Boston Compass #145

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NEW COMMUNITY-DRIVEN INTERACTIVE PHOTO STUDIO OPENS IN UPHAMS CORNER With immense gratitude and respect to Fairmount Innovation Lab, an inclusive co-working space, FaceMe Studios bloomed this Spring. FIL was founded to respond to the business development gap that exists within the creative entrepreneurial realm in the Uphams Corner area. They have provided space, community, network and support for FaceMe Studios to thrive. FaceMe Studios has become our home and flagship for our gallery series to honor visual creativity, vulnerable communication, and intimate connection through the lens of photography, film, performative arts, and fashion within our community.

Come check out the FaceMe Studios open house April 9th 3PM-7PM at Fairmount Innovation Lab! Summer 2022, FaceMe Gallery seeks to dismantle body dysmorphia, emotional insecurities, and shame that has impacted marginalized communities with a multidisciplinary art event at the Cyclorama. We, Women, Men, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, homeless community, prisoners, etc, are often judged by our appearance, standard of beauty, or our status in society. Labels exist to create a place, standard, or comparative amongst humans that instills further separation and criticism than it does connectivity and unity. ‘FaceMe’ comes from the depths of our personal experiences of perceptions, constructs, and conditions that we have either projected, witnessed or endured in our past, present and future timelines. Join this growing collective and come together as a community and donate to one of the biggest events this Summer. If you’d like to sponsor or vend at this event email facemeboston@gmail.com.

—FaceMe Studios

REP HOUSE RECOMMENDATIONS MEMORIA • dir Apichatpong Weerasethakul • Coolidge Theater, 4/22-4/28 WILD AT HEART • dir David Lynch • Somerville Theater, 4/5 Hello world! Tiny update here from the nonprofit that puts out this rag! We have been staying quiet on communications for the past three months as an incubation period, turning our focus inward towards restructuring our staff and programming, re-establishing our focus and identity, and updating our mission so that proper care of our community is central to all of our work.

We are proud to offer you the following concise updates, in confidence that our next steps will be the most thoughtful and impactful we have taken yet: BAO: We have reduced staff from 13 to 5 so that we can better care for and manage our people and our programs. We are reducing programming and increasing advocacy and fundraising efforts until we can build our capacity and grow more sustainably towards a full time staff. We want to do better by doing less, with more care.

BCN remains fully functioning with volunteer and part-time people power. We are really proud to produce a newspaper that generates over 3000+ artist opportunities a year. We are working towards the goal of compensating every person responsible for this effort including designers, contributors and distributors.

DAP: In response to advocacy from the DAP studio artists, we realized that it is now imperative to center our long term goal of seeing DAP run by Dorchester artists.

This past year we were able to provide over $37,000 in rent relief and none of the DAP Studio Artists were displaced. We are looking forward to announcing a new management partnership this year that sees Dorchester artists in control of the space with support from BAO. The BAO board and staff is now Sam P, Amyas, Emma, Marc and Kevin!

Expect more updates from us soon, including a 10 year BAO Impact Report and a new BCN budget announcement!

—Brain Arts Org

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

Those who missed MEMORIA when it played here in the fall will get another chance to see it during the final week of April. The film is being released as a roadshow in only one theater at a time, and it’s supposedly never going to be available anywhere but the cinema. Tilda Swinton stars as an expat living in Colombia who wakes up one morning to an ominous thudding noise that only she can hear. The film follows her as she works with artists, scientists, and mysterious beings to understand what is happening to her. The director, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, creates slow cinema that often mixes supernatural elements with Thai myths and history.

UNCLE BOONME WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES is probably his best known film (it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes), though I’d personally recommend CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR first. Weerasethakul’s films have been known to put some viewers to sleep, but he doesn’t mind. He has stated, “To sleep in cinema means that you are either tired or comfortable enough to let your guard off and be comfortable enough to mix your own dreams with the sound and the image.”

Somerville Theater will continue “Face/Off: Travolta/ Cage,” a 10 week series of double features starring the two actors, through May 3. On April 5th they’ll be screening David Lynch’s WILD AT HEART, which also won the Palme d’Or (and was famously booed at the ceremony). The film follows Sailor Ripley (Nic Cage) and his girlfriend Lula Pace Fortune (Laura Dern) as they are chased across the country by hitmen hired by Lula’s mother. It’s full of great over-the-top performances, and features several actors from Lynch’s TWIN PEAKS. Playing on 35mm.

