Summer 2017 New Listings...
33 Summer Street #2, Somerville $569,000 Loft-style Union Square 2-bedroom unit with exposed brick walls, oversized windows, oak floors, and in-unit laundry. Sleek, contemporary kitchen has grey cabinets, stainless appliances, and white quartz counters. Tiled full bath. Pet friendly. Common roofdeck to be rebuilt.
1 Summer Street #4, Somerville $1,495,000 Chic 4-level townhouse in a renovated Gothic Revival church in the heart of Union Square. Features 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, large open plan living/dining area with 45’ ceiling, in-unit laundry, central air, elevator, and 2 garage spaces.
9 Thorpe Street, Somerville $599,000 Prospect Hill historic 1830s townhouse with the feel of a single family has 2 bedrooms,1.5 bathrooms, open plan living room/dining room/ kitchen, laundry in basement, front porch, outdoor patio, fenced backyard.
171 Swanton Street, #14, Winchester $549,000 Tastefully renovated 2-level townhouse with 2 bedrooms, 2.5 tiled bathrooms, oak floors, fireplace, private patio with river view, carport and driveway parking spaces, and private storage room. Association amenities include swimming pool and tennis court. Walk to town shops and restaurants.
Thalia Tringo
President, Realtor ® 617.513.1967 cell/text Thalia@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Niké Damaskos
Residential Sales and Commercial Sales and Leasing 617.875.5276 Nike@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Jennifer Rose
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.943.9581 cell/text Jennifer@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
84 Lexington Avenue, Somerville $1,750,000 Beautiful Davis Square 2-family, gut renovated in 2004 with gas fireplace, gleaming wood floors, central air, ss appliances, and laundry in both units. Unit 1 has open plan LR/DR/K, 2 bedrooms, full bath with walk-in shower. Unit 2 has open plan LR/DR/K, custom pantry, 2-3 bedrooms, 1-2 studies, 2 full baths, and 2 porches. Driveway, fenced backyard.
Lynn C. Graham
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.216.5244 cell/text Lynn@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Brendon Edwards
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.895.6267 cell/text Brendon@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Free Classes How to Buy and Sell at the Same Time for homeowners contemplating a move Wednesday, August 16th Tuesday, September 19th
6:30-7:45 pm or 6:30-7:45 pm
If trying to figure out the logistics of selling your home and buying a new one makes your head spin, this workshop will help make the process understandable. This workshop, led by our agents and a loan officer from a local bank, includes a 45-min presentation and 1/2 hour Q&A session. Handouts and refreshments provided.
First Time Home Buyers:
an overview of the buying process Wednesday, September 13th
6:30-7:45 pm
If you’re considering buying your first home and want to understand what’s in store, this is a quick and helpful overview. Led by our agents and a loan officer from a local bank, it includes a 45-min presentation and 1/2 hour Q&A session. Handouts and refreshments provided. To reserve space in any class, please email Adaria@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com. Admission is free, but we appreciate donations of canned goods for the Somerville Homeless Coalition.
Adaria Brooks
Executive Assistant to the President, Realtor ® 617.308.0064 cell/text Adaria@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
About our company... We are dedicated to representing our buyer and seller clients with integrity and professionalism. We are also commi ed to giving back to our community. Our agents donate $250 to a non-profit in honor of each transaction and Thalia Tringo & Associates Real Estate Inc. also gives $250 to a pre-selected group of local charities for each transaction. Visit our office, 128 Willow Avenue, on the bike path in Davis Square, Somerville.
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CHRISTIAN Favorite Sushi: Aki Unagi
CHRISTOPHER Favorite Sushi: Ika Wasabi
JOSE
Favorite Sushi: Torched Salmon Belly
JUAN
Favorite Sushi: Honey Hotate Pecorino
ROBBIN
Favorite Sushi: Smoky Lemon Hamachi
That’s How They Roll
“I
f you’re new to Somerville or new to Ebi Sushi, I recommend you sit at the bar,” suggests chef-owner Jose Garcia from behind his restaurant’s counter. “The chefs will recommend the best items for you, customized to your preferences. And if you’re new to town, a lot of customers become friends who met here.” Because he’s originally from Guatemala, it might seem unusual that Jose exudes such passion for Japanese fare. But he’s serious about his craft—Garcia was trained in the traditional Japanese style at Porter Square’s now-closed Blue Fin sushi bar and can understand Japanese. On Ebi’s varied, creative menu, you’ll find both sushi and other dishes that are unique yet distinctly Japanese. “Many places are fusion, with Chinese food and other Asian cuisines mixed in,” Jose explains. “But Ebi is only Japanese.” Jose was just 16 when he visited his older brother, who was working at Blue Fin, and got his first taste of sushi. Shortly thereafter, he moved to the area and trained with the Blue Fin chefs. Together with his uncle Adolfo, they opened Ebi Sushi in Union Square in 2011. Garcia’s hired people from many countries: Japan, Thailand, China, El Salvador, Peru, Guatemala. What ties everyone together is their shared passion for quality Japanese food. “Everybody loves Japanese food,” explains Jose, “And the best decision I made was to open in Somerville. The people are amazing: friendly, laid back, and lots of regulars who I know by name.” In the restaurant, you’ll notice that customers turning to leave will give Jose a wave and a shout. Many of them, he’ll see tomorrow. “I want to say thank you to the community for supporting me,” Jose exclaims, beaming with pride. “I love the people here.”
