DigBoston 1.24.19

DIGBOSTON.COM 01.24.19 - 01.31.19

FEATURE

WELCOME TO THE ARMORY

MEET THE BLACK GUNS MATTER MOVEMENT COVER

SKETCHBOOK CLIFF NOTEZ BRINGS HIPSTORY TO ATWOOD’S

SAVAGE LOVE: IN FUR IT - ON CARTOON AMUSEMENTS

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BOWERY BOSTON WWW.BOWERYBOSTON.COM VOL 21 + ISSUE 04

JAN 24, 2019 - JAN 31,2019 BUSINESS PUBLISHER John Loftus ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Chris Faraone Jason Pramas SALES EXECUTIVES Victoria Botana Derick Freire Nate Homan Nicole Howe FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION sales@digboston.com

EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Chris Faraone EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jason Pramas MANAGING EDITOR Mitchell Dewar MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran FILM EDITOR Jake Mulligan THEATER EDITOR Christopher Ehlers COMEDY EDITOR Dennis Maler STAFF WRITER Haley Hamilton CONTRIBUTORS G. Valentino Ball, Sarah Betancourt, Tim Bugbee, Patrick Cochran, Mike Crawford, Britni de la Cretaz, Kori Feener, Eoin Higgins, Zack Huffman, Marc Hurwitz, Marcus Johnson-Smith, C. Shardae Jobson, Heather Kapplow, Derek Kouyoumjian, Dan McCarthy, Rev. Irene Monroe, Peter Roberge, Maya Shaffer, Citizen Strain, M.J. Tidwell, Miriam Wasser, Dave Wedge, Baynard Woods INTERNS Casey Campbell, Sophia Higgins, Morgan Hume, Daniel Kaufman, Jillian Kravatz, Elvira Mora, Juan A. Ramirez, Jacob Schick

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DESIGNER Don Kuss COMICS Tim Chamberlain, Pat Falco Patt Kelley, Don Kuss, Cagen Luse DigBoston Phone 617.426.8942 digboston.com

ON THE COVER PHOTO OF CLIFF NOTEZ BY BRUNEI DENEUMOSTIER. CHECK OUT OUR INTERVIEW WITH NOTEZ IN THIS WEEK’S MUSIC SECTION ABOUT HIS UPCOMING SKETCHBOOK SERIES AT ATWOOD’S IN CAMBRIDGE.

©2019 DIGBOSTON IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY DIG MEDIA GROUP INC. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION CAN BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT. DIG MEDIA GROUP INC. CANNOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. ONE COPY OF DIGBOSTON IS AVAILABLE FREE TO MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS AND VISITORS EACH WEEK. ANYONE REMOVING PAPERS IN BULK WILL BE PROSECUTED ON THEFT CHARGES TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW.

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ROAD TRIP

The thing about a State of the City (SOTC) or State of the Commonwealth (also SOTC, confusingly) address, not entirely unlike the better-known annual State of the Union (SOTU) national edition but far more insidious due to the limited regional draw, is that most people who pay attention to them and know that the politicians speaking are completely full of gas don’t mind the gross hyperbole since they are getting what they need out of the lecturer’s administration, while the rest of the attendees are just the innocent recruited spectators who, in exchange for a shoutout in honor of their friend or school or church or team will forever put their blinders on and hold signs, volunteer, and vote for that candidate.

As far as most reporting media is concerned, pols are basically allowed to have their say during these spectacles, fact-checking be damned. They’re just a show.

Still, I’ve always found that as a journalist, it helps to stop by a state of the something every once in a while, if not simply to hold officials accountable for their subjective self-aggrandizing, then for a chance to watch creatures of Beacon Hill and City Hall commingle. Unlike meetings of the House, Senate, or City Council, where only delegates to those bodies are present, all the honchos show up for these updates, including many of the private sector players whose donations power the political world.

Basically, the crowd is a collection of anybody who wants something, or who may need anything from permits to a tax break in the future.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s latest State of the City, delivered at Symphony Hall last week, rang true to traditional form. Prior to the formal program, elected figures held court beside the stage as John Barros, the city’s chief of economic development, hurried up and down the aisles greeting VIPs and colleagues. House Speaker Robert DeLeo worked the room, offering handshakes to most but enthusiastic five-finger slaps for a select few, as did former Suffolk County DA Dan Conley, now a consultant at one of the Commonwealth’s most powerful lobbying firms. Mass Gov. Charlie Baker was there too; in other states, it may seem strange to have a Republican governor holding court on a Democrat’s big night, but in this case, Walsh was about to announce that he and Baker are soon to embark on a Mass-boosting “road trip” to Washington, DC, together.

Then came marching, flags, and bagpipes, followed by student performances of a few patriotic classics and brief readings from a God squad brought to paint Walsh as some kind of “shepherd.” By the time the Boston cops who went viral last year singing “God Bless America” turned up to perform a ditty, heads were giddier than Trump supporters at a Kid Rock concert.

As for the speech itself, Walsh hit all of the expected notes: More people are working now than ever before, “we have created more affordable homes than ever before,” Boston is the best city for pushing people up into the middle class, and so on. Other than some demonstrable positives—all the money his administration has put into libraries, the outcome of last year’s strike by hotel workers, a new jazz spot coming to the Bolling Building, millions for Franklin Park and Boston Common—we were mostly offered arbitrary cherry-picked numbers and buzz phrases: “In the national crisis of police-community relations, we committed to lifting people up, not locking people up”; “The state of our city is strong, but I’m worried about the state of [our union]”; “The White House turned its back on climate change, but in Boston we believe in science.”

Trump is bad, Mass is good. Get it? “Instead of building walls,” Baker and Walsh are heading to DC to “show them how to build bridges.”

While they’re in Washington, they ought to give members of both national parties a lesson on public relations, because this bipartisan buddy bit they’re milking in Boston has everyone from lawmakers to dealmakers applauding while everyone else either smiles and nods or pays no attention at all.

CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Need more Dig? Sign up for the Daily Dig @ tiny.cc/DailyDig

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NEWS US ROE AHEAD NEWS TO US

Mass groups boost model for what access to reproductive care should look like for the nation

BY OLIVIA DENG @OLIVIADENG1

Jasmin Johnson was 16 years old when she decided to have an abortion. Not wanting to tell her parents her decision and not legally an adult, Johnson was required by Massachusetts law to go through a court judicial bypass process to get a judge’s authorization for the procedure.

The process was complicated and delayed the abortion by a week: Johnson had to connect and meet with a lawyer and a judge to defend her decision, and wound up missing school days to complete the process.

“In hindsight, I felt more pressure and anxiety on the day I met with the judge than the day I had the actual abortion,” Johnson said at Sexual Health Lobby Day at the Massachusetts State House last Thursday. “Having to defend my life circumstances to a lawyer, a judge, two middle-aged white men who I’ve never met before … was something else entirely. I felt like they had my entire life in their hands. Despite the fact that the judge said yes to my request, I still have to battle additional emotional anxiety.

The anxiety of being a black person, depending on the court system to have your best interests in mind.”

More than 10 years later and now a community outreach specialist at Planned Parenthood, Johnson reflects on her experience trying to get an abortion and the barriers that still exist. “Why do we inflict additional pressure and stress onto what can already be a complex 4

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situation? … Why do we create more barriers for young people? Specifically for young women of color like myself.

Why do we continue to enforce these roadblocks?”

To help break down some of these barriers, Sexual Health Lobby Day rallied support for the ROE Act and the Healthy Youth Act. Attended by more than 450 people, the event was sponsored by NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, ACLU Massachusetts, and others. Following the speaking program, attendees visited their representatives to discuss the bills. The ROE Act would expand safe and legal access to abortion by eliminating parental consent laws, allowing for abortion access after 24 weeks of pregnancy in fatal fetal anomalies circumstances, codifying reproductive freedom principles into state law, removing medically inaccurate image from the books, and ensuring Massachusetts residents of all income levels and insurance coverage types can access affordable abortion. The Healthy Youth Act would require public schools to offer a comprehensive, medically accurate, LGBTQ-inclusive sex education that teaches about consent and healthy relationships.

Advocates for the two bills hope to pave a path toward more equitable sexual and reproductive health in Mass in the face of national threats to women’s autonomy. “We’ve been dealing with an administration that has infringed

on our freedoms, stomped on our rights, and undermined our health,” said Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. “This administration is appointing anti-abortion judges to the Supreme Court, [championing] abstinence-only sex ed, and doing everything in its power to block people from accessing birth control, abortion, and other basic healthcare.”

Childs-Roshak pointed to past successes like the NASTY Women Act, which repealed archaic laws criminalizing abortion, as well as the ACCESS law that ensures birth control access, the PATCH (Protecting Access to Confidential Health Care) Act, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Even with some past successes, there is still a lot at stake in Mass, according to Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of NARAL ProChoice Massachusetts.

“I think it’s really easy to feel safe in Massachusetts and to believe that access to abortion will always be equitable,” Hart Holder told DigBoston. “I think this time period on the federal landscape should show us that there really is a full-scale attack on our rights, including access to abortion, and that in Massachusetts we not only have to protect that care for the people … but we also have to serve as a model for what access to care should look like for the rest of the nation.”

According to those pushing for these measures, the ROE Act is especially critical in safeguarding and expanding abortion rights. State Sen. Harriette Chandler of Worcester recalled a harrowing time before Roe v. Wade in 1973 when backstreet abortions were commonplace.

“You know about women who found themselves pregnant and they had nowhere to go except to some butcher who really ended their chances of ever having children again if they survived,” Chandler said. “The procedures they had to endure were not safe. Sometimes they risk their lives.” House Rep. Patricia Haddad echoed the sentiments, adding that at the time, there was also a lack of information and counseling about abortion and birth control.