—Lou Collier

LAYOUT DESIGN:

Phoebe Delmonte: p.1, 4, 5 Hannah Blauner: p.2, 3, 7 Adrian Alvarez: p.6, 8

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

PLATFORMS PICTURE BY MAYA APFELBAUM

FINISHED WAITING A new play by Bread and Puppet Theater

Peace y’all. Last two PLATFORMS were focused on mostly new joints (started in 2021 or 2022) so this month I wanted to show some love to a pair of plugs I would categorize as NOT new, veterans even, of their respective scenes. So lace up and strut from one under-sung, underground cultureuplifter to another - BNF Podcast and KYLAM Blog Broke N Frontin’ Podcast has been on my radar for a minute, probably since I saw their Museum TV interview in 2016, but I decided to take a deeper dive in the archives after seeing host/founder WOODY/ DMAL appear on CWTFB Radio (one of our 2021 Podcast Of The Year) last month for an incendiary episode. If it wasn’t clear from the years of dedication to the culture the BNF team are the truth - honest, real people who put on for their community and don’t hold back any opinions. We just can’t have enough of these types of platforms, where in-the-know artists play host to the most relevant creators in town on a consistent basis (new episodes drop every Monday). Beyond the brutally honest, and often hilarious, conversations, BNF features tons of local and national artists, rappers, musicians, community activists and thought leaders. I especially appreciate the Stay Loyal sessions, featuring exclusive full-band performances. Their most recent live show last month was canceled suddenly, but they do throw dope events too so don’t miss out on the next one - Subscribe, like, share their content and don’t sleep on the archives with quality content going back years.

Next episode featuring JP rapper Trottie Y Gizzle drops this month 4/4/22. FOLLOW @bnfpodcast The Kids Like You And Me Blog is back.

Also NOT new, the Kids are kindred spirits of ours, forming their blog and starting to throw shows around the same time BCN came to life in 2010. They hold a special place for us but it’s the next level fandom that makes ‘em such champions of culture.

Leaning heavy into the garage rock/rock and roll realms, they also dip into avantgarde, experimental and performance art scenes. Really, no genre is off the table for KLYAM - they show love and offer the raw enthusiasm for whatever band/artist/show they are moved to share. One thing I love about their site is that they list the shows they book of course but also shows they dig. Pure music lovers right here. I decided to feature them this month because after laying low and changing up to a whole podcast during the pandemic (peep those episodes!), KLYAM have a fresh blog post up (first since 2019) and have been doing releases and shows again -Including an outdoor show series starting in June and more short interviews that check in with characters from the scene about their post/current-pandemic status. If you crave garage rock or miss the house show scene in Boston enjoy the perspective of prejaded scene veterans like the Kids Like You and Me. FOLLOW @theklyam www.klyam. com

---------------------------------------- SAM POTRYKUS

Leftists of all ages packed the pews at the First Congregational Church in Harvard Square late last month. Downstage left, a giant, powdery white papier-maché ear stood as if to memorialize some absurd event. The Bread and Puppet Theater company began its show with a solemn and moving, dirge-like vocal piece. One by one, four of the nine actors fed a piece of paper into a slot in the giant ear, before receiving it back and holding it to the audience. A collective hum replied, knowingly. “Ukraine.”

“Yemen.” “Palestine.” “Afghanistan.” The ninety minute performance, titled Finished Waiting, was rehearsed this winter on the old Vermont dairy farm that the iconoclastic troupe calls home. Prominently featuring founder and playwright Peter Schumann’s woodcuts and associated poetry, the largely silent performance featured sequences that combined the use of dance, lighting, percussion and cello, and of course, puppets to communicate the state of our world, both ecologically and socially, and to echo notes of our collective humanity.

The Cambridge show was part of Bread and Puppet’s spring tour, which concludes on April 3rd with a performance in Portland, ME. For almost 60 years, Bread and Puppet has fostered an international community with its brand of absurdist, political street theater. In contrast to their street performances, though, Finished Waiting felt largely contained and even a bit hollow.

Much of the performance was marked by slow, silent action. Dressed in all white, the nine actors floated around in life size, gaunt and ghastly puppets that appeared to

encase each of its operators like the front of a sarcophagus. Some puppets resembled gigantic faces; others were mounted to bed sheets and paraded around as reliefs.

Though consistently intrigued, a few times I wished the play would move more quickly, or would be more varied in tone or mood.

Afterwards, I wondered if I had fallen right into their trap, having told myself during the play, “Enough is enough. I’m finished waiting.”

All night, the troupe made use of raw sensory displays such as intense lighting, loud bangs, and short dance sequences to deliver messages to its audience. I found that the piece was at its most powerful when communicating abstractly rather than representationally. Perhaps, like me, the politicized audience was less moved, and less motivated to action, by the listing of significant places, events, and actions, as by the communication of visceral experience.