FIVE FAVORITE EBI SUSHI EATS 1. OMAKASE CHEF’S 10 PIECE SPECIAL – Sit at the bar and trust the chefs’ ability to surprise and delight you. Try the Shima-aji and Madai, which come straight from Tokyo’s Nishiki Fish Market in Japan. (Pro-tip: fresh catch often arrives on Wednesdays.)
2. POKE BOWL – This new dish we love is made in the summer. It’s chock full of high-quality local Boston Bluefin tuna, with avocado, scallion, masago and shallot, and is tossed in a sesame-macadamia sauce.
3. LUNCH BENTO BOXES – If you’re lucky enough to be nearby during lunch, the teishoku sets are an incredibly delicious value. Your choice of entrée served with tempura, California roll, salad, rice and miso soup.
4. SOMERVILLE ROLL – We’re obviously biased, but the Somerville roll is not to be missed. Using a battera mold to press the sushi in a traditional Osaka-style instead of seaweed, these rolls are packed with flavor. Interestingly, much of the sushi grade fish at Ebi is from a quality wholesaler based in Somerville. 5. HOUSE VEGETARIAN ROLL – With an incredible umami flavor that’s both salty and sweet, this customcrafted recipe features a generous portion of avocado on top, spicy mayo and eel sauce. It’s filled with sweet potato tempura and fresh cucumbers—a hit with vegetarians!
617-764-5556 • EBISUSHI.COM 290 SOMERVILLE AVE, SOMERVILLE FREE PARKING AT MIKE’S AUTO AFTER 6 P.M.
MON–THUR: 11:30AM-3:30PM, 5-10PM FRI: 11:30AM–3:30PM, 5–10:30PM SAT: 11:30AM–10:30PM • SUN: 11:30AM–10PM
JULY | AUGUST 2017 ::: VOLUME 46 ::: SCOUTSOMERVILLE.COM
contents One
Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Topsoil
SOUNDS OF THE CITY 24 // THE UNSUNG HERO If your band wants to play, Ryan Agate—you might know him as Ryan the Terrible— wants to help make it happen. 28 // VIOLINS AND TEAMWORK, EMPOWERMENT AND POPSICLES At El Sistema Youth Orchestra, kids make friends while making music. 30 // PLEASE PASS THE PODCAST Audio editing can be somewhat solitary work, so these local podcasters and radio personalities make a point to swap stories over food and drink.
16
34 // THE SOUND OF BREWSIC By partnering with bars and breweries, opera singers and classical composers reach an untapped—pun very much intended—audience.
8 // EDITOR’S NOTE
11 // WINNERS & LOSERS The Handmaid’s Tale is perfectly unsettling without all those references to Somerville, thanks. 12 // WHAT’S NEW? In a very on-the-nose sign of the times, a Davis Square storefront transitions from pawn shop to pastries. 16 // NEWS: ONE MAN’S TRASH IS ANOTHER MAN’S TOPSOIL Somerville’s director of sustainability and environment says composting is the number one thing residents ask him about. So why don’t we have a citywide composting program? It’s complicated.
21 // YOUR 2017 SCOUT’S HONORED NOMINEES Drumroll, please. 48 // SCOUT OUT: START RIGHT NOW—54 WAYS TO MAKE MEANINGFUL CHANGE IN SOMERVILLE Want to make a difference in your community but aren’t sure where to start? We have just a few suggestions. 50 // CALENDAR 51 // MARKETPLACE 52 // SCOUT YOU
28
40 // “WE REALLY ARE ALL TOGETHER NOW” A look at the local event series that’s uniting poets, musicians, activists, artists and more. 44 // PICTURE THIS From The Boss to Boston, Somerville’s Ron Pownall has photographed just about every rock legend there is.
One of our big missions is to support the whole student.” — David Polombo, El Sistema
Photo, top: Bootstrap Compost’s Emma Brown is saving the planet, one bucket of food scraps at a time. Photo by Jess Benjamin. Photo, bottom: El Sistema Youth Orchestra takes the stage. Photo by Jess Benjamin. On the cover: C ambridge rapper Rex Mac, who will perform at All Together Now #6 at the Burren in August. Photo by Malakhai Pearson, design By Kat Waterman.
EDITOR’S NOTE
I
’ll get this out of the way up front. Yes, the theme of this issue is “Sounds of the City.” No, we don’t profile any bands in here. That’s not because there aren’t amazing area musicians we could write about, obviously. There isn’t enough room on this page to list all the local artists you need to check out—Halfsour, Horse Jumper of Love, Palehound, Lilith, Lady Bones, Animal Flag, Birthing Hips, Kal Marks… there are dozens more. You can and should support them, buy their music and get to their shows. My face when Scout’s publisher agreed to let us do a music-themed issue. Instead, we did that thing we always do: We took a look behind the scene to introduce you to some of the unsung heroes who quietly keep it humming. There’s booking agent Ryan the Terrible, whose name you’ve no doubt seen abbreviated “RTT Presents” on countless flyers around town. Maybe you even drank a beer that bears his name at Winter Hill Brewing Company. Who is that guy? Find out on page 24. What about Anna Rae? She does play in a band, Hemway, it’s true, but on page 40, we talk to her about All Together Now, the super positive, super inclusive live series that brings together a diverse group of artists who span race, gender and genre. And for a totally different take on city sounds, we introduce you to a collective of audio enthusiasts known as the Sonic Soirée, who are dealing with the fact that sound editing can be solitary, isolating work by meeting up each month to swap stories over dinner and drinks (page 30). Because that’s what it’s all about, right? We go to shows for the music, sure, but you could always just listen to an album alone in your house. We really go to shows for that sense of community, of togetherness—to be a sweaty body in a room full of sweaty bodies all shaking and dancing and celebrating the musicians we love. Here’s to the bands, booking agents, bartenders and everyone else who makes those nights possible.