The ROE Act is not only about safeguarding abortion

rights, but also about expanding them. Dr. Luu Ireland, a gynecologist, used her time to explain how the current law, which requires anybody under the age of 18 to obtain parental consent or obtain a judicial bypass for an abortion, is detrimental to women.

“Anyone, regardless of age, should be able to make the decision on when they are able to parent,” Ireland said. “At best judicial bypass accomplishes nothing but shame, missed school days, and increased risks from delayed abortions. At worst, it forces our young people to continue pregnancies against their will.”

Ireland also pointed to the necessity of allowing for an abortion past 24 weeks of pregnancy in the case of fatal fetal anomalies. Speaking of a woman she had cared for, the physician said, “Unfortunately, during her pregnancy, she contracted a life-threatening infection and spent over a month in the intensive care unit.

When she was stable she underwent an ultrasound that showed that the baby had sustained such severe brain damage that he was unlikely to survive, let alone walk, talk, or even breathe on his own.” Given the woman’s “fragile medical state and the poor prognosis of the baby,” Ireland continued, “the family requested to terminate the pregnancy. By this time she was 26 weeks along and unable to end the pregnancy according to Massachusetts law.”

In another case, Ireland said she had to turn away somebody seeking an abortion because the patient was a refugee and did not qualify for MassHealth.

“She arrived in the US pregnant as a result of rape. … Turning her away and essentially forcing her to continue a pregnancy that resulted from sexual violence in a new country where she had limited resources and limited support was one of the most heartbreaking moments in my career.”

Some speakers noted that sex education should start with the youth, who often seek sexual and reproductive health help but are left behind by the laws. Malik Gomes Cruz, a 16-year-old peer educator at the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts Get Real Teen Council, said that activists have been advocating for the Healthy Youth Act for eight years.

“I learned all about heteronormative sex, which is often exclusive of many experiences that people could have,” Gomes Cruz said. “Health class consisted of my English teacher playing a video that no one wanted to watch, which explained the science of puberty and how my voice was probably going to crack. The video also said it was perfectly normal for me to develop feelings towards females. … At a time in my life where I was questioning my own sexuality, the message I received from a community where I felt safe and included was, ‘Malik, you are not normal.’

Sexual health was this big mystery to me, so it became difficult for me to navigate my own body and the feelings that I was experiencing.”

Galina Smith, a health programs coordinator at BAGLY (Boston Alliance of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Youth), told DigBoston that from her experience coordinating an STI drop-in clinic, many people aren’t knowledgeable about sexual health due to gaps in education.

“The majority that come through don’t really know where to start regarding taking care of themselves, taking care of others, practicing safe sex, consent, and didn’t get a lot of information because if they had sex ed they didn’t feel that it applied to them because it wasn’t respectful or inclusive of LGBTQ identities,” Smith said. “I think that something that has been evident to me, time and time again, is that the queer community and the LGBTQ community really have to work hard at educating each other and making sure that everyone else in their community is knowing the things they need to know and learning how to protect themselves, because the larger society and especially education system doesn’t allow for that to happen for LGBTQ people, and part of that includes sex ed that isn’t comprehensive for LGBTQ people.”

Smith said it is critical to have identity-inclusive sex ed from early on to reduce the stigma: “I think that by not educating, especially not educating straight people, about different types of sexual orientations, different types of gender identities, gender presentations, you create a lot of stigma around those identities and those behaviors. Aside from that, the people that are a part of the LGBTQ community aren’t able to learn about those identities. When they’re coming into their own or having these realizations they may be LGBTQ, they’re also feeling stigmatized, and really feeling like there’s something wrong with them or that they’re a freak or feeling like the normal and natural feelings they’re having are unhealthy, which is just not the case. Not only does it impact your physical health, it impacts your mental health.”

Currently, public schools are free to teach any sex education curriculum they want, said Tricia Wajda, vice president of external affairs at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. “They [public schools] have the green light to teach harmful abstinence-only sex programs that shame sexual assault survivors, pass judgment on LGBTQ youth, and promote blatantly inaccurate information,” Wajda told DigBoston. “We have to educate young people more about how to recognize and ask for consent. … It is an important step to combat sexual violence at its roots and transform our culture to one based on mutual respect and healthy communication.”

“Comprehensive sex education matters to me because queer youth deserve to feel included in their education no matter their identity,” Gomes Cruz said. “So now that I’m teaching sex education, I see my peers who are so misinformed and it reminds me of how I felt as an insecure 13-year-old kid. And I’m sure everyone in this room has felt the sensation of fear or anxiety, and no teen should feel that way about their own body.”

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DEPT. OF COMMERCE

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APPARENT HORIZON

WHY GATEHOUSE’S BOSTON ‘MEGACLUSTER’ IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY No corporation should own most newspapers in a region

BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS In last week’s Apparent Horizon, “GateHouse Editorial Flacks for Mass Retailers,” I dissected an editorial, “The benefits of a teen minimum wage,” calling for a subminimum wage for Bay State teenage workers that turned out to have run in over two dozen eastern Mass newspapers owned by news industry behemoth GateHouse Media. Focusing on the article’s masked conservative slant—built, as it was, around a single report by a Kochfunded think tank—I walked readers through the political problems with that position and GateHouse’s support of it.

In this column, I’ll take a look at the structural crisis of media consolidation—and why it makes the GateHouse teen wage editorial even more disturbing than it looked at first glance.

Since the 1980s there have been a number of profound shifts in the economics of the American newspaper industry. One of them was the phenomenon of large companies treating news publications more and more like any other profit center—buying them up in larger and larger numbers, eliminating as many of their full- and part-time staff positions as possible while slashing wages and benefits for those that remained, increasing their use of contractors, and consolidating business operations among outlets in the same geographic area. These groups of newspapers came to be called clusters. Which differed from traditional chains in the physical proximity of their constituent outlets. And made their new owners a great deal of money.

In the interim 30 years, according to the excellent ongoing work of former Knight Ridder editor Ken Doctor in his “Newsonomics” columns for Nieman Journalism Lab and other publications, companies like GateHouse, Tribune Publishing, and Digital First have bought so many papers that those clusters have turned into something new: megaclusters, as they were dubbed by “major newspaper business broker Dirks, Van Essen & Murray.”

They function the same way clusters do. But operate over larger geographic areas with ever more daily and weekly newspapers (and specialty publications) under their control. As of 2017, about 50 percent of all local papers in the US were part of a cluster or megacluster.

Those newspapers bear only passing resemblance to their namesakes. Mainly because the wage and staff cuts that began in the 1980s never stopped. To the point where a local paper like the Cambridge Chronicle—in which I first noticed the editorial under discussion—owned by a media giant like GateHouse (and in turn by other companies and investment groups) is now down to one lone staff person.

To really understand the significance of this development, it’s necessary to turn back the clock. Fifty years ago, the Cambridge Chronicle was an independent newsweekly. It had several staffers—including reporters, editors, salespeople, and a production crew. It was the goto news source for coverage of all issues and happenings in Cambridge, and it was read regularly by most literate city residents, from teenagers to pensioners.

Critically, as an independent newspaper, its editorial positions were also independent. As with commercial newspapers everywhere, this independence was hardly perfect. After all, the Cambridge of 50 years ago—like the Cambridge of today—was a small city of around 100,000 people. The Chronicle relied on ad revenue from local businesses, from city government, and from the two

As of 2017, about 50 percent of all local papers in the US were part of a cluster or megacluster.

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universities that dominated (and still dominate) city life, Harvard and MIT. Many of whose leaders likely knew the paper’s editors personally. If the editorials it published were too pointed against those institutions, ad revenue could easily go down—hurting its bottom line. So the tendency would have been to publish more even-handed editorials than calls to arms.

But for all that, Chronicle editors staked out positions that were inimitably their own. And pretty much every city and town with a population of a few thousand or more in Massachusetts, and across the United States, had at least one paper just like it.

Then, in the ’80s and ’90s, along came companies like GateHouse’s predecessors. And they started talking with papers like the Chronicle—that were often owned by a single family or small group of local investors—and they said, “This business is changing in ways you can’t keep up with, and running a newspaper is a tough way to make money… so why not take our generous cash offer, and get out while the getting’s good?”

And papers started taking those deals. As for the owners that didn’t… the ones that liked running their own newspaper or small chain and refused to sell… well, over time, they found themselves surrounded by clusters of publications owned by companies like GateHouse. And those companies squeezed them, made doing business more expensive, and cut heavily into their ad revenue.

Eventually forcing them to sell for sometimes less generous cash offers. Or risk losing everything.

So it went with the Cambridge Chronicle. Founded in 1846, the Dole family had bought it in the 1930s and merged it with rival Cambridge Sun in 1935. In 1991, they sold the paper to Fidelity Investments. Fidelity spun it off into its Community Newspaper Company division in 1996. That division was sold to the then Boston Herald owner Herald Media in 2001. And the Herald sold it to GateHouse in 2006.

Today, like most GateHouse newspapers, the remnant Chronicle no longer even has an office in Cambridge… the city it covers. Its staffer, Senior Multimedia Journalist Amy Salzman, has to work at a GateHouse office in Lexington and commute to Cambridge to do her reporting. The Chronicle no longer has its own editor. It shares an editor with other GateHouse papers—five per editor apparently being typical at the company these days, according to the local journalism grapevine.

