SARAH BORGES named her well-received 2005 debut album “Silver City” after her hometown of Taunton. But with her rock-and-country hybrid sound she has gained the respect of mentors and peers far from Boston: A few years after that debut, she and her band, the Broken Singles, earned a nomination as Best Emerging Artist at the Americana Music Association festival in Nashville. Sarah released her latest album, “Together Alone,” with Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, (Joan Jett, Steve Earle) in 2022. 

AVI JACOB is a singer-songwriter from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, now based in Providence. A 2022 winner at the New England Music Awards, he has recorded with Simone Felice and members of the Felice Brothers. The son of a noted scholar of the Holocaust, Avi has lately been releasing music with his full-band project, Hawk in the Nest. 

WESLEY STACE launched his musical career in the 1980s under the stage name John Wesley Harding. He published “Misfortune,” his first of several novels, in 2005. As the curator of his long-running series of shows, Wesley Stace’s Cabinet of Wonders, he has presented artists including John Ritter, Kristin Hersh, Stephin Merritt, Juliana Hatfield, Eugene Mirman, and many more. A resident of Philadelphia, he became an American citizen in 2025.

As a young gospel singer, LEON BEAL performed with James Cleveland, Edwin Hawkins, and many more greats. He went on to form a soul group called Joy, which evolved into Joy-ful, who were a regular presence at the old House of Blues in Cambridge. After working for decades with the Boston Public Schools, in his “retirement” years Leon has toured extensively with bands in Italy and Brazil.      

ADAM SHERMAN has been nominated for six Boston Music Awards. The onetime voice of the Boston band Private Lightning and a member of the Nervous Eaters, he maintains a monthly residency at the Plough and Stars in Cambridge. Adam’s single “Everyday Dangers,” from his upcoming album “Sorrows and Smiles,” was recently chosen as one of the “Coolest Songs in the World” by Little Steven’s Underground Garage on SiriusXM. 

Guest speaker MARI PARIS JEFFRIES MARI PARIS JEFFRIES is the president and CEO of Embrace Boston, the organization (formerly King Boston) that was instrumental in bringing the Embrace monument, an iconic tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, to the Boston Common. Imari is a trustee of the UMass System, the Huntington Theatre, Mass Humanities, and the Boston Ballet, among other institutions. 

SPECIAL THANKS TO ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS

Eric Salt
Sean Staples
Elizabeth Steen
Erica Mantone
Kameelah