PUBLISHER Holli Banks Allien hbanks@scoutmagazines.com EDITOR IN CHIEF Emily Cassel ecassel@scoutmagazines.com emilycassel.me ART DIRECTOR Nicolle Renick design@scoutmagazines.com renickdesign.com PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Jess Benjamin jbenjamin@scoutmagazines.com jsbenjamin.com CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Jerry Allien jallien@scoutmagazines.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Leanne Cushing, Adrianne Mathiowetz, Eliza Rosenberry, Hannah Walters CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Adrianne Mathiowetz adriannemathiowetz.com COPY EDITOR Amanda Kersey BANKS PUBLICATIONS c/o Scout Somerville 519 Somerville Ave, #314 Somerville, MA 02143
Emily Cassel, Editor in Chief ecassel@scoutmagazines.com
FIND US ONLINE scoutsomerville.com somervillescout
scoutsomerville scoutmags
Office Phone: 617-996-2283 Advertising inquiries? Please contact hbanks@scoutmagazines.com. CIRCULATION 30,000 copies of Scout Somerville are printed bimonthly and are available for free at more than 200 drop spots throughout the city (and just beyond its borders). Find a map of key pickup locations at scoutsomerville.com/get-a-copy, or sign up for home delivery by visiting scoutsomerville.com/shop. 8 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
Scout’s Honored: Vote your favorites until 7/25 at scoutsomerville.com/vote
ABOUT SCOUT
Partnership With Purpose
Y
ou know Scout—we’re a positive force in Somerville telling the stories of the community. We celebrate our neighbors with narratives you want to read, highlight news that matters most and invite you to check out new, exciting places. Your feedback—and your support—means a lot to us. Seriously, we can’t do it without you. If you appreciate the work we do, please help us sustain it. You can invest in your community by investing in Scout. Partner with us for a purpose. BECOME A CONTRIBUTOR - Show your love of local media and donate a one-time gift on our Storenvy site: scoutmagazines.storenvy.com. BECOME A SUSTAINER - Contribute monthly on our Patreon page: patreon.com/scoutmagazines. BECOME A VOLUNTEER - Lend a hand. Email us at scout@scoutmagazines.com. BECOME A ADVERTISER/UNDERWRITER - Align your business with a positive, communityaligned brand and show our readers your investment in the community. Contact Holli Banks Allien at hbanks@scoutmagazines.com. Learn more about who we are and what we do at scoutsomerville.com/support.
Genuine Greek. Made in Massachusetts.
T
he flavors of Greece can be found in Davis Square at Opa Greek Yeeros. Traditional dishes are served up daily by George and his crew with ingredients imported straight from Greece to ensure the authenticity and quality of every item on the menu. It’s not only the menu that is steeped in tradition; Opa is a family affair. George’s mother has owned and run Sophia’s Greek Pantry for over 15 years and now she keeps Opa stocked with homemade fresh Greek yogurt, delicious desserts and pastries. Even though yeeros are in the name, Opa offers so much more. The menu is a curated selection of Greek favorites from traditional Greek salads to spanakopita and “the best Greek yogurt” you’ll find outside of the Mediterranean. George will greet you with a smile, a friendly chat and delicious food that will keep you coming back for more.
378 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA 617-718-2900 | www.opayeeros.com
We Deliver: Give us a call or find us on Foodler and Yelp Eat24
W&L WINNERS
LOSERS
LEARSI FERRER AND MIRANDA MELANSON Prom is always a night to remember, but for Somerville High School seniors Learsi Ferrer and Miranda Melanson, the evening was an especially historic one. The young women were the school’s first “royalty couple,” a more inclusive honor adopted by the student government to replace the terms prom king and prom queen. “I’ve had people that I don’t even talk to come up to me and be like, ‘Wow, you made me feel [a lot] better about myself because of what you’ve done for us,’” Melanson told WBZ NewsRadio 1030. The couple hopes the shift will promote inclusivity at other schools, too.
IDIOMS You know how they say “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” right? Well, not the case here in Somerville. All summer long, beginning July 5, the Food and Nutrition Services Department meal truck will take to the streets, dishing out free—and nutritious—breakfast and lunch to students under the age of 19. Sites change from week to week and include the Kennedy Playground, Trum Field and Foss Park. Find the full schedule on the Somerville Public Schools website.
GIO MAGGIORE AND GIO THE GIRAFFE After a brave battle with congenital heart disease, Medford’s Gio Maggiore passed away in April, and his parents, Maya and Chris, and the rest of his family began looking for ways to honor his memory. The six-year-old loved giraffes from the time he was a baby, so when a New York zoo announced it was looking for names for its new giraffe, the family campaigned on Gio’s behalf. Unfortunately, his name wasn’t chosen. But we have our own giraffe right here in Somerville: the 20-foot lego model who stands guard outside the Legoland Discovery Center at Assembly Row. A secretary at Gio’s elementary school reached out to the center about naming their giraffe Gio, a request Legoland staffers were more than happy to accommodate. VICKY I Community Cooks commemorated the retirement of its founder, Vicky I, with a gala in mid-April. I co-founded the organization in 1990 and oversaw it for almost three decades, guiding the group as it obtained nonprofit status and grew from a team of just eight cooks to more than 780. “Vicky is a rare person who had an amazing vision but is super detail-oriented, too,” Community Cooks executive director Daniele Levine, who’s worked with I for 14 years, told Wicked Local Somerville. “You don’t find that combination a lot.” A huge thanks to I for all the work she’s done in our community!