It’s also worth mentioning that the official name of the People’s Republic periodical is Cambridge Chronicle & Tab. Reflecting Fidelty’s 1992 purchase of the Tab Communications Inc. chain of newsweeklies, and the eventual absorption of most of them into other local papers in the same group under GateHouse. Which finally happened in Cambridge with the internal merger of the Cambridge Chronicle and Cambridge Tab in 2012.

The damage done by such media consolidation to American journalism in general, and to Boston-area journalism in particular, has been catastrophic. Not just in terms of the quality of stories produced, but in terms of their quantity. Newspapers like the Chronicle can no longer cover their cities properly. One or two reporters simply cannot be everywhere at once, even assuming regular contributions from very poorly remunerated freelance writers. Meanwhile, the physical size of print newspapers has also been shrinking on cost grounds; so there is literally less space available to run more stories.

This is leading to wealthy cities like Cambridge and Somerville turning into “news deserts” of the type media scholars have come to expect in poor Midwestern and Southern cities that have long since lost most of their news outlets. Although both locales have seen efforts to fill the holes in coverage left by the winnowing of longestablished newspapers. Most notably, the online-only Cambridge Day—run continuously by my colleague Marc Levy since 2009, and featuring some archived material dating as far back as 2003.

Worse still, eliminating local independent newspapers and shrinking their megacorp-owned replacements is leading not just to a crisis in journalism, but to a crisis for our democracy. Because the information monoculture bred of newspaper megaclusters eliminates much of the lively public debate on issues of the day that was once the hallmark of American journalism. Without that intellectual ferment, curated by independent editors in ways the current social media circus cannot replace, the local press is reduced to yet another mouthpiece for vast corporations that already have plenty of them. So, here in the Boston area, over 100 newspapers that were once independent and spoke with their own editorial voices are now owned by one company—GateHouse—and therefore can all be ordered to speak with the voice of its wealthy owners. At any moment.

In this context, the dilemma of GateHouse running the same questionable teen wage editorial in roughly 26 of its daily and weekly newspapers around the Boston area can be seen in its proper light. It is an abuse of corporate power. Because it was never made clear that the editorial was written by someone other than the staff of every paper that ran it. And it was definitely never stated that said editorial was run in a large number of other GateHouse publications simultaneously.

No matter who is directly responsible for writing the editorial and publishing it in so many newspapers, GateHouse execs (and the New Media Investment Group Inc. execs that control them, and the Fortress Investment Group LLC execs who control them, and the SoftBank Group Corp. [a Japanese multinational] execs who control them, according to Ken Doctor) are ultimately to blame for creating the conditions that allow for such a breach of the public trust to occur. Whether it was a matter of overworked local editors or reporters grabbing a teen wage piece written by another of their number to fill their editorial holes a couple of weeks ago without either vetting it or coordinating with each other, or those same overworked local editors or reporters running the editorial in tandem with malice aforethought, or company executives ordering them to run it, the end result is the same.

When considered together with the fact that the financial interests of GateHouse and the main statewide lobby group in support of lowering the minimum wage for teens, the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, align far too closely for comfort—as I demonstrated in my first column on this situation—it should be obvious that newspaper megaclusters are a bad idea for everyone but their owners… and any corporate or political interest they happen to ally with.

In the 1830s, French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville in his landmark work Democracy in America said that the “power of the newspaper press” must “increase as the social conditions of men become more equal.” What, then, would he make of corporations like GateHouse Media?

Whose power is increasing as the social conditions of Americans are now becoming more unequal year by year. And whose willingness to use that power against their own audiences in pursuit of ever greater profit is unraveling the great promise of news media as a bedrock democratic institution that de Tocqueville so presciently identified almost two centuries ago.

Nothing good, I imagine. He might well say that no private entity should be allowed to own so many local news outlets in such close proximity to each other. Which is certainly a point that Americans need to impress upon our elected officials. Who should move to ban this practice at speed. But are currently moving in the opposite deregulatory direction. And will not reverse course. Unless forced to do so by popular movements for what one might call information justice.

So let’s get going on that.

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STILL FRIENDLY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS EATS

Boston’s Villa México and why hospitality still matters

BY MARC HURWITZ @HIDDENBOSTON One thing that often gets overlooked in these restaurantcrazy times is hospitality, as so often you hear about the quality of the food or drinks, the atmosphere, the “concept” (that’s a big one now), and the targeted customers, i.e., beautiful people, hipsters, business travelers, neighborhood folks, and so on. But what good is any of this if a place has a surly host, a server who goes out for a phone break every five minutes, or a manager who ignores complaints from diners?

This is why such customer-focused spots as J.J. Foley’s in the South End, Helmand in Cambridge, and Villa México Café in downtown Boston can be seen as a breath of fresh air, and it is this latter restaurant that is particularly impressive, because in some ways, going there feels almost like heading to a friend’s house for a nice, leisurely meal.

Villa México has actually moved around a bit over the years, getting its start in Woburn before moving to the back of a gas station on Cambridge Street on the edge of Beacon Hill where it became a media and industry darling, in part for its unique location along with its combination of terrific food and hospitality. The eatery was forced to shut down in early 2013 to make way for new development and at the time, it wasn’t a sure thing that it would ever open back up again. But owner Julie King and her daughter Bessie found a space on Water Street in the Financial District, and Villa México was reborn in early 2016 in a space much different from that of the long-closed gas station, but one that’s less hidden and has a bit more space for customers who wish to dine in (the gas station space only had a few loose chairs by a window).

The current location of the dining spot is open for breakfast, lunch, and a very early dinner, as the place typically closes around 6 pm, and as is the case with a >> VILLA MÉXICO. 121 WATER ST., BOSTON. VILLAMEXICOCAFE.US 8

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number of restaurants in the Financial District, it’s only open on weekdays, since the area tends to get pretty quiet when the offices shut down (and Water Street is a particularly quiet street with little foot—or car—traffic). The homey feeling of Villa México extends beyond its quiet location and plain but pleasant space, as Julie and Bessie treat their customers like family—and yes, that can often be an overused cliche, but in this case, it’s a wholly accurate one; as soon as people walk through the door, they’re greeted with a “How are you today, my friend?” along with warm smiles and a sense of caring that just isn’t found in the restaurant—or any—industry these days, which is perhaps why so many patrons are repeat customers who are on a first-name basis with the Kings.

When Villa México was in the gas station space, it was known mostly for its burritos and its black salsa, but now, the restaurant is known for a number of familiar Mexican food items that may seem a bit different from the Mexican-American versions of the dishes found at both the national chains and some local spots. Its website includes the line, “If we don’t eat it in Mexico, you won’t find it at our restaurant,” and indeed, Julie is from Mexico City, and the foods offered here are based on recipes from that area.

Highlights include the aforementioned burritos, which are placed on the grill to add a char and some crunchiness to the tortilla (there’s also a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs); the smoky black salsa that has a sneakily hot kick that can quickly catch up to you; a smoothly textured guacamole that’s relatively mild with little in the way of onions; soft corn tortilla tacos with any number of meats added, though the chorizo taco is a mind-blowing option that’s about as good a food item as you’ll find anywhere in the city; a mole

poblano plate that includes shredded chicken and a nicely balanced mole sauce; some old-school tamales that are very filling but not overly greasy (the shredded beef tamales are maybe the pick of the lot); quesadillas that will make you forget about the dried-out apps by the same name at your local sports bar; and a tres leches cake with a wonderfully creamy consistency. Prices at Villa México are pretty reasonable, with most dishes being under or right around $10.

On the surface, Boston’s Financial District has the look of a cold, soulless place, but it is surprisingly full of ma-and-pa businesses run by people who are genuinely interested in their customers. And Villa México is a solid example of this, being a home away from home for so many office workers who are looking for a quick, tasty bite to eat and a warm welcome that helps break up what might be an otherwise nondescript day.

BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU

ZERO GRAVITY CONEHEAD IPA A Vermont beer that lives up to tradition and is as good as the brewery says it is

BY CITIZEN STRAIN I really try my best to write reviews about the products I am judging, as opposed to about me. For as long as I can recall, I always hated critics who think readers give a damn about their personal relevant experience, but I guess sometimes you just have to break your own rules.

It was more than 20 years ago and I was 17 years old and touring colleges around New England. Already into drugs and alcohol at that point in my life (not an endorsement, just a fact), I knew that I was heading into special territory when my friends and I got to Vermont, not only for the outdoor weed that the Green Mountain State was well known for before people perfected indoor cultivation but more so for the things that small batch breweries were doing with suds.

I don’t remember every bottle and six-pack we copped using our fake IDs, but there was definitely some fantastic early batch Magic Hat, as well as seminal selections from Stone Brewing. Whatever flavors filled that cornucopia, I drove away from those few weeks with more than just a trunk full of beers that none of my uncles or friends had ever heard of; instead, I returned with a notion that whatever these places were doing with and to hops (a word I was unfamiliar with back then) was what everybody else should start doing as well.

Needless to say, I have major expectations when it comes to Vermont beer. That may be as silly as blindly adoring a professional sports team over the course of several years regardless of who plays for it; still, when I pour something as delicious as Conehead IPA from Zero Gravity down my alcohol hole, I don’t regret setting such an incredibly high bar. In this case, it’s a prize that stands out even among other greats, from those impressive Vermont pickings I first encountered as a teenager passing through to more contemporary tastes from the best breweries around New England or anyplace else.

