AN INDEPENDENT ARTS AND CULTURE GUIDE
TAMMI JEAN FEDESTIN @COSMIC_ZO
TO GIVE BACK AND GIVE MORE TO BOSTON’S STREET AND CLUB DANCE SCENE The Flavor Continues (est. 2019) is Massachusetts’ first community-led and community-focused nonprofit organization serving the Street and Club dance communities. Our vision is for Street and Club dance to be recognized and provided for as legitimate and respected art forms, seeking to provide sustainable pathways for our ecosystem. To achieve this, we provide primary programs consisting of events, education, media, and most notably providing a community space for our Street and Club dancers. The phrase “Street and Club dance” is an umbrella term including but not limited to Breaking, Popping, Locking, House, Krump, Uprocking, Hip Hop Freestyle, Waacking, and many others. These freestyle-based art forms provide a foundation of movement that allow dancers to interpret music in the moment. Practitioners strive to master techniques and channel their creativity while refining their own individual styles. Street and Club dance forms were born out of oppression as expressions of liberation. Throughout history, our communities have been frequently misrepresented and marginalized. To serve them, we aim to improve the access and quality of authentic education and representation of Street and Club dance culture, promote holistic wellness, and contribute to the creation of a sustainable ecosystem for Street and Club dance artists to thrive. We invite you to engage with us! To learn more and support our mission, visit us at www.theflavorcontinues.org and subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Follow us on social media @ theflavorcontinues for upcoming offerings and updates. —The Flavor Continues
PRESENTED BY CREATIVES OF COLOR BOSTON
LOCAL ARTISTS ON NOTES FROM THE CREW BOSTON BILLBOARDS:
SHOUT OUT BILLBOARD HOPE! When you stop to think about it, it’s really wild how many talented artists are walking around our city right now, and how TINY a fraction of public space they are granted when it comes to public art. Either the space stays empty, devoid of life, or it is filled with ads upon ads, which bombard our senses with messages that don’t even originate from within our communities. There has to be a better way. Enter: Billboard Hope! A new initiative founded by Roxbury resident Dayenne Walters, in the hope of tackling one corner of this giant public space problem: BILLBOARDS. More specifically, getting the work of local artists of color on them. Dayenne points out that “The billboard model is a proven platform for advertisers selling cable, insurance, alcohol, etc. What would happen if we used the same approach as a context for selling hope, inspiration, and joy?” What a concept! So far, Billboard Hope has shown the work of local artists Sharif Muhammad, L’Merchie Frazier, Lucilda DassardoCooper, Mithsuca Berry, Merlo Philiossaint, Farah Jeune, DaNice D. Marshall, Ekua Holmes, Chanel Thervil, Carlos W. Byron, Ngoc Tran Vu, and Hakim Raquib — all pillars of the Boston creative community that more than deserve recognition. Currently on view through mid-May is Larry Pierce, at the corner of Harrison Avenue and Dudley St. in Roxbury. You should be able to catch a few Downtown billboards as well, at Washington St. and Boylston St. and the W Hotel. The majority of the billboards besides Larry’s are digital so if you don’t see the image right away, just wait because they change every 6 minutes! Meanwhile, Billboard Hope needs your support to keep going! They are currently raising funds to finish out year 2. Show your support by connecting and donating www.linktr.ee/Billboard_Hope. And you can get in touch with Dayenne at billboardhope2021@gmail.com.
Hey Compassers <3
I’m Michelle, aka Wvy, the newest Digital Marketer/ Blog Admin here at Boston Compass Newspaper. I love working with a job that doesn’t necessarily feel like a job and is actually helping me balance my work and personal life better (cheers to improving quality of living y’all!). But forreal, it’s great to work with motivational people, and individuals who willingly give you their constructive criticism. It’s always the management for me. I have two books out that I’ve published; Middle Of Nowhere and XXIII + I (new website loading!). I’m currently two years into mom-life, and a lot of people ask me what life is like now. Most times I want to say not much has changed, because I still feel like my usual busy and running-allover-the-place self. In reality though, I do have to take time to acknowledge all of the changes that have come. I’m grateful to have an amazing little human being by my side, that I’m learning from as well as teaching literally every single day! I feel like that’s really becoming the common theme of my life. Everything is finally balancing itself out and I’m not rushing the process anymore. It really does take one step at a time. —Michelle, Digital Marketer, Content Writer & Editor. @chillwvy @figure_meout
— Emma Leavitt
LAYOUT DESIGN:
Phoebe Delmonte: p.1, 4, 5 Hannah Blauner: p.2, 3, 7 Adrian Alvarez: p.6, 8 THIS PAPER IS AN ONGOING PROJECT OF BRAIN ARTS ORGANIZATION, INC., A 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT. PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO, VOLUNTEERING OR OTHERWISE SUPPORTING US: BRAIN-ARTS.ORG
THIS PROGRAM IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY A GRANT FROM THE BOSTON CULTURAL COUNCIL, A LOCAL AGENCY WHICH IS FUNDED BY THE MASSACHUSETTS CULTURAL COUNCIL, AS ADMINSTRATED BY THE MAYOR'S OFFICE OF ARTS + CULTURE
