First Church in Cambridge (Massachusetts) hosted successful spring portrait exhibits for two consecutive years. The first year featured the portrait unveiling of abolitionist Harriet Jacobs. The exhibit opening and unveiling featured Harvard Divinity School Dean of Diversity Inclusion and Belonging Rev. Dr. Mellisa Bartholomew, who taught a course on Harriet Jacobs. AWTT portrait subjects Betty Burkes and Charlie Clements also attended the unveiling. The exhibit – which ran for five month – featured ten additional AWTT portraits.

Programming around the portrait exhibit included:

• hybrid screening of the inspirational documentary film Truth Tellers
• a Sunday series, led by Ministerial Interns Carla Arevalo Carbajal and Ahmaad Edmund, about the life of Harriet A. Jacobs
• post-worship-service Lenten series gatherings

First Church’s description of the after-service gatherings: “Each Lenten Sunday, we invite you to gather around one or two of our Truth Telling portraits for a brief ritual after worship. After listening to a short description of the truth-teller’s life and work, we will pause to look at the faces—the eyes—and to read the quote. We will sing a verse or two of a song and then send each other forth, inspired to go speak the truth in our lives and in our world! You will also be invited to linger in casual conversation and to engage each other in response to some ‘truth-telling prompts’  that will be available on tables in Margaret Jewett Hall and Hastings Common. . . . These portraits are the opposite of ‘hot takes’ or quick opinions. They invite you to ponder a person, their words, and the issues that inspire their life’s journey, work, activism, and imagination. They welcome you into a vital conversation, across time and space, about what it means to be an American.”

And describing the weekly Harriet Jacobs series church organizers said, “providing participants with a closer connection to the divine power found in unlikely circumstances. . . . We acknowledge that Harriet’s prophetic life is one that needs deeper grounding and contemplation, as we continue learning how to practice truth telling in racial justice and healing among our communities.”

The following spring, First Church hosted another AWTT exhibit titled “Finding Courage in Community.” The four featured portraits were Rev. William Barber II, James Baldwin, Pauli Murray, and Leah Penniman.  During the Lenten season, the congregation focused on one portrait subject each Sunday: “a time of prayerful meditation and learning from these remarkable lives and stories.” Related events included an Ash Wednesday Service, after-worship conversations, and mid-week soup suppers at various community locations.

First Church’s announcement of this second year program: “As was the case last Lent, we will be surrounded and encouraged by several stunning new portraits on loan from Robert Shetterly and Americans Who Tell the Truth. Through worship, small groups, and some time set aside for one-to-one after-worship conversations, let’s en-courage one another, deepen our community of resistance and resilience, and lean into God’s truth and healing for the journey ahead!”