 Hello everyone, my name is Toye Burton and I am the founder and executive director of the Roxbury Unity Parade. Today is the Roxbury Unity Parade, it happens every July on the 3rd Sunday. We are here gathering at Madison Park on Plaza 7. Right now is the block party and then at 12 we will have the opening ceremony and then we go from Malcolm X Boulevard to Malcolm X Park. Today is about celebrating Black Boston, the Roxbury community and elevating the neighborhood that usually gets forgotten. My name is James Hills, James Jimmy Hills, I'm the host of Java with Jimmy. I'm here today as the digital director of DD's Cry which is a partner organization with Toye Burton with Roxbury Unity Parade. I'm here to support the Roxbury Unity Parade. This event is important to celebrate within our community because of the fact that there's so much heritage, so much history in Roxbury and so many good folks that come from Roxbury that we just have to celebrate Roxbury. Toye's vision is to bring together the families from all over Boston that may not be familiar with everything good that goes on in Roxbury. There's a lot of negative media about certain parts of our city and Roxbury happens to be one of those areas. However, we're celebrating the arts, the joy, yes the resilience and everything that comes with being Roxbury born and bred. It keeps me going because I grew up in Roxbury, I'm a Roxbury native. When I saw that other neighborhoods had parades for their neighborhoods I was like what about my neighborhood, what about Roxbury, like we are a proud people and we should also be celebrating. The love from the community is awesome as you can see everybody's out even though we're celebrating Black Boston, Roxbury is very diverse, so we have a diverse crowd that comes out and I love it and I appreciate the community. My name is Dr. Brandy Brooks, I'm the Director of Operations for the Roxbury Unity Parade. We are in our fourth year if you can believe it and this parade is so important to me because it celebrates the community I live in and it celebrates the heart of Boston. It really truly is the heart of Boston. We're here to uplift, to magnify, to support, to exalt Roxbury's history, Roxbury's culture and the community of Roxbury and so it's so important for me to be involved and it's so important to have the community involved because if we don't get involved and celebrate our community who will? The Roxbury Unity Parade is not just about us walking the streets of Roxbury. We do several things as a component of the parade. We have our block party as you can hear the music behind me that goes for a couple of hours then we have our opening ceremony. At that ceremony we not only thank those in attendance but we give back. We want to make sure that we give awards to those deserving of them, our pillars of the community, our upcoming leaders and our sponsors because without them we would have no parade and so once we step off that's not the end either. We go to Malcolm X Park and then once at Malcolm X Park we have an empowerment fair where we have different organizations from the community providing resources, providing support and as you're getting your cotton candy or your popcorn you can listen to live music. Boston based artists rapping, singing, spoken word so it is a full day of activities, a full day of service and again a full day of just celebrating a community that we all love so dearly. So what I want the children of Roxbury from this neighborhood I want them to have a sense of pride from where they come from. We come from strong groups, a lot of great people came from Roxbury. We have Sarah and Shaw, we have Elma Lewis, we have Mel King and this is a neighborhood like the media usually don't show Roxbury and a good light but we have a lot of good that is happening here. I'm going to sing full of the faith that the darkness has taught us and seen us all. Full of the world that the present has brought. They sing the rite. Are you ready to march on the street? No. Let us march on the street. Until we talk. Victory is what the voices first blackmail. A lot of times people want to talk about Roxbury and have something negative to say including some of the folks that are here. We always want to look at our community from a defensive point of view but I am here to tell you we are more than statistic. Alright? We are more than statistic. I am a Roxbury girl raised in rich black soil where we need to be what we are strong for. I also want to recognize the amazing awardees who are here. I'd like to give a shout out to this gentleman who knows more about Roxbury history than perhaps anyone on the planet. I was confused when I read that. I was like whoa. This is a leader who is doing the work every single day and I'm blessed to call you friend and sister. And I know we have trouble getting an award today and of course Roxbury is on Michael Bivens. So try to talk too long because as Toys said we do this brain and shine. We are a resilient people and we're going to do this brain and shine but I'm hoping that we're going to have some shine. And I don't want to defy this brain so I'm not going to talk too long but I do want to recognize my sister for her work. I just want to be able to present this to you as district 7 city councilors and here I am now able to do it as mayor of Boston so I just want to recognize everything that you do in this community. We're not going to hold the Yankees against you. Come on up back to the stage. Thank you so much. One more time for the mayor who happens to be a sister. I love her. I was blessed to be able to meet this woman the very first time that we did the parade back in 2018. She's just a phenomenal sister. A friend of the parade, a friend of the nation and certainly a friend of Roxbury please put your hands together. For the phenomenal congresswoman Ayanna Preston. So far as this parade is concerned many people have this idea but no one brought it to fruition. And so I want us to acknowledge this visionary woman, a toy making for labor and love. She would not take no for an answer. She knew that Roxbury was one of the celebration and recognition. I want to acknowledge the work