In any case, the play understood this distinction quite well. The haunting ghost sounds, the gigantic ear, the introductory speech on essentialism vs. non-essentialism, and the short interpretive dance pieces all communicated what a linear, plot driven piece of theater could not have done as effectively. The performance showed that hearing, “war kills innocent civilians” can actually have less of an impact on us than hearing screams and moans, or seeing bodies contort and flail about on stage.

The show ended as all Bread and Puppet performances do, with lively conversation and the eating of home cooked bread!

------------ STEPHEN GRIGELEVICH

SURVEIL AND CONTROL Calculated campaigns of misinformation and incendiary accusations by the state and right-wing factions are white supremacist tactics used to obliterate trans and queer people and consolidate cishetero power.

The onslaught of anti-trans bills currently circulating the US legislature follow a history of racism and transphobia in modern medicine, predominantly due to the emergence of a political project known as eugenics in the 19th century.

This pseudoscience bore the notion of “biological essentialism”, a justification for discrimination based not on scientific evidence, but rather bodily myths crafted by cis white men in power as “biological truths” constructing divisions of race and sex. White women were labeled imperative to continuing the “white race” thus intertwining their reproductive capabilities with their “biological value”, a continued justification for the discrimination of trans

women as “not real women’’.

Cis white women and children have historically been used as rhetorical props to strengthen white patriarchal power.

The notion of “grooming” is a recycled conservative attack which falsely claims LGBTQ people are an inherent sexualized threat to children. In the 1970s and 80s, daycares were demonized as epicenters of satanic grooming as a reactionary to women entering the workforce en masse and therefore threatening the patriarchal family structure. “Bathroom bills” centered around the myth of the predatory trans woman are an obviously transphobic and hollow call for the protection of cis women. This is a hypocritical concern in a heteropatriarchal society in which actual survivors of sexual assault are dismissed and their perpetrators promoted. Gender non-conformity is seen as a greater threat to the patriarchal cishetero regime than

Nowruz is the ancient Zoroastrian New Year consisting of jumping over fire and the symbolic Haft Sin table of mirrors, painted eggs, fishes, sprouting greenery. Over 300 million people around the world celebrate Nowruz even though Zoroastrianism has dwindled to drastically low numbers. After persecution under Islamic colonization, Zoroastrians found refuge in India where most are today. The holiday remains amongst Iranic peoples including Afghans, Persians, Kurds, and many Shi’a in the Indian subcontinent.

I spent time with communities celebrating Nowruz around Boston. I went to a Persian celebration of Nowruz at the MFA where the conversations centered around the idea of Iranians decolonizing and rediscovering their Zoroastrian roots in the midst of a theocratic regime. The largely secular Persian community in Boston is mostly in Watertown and came here after the Islamic revolution in 1979, as well as several more recent migrants with a similar aptitude.

There’s a sizable Kurdish community in Dorchester where they held a women’s film festival at UMass Boston. Kurds spell it as Newroz- rooted in lore that Kurdish brains were sacrificed to snakes under an evil foreign ruler, and their uprising is a symbol of their continued fight to establish an independent Kurdistan. The story was retold to me by women at the film festival.

Kurdistan is occupied by Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, who have aimed to exterminate all traces of Kurdish life. Even the word “Kurd” was outlawed, making any written or spoken acknowledgement of their existence illegal. This includes destroying over 90% of all villages (5000+) in historic Kurdistan, moving in Arab and Turkish settlers, denying citizenship, military occupation that levies surveillance, systemic incarceration, destruction of trees and holy sites, forced assimilation, civilian killings, mass executions- even gassing them to death in the most brutal gas attack since poison gas was outlawed after World War I. Kurds have a saying “we have no friends other than the mountains” (referring to the mountains that traditionally dot their landscape). It’s ironic to see leftists talking about what’s happened to “Arabs and Muslims in Iraq and Syria”, when it’s the Indigenous groups that have disproportionately been the victims.

Many theorize that the reason for Kurdish discrimination is their committment to secularism and their own Kurdish preIslamic spirituality and heritage. Arabs have a saying that “Compared to the nonbeliever, the Kurd is a Muslim”.

The beauty of Kurdish designs are enriched by high-chroma blues, greens, saffrons as well as terracotta and burnt orange hues made richer still by the lustrous wool used. The traditional carpet uses Kurdish symbols. It is possible to read the dreams, wishes and hopes of the carpet maker from the sequence of symbols used.

Kurdish women are known for being strong. When I talked to older women at

the film festival they told me how Arab or Turkish men get scared when you say they’ll be dealing with a Kurdish woman, even soldiers with weapons cower at the sight of a powerful Kurdish woman.

