Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service 2026

Boston City Singers
Since 1995, Boston City Singers’ mission has been to provide the highest level of creative youth development opportunities to underserved young people, ages 4 – 18, in the very communities in which they live. Our programs inspire personal journeys, bridge opportunity gaps, celebrate diversity, and foster goodwill. Our strengths lie in an unwavering commitment to social justice and acceptance of differences across socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and gender identity. 
 

Marlene Boyette is a trauma-informed wellness practitioner, yoga and meditation teacher, sound healer, and community leader with near 20 years of experience across education, wellness, and holistic healing/healing arts. Currently, she serves as the yoga and mindfulness teacher within an elementary school in Boston’s Beacon Hill, where she founded the school’s first Students of Color Affinity Group. A former Reggio-focused early childhood educator, curriculum developer for charter schools, and music event producer, Marlene’s journey has always been about cultivating spaces that honor people’s need to be seen, to feel safe, to be supported, and to be encouraged.

As the founder of Leela Yoga + Wellness and creator of Yoga for Us, a monthly BIPOC-only offering that gathers beyond yoga for collective wellness and joy, Marlene’s work uplifts communities and redefines wellness as a liberatory, communal practice. Her trauma-informed, choice-based teaching approach empowers adults to move and rest in ways that feel authentic and restorative. Her decolonized approach centers marginalized communities, especially Black identifying communities, and challenges hustle culture by advocating for balance, presence, and community care.

Marlene has facilitated offerings in Boston, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, St. Thomas, and beyond, collaborating with the City of Boston Mayor’s Office, Massachusetts Teachers Association, The Massachusetts Black Lawmakers Roundtable, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harvard University, MIT, Purdue University, The Broad Institute, Weeksville Heritage Center, Spotify, Nickelodeon, and others. 

Susan Thompson is a Boston-based artist who holds a long-standing dedication to community empowerment through the arts. She has taught in schools, museums, neighborhood houses, and other community and academic institutions. She is currently an artist in the African American Master Artists-in-Residence Program (AAMARP) at Northeastern University.

Susan Thompson has exhibited widely in solo and group shows and has participated in various international cultural exchange projects. Her work is represented in private and public collections. She has created public art for the MBTA Orange Line, the Boston Parks Department, the Museum of African American History (Boston, Nantucket), the Boston Children's Museum, Bunker Hill Community College, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. More recently, with Johnetta Tinker, she created a mural in Roxbury, MA that paid homage to the distinguished artist Allan Rohan Crite. 

Thompson has received awards from Paige Academy, Community Works, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and became a Brother Thomas Fellow in 2021. 

Thompson attributes her illustrative career to her mentor Allan Rohan Crite. He referred to himself as her launching pad. He did everything in his power to help her develop as an artist. Without his guidance and belief in her drive and determination, the above accomplishments would not have been possible.

Johnetta Tinker, a resident of Boston, graduated from Texas Southern University, Houston, with a Bachelor of Arts and Boston University, Boston, with a Master of Fine Arts, both in Art Education.

Tinker's work has been shown in numerous exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. Recent solo and group exhibitions include: Rebirth Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa, 2023; University Museum at Texas Southern University, Houston, 2023; John Joseph Moakley Courthouse Gallery, Boston, 2022; Northeastern Crossing - City and Community Engagement, Northeastern University, Boston, 2018 – 2019; Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, 2011 and 2017; SPOKE Gallery, Boston, 2015; Gallery Z, Providence, RI, 2012; IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM, 1986; The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangdong Province, China, 1986.

Tinker has painted murals in Houston, and Boston, designed interactive exhibits, and coordinated several mural art projects with neighborhood community centers in the Boston area. She has illustrated brochures and books including This Bridge Called My Back (Persephone Press, 1981).

Tinker has participated in several artist-in-residence and art exchange programs, including: IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM; the Massachusetts-Guangdong, China Art Exchange; and Artpark, Lewiston, NY. 

Tinker is a recipient of the 2020 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Drawing & Printmaking; the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston 2017 Creative Entrepreneur Fellowship Madison Park Development Corporation, 2013 Community Catalyst Award, Boston; Texas Southern University 2011 Distinguished Alumnus Award, Houston; Boston Arts Academy, 2001 Honorary Artist Award; and the Community Works Organization, Artist for Social Change Award, 1994.