Bristol Black Collective

09/03/2026

📚✨ Our Latest Newsletter Is Here! ✨📚

Back-to-school season is a great time to start with purpose, goals, and a little Black history!

Check out our latest newsletter featuring a Sankofa-inspired goal-setting activity, Phillis Wheatley spotlight, recommended reading, and youth opportunities.

🎯 Family Challenge: Ask your young person, “What’s ONE thing you want to accomplish this school year or first term that would make you proud?”

Write it down, hang it up, and work toward it together!

👇🏾 Check out the newsletter and share with another family!

https://simplyk-bucket-production.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/deliveries/25c85132-1263-41b5-9ecc-74e5412b90d4/emails/65c502ca-dd4e-4339-bf46-56d40a42d9fb.html

09/02/2026

📚✨ Wishing YOU a Great School Year! ✨ Let the Adventures Begin! 📚🎉

Hey families!

🌟 We are wishing all our amazing students a fantastic back-to-school season. Here's to new friends, exciting lessons, and endless discoveries. Your journey starts now - make it incredible! 🚌

📣 To all the parents, guardians, and caregivers, your unwavering support makes this journey even more special. Thank you for being their guiding light.

09/01/2026

Save the Date 📅

Save the Date!

Come visit SoCo Art Labs, Fall River's only artist co-working space complete with art gallery and indie bookstore on Sunday, October 4, 2026 from 11am - 3pm, as we celebrate Art, Music, Culture, and our Flint Neighborhood at the Flint Arts Festival!

More information is coming, including a call for artists, so please be on the lookout. Right now, we just ask that you Save the Date!

09/01/2026

🗳️ TODAY IS PRIMARY ELECTION DAY! 🗳️

Your voice matters—and your vote is one of the ways to make it heard! 🙌🏾

If you’re eligible to vote, make a plan to get to the polls today. Encourage your family, friends, and neighbors to vote too!

Some voting location have changed, not sure where you vote? Visit the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s “Where Do I Vote?” page to find your polling location.

https://www.sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA/WhereDoIVote

✨ Show up. Speak up. VOTE! 🗳️

Spread the word, tag your friends, and let's inspire civic engagement! 🌟

🗳️🙌🏾🇺🇸

08/27/2026

September is right around the corner, so save the date for AHA! Night: NB Cultures on Thursday, September 10th.

In Custom House Square, First People Encounter will present “Somos las Raíces / We Are the Roots” from 4-8 PM. Storytelling, music, dance, art, food, and cultural traditions come together to honor the First Peoples of these lands and the roots, histories, and traditions that continue to thrive today.

The experience creates space to highlight Indigenous Caribbean, Borikén (Puerto Rican), Wampanoag, and other Indigenous communities. All are welcome to participate, share, connect, and celebrate the cultures that continue to grow from these ancestral roots.

Throughout the evening, there will be games, community art activities, and resource tables. Interactive culture talks will happen at 5 and 6:30 PM, with a variety of musical and dance performances, including an educational performance from Bomba de Aquí with guest drummers and dancers at 5:30 PM and “The Evolution of Dance Through Afro-Caribbean Cultural Influence” featuring JunnYahh and invited performers at 7 PM.

As part of AHA! Night, there will also be free access to local museums, arts and crafts, live music, the return of the Zeiterion’s Jazz Jam, and late night activities happening after 8 PM during AHA! After Dark. Activities are added to the schedule each day, so learn more on our website.

September’s AHA! Night is sponsored by TFed - Taunton Federal Credit Union.

“Somos las Raíces / We Are the Roots” is also supported in part by AHA! Moments.

📸: "United Across Cultures, Connected Through Heritage." Nailani Luz Gomes “FANCY DANCING," courtesy Luz Caban

Explore New Bedford
Boricuas en New Bedford Cultural Events
New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park

08/26/2026

Congratulations Talisa's on Main

"Bar Rescue" host Jon Taffer stopped by Taunton to drop the bombshell that Talisa's had won his bar makeover contest. When he'll be back. See link below ⬇️

📸 Photo provided by Talisa Proctor

08/25/2026

Visit the SoCo Art Labs and capture your kiddos back to school 😊

🎒Back to School Photo Opportunity! 🧡

We didn't have any little humans around when we were taking the photos for this post so we had to borrow some "big kid" volunteers to show it off first! 😉

This adorable arch was built by the incredibly talented Kim Cabraldo of Deluxe Occasions and Equipment - she is one of our newest members here at SoCo Art Labs and she built this for FREE for us to offer it to you all! Kim and her family spent hours creating this fun backdrop for kiddos to take photos to celebrate back to school and we cannot thank her enough. 💗

But, there is a catch! Balloons don't last forever - once it deflates, it's gone! So head over here to the art lab with your kiddo(s) for a photo op. BONUS: Every kiddo gets to take home a free box of crayons 🖍️ just for stopping by!

We will see you all soon - we cannot wait to see those first-day smiles! 😁 We are here Monday-Friday from 9am-7pm and Saturday/Sunday from 10am-4pm.

08/25/2026

✨ Congratulations and a warm welcome to Mr. Peter Walker, the new Executive Director of the Fall River YMCA!

Wishing you much success in your new role and looking forward to the continued positive impact of the YMCA in our community. 🎉

Please join us in welcoming Peter Walker as the new Executive Director of the Fall River YMCA.

Peter brings a background rooted in community engagement, entrepreneurship, workforce development, relationship building, and youth empowerment. Having worked alongside YMCA Southcoast as a community partner, he already understands the people and mission behind the Y.

He looks forward to building relationships, listening to and learning from the community, and bringing together partners, volunteers, staff, families, and supporters in service of the YMCA mission.

We’re excited to welcome Peter and look forward to the leadership, energy, and vision he brings to the Fall River YMCA!

08/24/2026

What a great night for our community! 🎉

Last night’s Neighborhood Block Party was a wonderful reminder of what happens when neighbors, families, local businesses, and community partners come together. The community truly showed up to celebrate, connect, and enjoy an evening right in the heart of the neighborhood.

🌙✨ It was exciting to see the light up and mark another positive moment for the neighborhood and our local business community. Congratulations to the Night Owl team!

🙌🏾 Shout out to Flint Neighborhood Association City of Fall River Police Department The City of Fall River SoCo Art Labs Spectrum Empowerment Productions, all the businesses, vendors, residents and everyone who attended and made this event a success. This is what community looks like! ❤️