Boston stations of NBC and Telemundo are proud media partners of this week's Embrace Ideas Festival

NBC10 Boston, Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra and NBC Sports Boston are the proud media partners of the Embrace Ideas Festival hosted by Embrace Boston. The festival takes place June 14-16, the three days leading up to the Juneteenth holiday weekend.

The Festival, grounded in arts, ideas, culture and public scholarship, is an annual celebration of Juneteenth, the holiday that celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. Embrace Boston invites the community to experience keynotes, panels, and live music that will shine a light on how to interrupt zero-sum game thinking in relation to racial justice and realizing a democracy worthy of its communities through this year’s theme – "Here and Present, The Art of Reclaiming Space and Time". 

“We want The Embrace Ideas Festival to create a greater sense of inclusivity around America’s first true Independence Day,” said Imari Paris Jeffries, executive director of Embrace Boston. “This annual celebration will provide our communities with the necessary tools for all people to celebrate the Holiday, and in turn, create a safe space for learning, ideas, and enjoying music together.” 

“Our goal is to shine a light on these stories and focus on the celebration of Juneteenth and its importance for every person in every community”, said Chris Wayland, president and general manager of NBC10 Boston, Telemundo Boston, NBC Sports Boston, and NECN. “We will continue to give a voice to every viewer through our storytelling in English and Spanish.” 

The festival will kick off on Wednesday with Embrace Boston’s first-ever Juneteenth Concert on the Boston Common, hosted by NBC10 Boston morning anchor Latoyia Edwards. At the first formal event at The Embrace memorial since its unveiling, the team will be joined by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who will perform alongside The Embrace Choir. NBC10 Boston will have live coverage in its 11 a.m. newscast. 

Throughout the three days, there will be thought-provoking and culturally-relevant panels with titles such as “Creativity is at the Center of Black Resistance” and “Who Made the Potato Salad?” All panels will be streamed on NBC10Boston.com, NECN.com and TelemundoNuevaInglaterra.com. 

On the festival's final day, Embrace Boston and NBC10 Boston’s Kwani Lunis will host “The Embrace Honors,” awarding community leaders and Roxbury’s own for their commitment and leadership for being a catalyst for change in our communities.  

“I’m grateful to Embrace Boston for creating community spaces to uplift and celebrate Black voices at their Juneteenth Festival,” Wu said. “I look forward to coming together through music, community and conversation to share and reflect on experiences.” 

Following the ceremony, Embrace Boston will kick off the Juneteenth weekend with The Embrace Ideas Block Party at Roxbury Community College from 2:30-8 p.m., which aims to celebrate artistic expression through a lively party headlined by Grammy Award-nominated music producer & DJ, Just Blaze. The evening celebration will be a joyful night of dancing, music, and community. NBC10 Boston and Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra will have live coverage in its early evening newscasts. 

In addition to streaming the festival, NBC10 Boston will air the Embrace Boston film “Welcoming The Embrace” on Monday, June 19, at 7 p.m. The film, directed by John Adekoje, Miranda Adekoje, Noah Christofer, Darrus Sands, will also premiere during the Roxbury Film Festival later in the month. There will be a Q&A at the premiere hosted by NBC10 Boston News Anchor Glenn Jones. 

Embrace Ideas Festival programming, panelists, and notable attendees to include: 

• Wednesday, June 14: Embrace Inaugural Juneteenth Concert 

• Location: Boston Common 

• Latoyia Edwards, NBC Boston Universal, Juneteenth Concert Host 
• Michelle Wu, Boston Mayor 
• The Embrace Choir along with Amandi Music and other musical ensembles across the city 

• Wednesday, June 14: Unearthing History and Monumentalizing the Truth 

• Location: The Boston Foundation 
• Dr. Lee Pelton, President/CEO, The Boston Foundation, Moderator 
• Annette Gordon Reed, Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker 
• Imari Paris Jeffries, Executive Director, Embrace Boston 
• Hank Willis Thomas, Artist, Designer of The Embrace Memorial 

• Jha D. Amazi, Designer, spoken artist, and “SpaceMaker” 

• Thursday, June 15: Creativity is the Center of Black Resistance 

• Location: Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) 
• Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project, Keynote Speaker 

• Destiny Palmer, Artist, Moderator 
• DJ Real P, Artist 
• Theo Tyson, Curator 
• Jenee Osterheldt, Boston Globe, Moderator 
• SPRAT, model and creative 

• Rixy, visual artist/muralist

• Friday, June 16: "Who Made the Potato Salad?" 

