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Multicultural Fair coming to Hyde Park
Cultural tours coming in July

The One Boston Multicultural Family Fair is coming to Ross Playground in Hyde Park on Friday, June 27 from 12 noon to 4 p.m.
Put together by the Africmerican Academy in partnership with TresHeart Foundation Inc. and the Immigrants LEAD Boston Program, organizer and Academy founder Marlon Solomon said the fair will be a fun way to celebrate the different cultures that make Boston and Hyde Park the places they are.
“We had been talking about doing something to bring something together and that was my proposal to LEAD,” he said. “It was just something I’ve always wanted to do. I did the work with Marcia for Juneteenth, and just something I wanted to do because we’ve never done our own.”
Solomon said there will be performers, a comedian, kids activities, a bouncy castle, face painting from Dream Kids Spa, vendors and food from Las Delicias Colombianas.
“We’re going to have a program with some entertainers and dancers, and (District 5 City Councilor) Enrique Pepén said he was going to pop in to speak too,” said Solomon. “We’re just trying to highlight Boston’s diverse communities.”
The event will also feature raffles, prizes and giveaways throughout.
Solomon said the group is also working on two equity tours throughout Hyde Park, one walking tour and one bus tour as a part of its Celebrate Boston 250 initiative. The first tour, which will be led by local youths, will be on Saturday, July 11 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The bus tour will be on Sunday, July 12 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Both tours will start from The Pryde, 59 Harvard Ave., in Hyde Park.
“We’ve been going on this since last year, you know, with the usual suspects like Hyde Park Main Streets, Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation, The Pryde, and the Hyde Park Historical Society (HPHS),” he said. “It’s kind of community-driven, and the idea is to highlight the many diverse equity stories here in Hyde Park and give people a reason to come down and enjoy our beautiful part of the city.”
Solomon said the tour will feature locations like a former stretch of Winthrop Street where the first women vote took place in 1870. At the time – according to the HPHS HTTPS://GVIMES.LINK/GRIMKEVOTE – Angelina and Sarah Grimke led a cohort down Winthrop Street to attempt the first women’s vote in a municipal election, 50 years before the 19th Amendment enshrined the right of women to vote in the United States.
Solomon said the tours will focus on local efforts of African American history, the 54th Regiment, Native American history, environmental justice, immigrant history, LGBTQ+ history and more.
“And we talk about the canceled highway of course, because I’m Mr. Redlining,” he said. “We also have a couple of restaurants involved. Ron’s Ice Cream and Roundhead Brewery are part of this too, and so we have a good mix of different things going on. Roundhead is the first Latino-owned brewery in Massachusetts. So it’s not focused entirely on African American history, but just equity in general in different parts of Boston.”
Solomon said the walking tour will be focused on Cleary Square, whereas the bus tour will move a bit farther out.
“Goes up to New Mission and then goes up to the former Little Italy at Amatucci Playground, then to Roundhead and comes around to the Blue Hills Church and Camp Meigs, and then up through Truman Parkway to see some of the beautiful green spaces in Boston,” he said. “Then we end up at Ron’s Ice Cream. We want to have a little something for everyone.”
“We would like this to be a vehicle we carry on further, and so we hope to support the nonprofits involved in this,” he said. “The idea is that if you take the tour, you support our nonprofits involved in culture. It’s a tough time for nonprofits out here right now.”
For more information, go to https://afrimericanone.org
About the author
Jeff Sullivan Covers local news and community stories.

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