BAMSFEST IS BACK WITH A BANG BAM! A refrain I often hear from my creative peers in Boston is that the city simply doesn’t support its art scene or the people who make it. I’ve always found that the city’s artists and organizers are eager to support each other. But when it comes to the infrastructure urban artists need to thrive, Boston can be lacking. A community of artists with staying power and a strong local identity can’t be cultivated without affordable shows, small and mid-size venues, plenty of studio space, and plenty of materials and resources for artists. These are present in the city — but nowhere near the scale that they should be for a place with such a rich musical history. Boston has several nationally-renowned artistic institutions, from Symphony Hall to the ICA to TD Garden, but what about a place for local performers who haven’t cultivated a national following? Or Bostonians who want establishments that platform artists from their own communities? Thankfully, there are people who’ve been working on just that for years. Catherine Morris, the organizer of the Boston Art and Music Soul Festival (or BAMS fest) recognized that a rising cost of living, limited venue space, and a cold shoulder from local government had put Black artists looking to flourish in the city in an impossible position. “Boston had a set of racial and economic conditions that made this festival necessary. The question was, why should they stay in a city that doesn’t support them?” A spoken word artist herself, Catherine had a great deal of experience with the ins and outs of festivals and large-scale events: getting sponsors, vendors, promotion and the like. So after years of planning, in 2018, she and her peers dedicated their skills to organizing the first BAMS fest. Given the
barriers that deter many black and brown Bostonians from participating in other events, the results seemed almost too good to be true. Tickets were affordable, the headliners were local, as were most of the other performers and vendors and, based on surveys, festival attendees were roughly 60% black, 78% Boston-area residents, and 80% ages 19–38. This is in sharp contrast to Boston Calling, which trends more white and wealthy. Only in the past couple of years did Boston Calling begin featuring local talent like Cliff Notez and Oompa — who, by the way, were both performers at BAMS fest prior. This festival has clout, and it’s growing. After a canceled festival in 2020 and a virtual performance series in 2021 due to Covid-19, consider the 2022 BAMS festival a homecoming party of sorts. Many Black institutions either have been floundering since taking an awful blow during the pandemic, or have shuttered completely. BAMS fest will not be one of these — but it’s important that artists and art lovers in the Boston area invest in this loud, proud, unapologetically Black endeavor to ensure its future success. I view attendance and support of this festival as a kind reinvestment in myself as a Black creative, and I hope that attendees this year have an experience with BAMS fest that leaves them feeling the same. The festival will take place at Franklin Park on June 11th, 2022. Expect a chock-full lineup of talented locals and exceptional artists; if you’re a regular reader of the Boston Compass or BCN blog, you’ll probably see some faces you recognize! I hope to see yours there, too. More information can be found at www. bamsfest.org, or @bamsfest on instagram.
---------- RORY LAMBERT-WRIGHT
SURVEIL & CONTROL The coordinated stripping of reproductive health care and increasing of control over bodily autonomy by the state are methods for maintaining hierarchies of power under racial capitalism. Economic inequality, militant funding of policing, and white supremacist state violence are interconnected issues threatening reproductive freedom. In The Fabrication of the Social Order: A Critical Theory of Police Power, Mark Neocleous writes that “In bourgeois society justice has never been the primary value to which law devotes itself. The primary value to which all law has been dedicated has been order.” Abortion bans are an effective method for maintaining a white supremacist, capitalist state through its control of the physical, social, and economic freedoms of oppressed groups. Financial, logistical, and legal obstructions make exercising one’s right to an abortion impossible in many cases. In Killing The Black Body, Dorothy Roberts writes, “Part of this constrained meaning of liberty is the view that reproductive freedom depends on wealth and social status.” Institutional obstructions like the Hyde Amendment, draconian laws, and the high cost and scarcity of abortion clinics particularly affect access to reproductive choices for low-income people, immigrants, and BIPOC. In April, a woman named Lizelle Herrera was reported to the police by hospital employees for allegedly self-managing her own abortion and her bail was set at $500,000. Although it was met, thanks to a coalition of local reproductive advocacy groups, and charges were dropped due to lack of statute, it set a dangerous precedent. Both abortion bans and the bail system are an intersection of over-policing and racial capitalism in that, by design, they target low-income people,
BIPOC, and immigrants through the denial of personal autonomy, or freedom, on the basis of access to capital and proximity to whiteness. Texas’s SB8 bill, passed in September 2021, provides an unconstitutional abortion ban after 6 weeks through its provision for civilian vigilantes to bring civil cases against abortion providers, or anyone who “aids or abets” a person seeking an abortion. The acceptance of bounty hunters and vigilantes in American law has incredibly racist origins still ingrained in the legal system today. During the Antebellum period, a law upheld by the Supreme Court called the Fugitive Slave Act further entrenched the terror of white supremacy into law in its authorization of white men to round up escaped enslaved people and “return” them to their enslavers. Those who oppose reproductive rights and justice view women’s sexual agency and bodily autonomy as a direct threat to the nuclear family. The model of the nuclear family adheres to heteronormative gender roles that categorize men as heads of the household who protect and provide for women and children. White America’s obsession with the decay of the nuclear family is about a need to preserve a certain racialized “way of life”— one that revolves around the protection of white property and generational wealth. In order to secure reproductive justice we must fight for equal access to safe abortions, affordable contraceptives and comprehensive sex education, freedom from sexual violence, as well as the defunding and eventual abolition of the corporal apparatus of control in this white supremacist, capitalist state — the police.
