Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) was a promising prodigy whose formal training in classical piano began when he was admitted to Russia's prestigious Leningrad Conservatory of Music at the age of 9. Because he had the misfortune of being raised in Florida in the Jim Crow era, it was very unlikely that his extraordinary talent would be appreciated anywhere in the South upon his return to the States.

For 15 years, ArtsBoston has partnered with the Mayor’s Office to provide the Mayor’s Holiday Special, a series of discounts on theater tickets and dining during December and January. As the tradition continues, the goal becomes not only to provide accessibility to the arts, but also to highlight all the multicultural talent Boston has to offer. This year, Catherine Peterson, executive director of ArtsBoston, says it’s their most diverse lineup yet.

Manufacturing is, by all accounts, an industry in transition. On the one hand it’s been framed as America’s dying industry, declining steadily from its peak in the late 1970s as the engine of economic growth. On the other, it’s been rebounding lately, with about a 10 percent increase in employment to date since bottoming out in 2010.

Shumeane L. Benford has been appointed the City of Boston’s new chief of the Office of Emergency Management. As chief, Benford will have have direct oversight of the office’s emergency planning, training, and exercise programs and manage relationships with regional, state, and federal homeland security partners.

Violence has been a common strategy of whites to impede black economic progress. In addition to economic attacks on black towns, racial discrimination against individual black entrepreneurs has made it difficult for blacks to prosper in private enterprise.

Last Friday, students trained their sights on the State House, appealing to lawmakers for support in advance of a Dec. 5 School Committee vote on the planned closure of their schools.