I’m sure that some beer nerd will attempt to correct me on this next comment by pointing out ones that I’m overlooking, but in the stores I frequent it’s not very often that I find a wheat IPA worth imbibing. As someone who has a sensitive threshold for wheat taste—I can only stand so much clashing with the sharp-but-not-syrupy sweetness of my favorite IPAs—I have come to love Conehead in ways that were previously hard to imagine. It’s as simple as it’s perfect, and as a result easy to drink in large quantities—not in the same sense that makes Silver Bullets preferable for pounding, but rather in a way that the precision-focused Citra hops and light complexion make for something that won’t interrupt your dinner should your friend show up late and you end up sipping a few Coneheads before mealtime. I’d typically call this a summer beer, and in many ways I guess it is, but it warms the soul just fine in the cold months as well.

Finally, I want to shout out Burnt Out Beer Guy, whose recent blog post, “Is Craft Beer Burning Out,” provides a good explainer for people who want to know why we would review something like Conehead, which has been making appearances around here for more than a decade. “This insatiable need for new is robbing craft breweries of the time it takes to perfect their beers,” he rants. “Because the truth is that most of the world’s greatest beers didn’t taste that way after the first batch.

Brewers would have spent months, and in some cases even years, tinkering and tweaking, raising a degree of temperature here, moving a hop addition another few minutes later in the boil there, in order to fine-tune and perfect their recipes.

“But now that craft is being compromised by the hashtag generation and some craft breweries are beginning to crack under the strain … there’s simply no time left over these days to refine. It’s corner-cutting, sloppy but inevitable as brewers come under increasing pressure to conjure up something different every week.”

And then there are the modern classics, like Conehead, that get better and better. If readers didn’t know about this particular pick already, now they do, and last time I checked, that’s what beer reviews are for.

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LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS FEATURE

For black gun advocates in purple Mass, criticism comes in red, white, and blue

BY DANIEL KAUFMAN Pierre Salomon’s car is what a dorm at boot camp might look like if all the drill sergeants just up and left, leaving freshly minted cadets to their own devices.

Camo fatigues are strewn between seats, while T-shirts bearing the respective logos “NRA” and “BLACK GUNS MATTER” balance on the dash.

A military dress uniform hangs from a hook, its plastic sheath trailing into a carpeting of notebooks, snack wrappers, crumpled documents, and a lone calculator.

In the back seat, two large black gun cases peek out from under a Don’t Tread on Me hat and more camo gear. Pierre grins as he clears off a space.

“Welcome to the armory.”

Salomon first came to Dorchester in 1995 from Haiti, leaving his grandmother and following his older brother and sister after his parents finally saved enough money to pay for everything from lawyers to airfare. He graduated from the Burke in 2008 and shipped off to boot camp the following summer.

Between tours in Afghanistan, where he served as a CBURN specialist (training people how to protect against chemical, biological and nuclear weapons) and as a machine gunner for transport convoys, Pierre double majored in sociology and criminal justice at UMass Boston.

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Speaking with him in a car filled by markers of his military background and current company’s commitments, it’s clear that he considers this his calling.

“After Afghanistan I worked as an EMT, as a DHS security contractor, some random odd jobs,” he says. “But … there’s just nothing that can compare to building something up with your own two hands.”

Based in Swansea, his Salomon Firearms Training offers classes in hand-to-hand combat in addition to firearms training and courses for self-defense instructors. SFT provides security contracting and armed escorts, and also conducts free trainings in Dorchester and South Boston for residents who wouldn’t otherwise have access to firearms training and education.

For Salomon, this is a way of life as well as a source of income. At the same time, since there are guns involved, his practices and beliefs are inherently political, and therefore have attracted some detractors—from all sides of the spectrum. Since Salomon sometimes offers classes specifically geared toward women or “young black men and boys,” for example, conservatives have accused him of reverse-racism and reverse-sexism. Sometimes they even flame him on Facebook, with one troll going so far as to contact local gun ranges and warn them not to partner with

him on the basis of his employing “discriminatory practices.”

Others go even further, describing Pierre’s students as “thugs” and “criminals.”

“This is what you get when you try to break the grip of a racist gun culture,” he tells me. “This is why I do what I do, because black people in this country have a constitutional right just like everybody else to arm themselves and to learn how to safely and legally own firearms. Racists have this belief that everything is entitled to them, so witnessing black people picking up guns and redefining what that image looks like of a well-trained black man holding a gun is a scary thing to those people.”

Among the many parties under the anti-gun umbrella, some advocates for public health and safety say the main problem is with the ease of access to firearms. For professor Stephanie Shapiro Berkson, public health lecturer at the University of Illinois and a violence prevention activist, there are several micro issues within the larger discussion about black gun ownership.

“If you want to talk about racial inequality around guns,” says Berkson, “then you have to talk about the disparity LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS continued on pg. 12

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LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS continued from pg. 10 in gun deaths. The leading cause of death for black males between the ages of 15 and 35 is from gun violence. That is a staggering statistic and the remedy is … effective gun control legislation.”

As for racism in gun culture, Berkson points to the NRA, and the role the organization plays in developing the popular narrative about people of color and their firearms.

“When the NRA comes out and says they support gun rights for all law-abiding citizens, I think this is a pretty racist tactic when you look at our failed criminal justice system, which systematically categorizes people of color as criminals at a vastly disproportionate rate than whites. In my mind, we need to push for both increased common-sense gun control in addition to criminal justice reform … to even begin to combat racial inequity.”

CALLING THE SHOTS

On a Saturday morning in South Boston, people shuffle into a large conference room at the Holiday Inn Express.

Coffee percolates in the corner; music from a party in the room next door floats above friendly chatter.

Salomon stands by the door, beaming, as his students of all ages, from 10 to 70, stream in. He jokes and bounces around, shaking hands in front of a hotel table sagging under the weight of assault rifles, an AK-47, even a Dirty Harry-style revolver. They’re just for show, but if people fill out the required forms they can begin the licensing process and, if they qualify, acquire firearms of their own.

Some attendees say they’ve taken time out of their weekend to attend the training because they’ve seen skeet shooting on TV and want to learn for themselves. Others came because they want to get licensed in order to protect their families. All are black, and the vast majority, regardless of their initial reason for attending, view their participation in part as an act of defiance—especially after Salomon’s starting remarks: “If you think it’s hard being a gun owner in Massachusetts, you better believe it’s even harder carrying while black.”

As morning slips into afternoon, students learn about proper gun storage, the application process for a license, and the difference between an automatic and semiautomatic weapon. They also discuss challenges that black gun owners face—from harder access, to restrictions in some urban areas, to sometimes lethal discrimination from law enforcement. Reference is made to both Philando Castile and Emantic Bradford, both of whom were black, legally licensed to carry a firearm, and shot and killed by the police.

One student asks about the risk of being added to a terrorist watch list, a nod to the FBI’s recent creation of a “Black Identity Extremism” task force.

While parts of Salomon’s presentation pass for progressive, others lean more toward the right. The NRA, long associated with American conservatives and law enforcement, plays prominently in both the curriculum and the instructor’s wardrobe. I ask Salomon about this potential

conflict of interest.

“Look, do I think the NRA is racist?” he says. Then answers, “No. But have I experienced individuals within the NRA who are racist? Yes.” Salomon continues, “The bottom line is that the NRA protects the second amendment and through their programs I’ve been able to train hundreds of black people who otherwise wouldn’t have the resources to obtain a license to carry.”

At the same time, Salomon says he “is also part of a group called NAAGA (National African American Gun Association), because a lot of black people don’t feel like the NRA supports them. After Philando Castile got shot six times with his family in the car, the NRA was silent.

The only time they ever said something was like, Well, he had marijuana in his system.”

Salomon says he was initially inspired to start his community training outreach after meeting Maj Toure, the founder of the group Black Guns Matter, which seeks “to educate people in urban communities on their Second Amendment rights and responsibilities through firearms training and education.” Frequently quoted in the media, Toure travels all around the country holding free workshops in urban centers. NRA spokespeople have joined him to speak to attendees on some occasions, spurring criticism from some gun violence prevention groups.

“Let’s get one thing straight, the NRA is an industry lobbying organization whose sole goal is to represent the gun industry and advocate for their continued ability to make profits by limiting regulations on firearms,” says Angus Mcquilken, a co-founding member of Mass Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence. “What has made Massachusetts the safest state in America when it comes to gun violence isn’t safety training, or NRA-sponsored classes. It’s the years of public policy work and dedication of public servants and activists that have made our state the standard bearer for effective gun regulation in this country.”

“Look, the NRA doesn’t own me,” Salomon says about such blanket criticism. “I’m my own person, and while they provide me training resources, I’m still the one calling the shots in the end of the day.”

PICKING SIDES

A few weeks after the safety class I meet Pierre at Boston Gun and Rifle in Dorchester, where firearms instructor and operator Gary Kaplan describes the range as the city’s “best-kept secret for lead-starved tourists and firearm enthusiasts.”

Hidden away in a discreet building in Fields Corner, Boston Gun and Rifle was first opened as a private shooting club for Cambridge detectives in the ’70s and was used solely for law enforcement training until last year, when the range started offering classes to the general public.

Inside there’s a large classroom, a shop selling targets and ammo, and an open locker room plastered in NRA posters and bumper stickers emblazoned with “Liberal Free Zone.” The large firing room is next door.

As we wait for the range to open, I talk to Salomon’s students before he joins us. They’re all in their late teens and say they want to be like their instructor when they grow up, owning a successful business and giving back to people in their community.

“The first time I met Pierre, the first time anybody meets Pierre, it’s like you’ve known him your whole life,” one student tells me. “He’s just got those crazy love vibes, you know?”

It’s true, Salomon radiates an energy and openness that’s hard to match. Beyond that, he doesn’t get flustered or aggravated, even when people ask questions he’s heard a million times, or press him on the politics of gun ownership.