------------------------------------------------------ GRACE RAIH
THE THOUSAND YEARS’ WAR ON MY HOMELAND, FIELDS OF FLAMES, AND A PEOPLE UPROOTED I have developed a theme of intertwining Indigenous struggles with how they relate to the story of Boston. In my last two pieces, I talked about Amazighs and Kurds. This time, I want to explore how Boston inspired me to understand my own people and homeland. I moved to Massachusetts at 15; my family let me choose what school I attended to make up for the fact that I had to endure such a drastic life change as a teen. I quickly chose a school that had the most desis — a term for people “of the land,” what we use to refer to people from the Indian subcontinent. One of the first best friends I made at my new school was a Bangladeshi Hindu girl whose family came to Massachusetts holding onto the pain of the continued dispossession faced by our people back home. Since the birth of the nation, Hindus were killed indiscriminately to make a “pure, clean nation.” An alarming figure that is being widely circulated in conversation about the crisis of Bangladeshi Hindus is that in two decades there will be no Hindus left in Bangladesh, despite them being the land’s original inhabitants. The 1971 genocide in Bangladesh primarily targeted Hindus and was one of the largest genocides in human history (the largest ever in South Asia), massacring every 1 in 5 Hindus of the state. This is the genocide that gave birth to the state of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, Hindu neighborhoods are routinely set on fire by political leaders, Hindus have been brutally murdered by civilians and people in power, women are victims of sexual violence and forced conversion, and many Hindu businesses, temples, and spaces have been desecrated or completely destroyed. Gang-raping women and children is a regular feature of such attacks. Hindus in Bangladesh can legally have ancestral land taken from them via something historically called the “Enemy Property Act.” “Through a combination of mass exodus and genocide in the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities by the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War, this represents a loss of around 20 million Bangladeshi Hindus and their direct heirs, and reflects one of the largest displacements of population based on ethnic or religious identity in recent history.” [Lintner, Bertil (1 April 2015), Great Game East: India, China, and the Struggle for Asia’s Most Volatile
Frontier, Yale University Press, pp. 152–154, ISBN 978-0-300-21332-4]. Hinduism in Bengal represents a rich history of folkloric mysticisms and love and care for the land of Bengal. Hinduism transgresses boundaries between gender and body, with many deities taking both feminine and masculine energies. There is no tree, mountain, stream, flower that is not tucked into the crevices of Bengali Hindu poetry and song. Bangladeshi Hindus have their own unique dialects and accents, family stories, weaving patterns, local Goddesses, and heirloom saris. Their only option in the face of right-wing majoritarianism, fascism, and supremacy is to leave a country not made for them. The irony runs deep as Bangladeshi Hindus practice Indigenous land-based traditions and rituals that are taken from the earliest peoples of the land. Over the years, I began working with Bangladeshi Hindu refugees. I heard harrowing stories of a woman retelling how her cousin was hacked to death in his bed next to his lover, with their child in the room. Utilizing demographic tools, Professor Sachi Dastidar of the State University of New York calculates that over a 55-year period from 1947 to 2001, over 49 million Hindus are missing today from Bangladesh. No right of return currently exists for Bangladeshi Hindus, despite their being the largest displaced population in recent human history. Their land and sacred sites have never been rebuilt. Learning about the plight of Bangladeshi Hindus is deeply connected to my upbringing and what I would learn for years to come as I became close friends with Shi’as, Ahmadis, Sindhis, Baluchis, Afghans, Sikhs, and Hindus oppressed by the Pakistani settler colonial entity. I also learned about caste oppression in India. Through this, I could see patterns of policing, ghettoization, surveillance, stolen land and infringement of land-based practices, discriminatory employment and housing policies, incarceration, etc. I continued to broaden my understanding of issues in the Indian subcontinent, which made me want to form more connections to similar issues around the world, energized by my love of preserving Indigenous cultures and folkways.
-------------------------- PRAKHYA MALYALA
WAKE UP THE EARTH FEST 2022 Celebrates 50th Anniversary of “PEOPLE BEFORE HIGHWAYS” Movement with Banner Display
This year Jamaica Plain’s annual Wake Up The Earth Fest will honor the 50th anniversary of the People Before Highways movement. The celebration will take place, as it always does, between Stonybrook and Jackson Square stations on the South-West Corridor park in JP on May 7, 2022 (rain date May 8) 12PM-6PM with the parade gathering at 11am. So as we prepare to gather and recognize such a historic achievement in local activism let’s look back on this piece by former Brain Arts board member Saritha Ramikrishna, originally published in 2019, below.
------------------------------------------ SAM POTRYKUS
50 YEARS LATER, REFLECTING ON THE MEANING OF “PEOPLE BEFORE HIGHWAYS” On January 25th, the steps of the Massachusetts State House bore witness to reunions decades-long in the making. Activists both young and old gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of People Before Highways Day, where approximately 2,000 residents from throughout Greater Boston assembled to ask a newly inaugurated Governor Sargent to halt the construction of the Inner Belt Expressway and other highways in Greater Boston. Had the expressway been constructed, it would have torn through parts of Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline and Boston, whose neighborhoods would change dramatically and permanently. Activists also fought against the proposed I-95 route, designed to cleave its way through the South End, Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. The maps that supported these designs imagined the city for its conveniences and economic utility, with the radial I-95 connecting to the neat loop of the proposed Inner Belt. As represented, expressways were simply connective lines passing through blank space. In reality, the highways would violently cut through minority and working class neighborhoods, requiring the clearance of homes, businesses, communities and livelihoods for their planned construction. Those that remained would have had to breathe air polluted by exhaust and listen to the noise of traffic passing through what was once their own neighborhoods. The 1969 gathering was representative of a diverse coalition of citywide resistance, including women’s groups, environmentalists, Civil Rights and Black Liberation movements, neighborhood-level activists, academics, and well-intentioned
public officials and practitioners. In 1972, three years after the original gathering, then-governor Sargent halted the construction of the expressways. He advocated to utilize Federal funds to support public transportation instead, including the extension of the Red Line and the construction of the Orange Line as it’s known today. In addition to celebrating a seemingly-impossible victory, activists, who met at the State House for the anniversary gathering, also reflected on their hopes for the future of the city- one that faces its own 21st century impositions and uncertainties. Soon after the rally began, a mixed crowd of older activists and their younger counterparts formed a talkative bottleneck at the State House’s security check to hear the day’s speakers. Dr. Karilyn Crockett, professor at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, organized the day’s events and opened the remarks. Dr. Crockett is the author of People Before Highways, which chronicles Boston’s antihighway movement. The book describes how residents and activists re-imagined the status quo principles behind planning and governance, and the infrastructural forms they yield. She framed the work of the activists, describing their radical success in organizing and coalition-building, as well as their aspirations for a city truly governed by its residents. Crockett described how, for activists, that highway expansion ultimately “represented death and the end of the community they love.” Beginning in 1956, after the Eisenhower administration passed the Federal Highway Aid Act, the federal government began allocating the funds that produced the interstate highway system as the public understands it today. Coupled with the postwar subsidization of suburban housing, the federal government utilized public dollars in ways that would largely benefit car-owning, white, affluent Americans. Such a vision was contingent on the losses sustained by neighborhoods that would have been destroyed or irrevocably transformed as a result of highway development. The anti-highway movement here and in cities around the country came from the ability of people to envision a transportation system that was not dependent on the extractive or sacrificial. After activists gathered within the State House, the names of the movement’s leadership were read out loud in remembrance. A sense of reverence came over the seated crowd, as many of those
AFFECTED ACCENT
VIOLET NOX - ERIS WAKES (AMBIENT/ELECTRONIC) Violet Nox is an ambient electronic duo from Boston led by Dez DeCarlo and Andrew Abrahamson. The group has been a long-standing part of the Boston scene and in March they released their fifth album, “Eris Wakes,” on Infinity Vine Records in the US and Aumega Project in Germany. I don’t usually mention the album art in these reviews, let alone at the beginning of the review, but I would be remiss not to call out the amazing artwork of Jeff Bartell, another Boston legend. “Eris Wakes” was written and recorded during the pandemic; the album reflects our unstable times. The title references Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, an adapted namesake for the project. True to the form, the five tracks on “Eris Wakes” start by setting a mood through minimalist beats and instrumentation. The tonality established at the beginning sees its way through to the end. Textural nuance and subtlety provokes attention and interest. Layered on top are vocals with a healthy dose of reverb. Collaborating with the duo on this album are Fen Rotstein (vocals, sampling, and digital turntables), Noell
Dorsey (vocals and lyrics), and Karen Zane (vocals and lyrics). In addition to the purely electronic sounds indicative of the genre, reverb guitars and other more traditional instruments make appearances. Check out “Eris Wakes” and the other Violet Nox albums on Bandcamp and the major streaming platforms.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- STEVE B.
