Boston Neighborhood Network News

0:00Hello Boston, welcome back to B&N News, where we tell community stories you can only find here. I'm your host Adel Chang, thanks for joining me. Tonight we're taking you across Boston from a community project blooming in Roxbury to live jazz in the seaport. A celebration for a Celtic star, Jalen Brown, and a larger than life elephant sculpture on Boston Common. We begin in Roxbury. Sunflowers are once again brightening up Roxbury, but the project behind them is much more than just flowers. The Roxbury Sunflower project is bringing neighbors together while adding some color to the community. On Friday, neighbors celebrated the blooming gardens of the majestic resilience sunflower, planted as a symbol of hope and a look for the future in a formerly abandoned, litter-stream lot in their neighborhood. Highlighting the day was the unsalmable music of the Maconda project and a mural honoring prominent black leaders with deep ties to Boston. Sunflowers represent a sense of hope, a sense of community planting seeds for families

1:00to grow, thrive, and develop in healthy and vibrant communities right here in Grove Hall. For many, communities taking control and ownership of these lots is cause for celebration. So this lot has been empty for 60 years and the weeds used to be as tall as I am and this was the inspiration for Roxbury Sunflower projects beginning. So it's right across from the original location of the Freedom House, but this event means bringing back community and community control to this open lot, to this open space, bringing beauty, bringing joy, bringing collaboration back to Roxbury and to legally celebrate to community. The design of the Sunflower project is elegant in its simplicity and neighborhood changing in the message it conveys. The Roxbury Sunflower project has been operating for about nine years. The purpose is to bring beauty and radiance to the Roxbury community and to do it as a collaborative collective action, not just one person planting sunflower seeds, but the entire community planting sunflower seeds.

2:02And in some ways, it's a metaphor for what we do in our lives. We plant seeds of love among our family and friends. We plant seeds of education among our students. We're always planting seeds whether we're doing something awesome or something not so awesome. So my invitation to everyone is to find something that you care about and plant some seeds that will bloom in another time. Planting beauty, pride and possibility in their community. That's what the Roxbury Sunflower project is all about. Reporting from Roxbury, this is Lulu Harding for B&N News. Now from Roxbury to Seaport, the sound of jazz filled the neighborhood as musicians and music lovers came together for a day of live performances.

3:43Well, we come back. We'll look at a celebration of one of Boston's biggest sports stars. Fans came together to celebrate Saltic Star Jalen Brown and his impact here in the city.

4:51I'm at a loss for words. When I got to the city, I said I'm going to war for the city. I met so many great people here. People that helped me in the community have motivated me on my journey. I'm going to have supported me even when I didn't support myself at times. So this, I just want to say thank you to Boston. Thank you to the city. These are for our most honored guests as a little momentum. So unwrapping, especially present from the city. You want me to do it for you, Jake, because you look scared.

5:55So this is a special street sign. One day you're going to come back and play it. But for now, this is a little momentum for you to remember us by. Now, it doesn't allow for free parking on the street. This is what you will never forget our city. So this is the first time ever. You want to open it up? Open it! Open it! On behalf of the best of its state Massachusetts, you give a Jalen Brown. So it's incredible work in the Black and Brown community from Boston. To the South Nation Bridge program.

6:57And forever strengthen our community. I want to thank you on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. That's the best J&P street. MVP! MVP! And now, my grandmothers and my mom taught me to just stop it to my community. So I was expected nothing like this. I don't even know what to say. And I don't do stuff for recognition. But I'm so grateful that it's so many people here. So just know the feeling is mutual. Just know Boston. I love you. You know what we did this time. Thank you. And finally tonight, an elephant is turning heads on Boston Common. But not the kind you might expect. A larger than life elephant sculpture is on display in the heart of the city, giving visitors a chance to get up close with this unique work of art.

8:00It's not every day that you see a herd of elephants in Boston. So what have 100 life size elephant sculptures been doing on Common Abc since August? The herd is actually part of a free touring public art exhibition called the Great Elephant Migration. These elephants have been traveling across the United States since 2024, visiting cities like Houston, Miami, and New York City. Currently, the herd stretches down the length of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston's back bay, between Fairfield and Dartmouth Street. Each of these sculptures is handmade by indigenous artisans from the Neogiri biosphere reserve of Southern India. They are created using the dried vines of an invasive plant to the region called Lentana Camara. Each sculpture takes around three to four months to complete and is inspired by a real life elephant that lives in the region hence the individual name cards. Humans and elephants share space in the Neogiri mountains more closely than anywhere else on Earth. The sculptures on Common Ab are meant to share the story of coexistence

9:01and the Great Elephant Migration Project holds a philanthropic mission to inspire and enable human wildlife coexistence through creativity, culture, and storytelling. And if you haven't already heard, these elephants are actually up for sale. Each individual elephant is paired with a conservation organization which receives the funds from its sale. One local beneficiary includes the New England Aquarium's conservation efforts towards the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. Since 2024, the Great Elephant Migration has raised $1.4 million across the country. This herd will be on display until Sunday, September 13th, so if you haven't already seen these guys in person, now is your chance. For Be In The News, I'm Lulu Harding. Sure. Well, that's all we have for you tonight, Boston. For more Be In The News, visit www.beinandmedia.org to watch our previous broadcasts,

10:01including full-length event coverage. Thank you for watching. For Be In The News, I'm Woodelle Chang.