In the locker room, Salomon’s students discuss gun models, jiujitsu, and politics. Everyone is in favor of singlepayer healthcare. They’re not so hot on Donald Trump. When the subject of medical bills comes up, Salomon recalls a story from his time spent working as an EMT. Remembering the patient pleading with him not to take her back to an inadequate and underfunded senior care facility, the teacher takes a minute to reflect on the failures of for-profit care.

“We need less time spent on banning magazine capacities and shit like that, and more time spent organizing for lifting people out of poverty in this country,” says Djeneson Noel, a 19-year-old from Everett. “Sometimes all this gun control stuff feels like a distraction from the real killers out there: insurance providers.”

The young men laugh and nod, then walk through a bulletproof door leading to the range.

It’s a motley assemblage of ideologies and political takes, radicals and reactionaries, children and seniors that regularly swirls around here. The scene can be disorienting to an outsider, but for Salomon it is reflective of his personality. Between enthusiastic bites of a hoagie and phone calls from his fleet of security contractors, the instructor says that his political affiliation is staunchly “independent.”

“With the political turmoil in this country right now, I just take people policy by policy where I can,” Salomon says.

“Where I can’t, I just keep it moving.

“I’m done with the Facebook arguments and the namecalling. I’m done with people telling me who I can and can’t be. I’m tired of people yelling at me, Pick a side! Pick a side!

“I’m on the side of productivity. I’m on the side of changing lives for the better.”

This article was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. For more reporting like this check out binjonline.org, and to help support more journalism like this visit givetobinj.org.

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SKETCHBOOK MUSIC

Endlessly creative Cliff Notez curates clever new live music series

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON At this point, Cliff Notez is going through that thing where he is largely seen as something of a sudden star exploding out of Boston overnight, when in reality he is a solidly accomplished artist who has self-produced five albums, including his standout solo debut, When the Sidewalk Ends, as well as a film director with some festivals and honors under his belt.

Nevertheless, on the heels of a 2018 Boston Music Award for New Artist of the Year, Notez and his media collective and company, HipStory, are bound to be seen and heard much more, and that’s always a positive development. Before he takes off on a national tour, Notez is curating an ambitious three-part miniseries that will see him rock with “future soul” duo Optic Bloom and Brockton rapper Luke Bar$ (January), as well as Treva Holmes (February), Red Shaydez (March), and Forté (February).

It all goes down at Atwood’s, which says the collection of Cliff Notez sessions, called Sketchbook, “is a major step forward in greater Boston venues making space for the growing hiphop community.”

Notez broke down his plan and motivation for us.

We belong in all the same places every other artist has the opportunity to be in.

Your style is incredibly unique, somewhere between traditional boom bap and spoken word. Super poetic, as I’m sure you know. What kind of venues have you found up until this point are the best fit for your music?

I don’t think I’m out here trying to be intentionally different; the uniqueness in my music comes from my upbringing. My whole life has been fast-moving and constantly transitioning. It could be a symptom of my ADHD, or maybe it’s related to the 13-plus different homes, or dealing with homeless[ness] repeatedly in in the last 15 years of my life. I’ve been raised by a lot of different environments and cultures, so I think that’s why my art reflects so many different things. That mindset of constantly having to readjust and “fit in” in different environments has helped open the door for a lot of different opportunities.

On a surface level, to the public, I’m just a rapper from Boston, which creates a more difficult environment to get the respect and recognition I may or may not deserve to book certain venues. It wasn’t until we created our own venues with HipStory House Parties that we really started to garner some attention to finally be booked in more “legit” venues. My team’s openness to play mixed bills now has been important to our growth.

To this day we’ve played more mixed bills than straight hip-hop shows. Unfortunately, that has been an anomaly in Boston, but the more I’ve played these mixed bills, and seen others do it throughout the city to success, the more their necessity has become apparent. Playing spaces that previously did not book hip-hop as much, like what we’re doing with Atwood’s, is the next step.

Most people don’t expect for a Boston Music Award to immediately lead to fame and fortune, but community recognition can be an important part of any artist’s growth. Have any doors opened for you over the past few months? Is the Atwood’s gig one of them?

Personally, I’m not really looking for fame, to be honest. I’m so grateful for the BMA and have trouble wrapping my mind around it all. Since then, other than some shows that were booked prior to the BMAs, I’ve

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PHOTO OF CLIFF NOTEZ BY BRUNEI DENEUMOSTIER been in “hiding” in the studio, trying to catch up and make sense of everything.

Unfortunately, I lost my brother a little over a week after the BMAs. He was a major, major influence for my first album, When the Sidewalk Ends, and integral to everything that culminated the night of the awards.

What has been most important, and I don’t know if this is directly connected to the BMAs at all, is seeing the amount of love and support I’ve received from complete

strangers who check on me and make sure I’m doing ok.

I think finally leaving my hermit crab shell, and seeing that there are people out here who have heard my testimony through my music and care enough just to see that I’m ok, or give me food, or send me pictures of their puppies, has been beautiful.

I’m just starting to see the potential that the award has to make a major impact on my career, but the thing that’s most important for me is being able to connect

with people and feel human.

How did this whole collaboration come about? Who approached who?

Atwood’s is a cozy favorite. We’ve written about it on more than one occasion. And it has a ton of great music too. But it’s never been much of a hiphop venue. Is your series something new for it? Or is it more something new for you, rocking in that kind of laid-back OPTIC BLOOM intimate venue? Is it a bit of both?

I spent the month of November at MASS MoCA for a residency, and the very last show that I had done before that residency, and the last show before I performed at the BMAs, was a show at Atwood’s with Aisha Burns. It was the first show I’d sold out as a headliner.

Ben, a relatively new booking agent at Atwood’s, had reached out months before that wanting to do more hip-hop shows. Coincidentally, I do some work at Pink Noise around the corner and I literally read his email as I walked by Atwood’s. It was like fate, haha. I was thrown off and almost had to read the subject line twice, like, “Atwoods Tavern, are y’all familiar with what kinda artist I am?”

I was down regardless, after doing a ton of Sofar Sounds shows last year and growing up in the slam poetry world, I already had an affinity for doing intimate venues. Putting together this residency has been really important because I’m not an island out here in the Boston hip-hop scene. There are so many artists that are extremely talented and deserve stages, venues, and audiences. Everyone wins when they win, I promise. It was the reason why I started HipStory, my belief in myself and the dope friends I have in this city, and our ability to put on a dope show, wherever we are—Paradise, my apartment, the MFA, or Atwood’s Tavern. We belong in all the same places every other artist has the opportunity to be in.

RED SHAYDEZ What was your vision for the series going into it? How and why did you go about tapping your collaborators? What will Sketchbook look like in motion?

My vision has been to just have a dope show, honestly. This isn’t a major production where we have billion-dollar budgets, business plans, and whiteboards filled with logistics. I think that’s the point; this is just a normal dope-as-fuck show.

And it’s as simple as putting it together. There’s a lot of fears that people have with putting together a show with hip-hop on the bill, and it stems from structural and institutionalized racism, honestly.

I encourage people to do the research and see how this has plagued our music scene for years. But this, this is just a series of shows that should have been happening for years. Hopefully people can see that, see how possible it is to continue the trend. The collaborators we’ve chosen are legit just all friends, homies. People whose music I enjoy and come from the same neighborhoods as me. We didn’t do a huge search to find these talents, they’re been working in the scene. It’s not hard to be surrounded by immense talent in a small city like Boston. All you gotta do is take your blindfold off and open your eyes, [birdbox voice] it’s beautiful.

CLIFF NOTEZ PRESENTS SKETCHBOOK. ALL PERFORMANCES (LISTED BELOW) ARE AT ATWOODS TAVERN, 877 CAMBRIDGE ST., CAMBRIDGE. Fri 1.25, 10pm — Cliff Notez with Optic Bloom Fri 2.22, 10pm — Treva Holmes with Forte Fri 3.29, 10pm — Red Shaydez with Mint Green

TREVA HOLMES

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TRIGGERED PERFORMANCE ART

‘This is a conversation nobody in our community wants to have’

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON in our community wants to have, and it’s just hard for men and men of color to talk about.

We have a system problem similarly to the Catholic church. Realistically, are there more male victims of color in the Catholic Church community and we just don’t know because they do not disclose? … There are more questions than answers until we create space for men of color to feel safe to disclose and anticipate a helpful supportive response.

Systems of care are not set up, either specifically for men, or that readily welcome men in general. Men of color do not trust any of those systems and/or its practitioners, including doctors, police, or clinicians. There is there no faith that anything is going to change, and many times mental health providers are not always men.

IMAGES COURTESY OF TEAM TRIGGERED

If Keith Mascoll and his Boston-based Team Triggered aren’t on your radar just yet, there’s a solid chance that they will capture your attention in 2019. On the strength of a successful three-day run of their “collaborative, multimedia, multi-sensory, empathy-generating” show at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury last March, they’re taping a one-night-only performance of Triggered at the BCA this month and are planning a full run in Boston later this year. We asked Mascoll about the growth and development of his project and the challenge of sparking discussions about trauma in the black community.

The big centerpiece here is that “while the visibility of what we call ‘trauma’ has become more tangible as of late, the visibility of black male trauma remains elusive.” Since there is seemingly so much in this regard that is elusive, how have you and your creative partners along the way gone about selecting narratives that will cover a lot of ground?

Our first step is to acknowledge the historical impact on the definition of black masculinity which have connections to the legacies of post-slavery contexts.

This first step is critical to ensure that black/brown men are able to connect to the intergenerational context, to begin to externalize their working definitions of masculinity. Secondly, the character of Malik is a composite of real men of color’s stories over a number of years from our psychologist consultant, so we are able to make sure the narrative is authentic. The other character, Keith, is my own personal story as a survivor.