recognized had since passed. In memory of these individuals and their achievements, program speakers reflected on storied past. Speakers representing organized movements in Cambridge, the South End, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury described the past, the more uncertain present, and the looking-glass ways in which future activism is inspired by how things once were. Attendees wrote and read wishes for the city’s future, and viewed archival material from the past. Chuck Turner, longtime activist, former city council member, and former cochairman of Boston’s Black United Front described how the movement was “… really the first time where people from different neighborhoods came together and activists stood up and said ‘we have to struggle with others.’ City officials who also saw themselves as activists came down and joined us in that struggle. For the first time since I can remember, there were community activists, city officials, and businesspeople sitting at the table with environmentalists, putting our heads together to try to figure out how we can make this a better city.” Regarding the future, Turner explained that, “We are in a challenging time. We know we’re in a city where there are forces that want to drive some of us out…. Those that don’t have as much money, those that don’t seem as educated, those that don’t fit their definition about what a human should be.” Today, the very same neighborhoods that activists sought to protect from highway expansion face evictions by opportunistic developers, and rising rents signaled by cranes and glassy condominiums on the horizon. Though 50 years have since passed, many communities continue to fight for agency over their own neighborhoods. State Representative Nika Elugardo reflected on the day, as a younger policy maker inspired by the legacy of the movement: “Anniversaries are a good time for remembering and remembrance, it is a good time to remember organizing. Organizing is not just powerful to stop highways: Organizing protects affordable housing, organizing wins elections… It bears the fruit of justice and demands that that justice is for every single person.” Following the speeches, Participants in the rally took a photo on the steps of the State House, documenting the anniversary in official portraiture. Attendees arranged themselves to fit within the space of a
photograph, sidling next to strangers, colleagues, and longtime acquaintances. One might wonder what students viewing the image fifty years later might learn about the questions of governance, citizenry, housing, and health Greater Bostonians were asking of themselves and of the city in 2019. At the end of the speeches and photos, a smaller delegation of policymakers and activists placed flowers next to Governor Sargent’s portrait in gratitude for his role in stopping highway expansion. The State House has its own architectural power with its walls of portraits and displayed artifacts, histories on show, to be preserved and cherished. Livened by the rally and its activists, the walls of the State House became less imposing, and history itself became less of a static object and more of a joyful force. As such, the anniversary served as a reminder that the State House and the institutions that it houses belong to the people of the Commonwealth, whose role in shaping the material world of their communities cannot be forgotten or understated.