Ethno-religious minorities that live amongst Kurds like Assyrians, Yazidis, Mandaeans are the most discriminated against. Yazidis have faced 73 genocides throughout history. During the last genocide, women and girls were sold into sexual enslavement (kept in ISIS holding cells), boys were mostly killed or had to convert. Most are displaced from their homeland in the mountains of Sinjar. Their ancient religion of Yazidism is rooted in this sacred land- they honor a solar deity and the peacock is one of their central figures.

Yazidis don’t celebrate Nowruz and have a plethora of their own festivals and holidays, including their own new year in April, a Yazidi woman I interviewed enthusiastically reiterated.

Yazidis have a special place in my heart.

When I started earning, I immediately began setting aside recurring donations to Yazidi aid funds. In the Indian subcontinent where I’m from, forced conversion and sexual violence against Indigenous women is a major feature of the Bangladeshi Hindu genocide and the foundation of Pakistan.

What is beautiful about the rehabilitation of freed Yazidi women is that it is led by other Indigenous women in the region, like Copts who face similar threats of violence in Egypt.

Yazidi women, after escaping captivity and experiencing one of the worst mass atrocities, joined rebel groups of Kurdish and Yezidi women. It was not the United States that caused ISIS to surrender the last of their territories. It was these Indigenous women who fought for their land, they removed the ISIS flags and triumphantly screamed cries of freedom.

People often ask me how I stomach all the darkness that comes with learning about Indigenous struggles. I say it’s because I don’t see people as their problems. As I smell the waft of freshly cut flowers on the Haft Sin and see Yazidi women doing a traditional dance amidst war, I know it’s not just that Indigenous people know how to fight, it’s that they have something worth fighting for.

CELEBRATION WEAVED INTO A CARPET OF BURNT HIGH-CHROMA BLUES

----------------------------------------------------------------- PRAKHYA (@verifiedspicequeen)

the pandemic of sexual assault because it actively opposes antiquated gender norms that directly perpetuate rape culture itself.

These bills are not an aberration, but a state funded project to eradicate trans people of color. Everyday violence is perpetuated by its systematic exclusion of an intersecting unprotected class to employment, housing, health care and other human rights. Black trans women endure the most vicious forms of antitrans and homophobic violence in our ruthlessly anti-black and gendered culture.

Ayesha A. Siddiqi writes that, “Visibility in a surveillance state is not power. “As representational politics are applied as the salve, the violent pushback gains intensity.

Proud Boys who beat protesters and politicians who target trans youth are the brutal and banal embodiment of a violently gendered system that kills marginalized people daily.

In Atmospheres of Violence, Alex A. Stanley writes, “Thinking violence as individual acts versus an epistemic force works to support the normative and normalizing structures of public pain.” Often in the aftermath of brutal and publicized acts of anti-trans violence those on the periphery make the call to “not normalize this”. This sentiment does little but provide shallow comfort to those of us who live just outside this terror.

What is “normal” in a fracturing empire too proud and cowardly to confront the lies of its past or these moments that cruelly cycle on? These hideous and hateful ideologies will be hard torn away by our halfhearted opposition to them. The cishetero patriarchy is reliant on our participation in a gendered structure of society that it claims is “natural”, but in reality it is a fabricated hierarchy of oppression.

------------------------------------------------------ GRACE RAIH

AFFECTED ACCENT

Guerilla Toss — Famously Alive (alternative) Henry Rollins said of Guerilla Toss: “What a band. I mean damn, what a band.

Like one of the first great bands of the new century great. Who would you compare them to? Who do they sound like? They are their own thing and what an excellent thing it is.”

What more do you want? What more needs to be said? If that doesn’t convince you to dive into Guerilla Toss, there is nothing I can do to change your mind.

But because I am expected to fill more space with this review, let’s start from the beginning.

Guerilla Toss formed in Boston in 2012 and was a staple of the local underground scene before moving to New York City in 2015. Their core sound from the early years was a unique mixture of punk, noise, art rock, and no wave that barrels forward at a frenetic pace and incorporates a healthy dose of dissonance and shrinking vocals that rise to maddening crescendos. Later albums incorporated more funk, electronic, and dance music. Their live shows have a definite jam band influence with collective improvisation connecting songs and psychedelic video projections. If you are looking for a good place to start, I highly recommend Live in Nashville.

The 2019 EP What Would The Odd Do? marked a turning point for the band. Kassie Carlson, the band’s singer and songwriter, overcame an opiate addiction and moved to upstate New York, and the EP expresses her newfound joy and optimism towards life. The edges of their sound are rounded off, and the pop, dance, and electronic influences are dialed up.