GOING SEATBELT-LESS Buckle those belts— the Somerville Police Department has joined the 2017 “Click it or Ticket” campaign, a national effort aimed at increasing awareness about the importance of buckling up. According to a 2015 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, the seatbelt use rate in Massachusetts is just 74.1 percent, the secondlowest in the nation to South Dakota (73 percent). In an effort to raise that rate, SPD will fine drivers who hit the road without theirs fastened. HANDMAIDS If, like us, you’ve spent the past few months engrossed in the darkly dystopian Hulu drama The Handmaid’s Tale, you likely found it hit a little close to home—in that the show is set in the shell of a city that was once Boston. Each episode is loaded with references to the region, from the shutdown of the Davis Square T station to protagonist Offred’s offhand remark that she grew up in Brookline. But without spoiling anything, it’s this exchange that resonated most with us: two characters find themselves stuck in the trunk of a compact car, and in an attempt at levity, one jokes, “Do you remember that sublet we had in Somerville? This is bigger.” Yeah, that checks out.
Someone rustle your jimmies or tickle your fancy?
Let us know at scoutsomerville.com/contact-us, and we just might crown them a winner or loser. 10 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
SCOUT TO THE SOUTH Here’s just some of what you’ll find in the July/August edition of our sibling publication, Scout Cambridge.
A WILD JUKE CHASE We spent a night trying to track down Cambridge’s best jukeboxes, with varying degrees of success.
LOOKING INSIDE THE LAB Three teams of MIT researchers explain the inspiration for their cutting-edge work.
THE HIP-HOP ARCHIVE AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE Harvard University—that old, stuffy, Ivy League institution—might not seem like the most hip-hop-friendly place. But then again, one recent grad submitted a rap album for his thesis. Scout Cambridge is available at The Independent, Market Basket, Diesel Cafe and several other locations throughout Somerville and Cambridge. Head to scoutcambridge.com/get-a-copy for a list of other key locations!
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HAIR by Christine & Co. welcomes our new Stylists Alexis Cooper & Jennifer Tierney! Special discounted rates available. Call the salon to book: 617-776-6470. BEST HAIR SALON: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 BEST HAIR COLOR: 2016 BEST HAIRCUT: 2016
217 HIGHLAND AVENUE, SOMERVILLE • 617-776-6470 WWW.HAIRBYCHRISTINEANDCO.COM
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WHAT’S NEW?
Alderman Lance Davis noted that some of the people involved with Boston Burger Company are looking to reopen with a Deliicious-esque concept. “I believe the Licensing Commission application had ‘Mortadella Head’ as the business name,” he wrote. MAGOUN SQUARE
DARK HORSE PUBLIC HOUSE
On the Hill Tavern (499 Broadway) was sold back in September; COMING owner Bob Antonelli told Easter MOVED SOON Boston that he was ready to retire. At the time, he noted that the sports bar would have new ownership but the same name and concept—not the case any more. Instead, the tavern reopened as Dark Horse Public House under new ownership in June.
ON THE MENU
WILSON SQUARE
UNION SQUARE
FIELD AND VINE
AGUACATE VERDE COMING SOON
C
iting changing times—especially in Union Square, where there were just three restaurants when their restaurant opened in 2010—Journeyman’s owners announced that their fine dining staple (9 Sanborn Ct.) would close in June. “There are more restaurants now than ever, but perhaps there is less desire now to think about what it is that we are eating and drinking, and why,” owners Diana Kudayarova and Tse Wei Lim said in a statement. They also said that the people taking over the space would be doing something quite different, but that the address would be in good hands.
DAVIS SQUARE
SPOKE
And not long after the closure, we got news about whose hands those would be: Somerville’s Sara Markey and Andrew Brady, the team behind the pop-up Company Picnic. They plan to open a neighborhood restaurant called Field and Vine that serves seasonal, locally sourced, shareable plates in August. “We live here, and we always want to go out to eat here,” Markey told us in June. “We love to go to the Independent and get our drinks, if we feel like having sausages, Bronwyn is wonderful, and then cocktails at Backbar. We love the chicken at Machu Chicken—we just think that this is something that will add to the community.”
DAVIS SQUARE
Many bemoaned the loss of Spoke Wine Bar (89 Holland St.) when COMING owner Felicia Foster announced MOVED SOON the charming neighborhood spot was closing at the end of 2016. But those same folks rejoiced in April, when news broke that former Spoke bartender Mary Kurth was working to revive the space. As of late May, Spoke is back, with the star-studded team of Eric Frier (Toro, Coppa, Ribelle) and Daniel Rodriguez (Uni, Clio) in the kitchen, according to Eater Boston. Eater also notes that Liz Mann, who was previously Spoke’s assistant wine buyer, is back as its principal wine buyer. 12 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
MOVED
CARAMEL FRENCH PATISSERIE
This one’s a bummer: Aguacate Verde (13 Elm St.) closed its doors in June. Owner COMING MOVE Silvia De la Sota had been serving SOON Peruvian and Mexican dishes since 2011. Last May, De la Sota told the Somerville Journal that despite its colorful exterior (and incredibly awesome sombrerowearing avocado) the restaurant was “kind of hiding” on Elm Street, just off of Somerville Avenue in a less-bustling area between Porter and Union Square.