------- SARITHA RAMAKRISHNA
*originally published on bostonhassle.com Feb 12, 2019
Picture by Georden West
more at bostoncompassnewspaper.com
**We strongly encourage all to take careful precaution when going out to public events! Follow the venue’s requirements regarding vaccination/negative Covid tests! Always double check the event online just in case they need to cancel!** Chosen Happenings curated by Creatives of Color Boston 5/3, 4, 5 Un Paso Alante: Canto y Maraca with Ivelisse Diaz @Online 7PM $22-55 Register at www.losplenerosdela21.org/upa 5/6 Cliff Notez Presents The Sketchbook with Zola Simone @ Atwood’s Tavern 9:30PM 21+ $18 5/7 Creatives of Color BOSTON presents our 2022 exhibition, “Blooming Truths”. This project asks the question, “What would the world look like if colonialism never existed, and BIPOC were given the chance to truly blossom?” @Old Salem Town Hall, Salem, MA 4PM-8PM 18+ FREE 5/14 Bridgeside Cypher @Lynch Family Skate Park 8PM-11PM All Ages FREE www.bridgecyph.com 5/30 Free Days at The MFA 10AM-5PM All Ages FREE
5/8 Sonic Blume, Trash Rabbit, Strange Weekend @O’Briens 8PM 21+ $10/12 5/8 Sunday Brunch Show ft. Mirelia, Tiny the Bear, Charlie Jay, Grace Givertz @The Jungle 11AM All ages $5 5/8 ONCE Somerville Presents: Field Day, Landlady, Philip B. Price @The Rockwell 6pm 18+ $15 5/8 Mega Mass Presents: Artist Showcase! Every second Sunday of the month! Sign up to perform! @The Jungle 9PM12AM All Ages FREE 5/10 Kina Zoré live every second Tuesday bringing two sets of Mozambican Funk! @Midway Cafe 8PM 21+ $10 5/11 Fully Celebrated Orchestra, Steve Fell, Blues Dream Box @Midway Cafe 8PM 21+ $5 5/11 The Still Point Record Release jazz show @The Lilypad 7:30PM All Ages $10 5/11 Get to the Gig Boston presents Fish House, Senseless Optimism, Frances Baker @O’Briens 8PM 21+ $13/15 5/13 Ignite, In Good Nature, Hard Target, Risk, Snubnosed, Fraud @Sons of Italy Lodge (Hingham) 6pm All Ages $20
MUSIC & AUDIO 5/1 Music & Art: A Benefit for Ukraine feat. Julian Kytasty, Yaeko Miranda Elmaleh, & many more @Swendenborg Chapel (Cambridge) 7:30pm All Ages $ugg Donation of $20 5/2 Major Stars, Lupo Citta, Adult Learners @Charlie’s Kitchen 8pm 21+ $5 5/3 Bars Over Bars Hip Hop Showcase featuring local artists! Every first Tuesday of the month @Midway Cafe 7:30PM 21+ $10 5/4 Open Armory is an open mic for all performance practices. Sign up at 7PM. Happens first Wednesday of every month @Arts at the Armory 7PM-10PM All Ages Free 5/5 Jungle Vibes VI: Latin Night hosted by Greatness ASF ft. Cashu, Sol Maria, 3z3nxia, Ucmee, Leo2Times, RBN @The Jungle 8PM 21+ $10 5/6 Clamb, Professor Caffeine and the Insecurities, Docklebanger, Milque @The Jungle 7:30PM 21+ $10 5/6 Wet Specimens, School Drugs, Unknown Liberty, Wanted @Shanty Cimex (ask) 8pm All Ages $10 5/7 Rosewater Records presents Mei Semones Release Show w/ Drobakid (NY), The Nebulous Ensemble, Alexander @Lost Woods DIY 8PM All Ages $7-10 Mask and Vax required 5/7 Illegally Blind presents SPLLIT, New England Patriots, Baby;Baby:, Dirty Babies Club @O’Briens 8PM 21+ $12
5/14 KLYAM Presents ‘Blesses The Bay’ ft. Electric Street Queens, Baileys Band, G. Gorgon Gritty, Death Snail @Blesses of the Bay Boathouse, Somerville 1PM-5PM All Ages FREE www.klyam.com 5/14 Lucy, Targus Targus, OrangePeelMystic, Robbie Dean Rhodes, Orlando Boom @Cantab Lounge 7PM 21+ $ome Cost 5/14 Bulletproof Backpack, Zipper, Catalyst, E, Amanita @Bella’s Basement (Middletown, RI) 7pm All Ages $10 5/14 Rosewater Records presents Sasha and the Valentines (on tour), Reggie Pearl, Kathy Snax @O’Briens 9PM 21+ $15/17 5/15 Rosewater Records Presents Shane Pi (Nashville), Izzy True (Chicago), ADDIE, Exit 18 @Tourist Trap 8PM All Ages $7-10 Mask and Vax required 5/15 ONCE Somerville and RTT Productions Present: Bad Cop Bad Cop, The Homeless Gospel @The Rockwell 6pm 18+ $ome Cost 5/15 Curtain Call: comedy, spoken word, poetry, music ft. Addison, Willow Feyth, Jon Sherfy, Mackenzie story, Po The Poet, Phree, She’s A Rebel, Ramses Rafael @The Jungle 4:30PM-8PM 21+ $10 5/15 Non-Event presents The “A” Trio (Lebanese free improv) + Mike Bullock @ Geothe-Institut Boston 7:30PM All Ages FREE 5/16 Coffin Salesman, North Star the Wanderer, Bad Idea USA, Superdown @Charlie’s Kitchen 8pm 21+ $5
5/17 Seed, Rong, The Infinity Ring @The Rockwell 6PM All Ages $15 5/18 Once Somerville Presents Lady Pills, Lazy, Olivia Sissay @The Rockwell 6PM 21+ $15 Mask and Vax required 5/19 M.O.B Presents “3rd Thursdays” at Kay’s Oasis! Live Band, After work Jam and Entertainment @1125 Blue HIll Ave 5-10pm 21+ $10 5/19 One Step Closer, Pummel, Broken Vow, Climb, Anklebiter @Sons of Italy Lodge (Hingham) 6pm All Ages $15 5/19 FIND OUT Event series for musicians & artists to try out new ideas every 3rd Thursday of the month. Every show is a partial benefit for radical community orgs @First Church, JP 8PM All Ages $10 @f_i_n_d___o_u_t 5/20 Rosewater Records Presents Raavi (NY), Gollylagging, Elsa Bay, Trophy Wife @Tourist Trap 8PM All Ages $7-10 Mask and Vax required 5/20 Generación Suicida, Dark Thoughts, Marissa Paternoster @O’Brien’s Pub 8pm 21+ $14 5/20 The Creative Music Series Presents Togetherness! + Ellwood Epps free jazz show @The Lilypad 7PM All Ages $15 5/21 Show Some Love 2: All Female Showcase ft. Kemic, Nim K, Taki Yah, Solmaria, Shellz, Tiffany Drama, Soneta, Ms. Laura Michelle, Amanda Shea and more! @Sammys Patio, Revere 8PM-2AM 21+ $10/15 5/21 Safiya Presents: Travel Through Music A showcase of local and international talents from all over the world! Local Vendors too! Every 3rd Saturday @The Jungle 5PM 21+ $10 5/20-21 Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra an avant-garde community music ensemble of 16 electric, acoustic, classical and bass guitars performing music ranging from Handel to Stereolab @Northampton Center for the Arts 7:30PM All Ages $15-30 sliding scale 5/23 Linnea’s Garden, The Lights Out, Unit One @Charlie’s Kitchen 8pm 21+ $5 5/24-25 A Danish Creative Jazz Connection: Kresten Osgood & New England Friends Forbes Graham, Jeb Bishop, Kit Demos and more @The Lilypad 7:15pm All Ages $10/15 5/26 Non-Event for Kids presents Noell Dorsey a unique opportunity for kids to learn about experimental music, see a performance, and learn some vocal techniques from highly praised local vocal improviser @Codman Square BPL All Ages FREE 5/28 TVMP, OrangePeelMystic, Crown Shyness, special guest TBA! @O’Briens 8PM 21+ $ome Cost 5/29 Children of the Flaming Wheel, Bong Wish @State Park (Cambridge) 9pm All Ages $ome Cost 5/30 Pet Fox, Gentle Heat (CHI), Paper Lady @Charlie’s Kitchen 8pm 21+ $5
