Culture

Cambridge is a city of "squares".  If you're new to the area or a traveler passing through, it might be a challenge finding the "downtown" area of the town.  Once you come to grips with the layout, one can appreciate the culture, attitude, and attributes of the many "squares" of Cambridge.  Of course, Harvard Square has been covered in the media lately because of the perceived extinction of it's smaller traditional "mom & pop" style stores that have been around for close to 100 years.

Jazz Riff
I want to write a poem
the way a jazz man
composes on his feet
sways in rhythm
taps a syncopated beat
I want to howl and growl
to a bottleneck slide
pulse with rage and heat
rap a wild wind run
blast injustice to the gutter

-- Molly Lynn Watt, 2016 Sidewalk Poetry Contest Winner

The first thing I thought upon entering Cambridge’s The Dosa Factory was, “Wait, am I in a grocery store?” I found myself in a small Indian grocery store, after checking that I had the correct address I ventured towards the back of the store and found the restaurant in the back.

Cambridge is home to one of the oldest African American communities in the nation and has long attracted African Americans of national prominence and influence. For many years, local groups worked separately to gather and maintain the history of the community. In November 1990, then-Vice Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves sponsored a City Council resolution asking these independent organizations to collaborate in the creation of "a Cambridge African American Historical Trail, to serve as . . .