• Location: Roxbury Community College 
• Elle Simone, Culinary Maverick and Founder of SheChef Productions, Moderator 

• Emmanuel Mervil, Boston Food Influencer 
• Krayla Brice, Founder and Head Chef, KrayPlates 
• Robert Lewis Jr., Boys & Girls Club Of Boston 
• Kim Janey, Former Mayor of Boston 

• Friday, June 16: "Embrace Ideas Festival Block Party" 

• Location: Roxbury Community College 
• Just Blaze, DJ & Grammy Award-nominated record producer (Jay Z, Beyonce, Drake, Eminem, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, T.I.) 
• ReaL P, Artist/DJ, one of Boston Magazine’s 150 Most Influential Bostonians (2023), creator of Silk, Boston’s largest R&B party 
• Ed O.G., Boston Hip-Hop pioneer 

• Culture curators ReaL P, Where’s Nasty and The Soca Cowboys will present live versions of their premiere parties from the festival stage. 

About NBC10 Boston 
Owned by NBCUniversal, NBC10 Boston delivers viewers in the Greater Boston area, Southern New Hampshire and Northeastern Massachusetts NBC’s award-winning daytime, primetime and late-night signature programs and local breaking news and information. The station features the most accurate weather in the region with “First Alert Weather” and an exclusive 10-day forecast. Additionally, NBC10 Boston features the market’s only daily live lifestyle program, “The Hub Today.” The station’s investigative units, “NBC10 Boston Responds” and “The Investigators” answer local consumer inquiries and shines a light on questionable practices. NBC10Boston’s news coverage and content is also delivered to viewers on-the-go through its dedicated website NBC10Boston.com, a customized mobile app and via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. The station has been awarded eleven Edward R. Murrow awards since its launch, including for “Overall Excellence” and “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 

 
About Telemundo Boston 
Owned by NBCUniversal, Telemundo Boston, WNEU, is a local Telemundo owned station that serves viewers in the Greater Boston area. Telemundo Boston produces 10 hours of local news programming each week. The station’s newscast, “Noticiero Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra” (Telemundo New England News) is the #1 Spanish- language newscast in New England airing every weeknight at 5:00 PM, 5:30 PM, 6:00 PM and 11:00 PM and delivers live, local breaking news, weather forecasts and special reports, as well as sports and entertainment information to Spanish-speaking audiences in Boston and in Hartford, Connecticut through a simulcast via WRDM. Audiences can also receive the most-up-to-date news and information across the station’s digital and mobile platforms at TelemundoNuevaInglaterra.com, via the “Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra” mobile app, and its social media channels @TelemundoNI. 

 
About NECN 
Owned by NBCUniversal, NECN serves as the largest 24-hour regional news network in the U.S. Since its launch on March 2, 1992, NECN has grown to include 3.6 million subscribers in more than 1,050 cities and towns throughout all six New England states. NECN has established itself as an industry leader as the only cable television news station to earn a George Foster Peabody Award and the Alfred I. DuPont – Columbia University Broadcast Journalism Award, among many other accolades. On January 19, 2020, NECN relaunched its entire network targeting a new audience – millennial women 25-54. As a digital-first network, NECN has changed the way it delivers news, entertainment, and lifestyle content across all platforms. 

 
About NBC Sports Boston 
NBC Sports Boston reaches more than 4 million households in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Programming includes the Boston Celtics and Celtics Post Up; nightly opinion shows Early Edition and Boston Sports Tonight; daily football shows including The Breakdown, Quick Slants, The Game Plan, The Weekly Spread, Tom Curran’s Patriots Talk Podcast; Football Day in New England featuring pre and post-game programs surrounding all Patriots games; CAA football, basketball, daily radio simulcasts and more. NBCSportsBoston.com and all of the networks social media channels (@NBCSBoston) provide continuous news, video and in-depth, up-to-the-minute coverage of New England sports. 

About Embrace Boston 

Embrace Boston was established at the Boston Foundation in 2017, and their work is intended to inspire change and activate social justice values towards the realization of a radically equitable and inclusive Boston by 2030. Embrace Boston is a nonprofit with a mission to dismantle structural racism through their work at the intersection of arts and culture, community, and research and policy. Collectively, the work is intended to create a radically inclusive and equitable Boston where everyone belongs and the BIPOC community prospers, grounded in joy, love, and wellbeing. The organization is a deeply collaborative, BIPOC-led organization that is working toward an ecosystem which fosters equity, opportunity, and wellbeing for a transformed Boston by 2030, the city’s 400th birthday.