TheMUSEUM TV + The Soundlab present The Testing Lab a bi-weekly event where local musicians can perform their original music and get feedback from a panel of experts! Spots fill up fast so make sure to stay in tune @thesoundlabma or email thetestinglabma@gmail.com
a catalyst for neighborhood economic empowerment by the community, for the community. Support the cause and donate to their gofundme! www. blackmarketnubian.com/nspai
ItsLitBoston Podcast has a dope new Spotify playlist called “ItsLitBoston Presents: VIBES FROM THE STATE” updated weekly with local new music you need to check out!! I hear they take submissions too! @itslitboston Also on Youtube and SoundCloud
5/7 Good Luck Comedy hosted by J Smity & Sam Ike ft. Electra Telesford + Nora Yahkya with musical guest Sacklunch @The Rockwell 9PM 21+ $20 Vax and Mask required
New England Mic Check Radio is our region’s top dawg for uplifting urban music! Local musician spotlights every Sunday with artists such as Monaveli and Nelly Protoolz. www.nemiccheck.com for podcasts, swag and further updates! @newenglandmiccheck
VIDEO & FILM The DocYard is an awardwinning film and discussion series. Catch a screening before it goes on hiatus in the Fall! 5/9 Lo que dejamos atrás (What We Leave Behind) @The Brattle Theater 7PM 5/16 Nuclear Family @The Brattle Theater 7PM GRRL HAUS CINEMA is taking FILM SUBMISSIONS until 5/20 for their Spring/Summer showcasing and for their end of the “Best of” showcase at Brattle Theater www.grrlhauscinema.com Farenheight TV has a monthly variety show that celebrates people’s greatness through exclusive interviews, performances & more. Last season airing soon! www.farenheighttv.com @farenheighttv OKAY2 rollerblading vid featuring shredders from around Boston and beyond is now available to watch for free online! With music by JuiseMoney. Scope www. okboston.blogspot.com and follow @okboston_
VISUAL ART 5/7-8 May Open Studios @Western Avenue Studios & Lofts 12-5pm Free 5/14-15 Allston Open Studios Come show support to the studios at 119 Braintree St, Allston. The 100+ artists in this building face displacement and it is likely that Allston Open Studios will be no more because there are very few artist spaces left in Allston! 11AM-6PM All Ages FREE www.allstonarts.org Right Along the Shore presented by Boston Center for the Arts This conceptual and collaborative exhibition examines the long-term effects of racially segregated swimming sites within the Northern and Southern United States. 4/25/28 1-6PM Gallery on view @BCA Mills Gallery Support the Nubian Square Public Art Initiative, a newly launched initiative spearheaded by Black Market Nubian to develop a series of public murals and installations as
PERFORMANCE ART
5/8 Negativeland + Sue-C (audio and visual performance art) @Luna Theatre (Lowell) 6pm All Ages $25-30 Thru 5/8 Our Daughters, Like Pillars Local playwright Kirsten Greenidge’s long postponed production finally hits a BCA stage. Tix at HuntingtonTheatre. org $20 & up 5/7 & 5/14 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare’s most loved comedy plays at the legendary Strand Theatre in Dorchester. Tix at CommShakes.org $12-18 5/11-5/22 Sea Sick A Canadian science journalist hits ArtsEmerson’s black box theater with her edifying one-woman show on climate change. Tix at ArtsEmerson.org $15 & up 5/14 Arrowsmith Press Presents: Baumel, Hernandez, Okrent A series of poetry readings from three new books @The Lilypad 4:15PM All Ages FREE 5/15 Duck Duck Goofs presents Night School: Comedy and Beer @Cambridge Community Center 8PM-10PM 21+ $15 Thru 5/15 Don’t Eat the Mangos is a funny and moving story of 3 sisters in Puerto Rico struggling with family and identity. Tix at ApollinaireTheatre.com $15-30 Thru 5/21 Black Super Hero Magic Mama The A.R.T., Company One Theatre and Boston Public Library join forces to present a play by Inda CraigGalván examining how fantasy helps us cope with tragedy. Tix at AmericanRepertoryTheatre.org $Pay-what-you-can$ 5/31-7/3 The Orchard Needham’s Arlekin Players Theatre is taking digital theatre to a new level. Streaming live and in person from NYC with Mikhail Baryshnikov! Tix at theorchardoffbroadway.com $29 5/31 The Comedy Studio presents Fresh Faces a night of laughs and celebration with the newest talent on the Boston scene @The Rockwell 7PM 18+ $10 Vax and Mask required Midway or the Highway Ever wondered what hilarious comedians from big fancy TV shows do the rest of the week? Sometimes they appear at your neighborhood bar! The funniest in New England and beyond can now be found in the wilds of JP on every single Sunday night at 9PM FOR FREE. Open mic at 10PM @Midway Cafe 21+
ZINES
COMMUNITY
AUTOCOMMUNE ZINE Seeking art and writing SUBMISSIONS (under 500 words) on any topic from anyone living with chronic illness, disease, and/or disabilities by 5/15. The Zine will be printed in early summer 2022. DM submissions to @alexmiklowski on Instagram
5/7 Spontaneous Celebrations Wake Up the Earth Festival! Come celebrate your local community and the collective effort to protect our environment with this iconic event. Applications and info at www. spontaneouscelebrations.org
5/17 Franklin Park Action Plan Help kick off the last phase of this initiative! Join the Community Workshop for what changes/ updates should be made in Franklin Park. Online at www.franklinparkactionplan.com 12PM or 6:30PM
5/14 JP Vintage & Artisanal Market crafters, vintage dealers, food vendors, tarot readers, nonprofits, just about anyone! @26 Eliot Street, JP 11:30AM-4PM All
Sisters Unchained is a prison abolitionist non-profit organization dedicated to supporting young women and girls with incarcerated or formerly incarcerated parents. It is a refuge space where young women of color can focus on loving and improving themselves and their communities in the way they see fit. Summer programming open for application now! @sistersunchained www.sistersunchained.com
