Thanks to a group of generous Boston-based artists, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) will hold an online Haitian art auction beginning January 10, 2014. The Andrew Square-based IJDH helps individual Haitians enforce their basic rights—in the courts, in police stations, and on the streets—in ways that force the justice system to work better for all Haitians. The featured artists all hail from Haiti and include Boston Haitian artists Charlot Lucien, Colette Brésilla, Renold Laurent, and Fritz Duchiene. The auction also features a self-portrait by up-and-coming artist, Mathieu Jeanbaptiste.

UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended a 15 percent reduction in the number of U.N. troops in Haiti on Tuesday and an examination of whether the beleaguered peacekeeping operation remains the best way to support to the impoverished Caribbean nation. The force has been under intense scrutiny for years and is widely blamed for a massive cholera outbreak likely introduced by a U.N. peacekeeping battalion from Nepal. Protesters who oppose the mission have held running battles with authorities in the streets of Haiti and the country's Senate has called for its removal.

Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, introduced by Senate President Therese Murray as "another Dorchester girl," joined the Upper Chamber just after 2 p.m. Thursday after being sworn in by Gov. Deval Patrick. "There is work we are going to do together," a jubilant Dorcena Forry said in remarks from the Senate rostrum. Dorcena Forry called for her colleagues to work together and to rise above politics and campaigning, and described Murray, a Plymouth Democrat with Dorchester roots, as "an inspiration to me."

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State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry of Dorchester hardly flinched in the mid-evening hours of Tuesday as The Boston Globe and the Associated Press were reporting that state Rep. Nick Collins, her opponent from South Boston, would win the Democratic nomination in the special election to represent the First Suffolk District in the state Senate. Despite those calls by the local media, all the ballots in 77 precincts across South Boston, Dorchester, Mattapan, and parts of Hyde Park had not yet been counted, and when the unofficial results were posted a few hours later, it was Dorcena Forry who was on top, by 378 votes out of 21,730 cast. See a precinct-by-precinct breakdown of the election returns (PDF).

Toussaint L'Ouverture portrait by de GirardinIn commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and of the first black Civil War troops from the North, several Greater Boston educational, historical, and cultural organizations are collaborating to present Freedom Rising: The 150th Anniversary of The Emancipation Proclamation and African American Military Service in the Civil War from May 2 through 4, 2013. On Saturday, May 4, a special performance called "Roots of Liberty – The Haitian Revolution and the American Civil War" will be staged at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church, 88 Tremont St., Boston at 5 p.m.. Produced by Underground Railway Theater, in residence at Central Square Theater, the performance will include special guests Danny Glover, author Edwidge Danticat, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Danny Glover will be performing one of the key historical figures in Roots of Liberty. The first-ever performance celebrates the Haitian revolutionary hero Toussaint Louverture and the impact of the Haitian Revolution on the American Civil War – the antislavery movement and African American soldiers. It is set in Boston’s historic Tremont Temple, where the Emancipation Proclamation was read in 1863.