DAVIS SQUARE COMING SOON
We really couldn’t have written a more pointed metaphor for the way Somerville is changing than this: A Davis Square pawn shop (233 Elm St.) will soon take on a new life thanks to Salem’s Caramel French Patisserie. Sibling shop owners Dimitri and Sophie Vallier announced the expansion in a June 7 Facebook post, and Cambridge Day reports that the family has been in the patisserie business in France since at least 1931. No opening date is set just yet, but get ready to snack on lots and lots of macarons.
GOLDEN DELIGHT
MOVED
Not long after Deliicious (20 College Ave.) quietly closed up shop, neighboring COMING Golden Delight (24 College Ave.) SOON also shuttered in May. A sign in the restaurant’s window initially indicated a closure for renovations, but it looks like the Chinese food joint is gone for good. DAVIS SQUARE
MORTADELLA HEAD
COMING SOON
Speaking of Deli-icious, it looks like that space may soon come back to life as a deli of some sort. In a May post in the online Davis Square Dreamwidth community,
Scout’s Honored: Vote your favorites until 7/25 at scoutsomerville.com/vote
MOVED
SPRING HILL
JERUSALEM FALAFEL & SHAWARMA
The former home of Zaytouna Cafe Pizza and Grill (215B MOVED Highland Ave.) isCOMING now to a SOON homeMOVED restaurant called Jerusalem Falafel & Shawarma. Folks online are already raving about the hummus (“so good I wish it was available for sale at the grocery store”) as well as the tabouli, chicken and more. Photo, top left, courtesy of Field and Vine. Photo, top right, courtesy of Assembly Row.
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
learn
www.somervillemedia.org
ASSEMBLY ROW
You’ve got a few new shopping options at Assembly Row, where an Ann Taylor Factory Store, Fragrance Outlet, Columbia Sportswear and Yankee Candle are all now open. Club Pilates has also made its FITRow debut, and Barre N9ne Studio announced that its fourth location would be at FITRow. On the food and fun side, Squeeze Juice Co., Neapolitan pizza place Midici, Caffé Nero and bowling alley-slashrestaurant-slash-performance venue Lucky Strike Social are all under construction, and in housing news, Montaje has begun leasing its first apartments. DAVIS SQUARE
THE JUNGLE
Could a new music venue be on its way to Somerville? That
seemed to be the case in June, when Boston Restaurant Talk found a Craigslist job listing for a venue called The Jungle which would have live music and open mic nights meant to “get guests engaged with the people around them” and “help people meet new friends and form a community in the concrete jungle,” according to the post. The listing has since been deleted, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed. TEN HILLS
KAYAKS AT BLESSING OF THE BAY BOATHOUSE Looking to have some fun in the summer sun? You’re in luck: the latest canoe, kayak and paddleboard rental facility from Paddle Boston is at our very own Blessing of the Bay Boathouse (32 Shore Dr.).
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scoutsomerville.com July | August 2017 13
WHAT’S NEW?
DEVELOPING STORIES
UNION SQUARE
A
fter getting zoning approval in June, big changes are coming to Union Square in the form of a $1 billion, 2.3-million-square-foot mixed-use development. Developer US2 will introduce 1.38 million square feet of commercial space—that includes offices and retail space along with, lab, hotel, arts
spaces and residences, according to BLDUP Boston—and 25 percent of the project will be comprised of public open space. “We’re bringing 2.3 million square feet of new mixed-use, transit-oriented development to one of the hottest real estate markets,” US2 president Greg Karczewski said. “Somerville has great restaurants, historic
neighborhoods, a distinctive creative culture and a young, educated workforce, making it one of the most up-and-coming cities in the U.S.” Construction will begin in 2018, with multiple phases spread out over 15 to 20 years.
CONDO CONVERSION LAW CHALLENGED
Somerville’s condo conversion law lets a board review the conversion of two- and threefamily homes, which account for 70 percent of residences in the city. But the Boston Globe reported in May that a pair of developers are challenging that ordinance in court, saying that the law is overly restrictive and could, in fact, be illegal. That has tenant activists, many of whom do agree that reforming the 32-year-old law is necessary, concerned. “It would be very sad if we lost the two- and three-families, and that would 14 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
be problematic—those are … 90 percent of conversions,” Ellen Shachter, senior attorney at Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services, told the Globe. “It will lead to further displacement.” WINTER HILL
SCHOOLYARD REDESIGN
Construction has begun on the Winter Hill Schoolyard project, phase one of which will see the asphalt court on the lower level transformed into a turf playing field. According to the city, the bidding process for phase two of renovations is underway.
Union Square rendering courtesy of US2. Photo, top right, by Pat Piasecki for Trina’s.
MAKING MOVES
FAMILY RECIPES WITH MODERN TWISTS.
SERVING SOMERVILLE HAND-CRAFTED LATIN AMERICAN CUISINE MADE WITH THE FRESHEST INGREDIENTS.
L
La Posada is Somerville’s spot for delicious, hand-crafted Latin American cuisine. Chef Johe Posada and his family crew develop and prepare original meals with the freshest ingredients daily. The menu is filled with unique family recipes and classic Latin American dishes.