Moral Crema is an art collective and quarterly magazine created by Luc Miglin that has what we’ve been missing: sensuous, grimy textures. Issue #7 out now! Check their Patreon to get really affordable subscriptions to their zine! www.moralcrema.com Gut Bust a weirdo comedy zine to keep laughing even in isolation! Issue #1 out now www.etsy.com/shop/GUTBUST “Can We Talk With Spirit Friends?” is a series of digital collage zines, compositions of images and text found in books from the 19th-Century to the present, sequenced to create surreal interpretive narratives. There are currently 24 zines in this ongoing series. Buy them online at www.horskyprojects.com/store. Gay Ghost stories seeks anything queer, spooky, and printable for a full color Halloween zine. Trans ghosts? Queer campfire tales? Haunted gay clubs? Anything spooky goes! Email submissions to Lavendermenacepress@gmail. com Penny Magazine was created as a means to discuss how different areas of the music industry have been affected and changed in lieu of the coronavirus pandemic. Read this beautifully colorful zine at www.penny-mag.com and follow @pennythemag Zinesters Club NEW TIME AND LOCATION All ages and experience levels are welcome every first Friday of the month 7PM to come down to Hatch Makerspace and make zines! Supplies provided! Vicky Marcelino is a Dominicanx illustrator making beautiful works including fantastical and realist comics! She even publishes comics in Spanish! Follow at @magicalgrlbicky browse more at www.victoriamarcelino.com The Negro Flowers Series An online zine of writings, poetry, art and photography by various local BIPOC authors compiled by BCN contributor Qadir Shabazz. ‘People & Places’ Issue #3 is now available! Read online at www.linktr.ee/qadir__shabazz Pleasure Pie is a grassroots sex-positive organization in Boston, MA. They make zines, illustrations, publications, events, and conversations on sexual empowerment and consent. They now distribute sex-positive zines by others outside their org! Check this link to SUBMIT YOUR ZINES! www.pleasurepie.org/submit Reflective Zines makes mental health, poetry and music zines! They cover trauma therapy, dissociation, DBT, identity, healing from abuse, queer love and much more. You can find them at the Paper Asylum in Beverly, MA and more info at @reflectivezines. Browse online at www.etsy.com/shop/ reflectivezines
Ages
5/14 Witches for Women was conjured by a collective of likeminded Witches who wanted to work together for a greater cause. All proceeds from this event will raise money for Healing Abuse Working for Change, our local domestic violence agency. Food, drinks, music, Tarot readings and a silent auction! @Hawthorne Hotel, Salem 7PM-10PM $50 Tickets on Eventbrite 5/22 Dorchester Pop Up Shop apply to be a vendor! @Modern Party Art Dorchester 11AM-4PM All Ages www.modernpartyart.com Melanin Owned Business Vendors Flea Market: Every Saturday at Kay’s Oasis 1125 Blue Hill Ave from 12-5pm. Open Mic 1st and 4th Saturdays. Contact 585-237-8487 for vending opportunities. Vendors of color please reach out! Hatch Makerspace Workshops Tons of free with registration workshops all month long. From programming to sewing to making paper flowers, Hatch is a really cool community spot you have to check out! www.watertownlib.org/hatch Unbound Visual Arts is a unique Allston-Brighton based non-profit art organization. They serve the Greater Boston community with impactful educational programs and exhibits to encourage learning, engagement, and change with a special focus on racial justice. Exhibition and class info at www.unboundvisualarts. com and @unboundvisualarts Boston LGBTQIA+ Artists Association is revamping with a new director and a new website! They just released a survey asking what LGBTQIA+ artists in Boston would like to see happen with this new organization. Find it at www.blaa.us Community Fridges! There’s a bunch of these popping up all around the city and beyond! They provide food for all and are totally volunteer-run! @southbostoncommunityfridge needs help starting up! Email southbostoncommunityfridge@ gmail.com to find how to get involved. @dotcommunityfridge is not open but does regular food drives. The following are now open! @watertowncommunityfridge @bostoncommunityfridge @allstonbrightonfridges @matcommunityfridge @cambridgefridge @cambridgecitygrowers @roslindalecommunityfridge @somervillecommunityfridge @newtoncommunityfreedge @numutualaid @southendfridge @brooklinecommunityfridge
ADVOCACY
HAWC (Healing Abuse Working for Change) strives to help abused women, children, men, and nonbinary people live free from violence and fear. As a leading domestic violence agency in Massachusetts, HAWC provides a domestic violence helpline, emergency shelter, legal services, advocacy and counseling services to more than 2,500 families in the North Shore area each year. @hawcnorthshore www.hawcdv.org Be Heard Initiative A racially diverse group of artists pushing the Boston community to start talking about racial inequities. With a host of local partners, dancers, poets and filmmakers from Mattapan to Chelsea have created a myriad of events across the city in June and July, 2022, to have conversations about racism. www.beheard.world Sista Creatives Rising helps marginalized women/femme creatives gain accessibility and visibility in the arts to facilitate personal healing @sistacreativesrising www.sistacreativesrising.com Dunamis drops a weekly Resource Roundup for artists straight to your inbox! Stay up to date with all this locally curated list of artist opportunities. Go to their website now and sign up for the newsletter! www.dunamisboston.org DeeDee’s Cry provides resources and education on the importance of mental health and wellness within communities of color. They collaborate with organizations and agencies to create events, programs, projects and activities within communities of color that are centered on family, mental health and wellness. Find out about upcoming events at www.deedeescry.com Building Audacity is a nonprofit organization that seeks to support youth-led changemaking and to provide resources for adults looking to create inclusive, youth-focused learning environments. They are running several programs right now that prioritize community needs during the pandemic, including a GOTVac campaign, hydroponic produce farm, and grocery delivery services. Learn more at www.buildingaudacity.org and @buildingaudacity Creatives of Color Boston is a collective dedicated to the creation of intersectional safe spaces for BIPOC artists to connect and create together, while also celebrating and uplifting the voices and work of