On March 25th, the band released their next album Famously Alive on Sub Pop. Throughout the album, you can see the direction signaled in What Would The Odd Do? grow into something new and exciting.

The psychedelic textures, complex rhythms, sudden shifts, and expansive

sonic dissonance that make the band great are there in force. The title track even starts with the characteristic driving drum beat over distortion reminiscent of their earlier albums. But what is new is the increased incorporation of contemporary pop sounds (including auto tune) and the positive messages and overall tone. Band member Peter Negroponte says, “We thought the sleekness of current radio pop would make our dense wall-of-sound aesthetic both more bizarre and more accessible and fun at the same time.” Carlson noted, “The [the title track] ‘Famously Alive’ is about living with purpose and excitement whether you’re famous or not, accepting your strangeness and thriving even if your successes look different than other people’s.” Negroponte added, “To me, ‘Famously Alive’ means flipping the notion of dying famously to living famously. I also like to think of it as a way to describe living through something traumatic and coming out of it a stronger, wiser person.”

Famously Alive is out now on the major platforms, and the band will be playing live at the Somerville Theater on April 26th.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- STEVE B

locations. Youtube link posted at 8pm. More info on Facebook.

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!**

Tysk Task, Amanda Shea, Layzi, and so many more! www. thetownandthecityfestival. com for full lineup, venues and times!

4/23 Creative Music Series presents Jon Irabagon’s Outright! jazz show @The Lilypad 8PM All Ages $20/15 Seniors + students

4/9 Oompa, Quinn XCII, Blxst @Rodgers Rec Center 6:15PM All Ages $ome Cost

MUSIC & AUDIO

4/10 Get To The Gig Boston Presents R.A.P. Ferreira, Sha Ray, Pink Navel @The Rockwell 6PM All Ages $20/25

4/23 On Broken Wings, Pain of Truth, Buried Dreams, Law of Power, Risk, The World, Born From Demise @Sons of Italy (Hingham) 5:30pm All Ages $20

4/2 Move, Chaos Cross, Crescent Ridge, Funerary Spell @The Banshee Den (Everett, MA) 8pm All Ages $10 4/2 Court Date, Bulletproof Backpack, Opposable, Armageddon 2001, E @Palace of Malice (Dorchester) 6:30pm All Ages $10 4/2 Lou Bunk, +DOG+, Federico Balducci @House of Goings-On 9pm All Ages $ome Cost 4/2 mssv (Mike Watt, Mike Baggetta, Stephen Hodges) with Gloyd (feat. Ruth Garbus, Andy Allen, Wendy Eisenberg, Donald Warner Shaw, Neil Cloaca Young) @Northampton Center for the Arts 8:30pm All Ages $16 4/3 The Akwerian Project: Acoustic Dub Poetry @The Jungle 9PM 21+ Suggested Donation 4/4 Aurat, New Oblivion, Mirrored Hell, Penitence @O’Briens 8PM 21+ $10/12 4/5 Bars Over Bars Hip Hop Showcase featuring local artists!

Every first Tuesday of the month @Midway Cafe 7:30PM 21+ $10 4/6 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 4/7 ONCE presents Joseph Allred, Allysen Callery, Stephen LoVerme @The Rockwell 9:30 21+ $12 4/7 Jungle Vibes Monthly Music Series hosted by Greatness ASF every first Thursday @The Jungle 8PM 21+ $10 4/7 thru 4/10 11th Annual Arlington Jazz Festival featuring headliner Randy Brecker with Mark Walker and his World Jazz Ensemble. All festival concerts held Thurs-Sun in various venues around the town of Arlington.

Admission prices vary depending on event. For further details: www.arlingtonjazz.org 4/7 Orange Peel Mystic, Wave Goodbye, HiFi, Moonbasket @AS220, Providence 8PM All Ages $ome Cost 4/8 Andre Obin, Violet Nox, ExHyena, J.Bagist, DJ Bob Diesel with special guest host Kristen Eck of Bumblebee Radio. Visuals

by DebStep and Vidumami.

