For Immediate Release:
Contact: Eric Chubinsky, echubinsky@ckcommgroup.com 617.686.3452
The Opening Doors Project and Passim’s Folk Collective Announce Voices Rising
A Free Concert Series with Conversations Around Identity and Music
(Boston, MA – Oct. 07, 2026) For the second year in a row, Boston-based arts organization The Opening Doors Project and Club Passim’s Folk Collective announced Voices Rising, a joint series of free-to-the-public shows taking place across New England throughout 2026-2027. Each concert will include music exploring race, identity, and justice paired with conversations about how those topics shape our world. For more information and a full schedule, visit: openingdoorsproject.org.
The Voices Rising series includes an Indigenous Peoples’ Day concert, Black History Month and MLK Day concerts, a celebration of activism and service in Roxbury, and a 130th anniversary celebration of a historical Black church in Medford. The series features Opening Doors Project roster members, Folk Collective alumni and current members, and prominent artists and cultural leaders in the Boston arts community, including singer-songwriters Pamela Means and Kemp Harris, rising hip-hop star Zakiyyah, Massachusetts Poet Laureate Regie Gibson, and Medford Poet Laureate Terry E. Carter.
The Opening Doors Project is an independent, mission-driven arts organization focused on amplifying voices of color and advancing interracial conversations about race. The Folk Collective is an artist-centered initiative of Club Passim that provides resources and support to artists while expanding the narrative of folk music by elevating voices and perspectives historically underrepresented in the genre.
“Now more than ever, we need artistry that celebrates our differences as well as our communal strengths,” says Alastair Moock, Opening Doors Artistic Director, Host, and Co-Founder. “In this moment, when arts and education funding is being slashed, immigrants are under attack, and ‘DEI’ has become a dangerous word, these shows are a unique kind of balm: an opportunity to bring Black, Brown, white, and Indigenous performers together to make collaborative music and engage with audiences in honest conversation.”
“The Folk Collective is excited to co-present this series of shows with Opening Doors,” says Shea Rose, Curator of The Folk Collective. “The Folk Collective has lived on the stage at Passim, and in a natural evolution of that work, the community has responded by inviting our artists, music, and conversation into their own spaces. This partnership brings together two organizations rooted in shared purpose: broadening the tapestry of voices represented in folk music, reclaiming overlooked narratives, and deepening community conversations around race, identity, and belonging.”
2026-27 Performances Include:
Fri, Sep. 11 @ 8pm, Cambridge, MA
“Red, White, Black, & Blues”
Club Passim, Cambridge, MA
w/ Regie Gibson, Kemp Harris & Alastair Moock
Sun, Oct. 11 @ 3pm, Roxbury, MA
“Voices Rising for Democracy”
Roxbury’s Meetinghouse, Roxbury, MA
w/ Pamela Means, Zakiyyah, Anand Nayak, & Alastair Moock
Fri, Oct. 23 @ 7pm, Belmont, MA
“Indigenous Like Me: Two Stories, Two Paths”
Belmont High School Black Box Theater, Belmont, MA
w/ Annawon Weeden & Kim Moberg
Sat, Nov. 14 @ 12pm, Roxbury, MA
“Revolutionary Lives: Service & Activism in Roxbury”
Roxbury’s Meetinghouse, Roxbury, MA
w/ Stephanie McKay & Grace Givertz
Sat, Jan. 9 @ 7:30pm, Rockport, MA
“Race and Song: A Musical Conversation”
Old Sloop Coffeehouse, Rockport, MA
w/ Reggie Harris & Alastair Moock
Sun, Jan. 17 @ 7pm, Melrose MA
“Toward Justice: An MLK Day Concert”
Melrose Highlands Congregational Church, Melrose, MA
w/ Reggie Harris & Alastair Moock
Sun, Jan. 24 @ 4pm, Cambridge, MA
“Race and Song: A Musical Conversation”
First Church, Cambridge, MA
w/ Reggie Harris & Alastair Moock
Fri, Feb. 26 @ 7pm, Belmont, MA
“Black and Bold: The Hip-Hopera”
Belmont High School Black Box Theater, Belmont, MA
w/ Zakiyyah
Fri, April 16 @ 7:30pm, Rockport, MA
“We, Too, Sing America”
Old Sloop Coffeehouse, Rockport, MA
w/ Kemp Harris & Lydia Harrell
Sat, May 15 @ 7pm, Medford, MA
“130 Years of Shiloh: Celebrating Black History in Medford”
Shiloh Baptist Church, Medford, MA
w/ Dr. Jaron Green, Terry E. Carter, Stephanie McKay & Anand Nayak
About The Opening Doors Project
Alastair Moock and Stacey Babb co-founded The Opening Doors Project in 2021 to promote meaningful interracial conversations around race through the arts. Five years later, the organization has grown to include a roster of award-winning musicians, poets, and thinkers who work regularly together in Boston-area schools and communities. Opening Doors’ concerts and education programs are rooted in the conviction that candid conversation can open people’s minds, and great music can touch people’s hearts. Learn more at: openingdoorsproject.org.
About The Folk Collective
The Folk Collective at Passim empowers diverse folk music artists in greater New England to leverage music as a tool for community impact and social change by providing them a platform to reach new audiences, hone their craft, and amplify their unique voices. Through its innovative two-year cohort-based model, The Folk Collective addresses the challenges faced by underrepresented artists in the folk music industry by providing performance opportunities, mentorship, and a collaborative space, thus enabling them to cultivate sustainable creative careers. Learn more atpassim.org/mission/folkcollective.
About Passim
The mission of Passim is to provide truly exceptional and interactive live musical experiences for both performers and audiences, to nurture artists at all stages of their careers, and to build a vibrant, inclusive music community. Passim does so through its legendary listening venue, music school, artist grants, and community programs. As a nonprofit since 1994, Passim carries on the heritage of its predecessors—the historic Club 47 (1958-1968) and the for-profit Passim (1969-1994). It cultivates a diverse mix of musical traditions, emphasizing the relationship between performers and audience and teachers and students. Located in Harvard Square, Passim serves Cambridge and the broader region by featuring local, national, and International Artists. Passim’s ultimate goal is to help the performance arts flourish and thereby enrich the lives of members of our community. For a complete schedule, visit passim.org.
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