“I always believed that what we were doing was going to be something special for years to come,” Bobby Brown said.
Boston paid tribute to one of its most influential musical groups on Saturday (Aug. 30) by declaring “New Edition Day” and renaming Roxbury street “New Edition Way.” The ceremony drew hundreds of fans, community leaders, and dignitaries who gathered in the neighborhood where the group was born and raised more than four decades ago.
The celebration was part of Mayor Michelle Wu’s “For the Culture Week,” a citywide initiative dedicated to uplifting Black history and HBCU pride. In addition to the street unveiling, the weekend featured the ESSENCE HBCU Classic at Harvard Stadium, which welcomed more than 12,000 attendees. But in Roxbury, all eyes were on Ralph Tresvant, Bobby Brown, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe, and Johnny Gill, who returned to the very streets where they once rehearsed as kids.
“It feels like heaven, man,” Brown said. “It is the greatest feeling in the world to know that the people that you grew up around and the people that raised you, because we was raised by many people in the hood, not just our parents, but friends and family members outside of our homes and just being back there is a great feeling and to be honored by Michelle Wu is something special.”
“Everything we learned, every wave, the way we are, our attitude, our swag — is all from you. We got that here,” Ralph Tresvant, lead singer of New Edition, said during the unveiling…