INMAN SQUARE
TRINA’S STARLITE LOUNGE EXPANDS
Our favorite cozy, comfortable, rad, retro Inman Square bar is getting a North Shore sibling. In June, Boston Magazine reported that Trina’s Starlite Lounge will open a second outpost in Amesbury (37 Main St.) this fall. No word yet on whether the fridge at Trina’s 2.0 will be as outspoken as its Somerville counterpart. DAVIS SQUARE
SNAPPY RAMEN CONSIDERS MOVE
iYo Bistro’s former space (234 Elm St.) has sat empty since the eatery shuttered in September, but it could soon have a new occupant. Cambridge Day reported in June that Snappy Ramen (currently located at 420 Highland Ave.) might move into the long-dark storefront. That would mean more seating for the popular, pint-sized noodle and sushi joint, which frequently finds hungry would-be patrons hovering about as they wait for a table to open up.
DAVIS SQUARE LIVEJOURNAL COMMUNITY MOVES
The Davis Square Livejournal has been a hyper, hyper-local home for news in the square (and elsewhere throughout Somerville) since the
early 2000s, but its community made the switch to a new online platform, Dreamwidth, on May 1 after Livejournal announced new terms of service that meant the site was governed by Russian law. “Among other things, ‘political solicitation’ is now banned, meaning no more talking about Aldermanic or state legislative races,” user gruene noted in a mid-April post. “Any discussion of LGBT rights will require the ‘adult content’ label to avoid running afoul of the ‘Gay Propaganda’ laws of the Russian Federation.” You can still “think globally, whine locally” at davis-square. dreamwidth.org.
From perfectly crafted pupusas to tacos with distinctive garnishes, the menu is full of innovative and delicious offerings. Come in to get the La Posada experience, or get their delicious dishes delivered directly to your door.
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UNION SQUARE
SOMERVILLE BREAD COMPANY
In a few weeks, SBC is going to get bigger—about five times bigger—when it moves into a space near Union Square. According to a June 25 post from owner Nicholas Robertson, the new shop will help expand retail and wholesale offerings, and he also hopes to host bread-making classes in the space. Also cool: Somerville Bread’s current home in Winter Hill (415 Medford St.) will welcome Neighborhood Produce, a startup from Matt Gray that’ll bring fresh fruits and veggies to the area.
Think there’s news we missed? Hey, we can’t fit it
all here. Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter, the Scout Dispatch, to get top headlines from around Somerville delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Learn more at scoutsomerville.com/e-newsletter.
505 Medford St. Somerville • 617-776-2049 www.laposadasomerville.com scoutsomerville.com July | August 2017 15
NEWS
ONE MAN’S TRASH IS ANOTHER MAN’S TOPSOIL With no citywide composting program to turn to, environmentally minded residents rely on private pickup services instead. BY ELIZA ROSENBERRY PHOTOS BY JESS BENJAMIN
A
fter throwing her pickup into park on Somerville Avenue, Emma Brown practically flies out the door, grabbing a five-gallon plastic bucket from the truck bed on her way. She dashes across the sidewalk and into a building lobby, swapping her empty bucket for one that seems quite a bit heavier, and returns, swinging the full one into the bed. After climbing back into the driver’s seat and crossing a name off a list of more than three dozen, Brown is off to the next stop—all in about 30 seconds. Brown and her colleagues at Bootstrap Compost provide this curbside pickup service for an estimated 420 residents and businesses in Somerville and many more throughout Greater Boston. For 10 bucks a week, food scraps and other compostable materials—think onion peels, old leftovers, coffee grounds, dead floral arrangements—go into a Bootstrap bucket instead of a trash bin and, from there, to local farms, where they’re turned into soil. In many ways, curbside composting is the logical next step for environmentally minded city-dwellers. More Americans than ever before report feeling concerned about climate change and human impact on the environment, according to a recent Gallup poll, and composting can divert a significant amount 16 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
Scout’s Honored: Vote your favorites until 7/25 at scoutsomerville.com/vote
of solid waste from our landfills. Over the past few years, Somerville residents’ recycling rates have steadily increased while the city has ramped up other environmental efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. And so while Somerville doesn’t have a cityrun composting program (yet!), local companies like Bootstrap sell that service directly to consumers.
