Redlined 88 tours continue
Culminating at the Pryde in HP

The Afrimerican Academy is hosting several tours of Boston neighborhoods for Black History Month and will end its series of programs at The Pryde in Hyde Park on Feb. 28.
Founder Marlon Solomon said these tours are an annual event the organization has been hosting for years now to help raise awareness of the structural barriers put in place for Black Bostonians so that they can be dismantled and overcome. He said the event on the 28th will be a kind of respite from the rest of the programming, allowing volunteers and organizers a chance to recuperate and heal. The event is called “Prepare and Repair.”
“We’re doing tours basically every weekend,” he said. “It will be like last time where we started and had some sound healers, some acupuncture, things like that. What I tell people is that in the community-based organizations doing all this nonprofit work, there is really no retreat for us where all of us meet in a relaxed setting. That’s what this is meant to be.”
That’s not to say they won’t be putting in the work. Solomon said there will still be information and education portions of the event, including a virtual Equity Tour of Hyde Park.
“We’re going to get ourselves in a good mood, then have a bit of lunch, and then we’ll have a discussion piece,” he said. “We’re trying to have Rob Consalvo there, (District 5 City Councilor) Enrique Pepén, (At-Large City Councilor) Julia Mejia – all the usual suspects. And then we’ll be doing a virtual equity tour, and we’ll have the Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation, Embrace Boston, the Hyde Park Historical Society… we’re trying to get the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and more.”
Solomon said the discussion will be a way to collect feedback and hopefully put together new stops for the annual tours the Afrimerican Academy does every year. He said the virtual tour on the 28th will feature Black history in the United States but also expand out to related social justice causes.
“We call it an equity tour because it’s not just African American History,” he said. “We’re going to go over Hyde Park’s LGBTQ history at The Pryde, we’re going to go over Native American history and women’s history with the Grimke Sisters’ Bridge, too. We’re going to go to Logan Square to talk about our cultural and business district, we’re going to be going to Camp Meigs to talk about the 54th Regiment, we’re going to talk about New Mission High School to talk about schools’ segregation, the environmental history and the history of redlining in the neighborhood. The idea of the equity tour is that Hyde Park has a rich history of equality for all, where everyone is welcome. It’s kind of unique, it’s not just one thing.”
This year’s tours started with the New Guinea Joy Walking Tour at the West End Museum on Feb. 8 and a Volunteer Appreciation Documentary Screening a the Grove Hall Library on Feb. 10. Then on Feb. 14, the group is hosting the ‘Once Upon a Time in Nubian Square’ Workshop and Walking Tour in Roxbury. On Feb. 21, Solomon said they are heading to Dorchester for the ‘Roadmap to a Beloved Community Walking Tour’, followed by the Feb. 28 event at The Pryde.
“We’ll be talking about the infrastructure – obviously everything I do is about infrastructure – and we’ll also be talking about the African American community that used to be in the Madison Park area that was displaced by the urban renewal, and go up the hill to Talbot Square,” he said. “The next one is Dorchester… we’re going to be talking about infrastructure and changes that happened around the area of Franklin Park. Then we’ll be going to the Jewish Temple there and talk about the changes that came for the Jewish community that used to be there. And we’ll talk a little bit about White Stadium as well.”
About the author
Jeff Sullivan Covers local news and community stories.
More in this section
Parkway remembers Father Kelley
February 12, 2026
WRHS hosting trivia and tours for neighborhood’s 175th birthday
February 12, 2026
Women’s Health and Sports Institute opens in Brighton
February 12, 2026

Comments