Wayland HRDEI Committee adds two spring dialogue sessions on belonging

WAYLAND — January 20, 2026 — Wayland HRDEI Committee unanimously co-sponsors two more Conversations for Change dialogues. The committee voted Tuesday to back March 19 and April 30 sessions led by Dr. Eden-Renee Hayes with the Wayland Free Public Library and the Wayland Museum and Historical Society, focused on James Baldwin's "Stranger in the Village" and Paul Robeson's House Un-American Activities Committee testimony. Member Mary Ann Borkowski, recapping a prior session, cited a 1981 cross burning in town and said "it just brought it home that it wasn't just happening someplace else." Vice Chair Heather Pineault reported that a separate four-part Conversations, Not Confrontations series led by jamele adams, funded by the Lydia Maria Child Fund of First Parish in Wayland, will run Feb. 10, March 10, April 14 and May 12, with 250 publicity emails sent Tuesday. Chair Karen Blumenfeld said no new programming will be added before fall; members floated an October domestic violence event with the Sudbury-Wayland-Lincoln Roundtable.