that she's done in this space of mental health. To the name of Senator Roxbury, we thank Carrie for being our MC. We thank everybody who did. It was an honor for the run for this planning committee. So speaking of the runs of Mayor Jane there, another proud native daughter of Roxbury, our bonds as a community cannot just be forged in the midst of trouble. Although we celebrate the history of resistance and activism in Roxbury because there can be no resilience without resistance. But our bonds as a community cannot just be forged in trauma. This is an opportunity for celebration. We celebrate Roxbury excellence. Roxbury entrepreneurship. Roxbury innovation. Roxbury artists. Roxbury scholars. It is so important and I think especially coming out of this pandemic and we seek to recover. I just want to take a moment to acknowledge and when it's the unprecedented that we have experienced disproportionately as a community. In the midst of that, you have demonstrated unprecedented mutual aid, collective care, love for your neighbor, unprecedented hope. Please don't lose that. Let's continue to take care of one another. And I'll just end here and say, quoting the words of Amanda Borland, creditola, poet Lorraine who spoke with the inauguration, who said we do not seek to be a more perfect union. We seek to be a more purpose union. May every brilliant father, artist, entrepreneur, innovator in Roxbury have that equal opportunity to bring together all of their gifts so that we can truly be a more purpose union. So thank you all for being here. Roxbury Unity, let's go! So, I want to acknowledge Councillor Wong, again, Councillor Southern George, Councillor Gage. And one of the things he can and makes of here is because our political power and our banks are powerful too. I'm Michelle Wu. I'm a Boston City Councilor and a candidate premier. And I'm here to keep the Roxbury love going. I'm so proud to have been part of this from day one with the very, very first parade all the way through. We've been here in almost 100 degree heat, in rain, in cars during the pandemic. And today is just such a joyful celebration with the entire community out and about badly needed healing after this pandemic. I'm here also to celebrate toy and all the community leaders and folks who have paved the way. As a mom with kids in the schools, I live in a multi-generational home. I ride the tea every day. Policies matter. It's urgent. It is this moment that we have to rise up to meet. And the community here reminds us every day of just what the stakes are and how many willing, amazing hands have been doing the work for such a long time that we just need to bring everyone together and march together in the same direction. There's no way to separate who we are as policymakers or citizens or voters compared to who we are as people, moms and dads and grandmas and family members. And so making the space for us to reflect on our history together but just be in community is a really important part of how we move forward. Especially after we face so much isolation and trauma during the pandemic this is a way to keep our eyes on the future but also just take stock of being with each other. Come together, heal and celebrate our community. Toy, you are amazing. I've seen you in huge crowds when there are 20 cameras here. I've seen you in spaces where there are just a few families grieving who have lived through the impacts of mental illness or experiencing loss and you are one in the same. You're always there just radiating your love and energy and passion for the community. I am so in awe of everything that you do and just count me as someone who will always be there wherever you need, call on me. We're filing you into the fire, into the joy, into the sense of what we could be together in the future. And so I have so much love. Thank you so, so much for all you do for our community. It is going great. I am on cloud nine right now. I'm so excited, so humbled, so overwhelmed, filled with so much joy. Another year of town. Time to stop planning the next one. Roxbury is a place to be proud of. We have a strong history, an awesome culture and we want to keep this going for them. We're just laying down the foundation so we can keep going. My name is Juanita Sheffield. I am the daughter of Tenor Burton who put this parade together and I'm here today to first and foremost support my mother and of course to show love in the community and to just show that there is love in the community and when we come together, amazing things can happen. I love you mom. Keep doing what you're doing. Hey everybody, it is Brandi Brooks, Director of Operations. We are on Dale Street with Roxbury Unity Parade. We feel like a hundred. Roxbury, Roxbury, you said wrong. Brandi, how are you? I'm here and pulling to me is because I've been a Roxbury resident my whole life. I saved my whole life. Growing up in a five generation home, I've been a person who's a leader in Boston Tip Hop Community in the peace movement in Boston and now at Mass General Hosts. Love you, Roxbury. Just going around and saying hi to everybody. So, tell people about Whittier Street. Hi, we're at Whittier Street Health Center. We offer a lot of services. We have a food pantry. We have a mobile health unit that just came out and we do IDSP, which is Infectious Disease and Special Population. We do testing, HIV testing, STI testing. We have a lot of services at Whittier Street. Okay, let's move on. Let's move on. Would you like to just move on? Okay, so here we have Boston Casa. Hi, how are you? I'm good, thank you. Thank you. We absolutely, we're an organization that trains community volunteers to serve as Best Interest Guardians of Atlanta for children and youth involved with the system, development of the court system, sorry. So, we do kind of soup to nuts. We work really closely with the family and it's a one-to-one relationship. So, we're able to do lots of educational advocacy, you know, advocate for mental health supports, you know, other types of assistance with the family needs. So, we try to be a permanent presence in the child's life while they're going through a really, really challenging time.