BOSTON - Monday, May 19, 2025—The Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement (MOIA) today announced the launch of the annual City of Belonging Festival in observance of Immigrant Heritage Month. The Festival is a month-long celebration with community events that center around the immigrant experience in Boston, to celebrate, uplift, and support diverse communities across the city.
The gallery launch will take place on Wednesday, May 21, at 1:00 p.m. and include food, photos, and a speaking program featuring remarks from various city officials and Boston’s new Poet Laureate Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah. MOIA will also unveil the You Belong Here banners at City Hall’s Mezzanine Gallery. The event is open to the public, and people can register here to attend.
The You Belong large-format banners will hang in the Mezzanine until July 19. After this, they will be displayed at different locations for a You Belong Here banner tour to continue spreading the message of belonging across the city for the remainder of 2025. MOIA welcomes community requests to display banners.
“Our immigrant families and communities play a critical role in making Boston more welcoming, resilient, and joyful,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “MOIA’s City of Belonging initiative supports our work in making Boston a home for everyone and ensuring that all residents across our neighborhoods are connected to their communities.”
MOIA designated 2025 as the Year of Belonging with the You Belong Here campaign to integrate its goals of creating a more inclusive Boston while addressing pressing challenges, such as public sentiment and policy shifts on immigration. The campaign supports immigrant communities through grants, empowers resilience through an awareness campaign, and inspires action through events.
“At a time when immigrant communities face uncertainty across the nation, Boston is choosing connection, compassion, and celebration. The City of Belonging Festival reminds us that resilience grows stronger when we stand together, across cultures and languages,” said Chief of Equity and Inclusion, Mariangely Solis Cervera.
The campaign aims to ensure Boston remains a community where residents feel welcomed, respected, and valued- regardless of background. This awareness campaign prioritizes diversity, equity, and social cohesion for residents across Boston’s neighborhoods, sharing one message, “You Belong Here,” in the city’s 12 main languages. The large-scale banners are also in these languages, and the campaign design has already been featured in digital billboards across the city, most recently at Opening Day in Fenway Park.
"The celebration of all people is integral to the heart of the City of Boston," said Monique Tú Nguyen, Executive Director of the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement. "Through partnerships with local nonprofits with over $2 million in grant investment, we're building a City of Belonging where every resident feels connected to Boston and each other. Together, we're creating spaces where immigrants from all backgrounds can thrive, contribute, and feel truly at home in our neighborhoods. We’re excited to continue sharing our message of belonging and celebrating our diverse city all month with the City of Belonging Festival.”
MOIA will host free events for the City of Belonging Festival. Additional events include:
“In so much of life, I feel a profound sense of indebtedness to those who have done the work before me. No less so here. Boston's two most recent poet laureates, Porsha Olayiwola and Danielle Georges, have created so much space in this city for the flourishing of poetry and poets, and I am grateful to them and eager to expand on their work,” said Boston Poet Laureate Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah.
About the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement
The Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement (MOIA) strives to strengthen immigrants' ability to fully and equitably participate in Boston's economic, civic, social, and cultural life. MOIA also promotes recognition and public understanding of immigrants' contributions to the City. To learn more, visit boston.gov/immigrants. For poster samples or interviews, contact Bessie King at bessie.king@boston.gov.
About Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah
Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah is a Ghanaian American poet, editor, and educator living out the diaspora in Boston, Massachusetts. They are both Black & alive. Born in 1993, Emmanuel is the school librarian at the Joseph Lee School in Dorchester, and in the past has served as a teaching artist at organizations such as the MassLEAP, the Cambridge Arts Council, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Next appearances: Open mic and slam on the 1st and 3rd Friday of every month at Just Book-ish Bookstore in Fields Corner.
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