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A BEAUTIFUL RESISTANCE

A BEAUTIFUL RESISTANCE

A BEAUTIFUL
RESISTANCE

Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt

A Beautiful Resistance recognizes Juneteenth
A Beautiful Resistance celebrates Black Joy, Black lives, and the lives of other folk of color, too. On Juneteenth, we recognize Black liberation.

A Beautiful Resistance celebrates love

My life is A Beautiful Resistance

Our mission

We are more than police brutality and suffering. We can acknowledge injustice without being defined that way. Blackness is not a burden. Here, we tell our stories and our struggles, too, through the lens of love. We amplify the truths of Black folk and other people of color living as their fullest selves in a region, in a country, set up to keep them from doing just that. Their joy is a form of resistance. Join us on Instagram @abeautifulresistance.

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About the project

Boston Globe culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt created A Beautiful Resistance to carry on the tradition of Black artists and Black journalists in reclaiming the truth of Black folk. Like Frederick Douglass taught us, there is power in representation. Too often, we are measured by our suffering. Blackness must not be defined by our brutalization. We are more than death. When we are depicted by our extremes, the truth of us is lost. We live, fully. Our joy, our dreams, our everyday stories? That's a beautiful resistance.

Learn more
Olayiwola's Valentine: Black Love is Poetry
Poets Porsha Olayiwola and Crystal Valentine share the story of their romance with us.

A Beautiful Resistance - Black history month

Embrace: Love is a Movement
A monument to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, Embrace is more than a memorial.
Wellness is a beautiful resistance
Racism is a public health crisis. Black folk being well is part of an anti-racist future. Meet Taylor Rae Almonte, an actor, activist, and Reebok athlete. (Concept & curation by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff, Video by Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Additional video by Sebastian Jimenez/Special to the Globe, Photo by Steven Eloiseau/Special to the Globe)
Running toward self love is a beautiful resistance
Elizabeth Rock doesn’t run for herself, she runs for women and her pace is always set to sisterhood. (Concept & curation by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff, Video by Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Additional video by Shelby Lum/Globe Staff, Photo by OJ Slaughter/Special to the Globe)

A Beautiful Resistance - Season 1

Episode 1: Water is a beautiful resistance
A Beautiful Resistance: Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt. Join us on Instagram @abeautifulresistance. (Video by Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Image by Julia Cumes, Commentary & concept by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff)
► Episode 1

Water is a beautiful resistance

Oak Bluffs is the part of Martha's Vineyard where white locals sold freed slaves land in the 18th century. Here, Black folk cultivated their own beach town, a place of black affluence and summer joy. A place where the water is ours. Mercy Bell grew up catching the ferry from Boston to the Vineyard to visit her brother. Now, they own a home together, their first property, their first permanent address, and a step toward family legacy no one can be evicted from.
Episode 2: Graffiti or mural? It's all a beautiful resistance
A Beautiful Resistance: Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt. Join us on Instagram @abeautifulresistance. (Video by Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Photo by Erin Clark/Globe Staff, Commentary & concept by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff)
► Episode 2

Graffiti or Murals? It's all a beautiful resistance

How did a native New Yorker become a Worcester representer? Che Anderson, Worcester’s deputy cultural development officer, uses art to cultivate community and help artists tell stories through graffiti, murals, and public art.
Episode 3: Protest is a beautiful resistance
A Beautiful Resistance: Black joy and Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt. Join us on Instagram @abeautifulresistance. (Video by Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Photo by Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff, Commentary & concept by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff)
► Episode 3

Protest is a beautiful resistance

OJ Slaughter is a Boston based photographer. Since the murder of George Floyd, they have captured most of the protests in the city, as well as the March on Washington. And when a Black photographer captures the uprising, the gaze captures more than anger. OJ sees the joy, the community, and the love in protests. And it comes out in their photography. OJ is working to fund other Black storytellers and document the history of now.
Episode 4: Vogue is a beautiful resistance
A Beautiful Resistance: Black joy and Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt. Join us on Instagram @abeautifulresistance. (Video by Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff, Commentary & concept by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff))
► Episode 4

Vogue is a beautiful resistance

HBO Max saved a lot of TV summers with "Legendary," a competitive ballroom reality show, a celebration of queer culture and voguing down the runway. And London Escada, mother of House of Escada New England, brought heart to the ball. London was born and raised in Springfield, Mass. and is now a proud Bostonian helping others love themselves through dance and community.
Episode 5: To Be Black, Bostonian, and Proud is a beautiful resistance
A Beautiful Resistance: Black joy and Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt. Join us on Instagram @abeautifulresistance. (Video by Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Photo by Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff, Commentary & concept by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff)
► Episode 5

To Be Black, Bostonian, and Proud is a beautiful resistance

Dart Adams, a hip-hop historian, author, and Boston griot is a native son of the South End and Lower Roxbury. The world outside of Boston likes to believe Black and brown people don't live here and Old Boston is complicit in their erasure. Dart learned young the importance of keeping the stories and marking the space. He takes us on a tour of his Boston Black history.
Episode 6: Land is a beautiful resistance
A Beautiful Resistance: Black joy and Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt. Join us on Instagram @abeautifulresistance. (Video by Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Photo by Caleb Kenna/Special to the Globe, Commentary & curation by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff)
► Episode 6

Land is a beautiful resistance

Krista Scruggs, a farmer and winemaker in Vermont, is one of the rising tastemakers in natural wine. As a queer, Black woman, she's often labeled as a disruption to the whitewashed narrative of who makes wine. But as a native of Fresno, she's a farmer by nature and farming the land is just as much the story of our ancestors as it is anyone else's.