The combination of two completely different characters and their narratives helps the audience find a story they can relate to.

You write that Triggered is “more than a play—it’s an inherently collaborative, multimedia, multi-sensory, empathygenerating story.” While it is certainly unique, are there any performances, shows, anything that really served as an inspiration for the format?

Our director/playwright, John Oluwole Adekoje, is a filmmaker, and his plays create incredible images on stage of characters that make it hard to look away from the pain they suffer. When we talked about the project with our psychologist consultant, it was clear that the most important element was to ensure that audience members were able to “see” the trigger happen in the body physically and in the brain. So, we decided to use projection to show the connection between the emotions and triggering events’ impact while the characters are telling stories.

There are many people that really struggle to understand what is happening with survivors internally, and as a result, judgement is created based on society norms and/or expectations, which is often not helpful. … A number of men of color [have] to walk around with unresolved trauma.

Triggered has taken place at the Dudley Library, Hibernian Hall, and now the BCA. How different is the experience in these different venues, and what is it like to adapt in such a nomadic fashion?

The Dudley branch of the Boston Public Library was a[n] open rehearsal that focused on inviting the audience to provide feedback from a community perspective in the beginning stages of development

With the Catholic Church being so notorious around here for its abuse of predominantly white boys, especially in cases that have made headlines, has that story in any way overshadowed comparable horrors in communities of color?

I would not say that it overshadowed the horrors in communities of color; it tucked it away even more.

If anyone stepped up and spoke out, would any news outlet or anyone else care? This is a conversation nobody >> TEAM TRIGGERED. 1.25 AT THE BCA, 527 TREMONT ST., BOSTON. TRIGGERED1.COM 16

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of the first iteration of the script. At Hibernian Hall, we had the capacity to create a[n] “in the round” stage to nurture a deeper level of intimacy between the actor and audience. In turn, the audience could feel the passion of the show and what it felt like physically and emotionally to be inside the minds of the Malik and Keith characters while they told their stories.

John Oluwole Adekoje was committed to bring the same intimate feel of Hibernian Hall to the BCA Wimberly Theatre. This is the magic of Adekoje’s talent, drawing the audience in and leaving very little space for escape emotionally and physically. As we continue to take in feedback from our audience members of color, we make changes to continue to reflect the experiences of the community. We changed the order of the performance, adding new technical gadgets to help the audience distinguish the characters Malik and Keith.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the “talkbacks facilitated by mental health clinicians” that follow some performances? How will that look for the Boston performance?

It is so important that as we talk about trauma we are being responsible and acknowledging the audience [and] their own experiences of being triggered. It is also important that we have support of clinicians, which includes licensed social workers, psychologists, advocates, and case managers to grow their own practice to be prepared to service and support men of color.

I hear there are a lot more tangential projects in the works—a podcast, a longer run. What can you tell us?

Especially for people who won’t get to see this one?

Yes, we have a show in Atlanta in April 2019 at the National Association of Black Social Workers 51st Annual Conference, which includes a workshop for clinicians of color specifically. We are having discussions with Greatest Minds located at Georgia State University to bring Triggered to their young students of color.

The podcast is called “Living a Triggered Life,” which will feature myself and my partner Roxann discussing being in a long-term relationship when there are past trauma issues and how we navigate it as a couple. We will have guests and resources for men and women as well. We also have a written curriculum, so we can offer workshops after the show with young people and adults.

We will center our work around redefining the narrative, with choices of different activities depending on where each participant is emotionally. We plan to do a full run in Boston next season, and are looking to do a run in New York, LA, and Chicago.

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THEATER REVIEWS PERFORMING ARTS

BY JILLIAN KRAVATZ AND JUAN A. RAMIREZ

Same Day, Different Shit: A lively, provoking return to Ibsen’s classic with A Doll’s House, Pt. 2 at the Huntington Theatre

Women with carpet bags have a way of coming back.

Some, like Mary Poppins in Disney’s recent flick Mary Poppins Returns, choose to do so during a windstorm, floating down from the sky through parting clouds.

Others, like Nora (yes, that Nora, Henrik Ibsen’s controversial heroine who, finding herself trapped by debt and a dissatisfying marriage, chooses to leave her husband and children behind to pursue her own happiness), take a more conventional approach. In the Huntington Theatre’s current production of A Doll’s House, Part 2, Nora simply knocks on the door.

From the start, Lucas Hnath’s Tony-nominated sequel to Ibsen’s classic play amuses. After 15 long years Nora (played brilliantly by Mary Beth Fisher) waltzes right back into the world she left behind at the end of Ibsen’s 1879 play.

Nora’s return is not a sentimental one. She’s here on business. She returns not destitute or ruined, but rather draped in velvet and silk, having become a successful women’s novelist. (“I write books!” she exclaims, spreading her hands out as if striking a pose in a saucy Fosse number.) What’s more, having touted anti-marriage arguments throughout her oeuvre, she is appalled to have discovered that her marriage is still legally intact. Through what she believes was an oversight, her ex-husband Torvald never actually filed for divorce.

The secret threatens her entire career and she arrives determined to change it.

Her method? Repeatedly and incessantly defending not only her initial abandoning of her family, but her contentment and desire for the divorce. Hnath’s script delightfully brings Nora face-to-face with the people she abandoned, and director Les Waters keeps the confrontations punchy. Through fraught and often funny conversations with Anne Marie (Nancy E. Carroll), the nurse who raised her children and kept up her home after she left; Torvald, the abandoned husband; and Emmy, Nora’s daughter, Nora fearlessly argues her way out of guilt, responsibility, and the backward notions about women’s roles that she rejects outright.

Nora’s flaws are the same as ever. She is as brazenly self-interested and as exhausting in her defense of herself as she was in Ibsen’s original. Only now she has the sharp edge of education and the hammer of experience in her tool kit.

At one point Nora pulls a glass carafe from her carpet bag and takes a swig. It’s a distinctly modern mode: How many women do we see on the street pulling designer glass water bottles out of their leather tote bags?

Huntington’s production thrives in these anachronisms (fairly traditional costumes that belong more to the 19th century paired with the 2019 millennial-inflected banter about self-care). Before the play begins, for example, Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want” plays in the house while people find their seats. The song is a sweet ode to humble servitude in the name of love, the very thing Nora fled.

Emmy (played by a point-blank, lip-pursing Nikki Massoud) argues that she finds the prospect of being alone for the rest of her life deeply unsatisfying, questioning her mother’s selfishness and announcing her own plans to marry. Emmy wants to build a home. She wants what Joni sang so beautifully: “I wanna shampoo you, I wanna renew you again and again.” Nora probably prefers one of the productions’s other introductory tunes: Carole King’s “It’s Too Late.”

Just as Emmy contradicts Nora, Nora disagrees with 18

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Torvald. Nora feels that freedom, above all, is what women want and need to be in a “true marriage.” Torvald (John Judd) fixates on why Nora never stuck around to work things out. Isn’t the trying and the fighting the truest marriage there is? Hnath’s play deftly argues both positions, and the best aspect of the play at large is how different arguments dance around one another, each taking the lead for a few minutes before losing it to a different stance.

Another striking feature of Huntington’s current production is its set design. Andrew Boyce’s scenic scheme for the show is shockingly stark—the ceilings are impossibly tall, the walls are almost unbelievably blank.

The effect of the almost blank stage drives home the hole Nora left when she walked out. Characters sit facing one another, but where a table should be, there is nothing.

Where a family should or could be, there’s emptiness.

“I’m my best self if I’m by myself” Nora says to Torvald near the end of the play, as if independence and the seeking of any ideal or “best self” is even an option for most people. “Still,” she admits to Torvald, “It’s nice to sit with you” And it’s nice to sit in the beautiful Huntington Theatre, listening to some semblance of a family try to work out whatever it is we are all trying to work out.

A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2. THROUGH 2.4. HUNTINGTON AVENUE THEATRE, 264 HUNTINGTON AVE. HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG -Kravatz

Seeds of Mistrust in A.R.T.’s Othello

Othello, William Shakespeare’s quintessential tale of race-baiting political treachery, has more connections to contemporary society than one might care to admit (or write down). As observed in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production, now in performance at the American Repertory Theater, the story of a virtuous black leader brought down by the vindictive white nationalists around him remains as fresh as society is rotten.

Transplanted from 16th-century Venice to a present-day US Army base, where televisions line the fitness center and push notifications alert the men of incoming attacks, the bard’s words and deeds remain the same. Passed over for a promotion by the Moorish admiral, Othello,

a vengeful Iago creates a destructive whirlwind of xenophobia and mistrust to get himself the position of which he believes himself worthy.

Each Shakespeare interpretation has the chance to highlight a different aspect of the well-known works, and this one distinguishes itself by presenting Iago as a cuckolded MAGA bro. Indelibly played by Danforth Comins as a vindictive man-child obsessed with the physical details of Othello and Desdemona’s nuptials, this Iago never once considers the consequence of his actions.

Accompanied by sly grins, his thoughts on racial impurity and “the fruits of whoring” echo the dog-whistle remarks we so often hear from powerful people who seek to profit from deplorable behavior without engaging it head-on.

Comins brings this villain of villains down to human size without reaching for sympathy yet is still seductive in forcing those around him into quiet compliance.

The same dynamic cohesion is not found in Chris Butler’s Othello, who swings wildly from noble statesmanship to fits of jealous rage at the implication that his wife has been unfaithful. Despite these jarring shifts in tone, Butler still turns in a convincing, if stagnant, portrayal as the doomed leader.

