance installation in the historic Old North Church.
Wilderness Series: Reconfiguring God is a 60-minute sonic experimental live performance installation in the historic Old North Church. The performance examines the connection between faith and the continued struggle for justice and civil rights. Historically, the voices of African American women are often ignored and excluded in religious and social justice spaces. Dzidzor explores African American women’s voices and reconsiders how we conceive of God by centering African American women’s religious experiences and reflections. Using images, videos, live sampling of sound, and speeches within a sound collage, the performance observes Dzidzor interacting and molding a God to love herself — Black, woman, and living. The performance features a sonic collage that explores conversations between African American women across time, with an A.I. “god’” This god was birthed from a resistance to the colonial erasure of faith-based practice that included the liberation of Black people. These voices are displayed and magnified as an act of self-preservation and determination. Her presentation invites the audience to participate through call and response by speaking, chanting, singing, and yelling. She ponders on the question, “What does it look like to reconfigure God to love myself?”
Wilderness Series welcomes the audience on a journey through multiple realms, times, and spaces. It explores the work of healing, rest, and living as expressed through the words of African American woman religionists, including Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, and so many others. Join Dzidzor as she journeys through the voices of African American women from across history to shepherd us through the wilderness.
Everyone is welcome to attend a pre-performance outdoor reception at 6:45pm. Meet Dzidzor and enjoy some sweet treats! Doors will open for seating at 7:15pm.
Saturday, June 3, 2023
7:30 – 8:30pm
In Person at the Old North Church
193 Salem Street, Boston, MA
Register online
Thank you to the Mass Cultural Council for their generous funding of this program.
