In 2020, shortly after the murder of George Floyd, musicians Reggie Harris and Alastair Moock created a new program​ for kids called Race and Song: A Musical Conversation. The goal was to help students and teachers alike learn to understand and embrace difference, and to demystify and detoxify the learned cultural patterns that perpetuate bias.

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The program was an immediate hit, and participating communities were eager for similar types of programming for adults. In response, Alastair and Stacey Babb co-founded The Opening Doors Project in 2021, using seed money from the Melrose Unitarian Universalist Church in their hometown outside of Boston. Starting with old friends and expanding to new ones doing groundbreaking antiracist artistic work around the country, Alastair invited folks like Dom Flemons, Rissi Palmer, Dan and Claudia Zanes, and Vance Gilbert to sing and talk with him online. During these live-streamed video performances, Alastair and his guests swapped songs, discussed their activist work, and raised money from online audiences for charitable and action-oriented organizations.

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As the pandemic let up in 2022, Opening Doors turned its attention to live concerts and conversations, and to new educational programs for kids and adults alike. Today, our shows and programs can be found in schools, libraries, senior centers, congregations, theaters, and performing arts centers all around New England and beyond.