We will be exhibiting and activating Carson Beach with our 3rd annual Dream and Rest Activation on the 50th anniversary of the Carson Beach Protests of 1975.

For the past two years, we have held an annual Rest and Dream Activation at Carson Beach to honor the vision and struggle of the protestors of 1975. This Rest and Dream Activation has included a live soundscape performed by local musicians, the installation of the Dream Portal Phone Booth to leave + listen to voice messages for the future, an altar with ways to engage with archival materials and write messages of gratitude to the protestors from 1975, a floating installation at Carson beach, and an invitation with blankets and pillows for more than 50 people to rest. While Boston has evolved and the beach has become a welcoming space to gather, we choose to remember the past, to honor the ways the 1975 protestor's imagination and efforts helped to shape a more equitable public space for all.

In order to imagine a future, we must honor the past. Survival under capitalism often requires a lack of rest or time for imagination, especially for Black/brown, BIPOC, immigrant, and queer bodies. It is interesting to note that very recently, on June 28th of 2024, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on sleeping outdoors which does not provide protections to individuals who are fined for sleeping in public space, impacting unhoused folks most severely who may have nowhere else to rest. In this way, a resting body is a politicized body. We are inspired by the words and theories about the importance of rest and imagination by Audre Lorde, Tricia Hersey, adrienne maree brown, Ruha Benjamin, Estella Conwill Májozo and countless others. This invitation is considering public places that hold violent archives and reimagining them as spaces for joy and restful imagination. This invitation is to look at the most oppressed bodies and invite them to rest as an embodied practice without shame, guilt or requirement. It is to wrestle with violent archives and reimagine an offering of care for the body. It is embodied practice, participatory engagement, performance, and activation of history as a monument and as public art.

With the funds from Better Beaches, we hope to expand this project to further convey the legacy of these protestors at Carson Beach for the 50th anniversary. We have collected newspaper clippings, voice notes, and artifacts from the protest that took place. In hopes to collect and expand on the oral history project of the voices of those who experienced the protest and honor those who are living/non-living.

Organized by our Better Beaches partners at Department of Public Imagination.