The rest of the cast is mostly excellent, and three particular performers make the most of their roles, even as the second half of the production adopts a grim aura that might have benefited from treating itself as the soapy melodrama it truly presents. Rainbow Dickerson as Bianca, a scorned lover targeted by Iago’s misogyny; Stephen Michael Spencer as Roderigo, the bumbling fool who carries out Iago’s dirty work; and Amy Kim Waschke as Emilia, Iago’s put-upon wife, all take lush bites out of roles that might easily fall to the wayside.

Though Bill Rauch’s direction and Christopher Acebo’s scenic design set an excellent stage for three hours of treachery and backstabbing, the production starts to lag a bit as each piece of Iago’s diabolical puzzle starts to fall into place. Since his wicked machinations are laid bare from the start, indulging a bit in their nastiness might be the key to keep the play’s second half from feeling like a drawn-out funeral march. Then again, such an indulgence might just have been what Shakespeare was warning against. In that case, on we march…

OTHELLO. THROUGH 2.9 AT LOEB DRAMA CENTER. 64 BRATTLE ST., CAMBRIDGE. AMERICANREPERTORYTHEATER. ORG -Ramirez

ALEJANDRA ESCALANTE, CHRIS BUTLER, AND AMY KIM WASCHKE IN OTHELLO .

PHOTO: NATASHA MOUSTACHE

LIVE MUSIC • PRIVATE EVENTS 1/24 Crossroads Presents:

Daddy Issues

PHOTO BY MARK S. HOWARD, COURTESY OF LYRIC STAGE

(Grunge pop alien punk)

The Wolves Score Big at Lyric Stage

1/25 Crossroads Presents:

“Maybe we shouldn’t use the B-word?”

The ways a group of teenage girls treat each other is often at the forefront of The Wolves. In the Lyric Stage production of Sarah DeLappe’s one-act play about a girl’s indoor soccer team, they often argue about what they like and don’t like being called—but this isn’t an “issue” play, or one that suffocates you with Big Lessons about civility or feminism. No, after 90 minutes with the most hospitable wolfpack imaginable, what stands out aren’t the discussion topics that get kicked around and punted back, but the drive that keeps these girls together.

Within a safety-netted patch of AstroTurf, the nine girls (and one Soccer Mom) who make up the winning ensemble do their exhausting warm-up rituals throughout their junior year season. Limbs outstretched and kneepads secured, they run around doing buttkicks while debating the morality of the Khmer Rouge’s regime, the hotness of their stepdads, and the practical intersection between religion and tampons.

The girls are in no short supply for conversation, and the play allows their individual personalities to come through in a way that is almost shockingly naturalistic. Some have known each other their whole lives, others are newer additions to the team, and one, played with heartbreaking sincerity by Lydia Barnett-Mulligan, has just moved into the country and—rumor has it—takes three different buses to practice. With an outsider’s grimace affixed to her face, yet an undeniable talent for “football,” she makes a solid case for the quietest performances having the strongest of impacts.

To single out Barnett-Mulligan is a bit unfair, since The Wolves is an ensemble piece through and through. And, God, what an ensemble; each actor creates such a vivid personality amidst the cacophony of the overlapping dialogue, it’s easy to let time pass by and enjoy these girls’ company for their messy, hilarious camaraderie.

DeLappe’s dialogue, laden with the “likes” and “ums” teenagers are prone to overuse, is not often the easiest to make seem real, and yet the cast slips so easily into their roles, it’s hard not to, like, forget about diction as they tirelessly do laps around the audience.

What little story there is happens only during the play’s final moments, and while it certainly kicks the emotions into higher gear, it seems a bit forced after an hour of conversational sport. Only then does it feel like a play occurring and, by that point, director A. Nora Long has let the characters breathe and exist in a way that doesn’t need much obvious plotting. The suddenness of the drama, which has, until now, been largely absent as the play checks in on the team throughout various warm-ups, shows an otherwise invisible author’s hand coming in for a final word.

But, really, this is the girls’ time, and the ensemble takes the material and runs, involving us in the concerns, big and small, of a team of dedicated young athletes with the relaxed authenticity of a Richard Linklater film. The Wolves avoids easy “ragtag team” trappings by sidestepping the usual archetypes and showing us the girls’ distinct selves as dynamic, lived-in, and natural.

THE WOLVES. THROUGH 2.3 AT THE LYRIC STAGE. 140 CLARENDON ST., BOSTON. LYRICSTAGE.COM

-Ramirez

Boyfriend (Rap cabaret)

1/26

ONCE in Valhalla

Ten course Viking feast by Cuisine en Locale 1/28

Forn, SEA, Vile Creature, Dawn Ray’d Metal in the Lounge 1/30

Choose Your Own Adventure Karaoke in the lounge with Jean

156 Highland Ave • Somerville, MA 617-285-0167 oncesomerville.com a @oncesomerville b/ONCEsomerville NEWS TO US

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EXCHANGE PROGRAM FILM

On Eastern Condors at the Coolidge

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

IMAGE FROM FILM EASTERN CONDORS, DIRECTED BY SAMMO HUNG, CINEMATOGRAPHY BY ARTHUR WONG The Coolidge Corner Theatre’s January program of midnight movies, “East Meets West,” has paired screenings of samurai or martial arts films on Friday nights with screenings of spaghetti westerns on Saturdays. It’s been a typically strong and varied series from the Coolidge team, as usual comprising 35mm screenings of both canonized favorites (it opened with Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo [1961] and Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars [1964]) and rarely screened genre-cinema obscurities (in the weeks since, it played Gianfranco Parolini’s Sabata [1969] and Feng-Chi Yu’s Queen Boxer [1972]). The film playing this Friday night, Sammo Hung’s Eastern Condors [1987], belongs more to the latter category. Reportedly something of a flop on its original Hong Kong release, the film received neither the commercial success nor the critical acclaim granted by international audiences to many other movies released by its studio, Golden Harvest, for example falling behind the films made by Hung’s peer and regular collaborator Jackie Chan, such as Police Story [1985] and Police Story Part II [1989], both of which play at the Coolidge in newly restored digital presentations early next month. Having not received such preservation or canonization (the first two Police Story films will also join the much-vaunted Criterion Collection in April), Eastern Condors will play the Coolidge via an old 35mm print, all for the better so far as I’m concerned, thus offering local audiences what is sure to be one of their last chances to see the film on its original format. That’s an opportunity I implore you not to miss. A war movie that takes significant influence from a disparate selection of different action-cinema traditions of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, Hung’s film has antecedents from across the globe but very few equals.

Eastern Condors engages specifically with two Hong Kong action-cinema traditions and one then-fashionable American subgenre. The latter is the “convicted men on a mission” subgenre, which flourished in the years following the release of Robert Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen [1967]. Like that film, Eastern Condors follows a crew of men (either Chinese or Vietnamese depending on which dub you’re watching) who are pulled out of prison so they can go on a suicide mission behind enemy lines (to blow up a large arsenal of US missiles left in Vietnam after the end of the war). The action sequences within that narrative vary in mode. Some push onscreen gunplay to absurdly violent ends in the manner of the “heroic bloodshed” tradition practiced by contemporaneous directors like John Woo

(whose own underscreened masterpiece, Bullet in the Head [1990], shares with Eastern Condors a large debt toward Vietnam War-era American cinema, specifically The Deer Hunter [1979]). Others are composed to display elaborate hand-to-hand combat exchanges, other martial artsbased stunts, and copious balletic dives and movements, and in these moments Eastern Condors is closer in spirit to the films directed by Hung’s fellow Peking Opera school-trained contemporaries like the aforementioned Chan (who himself starred in a number of Hung’s other directorial works, such as the sublime Wheels on Meals [1984]).

What Eastern Condors shares most with the films directed by Chan, as well as with Hung’s own larger filmography, is the genuine sense of awe it displays toward all the athletic feats its crew demonstrates. To wit, one of the film’s primary formal techniques is the use of slowmotion long shots within action sequences, a trick it uses to capture astonishing images of physicality, which include but are not limited to: a fucking crazy spot where two people jump toward each other while spinning in midair and collide just in time for one of them to kick the other in the gut; another where Hung’s character springs across a series of outstretched platforms as if they were strips off a trampoline; and of course shots depicting characters running, running, running toward their enemies, usually with a knife or gun or bayonet at their side. There is, in fact, even a recurring soundtrack effect used for those shots of characters sprinting in slow motion, making it as official a motif as one can get—a soundtrack effect that decades later was used again in a similar moment of the film Inglourious Basterds [2009], forming yet another link in the there-and-back-again cultural exchange chain that Eastern Condors finds itself all bound up in.

Those mixtures produces strange effects. From The Dirty Dozen, from Platoon [1986], from The Deer Hunter, and really just from the overall demeanor of the American cinema in the ’70s and early ’80s, Hung’s film inherits a pervasive mood of defeatist cynicism that is directed toward the Vietnam War, yes, but also just directed toward the way that Americans treat one another on a more general level (on a related note, there are unimaginably cruel depictions of violence in this film, but they’re not deployed jingoistically, at least not for the sake of the American cause—it’s not for nothing that one characters’ last words, after he’s been picked out of a US prison

and sent to Vietnam and then mortally wounded in combat, are “At least I’ll die here in the East”). But meanwhile the action sequences of Eastern Condors, even at their most visceral and violent—and oh, are they: stabbings, dismemberments, exploding bodies everywhere—never lose that sense of awe, never stop using formal techniques and special effects that beautify and emphasize the athletic prowess of its highly trained cast, never quit chasing that specifically cinematic pleasure of look-at-what-we-can-do, and look-at-how-good-we-can-make-it-look.