Produced by Dez DeCarlo @O’Briens 9PM $10/12 4/8- 4/9 The Town and The City Festival is a 2-day music and arts festival that will take place in various event spaces, bars, cafes, and galleries throughout downtown Lowell, MA. Artists include Ava Sophia, Colleen Green, Hilken Mancini & Chris Colbourn, Linnea’s Garden, Noami Westwater, Tysk

4/10 Mega Mass Presents: Artist Showcase! Every second Sunday of the month! Sign up to perform! @The Jungle 9PM12AM All Ages FREE 4/11 Lunar Ark, Khost, Deep Cross, Pain Chain, Prayer Position @O’Briens 9PM $10/12 21+ 4/12 Kina Zoré live every second Tuesday bringing two sets of Mozambican Funk! @Midway Cafe 8PM 21+ $10 4/12 Point01Percent Presents Bray, Bishop, Karlson, McBride, Rosenthal + Cutout @The Lilypad 7PM All Ages $10 4/16 Orange Peel Mystic, Forte, Kiyah, Shaya, Φ @The Jungle 9PM $ome Cost 4/17 Charlie Kohlhase’s Explorers Club jazz show @The Lilypad 6PM All Ages $10 Masks Requested 4/19 Seed, Ultra Deluxe, Passion Play, Please 2003 @O’Briens 9PM 21+ $10 4/20 Get To The Gig Boston presents Sadurn, Doll Spirit Vessel, Trophy Wife @The Rockwell 7OM 18+ $13/15 4/21 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 4/21 Beats By Girlz Boston Launch Party Open house with live music from DJ Hannah Enoy and dolltr!ck, tours of The Record Co. and Beats By Girlz workshop demos, plus a live panel moderated by Victoria Wasylak featuring DJ Slick Vick, DJ WhySham, and Michele Darling @The Record Co 5:30PM-9:30PM Register at www.bio.site/ beatsbygirlzboston 4/22 NüDE METAL: An all Nü Metal Bürlesque Show @Midway Cafe 9:30PM 21+ $10 4/22 Angel Du$t, Spiritual Cramp, Webbed Wing, C4 @Hardcore Stadium 6pm All Ages $16 4/22 Spud Cannon (ny), Mackenzie Morris, Frances Baker, Cisco Swank @Brinstar Boston 8PM 18+ $10 4/23 HOUSE PARTY TOUR PT. 1 featuring Paula Feris, Aaron Bates, Alxne, Lilo, Fvme Jvckson, DJ Wolfbane and more! @Sammy’s Patio 8PM-2AM 21+ $15 4/23 hiFi, Rusty Mullet, Track Meat, OJ Mountain @Midway Cafe 3PM All Ages $10

4/23 Sedgwick Studios Grand Opening!! Featuring performances by Mirah, Evan Greer, Reklama @Sedgwick Studios (JP) 6pm All Ages, capped at 50 - more info, reserve you spot, donate at evangreer.bandcamp.com 4/26 Guerilla Toss!! @Crystal Ballroom (Somerville) 8pm 18+ $15 4/29 Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean, All Under Heaven, Eyeball, Broken Head, Climb @Upton VFW (Upton, MA) 6pm All Ages $15 4/30 Grayskull Booking presents: Kontusion, Severed Boy, Hideous @O’Briens 9PM 21+ $12 4/29-30 Non-Event Waterworks Festival experimental sounds from around New England featuring Nat Baldwin/Stella Silbert (duo), Marie Carroll/ Yoona Kim / Anwei Wang (trio), Victoria Cheah, Lautaro Mantilla, Jake Meginsky, Stan Strickland, Tongue Depressor @Metropolitan Waterworks Museum 7:30PM All Ages $ome Cost www.nonevent.org 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 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 New England Mic Check Radio is our region’s top dawg for uplifting urban music!

Episode #58 out now on all streaming platforms with a special feature on local artist Tamera King! www.nemiccheck. com for podcasts, swag and further updates! @newenglandmiccheck Spark FM at Night with DJ Stix: Every Tuesday/Thursday from 11-1AM plus many more programs! Check out www. sparkfmonline.com

VIDEO & FILM 4/1 Movie Screening: The Best Thing Ever in “The Surprise Tour”. This 74-minute documentary features Noah Britton, Alex Billig, Jen Page during their 2007 Surprise Tour which saw the ensemble performing randomly at various

4/2 The Konnect is a DEI exclusive event to promote diversity in film and TV crew positions through an education opportunity to learn about production jobs and meet with local crew members and their unions. Put on by the Secret Society of Black Creatives @Roxbury Branch of BPL 12PM4PM GRRL HAUS CINEMA Calling photographers and filmmakers!

They are taking SUBMISSIONS for their Spring/Summer edition of GRRL Telephone.

Deadline for applicants is April 10th. Send an email to grrlhauscinema@gmail.com with a link to your work. They will select 15 -20 players. 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 4/2 April Open Studios @Western Avenue Studios & Lofts 12-5pm Free Being Muholi: Portraits as Resistance explores the life and work of internationally renowned photographer and activist Sir Zanele Muholi.