A Beautiful Resistance - Season 2

Kim Janey's Beautiful Resistance: The Seen Unseen
A short but historic mayoral term: Kim Janey matters (A short but historic mayoral term: Kim Janey matters)
► Episode 1

A short but historic mayoral term: Kim Janey matters

When Kim Janey inherited the seat left behind by Marty Walsh, it showed Bostonians something they’d never seen before: A Black woman mayor.
Chef Douglass Williams's Beautiful Resistance: The Recipe
As chef and owner of MIDA, Douglass Williams knows confidence is key when navigating spaces where folk aren’t used to seeing Black faces. (Created and produced by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff, Directed and edited by Chaney Carlson-Bullock, First Assistant Director Mikayla Litevich, Supervising Producer Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Photo by Erin Clark/Globe Staff, Illustrations by Paula Champagne)
► Episode 2

Black excellence? When you break a glass ceiling, no one talks about the scars

You can be Black and proud and want to be noted in your craft not by your race, but by your talent and work. Being “the only” isn’t excellence. It forces emotional labor atop your work while you wade in isolation.
Golden's Beautiful Resistance: Never Without Wings
Golden, a Black gender nonconforming trans-femme photographer, poet, and community organizer, is intentional about space for Black trans artists. (Created and produced by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff, Directed and edited by Chaney Carlson-Bullock, First Assistant Director Mikayla Litevich, Supervising Producer Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Illustrations by Paula Champagne)
► Episode 3

We cannot only celebrate trans and queer life after death. We must fight for their lives.

To live. To love. To joy. These things should be a birthright, not a battleground.
What we mean by Black Girl Magic
Black women are not mythical. Nor superhuman. Our magic is in our realness, our love, and the way we rally around one another. (Created and produced by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff, Directed and edited by Katherine Otuechere, First Assistant Directors Chaney Carlson-Bullock and Daymian Mejia, Supervising Producer Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Illustrations by Paula Champagne, Photos by Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff, Katherine Otuechere/Special to the Globe, Ally Schmaling/Handout)
► Episode 4

What we mean by Black Girl Magic

Black women are not mythical. Nor superhuman. Our magic is in our realness, our love, and the way we rally around one another.
Mya Pol's Beautiful Resistance: Rollin' with Joy
Mya Pol, a student disability activist, is fighting for equity and joy for disabled folks. (Created and produced by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff, Directed and edited by Daymian Mejia, Supervising Producer Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Illustrations by Paula Champagne, Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)
► Episode 5

Disability should not mean invisibility

Mya Pol, a student disability activist, is fighting for equity and joy for disabled folks. Living with chronic pain, she has learned to navigate her way to feeling good. Access should not be a barrier to being joyful.
Ebony Williams's Beautiful Resistance: Dance is Queen
When Dorchester native Ebony Williams is crafting moves, be it for a movie scene or pop star, she’s telling stories. (Created and produced by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff, Directed and edited by Chaney Carlson-Bullock, First Assistant Director Mikayla Litevich, Supervising Producer Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Photo by Christiana Botic for The Boston Globe, Illustrations by Paula Champagne)
► Episode 6

Finding freedom in the rhythm of dance

Black choreographers and dancers use movement to move us forward. They use dance to tell stories, evoke memories, and unite us.
Big Lux's Beautiful Resistance: A Veteran's Violin Sings Black Lives Matter
Created and produced by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff, Directed and edited by Daymian Mejia, Supervising Producer Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Illustrations by Paula Champagne, Photo by Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
► Episode 7

Finding freedom in the rhythm of dance

Black choreographers and dancers use movement to move us forward. They use dance to tell stories, evoke memories, and unite us.
Our Beautiful Resistance
Behind the scenes of A Beautiful Resistance, Season 2 with Jeneé Osterheldt, Chaney Carlson-Bullock, Daymian Mejia, and Katherine Otuechere. (Created and produced by Jeneé Osterheldt/Globe Staff, Directed and edited by Chaney Carlson-Bullock, First Assistant Director Mikayla Litevich, Supervising Producer Caitlin Healy/Globe Staff, Illustrations by Paula Champagne)
► Episode 8

Our Beautiful Resistance

Behind the scenes of A Beautiful Resistance, Season 2 with Jeneé Osterheldt, Chaney Carlson-Bullock, Daymian Mejia, and Katherine Otuechere.

CREDITS

Founder, Showrunner, commentary: Jeneé Osterheldt

Supervising Producer: Caitlin Healy

Video shot & edited by: ChaneyThaDirector, Kat Otuechere, and Daymian Mejia

Featuring: Kim Janey, Douglass Williams, Golden, Oompa, Tawny Chatmon, Kinesha Goldson, Mya Pol, Ebony Williams, Big Lux

Project editors:Jeneé Osterheldt, Jason Tuohey

Digital Design: Ryan Huddle

Project art: Paula Champagne

Strategies, audience, & marketing: Peggy Byrd, Jeneé Osterheldt, Michelle Micone, Devin Smith

Emotional Labor: Christopher Hunt, Heidi Flood, Ché, Peppermint Patty

Season 1 music curator: Dart Adams

Season 1 shot & edited by: Caitlin Healy

Season 1 producers: Jeneé Osterheldt & Caitlin Healy