Farewell to Eastie Weeks 2026!
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Our recap of events we attended and hosted
It’s been more than a dozen years since the launch of Eastie Weeks, a unique East Boston festival that celebrates “the rich and vibrant cultural and artistic wealth” of the Boston waterfront neighborhood. Since then, it’s expanded to two full weeks of events with community gatherings, water sports, arts and crafts, as well as festivals and fairs that attract Eastie residents and visitors alike.
Organized by Boston Harbor Now and fueled by neighborhood nonprofits and community organizations, it’s become an annual summer celebration.
This year’s festival is very special for Hola Cultura since it was our first time participating after we started publishing in East Boston a year ago.
To everyone who attended our storytelling events last week, thanks for coming out! Here’s our Eastie Weeks 2026 photo album below.
July 25 – Hola Cultura-BPL zine launch
Hola Cultura celebrated our zine, East Boston: In Our Own Words, at the East Boston branch of the Boston Public Library last Saturday. The event marked the closure of a Mass Humanities grant that allowed us to carry out more than a dozen oral history interviews with neighborhood residents over the past two years. The Tide Talks project grant is over, but we continue to interview East Boston residents. (Would you like to be interviewed? Send us an email to contact@holacultura.com.)
We gave away free editions of the zine in English and Spanish after a fascinating conversation with residents, including several who gave us oral history interviews and whose stories were included in the 30-page zine.
The Boston Public Library co-hosted the event with Hola Cultura. Tieanna Graphenreed, Ph.D., a BPL community history and digitization specialist, welcomed the audience. Then Hola Cultura’s co-founders Christine MacDonald and Alberto Roblest and Hola Cultura interns Carlos Mata Rodriguez, Alejandra Conte Contreras and Layne Martinez, introduced the organization and the stories inside of the zine before inviting the audience to join the conversation.
One community member asked if Hola Cultura will continue interviewing residents and publishing future zines to share their stories. MacDonald explained how Hola Cultura is an online publication that publishes most of its work digitally and relies on grants and donations to keep our work going.
Sandra Nijjar, a longtime resident and founder of the East Boston Community Soup Kitchen, shared her recollections of moving to East Boston decades ago and feeling hesitant about staying in the neighborhood after experiencing racism from her neighbors.
“As time went on, I started to get involved in the community. I started meeting kindhearted people that were so human and awesome,” said Nijjar, whose interview is one of the 15 life stories highlighted in the zine. “I started to grow roots in this community. I started getting all passionate about this community and I started to fight for it. And the next thing I knew, I was involved in all kinds of initiatives.”
Another resident shared that he moved to East Boston from Toronto less than a year ago. “So being able to hear some stories about the community was very nice. It was a pleasant surprise coming to the library and getting to see the presentation.”
July 22 – Gathering in the Eastie Farm greenhouse with Veronica Robles and La Cocina VROCC
Read our recent interview with Veronica Robles
Hola Cultura joined forces with Eastie Farm and the Veronica Robles Cultural Center (VROCC) for an evening with Veronica Robles on July 22. The East Boston nonprofit leader and mariachi singer discusses her early life, musical career and how she transformed her grief from the untimely death of her only child, Kithzia Lopez Robles, into a passion that led to her opening the cultural center in the neighborhood.
Hola Cultura intern Layne Martinez interviewed Robles, who also graced the audience with some impromptu singing at the event that also showcased La Cocina VROCC, the cultural center’s new culinary incubator on Maverick Street in East Boston.
July 18 – Piers Park Sailing Center’s Our Harbor: Climate Day of Action
Piers Park Sailing Center’s climate day of action on July 18, was one of the first events of Eastie Week. Despite the gloomy weather, the park was full of people and lots of laughter and conversations that felt connected as many came through for a day out in the harbor. There was free sailing, kayaking, lawn games, lunch and more.
Several organizations working to raise awareness about climate change were on site too.
While we were at Piers Park, we visited the table staffed by friends from Zumix, the music nonprofit in East Boston and met Liana Greenberg-Nielsen, the education and engagement program coordinator at Stone Living Lab.
Greenberg-Nielsen told us about how the Stone Living Lab focuses on nature-based solutions for coastal areas, including East Boston, where it has one of two “Living Seawalls” in Boston Harbor. She helped us better understand what the city and organizations like Stone Living Lab are doing to take actions to address climate change.
“One of our areas of work is thinking about monitoring and research,” Greenberg-Nielsen said, explaining how the lab works to monitor Boston Harbor and coastal flooding.
“We’ve got a bunch of different types of monitoring equipment that are out in the harbor, like wave buoys and meteorological instruments that are taking data all the time and then we also have some overland flood monitors,” she said. “Most of the time they’re reading zero because there’s no water on the ground. But as soon as there’s flooding underneath those beams, they record the depth of water.”
Hola Cultura is visiting the East Boston Living Seawall along the Condor Street side of the neighborhood soon, so come back again later this summer to learn more about how East Boston is vulnerable to climate change and what can be done to minimize the risks.
July 18 – Mutual Aid Eastie’s Abundance and Sustainers Fair
After our time at Piers Park, we visited Mutual Aid Eastie’s Abundance and Sustainers Fair at the East Boston Neighborhood Library. Mutual Aid Eastie, a neighbors-helping-neighbors organization, was raising funds and signing up “sustainers,” who donate to help the organization continue its work, while highlighting the abundance of the community.
There were arts and crafts activities, workshops, music, food, fresh flowers and more. During our visit, we indulged in many free treats made entirely by the community and ate fresh watermelon, rice, agua de jamaica, mango juice and other favorites. Tables and circles in English and Spanish related to the organization’s community goals.
While we were there, we interviewed Claudia from Mutual Aid Eastie who introduced us to the fair and the concept of mutual aid.
“Mutual Aid is a nonprofit organization in East Boston which puts itself in charge of connecting the community to different resources of migration, food, education and summer youth jobs. There are many resources for the community,” she said.
Or as Edy, a soft-spoken Mutual Aid Eastie outreach worker added, “at Mutual Aid Eastie, the idea is that we can sustain ourselves within the community.”
– Story by Camila Bonilla, Carlos Mata Rodriguez, Elysse González and Layne Martinez
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