B
ootstrap, which was founded in 2011 and began serving Somerville six years ago, has more than doubled its regional business since 2015. Today, the company counts more than 2,000 residential and commercial customers in the Greater Boston area. It doesn’t do much advertising, relying instead on word of mouth, and the business model comes with some built-in promotion: Bootstrapbranded buckets on sidewalks and front porches around the city often lead to more signups in the immediate neighborhood, Brown says. At the company’s warehouse in Malden, employees—including Brown, who heads up customer service and marketing—consolidate food scraps from the individual buckets into big garbage bins, which are then transported to local farms. The resulting compost produces nutrient-rich soil that plants love, and subscribers can get a few pounds of that fresh soil returned to them throughout the year. Residents and businesses that use Bootstrap report loving the eco-friendly service because it diverts food waste from their trash. “We compost to keep food waste out of our dumpster, which eliminates a food source for potential pests,” explains Katie Rooney of 3 Little Figs, a Bootstrap customer. “And, hopefully, to make a positive environmental impact!” Brown emphasizes that Bootstrap is a local company, one with deep roots in the Boston area. Two of the 18 employees live in Somerville, including Brown, and Bootstrap employs people through a Malden-based nonprofit called Triangle, which helps people with disabilities find employment. Plus, the compost they help to create stays local. “We live here, we work here,” Brown says. “The money that you put into Bootstrap stays in the community.” As much as you might want to join up, the leap to composting can be a big one, especially if you don’t have an extra $500 a year to spend on pickup service. There are some other options: For ‘Villens with outdoor space, the city offers discount backyard composters for $90. Two-thousand of those have been purchased through Somerville since the year 2000. There’s also the Maine-based curbside pickup service Garbage to Garden, which recently expanded to Somerville and costs a bit less—about $15 per month—and encourages residents who might be interested in getting their hands dirty to sign up for volunteer opportunities. “We collected almost three tons of food waste from Somerville residents in May 2017,” says Phoebe Lyttle, Garbage to Garden’s community outreach director, “and know the number will only continue to increase.” Groundwork Somerville works toward environmental sustainability through programs and initiatives like the South Street Farm, and
the local nonprofit sells affordable at-home worm composters—and worms! But even so, Groundwork executive director Conrad Crawford thinks municipal compost pickup would make a big difference for the community. “People need to pay for their virtue at the moment, but municipal programs would provide more access,” Crawford says. “The scale and reach provided by municipal programs dwarfs the laudable, but incremental, efforts of companies like Bootstrap.” Cole Rosengren, a writer for the waste and recycling website Waste Dive and a resident of Somerville, says municipal composting is on a national upswing. “It’s sort of a value choice in your city budget,” Rosengren says. Nearly 200 municipalities reported offering compost collection in a 2015 survey. Around that time, Somerville announced its own plans for a pilot curbside composting program. But that never happened, mainly due to the program’s projected expense, which meant the city couldn’t afford to scale up the program citywide—even if it was a success. Compost is still on ’Villens’ minds, though. “I honestly think it might be the number one thing that I get comments and questions about from residents,” says Oliver Sellers-Garcia, Somerville’s director of sustainability and environment. Sellers-Garcia points out that the city’s waste makes up a relatively small portion of overall greenhouse gas emissions—only 2 percent, according to the latest inventory. That’s significantly less than our emissions from vehicles, natural gas and electricity. And that makes investing in a municipal composting program a bit complicated, Sellers-Garcia explains, especially when there might be more environmentally impactful ways to allocate city resources. “Climate change and the environment are not synonymous,” says Sellers-Garcia. “What we do for greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t cover everything that we need to do to have a healthy, sustainable community. But I do think [that complexity] adds some color to the decision that we all have to make as residents and as members of the community.” Somerville’s waste emissions are lower than in other cities, too, because the city’s trash is incinerated to produce electricity at the Wheelabrator Saugus facility rather than being trucked hundreds of miles to a methane-producing landfill. But energy production facilities like this aren’t perfect, either. They leave behind ash which has to be landfilled itself, and Wheelabrator is located right next to the Rumney Marsh Preservation in Saugus. Waste Dive’s Rosengren recently reported that the Conservation Law Foundation filed a notice of intent to sue Wheelabrator Saugus over violations of environmental laws including the Clean Water Act, which Wheelabrator denies. That’s why advocacy organizations, like the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, say that diverting food waste from your trash is always a good idea, no matter where your trash usually ends up. Composting extends the usefulness of food scraps and supports local farmers, all while minimizing
“I honestly think [composting] might be the number one thing that I get comments and questions about from residents.” – Oliver SellersGarcia, Director of Sustainability and Environment for the City of Somerville
scoutsomerville.com July | August 2017
17
NEWS
B O O T S T R A P S T AT S
IN 2016 ALONE
• 615,000 pounds of scraps diverted from landfills • 300,000 pounds of compost created • 442,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions offset
SINCE 2011
• 1,845,520 pounds of waste diverted from landfills • 922,760 pounds of compost created for local use • 1,328,774 pounds of greenhouse emissions offset
THAT’S THE EQUIVALENT OF
• Planting 17,218 trees • Creating 629 acres of forest land • Preventing the burning of 708,964 lbs of coal • Preventing 74,760 gallons of gasoline from being consumed Data provided by Bootstrap Compost.
negative environmental impacts of trash incineration and landfills.
E
Somerville’s waste emissions are lower than in other cities because trash is incinerated to produce electricity at Wheelabrator Saugus, but energy production facilities like this aren’t perfect. They leave behind ash which has to be landfilled itself, and the Conservation Law Foundation has filed a notice of intent to sue Wheelabrator over violations of environmental laws including the Clean Water Act. 18 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
very municipality manages its waste in different ways—even our next-door neighbor to the south. Michael Orr is the recycling director for the City of Cambridge and heads up the city’s composting program, which he says began with a pilot in April 2014 and expanded in 2015 to serve more than 5,000 households. The program just received $1 million in city funds to expand citywide next year. “It’s not just environmental,” Orr says. “It’s economic.” For Cambridge, Orr explains, it’s less expensive to divert food waste from trash. (Sellers-Garcia says that’s not currently the case in Somerville.) Food scraps and compostable materials make up nearly half of total municipal waste, Orr says, which means composting can effectively divert a lot of trash. He thinks Somerville would do well if it adopted a compost program because in Cambridge, one-, two- and three-unit buildings have higher participation rates than bigger buildings, boding well for the city’s many triple-deckers. Somerville definitely hasn’t ruled out a municipal compost program. Sellers-Garcia says the Board of Aldermen has inquired about entirely restructuring the city’s policies around waste management in order to accommodate composting. It’s also possible that the market for compost collection could simply become more cost-effective for Somerville in a few years. Waste emissions may be a relatively small share of emissions overall, but composting has the potential to make a meaningful difference on a local level. And unlike many other climate and environmental policy goals, it’s a household-scale, tangible practice. “You can’t necessary choose where your power comes from,” Rosengren explains, “but you can choose what you buy and what you do with it.”