Muholi has documented South Africa’s Black LGBTQIA+ community and captures intimate expressions of beauty, vulnerability, love, loss, and belonging, while simultaneously confronting issues of identity politics, selfhood, and Black queer visibility. @The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum thru May 8th. Check these two rad events featuring local artists associated with this exhibition: 4/21 Sound Check: A Musical Celebration of Black & Queer Boston Join Brandie Blaze, Billy Dean Thomas, a.k.a. “The queer B.I.G.,” and more for whom Black and queer identities are a spiritual and creative foundation for a curated sonic testimony that pushes us to change the way in which we see the world. @Calderwood Hall 7:00PM Pricing on gardnermuseum.org 4/28 The Larger Conversation: The Lens of Black & Queer Photography Join photographers and scholars Lola Flash, and OJ Slaughter and moderated by WBUR reporter Cristela Guerra to unpack how their lenses give agency back to the communities they believe in. @Calderwood Hall 7:00PM Pricing on gardnermuseum.org 4/23 Embodied Memories a mix of visual and performance art! This includes mixed media pieces as well as live music that will all be interactive. It’s an event you won’t want to miss! @SouthWest Corridor by Ruggles Station, follow the signs. 245-247 Ruggles St, Boston 2-6PM

4/23 Thinker Makers Society Art Pop Up Philadelphia based art gallery and collective pops up to sell some custom t-shirts and art prints. Come meet these amazing artists in person and have a dope a$$ afternoon of arts, culture and even an open mic! @Roxbury Branch of BPL 10:30AM-1PM FREE YardArt Watertown is a citywide exhibit of whimsy and ingenuity on front yards, made by people living or working in Watertown on display until 4/18. Follow the map and view the installations: www.mosesianarts.org/yardart KS x 20: Persistence of Light The Nave Gallery is proud to present a retrospective exhibit of Karl Stephan’s work. From “suburban surrealism” to new expansive “color music,” Karl persists in seeking joy. Public programs accompanying KS×20 include a writing workshop, guided artmaking, live music, a deep look at selected works with Tufts Director of Art Education Dr. Susan Barahal and an Artist/Curator talk. www.navegallery.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. 4/15 1-4PM Colloquium 4/22 Open Reception and Performance 4/2-5/28 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 a catalyst for neighborhood economic empowerment by the community, for the community.

Support the cause and donate to their gofundme! www. blackmarketnubian.com/nspai

PERFORMANCE ART OPEN CALL: 1 Minute Movement Solos is finally back!

Movers submit your proposal at mobius.org by 4/17 to be considered for a performance on 5/17 at the Lilypad 4/7-4/9 WIRED Comedy show Laugh at David and Johanna as they go through a series of vignettes about connecting, disconnecting, and chasing down that Wi-Fi connection.

This movement-based work of non-verbal theatre uses Foley, elements of clown, mime, and devising methods to explore anxiety. @Chelsea Theater Works 7:30PM $15 4/8-5/8 Our Daughters, Like Pillars finally hits a BCA stage. Local playwright Kirsten Greenidge’s long postponed production Tix at HuntingtonTheatre.org $20 & up Thru 4/10 Everyday Life and Other Odds and Ends A digital version of local company Sleeping Weazel’s show which uses mixed media to portray life with Parkinson’s disease. Tix at ArtsEmerson.org $15 & up 4/16 Good Luck Comedy hosted by J Smity & Sam Ike ft.

Wilfred Padua and more special guests. Private 420-Friendly and BYOB event @The 420 Loft 8:30PM 21+ $20

4/21-4/24 Parable of the Sower Afro-futurist author Octavia E Butler’s classic novel takes the stage as a profound and inspiring opera, celebrating the history of black music. Unmissable. Tix at ArtsEmerson.org $25 & up 4/22-5/21 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 $Pay-what-you-can$ Duck Duck Goofs presents April Goofs Fridays 4/1, 8, 29 and Duck Soup Saturdays 4/2, 9, 23: standup comedy hosted by Ryna Howe with surprise musical guest openers @The LilyPad 10:15PM $15 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 4/23 Boston Comics in Color Festival Boston’s only comics arts festival focusing on stories by and about people of color. There will be an artist alley, panels, workshops, cosplay, live art and more! @Reggie Lewis Center 11AM-5PM FREE www.comicsincolor.org 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 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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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 Greater Boston Artist Collective new organization. Find it at strengthens our artist community www.blaa.us with their many programs. From filming music videos to artist Community Fridges! There’s a interviews…from monthly artist bunch of these popping up all features to their yearly art event around the city and beyond! They they strive to keep artists thriving! provide food for all and are totally Check out their very active IG at volunteer-run! @greaterbostonartistcollective @southbostoncommunityfridge and website www. needs help starting up! Email greaterbostonartistcollective.com southbostoncommunityfridge@ gmail.com to find how to get Rebel Cause, Inc. was founded involved. in 2016 and has evolved to @dotcommunityfridge is not promote various forms of open but does regular food activism and advocacy. They drives. The following are now focus on storytelling, mutual open! aid, and capacity and coalition @watertowncommunityfridge building to promote equity and @bostoncommunityfridge representation for marginalized @allstonbrightonfridges communities throughout Boston @matcommunityfridge and beyond. www.rebelcauseinc. @cambridgefridge org @rebelcauseinc @cambridgecitygrowers @roslindalecommunityfridge @somervillecommunityfridge @newtoncommunityfreedge @numutualaid @southendfridge @brooklinecommunityfridge