BIPOC artists from around the Boston area. They plan three main events each year including concerts, workshops, and exhibitions. More at www.creativesofcolorboston.com Greater Boston Artist Collective strengthens our artist community with their many programs. From filming music videos to artist interviews…from monthly artist features to their yearly art event they strive to keep artists thriving! Check out their very active IG at @greaterbostonartistcollective and website www. greaterbostonartistcollective.com Rebel Cause, Inc. was founded in 2016 and has evolved to promote various forms of activism and advocacy. They focus on storytelling, mutual aid, and capacity and coalition building to promote equity and representation for marginalized communities throughout Boston and beyond. www.rebelcauseinc. org @rebelcauseinc
We're all reading this now in the Future
BCN Comics Season # Inv # Qty Due Date
00003 01 5 3/27/22
Gay Ghosts by Abby Neale @lavendar_menace_press
Blueberry Basket by Valentina Sciutti
@valentina.sciutti
The Daily Life of Yi Bin by Yi Bin Liang
yinbinliang.com
Written Analog by Kit Collins & Suhayl
The Boston ake us m 0% p l e H Compass is 10 hing! run t ree s nt i lu vo h t
Amplify new vo ices!
@kitschbcollins, @birdnyc__
>>
Email to learn how
kevin@brain-arts.org
t our Ar See Y ! Here?
`
work to send your -ar ts.org in ra adrian@b
A fool's journey through the subculture
Ten years ago, a billboard made its way around Boston and parked outside the Museum of Fine Arts: “Do women have to be naked to get into Boston museums?” it asked, citing the MFA’s own statistic at the time that, despite their prominence as nude subjects, women accounted for only 11 percent of the artists featured in the museum. The billboard was the work of The Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous group that’s been calling out gender disparity in the art world since the 1980s. It would seem that the situation has to have improved since then, given the institutional and corporate messaging on the subject of equity, but the data suggest that progress toward equity is unsuccessful or unattempted entirely. While the MFA has not responded to the Boston Compass’ inquiry regarding the most upto-date numbers, women created only 4 percent of the 90,000 artworks that the museum acquired between 2008 and 2018, according to a 2019 New York Times article on female representation in the arts. Despite this dismal statistic, or perhaps because of it, for the next two years, the museum had on display a show called “Women Take the Floor,” celebrating under-recognized 20th-century female artists. Major institutions make public gestures toward diversity and inclusion, but the pervasive
biases of the cultural elites who run them has not changed. A 2020 Oxford study found that affluent people who visit art galleries, especially men, rate art as less compelling when they believe it was a woman’s work. The researchers displayed computer-generated art and lied to the volunteers saying either a man or a woman created it. The wealthy art buyers didn’t like the women-labeled works. There was just something about them; every time women’s names were attached, the paintings became less appealing. Women-made artworks are valued at 42 percent of those by their comparable male peers, according to the Oxford researchers. It’s not the quality of the work or the talent or intelligence of the person making it. The liability is in the designation “woman” or “female.” Institutions could do more by simply featuring and celebrating a diverse array of voices without patting themselves on the back as they other and infantilize their honorees. This is pervasive in all aspects of existence under the patriarchy, not just the art world. Take, for instance, President Joe Biden’s pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. He could have nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson because she was the best for the job. His preemptive pledge served only to goad the rich powerful conservatives and appease the rich powerful liberals who believe they’re on the good side of gluttony. Women and femmes deserve more than a cyclical eternity of being treated like blank canvases on which the gate-keepers and their manchild geniuses jerk off. Our creativity is innate, our perspective is valuable, and our anger is justified. It’s time for institutions to stop placating artists from underrepresented groups and identities and start respecting their contributions.
JENN STANLEY
CUSTOM
DAY
TRIPS
I Am Not Unclean I can date who I want, I enjoy having sex. You call me a whore but it’s your late night text. I reject your words that were meant to demean Because I know that I am not unclean.
FROM
BOSTON
I’ve been cheated on and I’ve been unfaithful. Felt all the emotions that came with betrayal. Saw with eyes that glowed envious green. But even still, I am not unclean.
NATURE: I’ve bled each month since I was thirteen, Yet you say the sight of my blood is too obscene. So I pay a fortune for “feminine hygiene.” Even as I bleed, I am not unclean.
CULTURE:
I am in love with this body of mine, And yes, I will post self-portraits online. I want to be heard and I want to be seen. I’ll say it again, I am not unclean!
CUISINE:
As the tears trail down, they cleanse my soul Of dark energy this body can no longer hold. Released back into the world, I pray for its renewal, In the hopes that it will once again shine like a jewel And bring someone joy, serenity and peace In knowing that they too, are not unclean.
BRENDA ECHEVERRY
JamaicaPlain Roxbury Dudley Cafe
Dorchester
Fields Corner, outside DAP
Boston
Old State House
Allston Twin Donuts
(Jamaica Plain)
1369 Coffee House (Cental Sq)
Midway Cafe (Stony Brook)
High Energy Vintage
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