There may be contradictions here, but they complicate the film, and deepen its effect.

Transitions between these differing modes and tones and meanings are made smooth thanks mainly to the director’s consistency of form. And what form it is!

Many of Hung’s contemporaries, like Chan, Lau Kar-Leung, and Yuen Woo-Ping (the last of whom has a role in this film himself), are rightly celebrated for their ability to compose action sequences with an emphasis on long shots and visual legibility. But Eastern Condors and many of Hung’s other films take on a moderately different aesthetic. For instance, I’m particularly enamored with a very brief moment at the start of the movie where three characters on the American side (played by Lam Ching-Ying, Hung himself, and Joyce Godenzi, the latter playing one of three female members of the “Cambodian underground” who join the Americansent team on their mission) attempt to kidnap a local with knowledge of the missile base’s location (Haing S. Ngor) only to be interrupted by someone willing to defend the Ngor character, a local fixer with fighting skills that can match their own (Biao Yuen). The Yuen character walks in, is quickly surrounded by Hung’s team, reaches for the guns resting on their holsters, is blocked, throws a few kicks and punches, then succeeds in pulling one of their guns only to find one pointed at his own neck at the exact same time. The whole exchange as described lasts 23 seconds, and there are 17 shots/edits during the same timeframe, the film constantly moving our perspective from close-ups on the holsters to wider shots of the strikes to close-ups on the faces and back again, the camera often moving or pivoting alongside the action even as those shots only last fractions of a second (the cinematography is by Arthur Wong, and the action and stunt direction is credited to a large team that includes many of the actors). Eastern Condors is in a state of constant motion, yet always with practical intention and purpose; it communicates images of action even quicker than your brain can process them. As a director, Hung is something of a technical maximalist— closer than most of his peers to the modern American action-filmmaking traditions, which prize abundance of camera setups and editing/cuts.

It’s not often that I use this space to write about individual films playing within larger repertory programs, but Eastern Condors demands the exception. Many of the Friday/Saturday pairings in the Coolidge program, like Yojimbo/Dollars, demonstrate connections or contrasts across the cinemas of different nations. And Hung’s film, in filtering American narrative tendencies through Hong Kong action-cinema filmmaking techniques, furthers that concept. Eastern Condors illustrates “East Meets West” all by itself.

>> EASTERN CONDORS. RATED R. FRI 1.25, 11:59PM. COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, 290 HARVARD ST., BROOKLINE. $13.25. 35MM. >>POLICE STORY AND POLICE STORY PART II PLAY THE COOLIDGE ON FRI 2.1 AND SAT 2.2, RESPECTIVELY, BOTH AT 11:59PM. RATED PG-13. THEY INAUGURATE THE COOLIDGE’S MONTHLY “MARTIAL ARTS HOUSE” PROGRAM, WHICH WILL PRESENT A MARTIAL ARTS FILM ON THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH IN THE MIDNIGHT TIMESLOT. $13.25.

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COMEDY EVENTS

FURRY ROAD SAVAGE LOVE

THU 01.24

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET I’m an early-30s hetero woman in a monogamous relationship with my mid-30s hetero guy. We’ve been together 10 years, married seven, no kids. We have a lot of fun—traveling, shared hobbies, mutual friends, etc. We have sex fairly regularly, and it’s not bad. However, his primary sexual fetish and main turn-on is furry porn— namely, cartoon images. He doesn’t self-identify as a furry; he doesn’t have a fursuit or fursona. To his credit, he was up front about this with me once we started getting serious. However, I think at that younger age, I conflated the emotional openness and acceptance of his sexuality with actually being satisfied with the sexual component of our relationship. He seems only marginally attracted to me, and it bums me out that his more intense sexual drives are funneled into furry porn. I feel somewhat helpless, as his fetish doesn’t allow me to meet him halfway. Real-life furry action (fursuits and the like) does not interest him (I’ve offered). We have sex regularly, but I always initiate, and his enthusiasm is middling until we get going, at which point I think we both enjoy ourselves. But I’ve found that this turns into a negative feedback loop, where his lack of initial interest leads to me being less attracted to him, and so on. I consider myself a fairly sexual person and I get a lot of pleasure out of being desired. We’re talking about starting a family, and I’m scared that the pressures that come with parenthood would only make this worse.

Fretting Under Relationship Shortcomings Nothing I write is going to fix this—and nothing I write is going to fix him, FURS, not that your husband is broken. He is who he is, and he had the decency to let you know who he was before you married him. But nothing I write is going to put you at the center of your husband’s erotic inner life. Nothing I write is going to inspire him to initiate more (or at all) or cause him to be more enthusiastic about sex. Nothing I write is going to make your husband want you the way you want to be wanted, desire you the way you want to be desired, and fuck you the way you want to be fucked.

So the question you need to ask yourself before you make babies with this man— the question I would have urged you to ask yourself before you married this man—is whether you can live without the pleasure you get from being desired. Is that the price of admission you’re willing to pay to be with this man? Maybe it once was, but is it still? Because if monogamy is what you want or what he wants or what you both want, FURS, then choosing to be with this man—choosing to be with someone you enjoy spending time with, who’s “not bad” at sex, whose most passionate erotic interests direct him away from you—means going without the pleasure of being wanted the way you want to be wanted, desired the way you want to be desired, and fucked the way you want to be fucked.

Your husband was up front with you about his sexuality before you got married.

Everyone should be, of course, but so few people are—particularly people who have been made to feel ashamed of their sexuality or their fetishes or both—that we’re inclined to heap praise on people who manage to clear what should be a low bar.

At the time, you mistook “emotional openness” and your willingness to accept his sexuality for both sexual compatibility and sexual satisfaction. I think you owe it to yourself to be up front with your husband before you have kids. He’s getting a good deal here—decent sex with the wife and the freedom to take care of needs his wife can’t meet. And you’re free to ask for a similar deal—decent sex with your husband and the freedom to take care of needs your husband can’t meet.

There’s a far greater degree of risk involved in you going outside the relationship to feel desired, of course; you seeing another man or men comes bundled with emotional and physical risks that wanking to furry porn does not. This isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. But if your shared goal as a couple is mutual sexual fulfillment—and that should be every couple’s goal—and if you want to avoid becoming so frustrated that you make a conscious decision to end your marriage (or a subconscious decision to sabotage it), FURS, then opening up the relationship needs to be a part of the discussion.

HEADLINERS IN THE SQUARE @ JOHN HARVARD’S BREWERY & ALE HOUSE Featuring: Phoebe Angle & more Hosted by Josh Filipowski

33 DUNSTER ST., CAMBRIDGE | 9PM | FREE FRI 01.25

COMEDY PARTY @ ZONE 3

Zone 3 is a Harvard-sparked initiative to further activate and energize Western Ave with creative programs, events, and retail.

Featuring: Sean Sullivan (Comedy Central), Ben Quick, Alex Giampapa, & more.

267 WESTERN AVE, ALLSTON | 8PM | $10 FRI 01.25

AFFIRMATIVE REACTION: ASIAN AMERICAN COMEDY @ IMPROVBOSTON Featuring: Michelle Sui, Stine An, & Josh Do. Hosted by Isha Patnaik and Brandon Lee

40 PROSPECT ST., CAMBRIDGE | 11PM | $12 SAT 01.26

SATURDAY NIGHT @ THE COMEDY STUDIO

Featuring: Etrane Martinez, Comic in Residence J. Smitty, & more.

Hosted by Rick Jenkins

1 BOW MARKET WAY #23, SOMERVILLE | 7 & 9:30PM | $15 SUN 01.27

THE PEOPLE’S SHOW @ IMPROVBOSTON

Comedy for the people, by the people.

Featured: Sabrina Wu, Liam McGurk, Zach Russell, Andrew Mayer, Will Martin, & Kirsten Logan.

Hosted by Sam Ike

40 PROSPECT ST. CAMBRIDGE | 9:30PM | $5 MON 01.28

CITYSIDE COMEDY @ CITYSIDE BAR

Featuring: Dan Perlman, Alex Giampapa, & more.

Hosted by Sean Sullivan

1505 DORCHESTER AVE., FIELDS CORNER | 7PM | FREE WED 01.30

BEER ME! COMEDY @ WINTER HILL BREWING COMPANY

Featuring: Alex Giampapa, Katie McCarthy, Tooky Kavanagh, Lamont Price, Will Noonan, & Gloria Rose.

Hosted by Chris Post

328 BROADWAY, SOMERVILLE | 9PM | FREE

RUTHERFORD

BY DON KUSS DONKUSS@DIGBOSTON.COM

On the Lovecast, a case against Grindr for online harassment: savagelovecast.com.

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“YOU’re gonna get the best catnap of your life, i guarantee it”

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY PATTKELLEY.COM

HEADLINING THIS WEEK!

K. Trevor Wilson

Roast Battle, Jimmy Kimmel Live Thursday - Saturday

COMING SOON Greg Fitzsimmons Netflix, The Howard Stern Show Jan 31-Feb 2

Eddie Ifft

Comedy Central Presents, Last Comic Standing Feb 7-9

THE WAY WE WEREN’T

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

Just For Laughs New Faces Showcase Special Engagement: Sun, Feb 10

Al Ducharme + Bernadette Pauley Special Engagement: Thurs, Feb 14 (V-Day!)

OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS

BY TIM CHAMBERLAIN OURVC.NET

Kyle Dunnigan Reno 911!, Comedy Central Presents Feb 15 + 16 617.72.LAUGH | laughboston.com 425 Summer Street at the Westin Hotel in Boston’s Seaport District NEWS TO US

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FEB 1 & 2 - BOSTON TICKETS:

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