COMMUNITY BAMS Fest and Black Owned Bos are partnering on an OPEN CALL FOR VENDORS for their 3rd annual Boston Art & Music Soul Festival 2022. Taking place again this year inside Franklin Park, Playstead Field in early June, they are thrilled to amplify and support minority/ women/veteran owned small businesses. Apply now at www.bamsfest.org Better Beaches Grant Applications Now Open! Save the Harbor will be awarding $200,000 in small grants to organizations, creatives, and collectives to put on free events on our region’s public beaches this summer! The grant application is open until April 22. Apply today! https:// www.savetheharbor.org/betterbeaches 4/10 Spring Fling Pop Up Shop @Modern Party Art. VENDORS WANTED! Apply now at www.modernpartyart. com/tickets Check out all the other rad events they have going on like BYOBud open mics and paint & sips or book your own event! Two locations: Dorchester & Hanover!

Wake Up the Earth Festival Vendor and volunteer applications NOW OPEN! Vendor apps due by 4/7.

Festival happens 5/7! Come celebrate your local community and the collective effort to protect our environment with this iconic event.

Applications and info at www. spontaneouscelebrations.org Movement, Holistic Healing and Aroma Therapy A collaboration between All Things Art, Sisters Unchained and New Beginnings Re-Entry Services @Roxbury Center for Performing Arts every Saturday in April 3PM-5PM www.allthingsartboston.org

ADVOCACY 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

The sky is dark,

For All the stars are taking their bows

AT THE FINALE OF BCN COMICS, SEASON 2

Queen Monarch's Fancy Garden by Jenna Miles

@jennamilesart

Blueberry Basket by Valentina Sciutti

@valentina.sciutti

The Adventures of Cat Barge by Will Quinn

@willquinnart

Horde of Dragons by Tristan Patino

@tristanandthewild

Sparkly Angst by Lou Gervais

The Boston ake us m 0% p l e H Compass is 10 hing! run t ree s nt i lu vo h t

@sparklyangstcomics

Amplify new vo ices!

>>

Email to learn how

kevin@brain-arts.org

t our Ar See Y !

Here?

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work to send your -ar ts.org in ra adrian@b

Art by Indigo Infrared @indigo.infrared

CUSTOM

DAY

FROM

TRIPS

BOSTON

NATURE:

@heart.soaked CULTURE:

CUISINE: HYPE WILLIAMS, QUINCY JONES When it’s 30 degrees you watch the concrete freeze , When these concrete sidewalks freeze up , Hoodie up and chin straight.

Young man what’s solid you know don’t break.

Soft jazz mixing with my environment , Projecting films through my eyes and the outlet is my heart.

Freddie’s gone , Cut the scene When they call it the mud , They really talking about the experiences embedded within the streets of every corner those young black men hustled on and seen somebody die on.

The esoteric language of the ghetto on full volume, Whips on 24 inch rims.

The speakers in these cars ripple your jack daniels as it sits on your kitchen counter before you blurr every memory of pain.

What you expect from us , Pay us what you owe us.

Come out ya taxes , Come out those pockets doctors.

Qadir has a new I need my real estate and my porsche 911. full-length poetry The new 40 acres and a mule. album out now.

Evildoers and evilness , Listen to this fusion All cause the color of my skin. of blues, funk and It get deeper don’t it. spoken word at Allah the god but they call him wicked don’t they ? www.qadirshabazz.

The white man bandcamp.com It’s all apart of the plan aint it.

I pray for better times , I pray I stay alive.

I pray. I eat. I meditate. I love. I sing. I dance. I wonder. I watch. I see. I know. I feel. Im also a human being.

So what the hell is wrong with you?

QADIR SHABAZZ 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

Little Free Libraries throughout Boston | littlefreelibrary.org (Somerville)

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