Since forming New Edition more than 40 years ago in Boston, Ricky Bell and his group have been bestowed with many honors, including getting their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and performing for former president Barack Obama.
But this week, the legendary R&B group is set to receive an extra special distinction: a day and street in Boston dedicated to them.
“To receive that from your hometown means more than any other accolades that we have received so far up until this point‚” Bell said. “It’s where our heart is.”
Bell and the five other members of New Edition, which formed in 1978 in Roxbury, will be honored with a street renaming ceremony and block party on Saturday, which Mayor Michelle Wu will also declare “New Edition Day” in Boston.
The event is part of “For the Culture Week,” which also celebrates Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs. The multiday festivities come at a time when city councilors are exploring bringing an HBCU to Boston via a satellite campus.
Boston is home to more than 24 colleges and universities — but that number does not include a single HBCU or an HBCU satellite campus. As the city considers drawing an HBCU presence, For the Culture Week will host events celebrating the schools.
On Thursday, The Mix, a restaurant in Dorchester, will have a “Hella Black Trivia,” where attendees will be tested on their knowledge of HBCU culture and traditions. The next day, The Mix will welcome the Harvard Black Graduate Alliance and local professionals for a mixer featuring food, music, games, and networking.
For New Edition Day on Saturday, the city is set to rename Dearborn Street to “New Edition Way” at 10 a.m. A community block party will kick off an hour later at Orchard Gardens Boys & Girls Club, which used to be the Orchard Park Community Center, where the band members first met each other. As residents of the Orchard Gardens Housing Project, the six boys, Ronnie DeVoe, Bobby Brown, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ralph Tresvant, and Johnny Gill, used to gather and play basketball and music, leading to them forming the group.
“It’s the place that New Edition really met each other on the basketball courts, on opposing teams,” said DeVoe. “And for the Boys & Girls Club to be able to come in there and establish some type of partnership with the community. It’s just a full circle situation.”
The event was originally scheduled for September 2024, but was postponed because of scheduling conflicts, according to Dion Irish, Wu’s chief of operations, who helped plan the event.
The block party will include a backpack giveaway for back to school, free food, and activities for the community.
Additionally, a mural honoring the group will be announced by Wu at the block party. The mural was originally scheduled to be painted on the Boys & Girls Club last year, but will now be painted on the Strand Theatre because of its significance to the group.
”That’s actually where the talent shows were held back in those days, where [New Edition] actually ... became first runner-up and led to them getting a recording contract,” Irish said.
While the group has found success outside of the confines of their hometown, they are still dedicated to giving back to the city that raised them and allowed them to grow, the band members said.
Additionally, New Edition, along with the New Commonwealth Fund, an organization that works to address systemic racism through community investment and development, will be making a $25,000 donation to Orchard Gardens Resident Association to benefit youth and senior programs.
“It’s intentional what we’re looking to do,” said DeVoe. “To a certain extent, the world is our home because we’re entertainers, but the foundation was made in Boston, and we want to make sure that we’re pouring back into our city in a number of different ways.”
The event itself will not only showcase the success of New Edition, but also the potential that everyone in Boston has to do something great.
“One of the things we’re hoping to come out of this is just to make sure that the members of the community, the kids in Boston, realize the potential that they have,” Irish said. “So it’s just making it full circle to show the talent and capability of youths in the city of Boston.”
Along with New Edition Day, another highlight of For the Culture Week is the football game between Johnson C. Smith University, located in Charlotte, N.C., and Morehouse College, located in Atlanta — both HBCUs — at Harvard Stadium, set for 4 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are priced at $30 each.
Ahead of the game, Wu and representatives from the two schools will host a pep rally at City Hall at 4 p.m. Friday. For those who cannot make the game in person, The Mix will also put on a game-day watch party, followed by an afterparty.
Other events of the week include parties, music performances, and sports games. Sunday’s Boston Red Sox v. Pittsburgh Pirates game, which starts at 1:35 p.m., will recognize HBCU alumni.
In addition to HBCUs, festivities will celebrate the music and arts scene. On Sunday at 5 p.m., Boston will host the 25th Annual Boston Gospel Fest, New England’s largest Gospel music celebration, at Leader Bank Pavilion. John P. Kee, who was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2005, will be the headliner.
For the group members, the street renaming and the block party are not only an honor as a group, but also as community members. When they first started rehearsing in basements and recording albums, they never expected to have a physical dedication to them on the streets they called home.
“It’s like when we first started, that was probably one of the furthest things from our minds or in our plans to one day have a street named after New Edition. But to leave a mark in history as a part of your legacy, something that your children’s children and years beyond us and our families can continue to see. [We are] beyond excited,” Bell said.
Now they have the opportunity to return to their hometown and give back to their neighborhood, in partnership with the city, to donate money and resources for the youth and elderly, is an honor for the group.
“It’s just the stuff that dreams are made of,” DeVoe said.
Katarina Schmeiszer can be reached at katarina.schmeiszer@globe.com. Follow her on X at @katschmeiszer. Jessica Ma can be reached at jessica.ma@globe.com.