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Her patient-centered treatment philosophy focuses on prevention and conservative treatment modalities. She is a member of the American Dental Association and the Massachusetts Dental Society and is a fellow of the International College of Dentists. She is engaged in the community, serving as the Advisory Committee Chair to Somerville High School’s Dental Assisting Program. Dr. Talmo also travels to the Dominican Republic to provide dental care as part of a global outreach mission project. Schedule an appointment to visit Dr. Talmo in her newly renovated office space.
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VOT E O N L I N E AT S C O U T S O M E RV I L L E . C O M
VOTING IS YOUR CIVIC DUTY. (But it’s also a lot of fun!)
You nominated your favorite businesses in Somerville. Now, it’s time to give ‘em the push they need to be crowned one of the city’s best. The final round of Scout’s Honored voting is now open. Select your faves through July 25 at scoutsomerville.com/vote or mail this paper ballot to Banks Publications, 519 Somerville Ave. #314, Somerville, MA 02143. Winners will be announced in our September/October issue. Best of luck to all the nominees!
Food & Drink BAKERY o Forge Baking Co. o Lyndell’s Bakery o Somerville Bread Company
CATERING o Forklift o NU Cafe & Juice Bar o Redbones
OUTDOOR DINING o Daddy Jones o The Neighborhood Restaurant o River Bar
RESTAURANT NOT IN A SQUARE o Highland Kitchen o Kirkland Tap and Trotter o Trina’s Starlite Lounge
BAR EATS o Brass Union o Five Horses Tavern o Winter Hill Brewing Company
DATE NIGHT SPOT o Casa B o Saloon o Sarma
RESTAURANT IN ASSEMBLY SQUARE o Fuji o Legal on the Mystic o River Bar
RESTAURANT OVERALL o Five Horses Tavern o Highland Kitchen o Sarma
BARISTA o 3 Little Figs, Becca o Winter Hill Brewing Company, Jared
LIQUOR STORE o Jerry’s Liquors o Sav-Mor Liquors o Winter Hill Liquors
RESTAURANT IN BALL SQUARE o Ball Square Cafe o Sound Bites o Taco Party
BARTENDER o Brass Union, Kristen o Five Horses Tavern, Derek Anderson o Foundry on Elm, Desmond
CHEAP EATS o Anna’s Taqueria o Machu Chicken o Tenoch
RESTAURANT IN DAVIS SQUARE o Five Horses Tavern o Painted Burro o Rosebud
SERVER o Highland Kitchen, Patrick o Neighborhood Restaurant, Shay o Winter Hill Brewing Company, Kim
MOBILE EATS o Black Magic Coffee o Penny Packers o Taco Party
RESTAURANT IN EAST SOMERVILLE o La Brasa o Taco Loco o Vinny’s
CHEF o Ebi Sushi, Jose Garcia o Highland Kitchen, Mark o Sarma, Cassie Puma
RESTAURANT IN MAGOUN SQUARE o Daddy Jones o Olde Magoun’s Saloon o Tasty Momo
COCKTAILS o Backbar o Saloon o Sarma
RESTAURANT IN TEELE SQUARE o Istanbulu o Rudy’s o True Bistro
COFFEE SHOP OR CAFE o 3 Little Figs o Bloc 11 o Diesel Cafe
RESTAURANT IN UNION SQUARE o Bronwyn o The Independent o Juliet
KID-FRIENDLY RESTAURANT o Slumbrew American Fresh Taproom o Flatbread o Tony C’s
RESTAURANT IN WINTER HILL o Leone’s o Sarma o Winter Hill Brewing Company
BEER PROGRAM o Bronwyn o Five Horses Tavern o Tony C’s BREAKFAST o Ball Square Cafe o The Neighborhood Restaurant o Sound Bites BREWERY OR DISTILLERY o Aeronaut Brewing Company o Bantam Cider Company o Winter Hill Brewing Company BRUNCH o Five Horses Tavern o Highland Kitchen o Rosebud BUTCHER o M.F. Dulock o McKinnon’s
SERVICE STAFF o Backbar o Foundry on Elm o Highland Kitchen SWEET TOOTH SATISFIER o EH Chocolatier o Gracie’s Ice Cream o Union Square Donuts TAKEOUT o City Slicker o Eat at Jumbo’s o Machu Chicken VEGAN OR VEGETARIAN o Eat at Jumbo’s o Taco Party o True Bistro WINE SHOP o Ball Square Wine and Liquors o Dave’s Fresh Pasta o Wine and Cheese Cask
Continued on next page scoutsomerville.com July | August 2017 21
Services
Shopping
BANK OR CREDIT UNION o East Cambridge Savings Bank o Naveo Credit Union o Rockland Trust
MANICURE o Bliss Nails o Julie’s Nails o Lisa’s Nails
BIKE SHOP o Ace Wheelworks o Bike Boom o Somervelo
PET SUPPLIES o Big Fish Little Fish o River Dog o Stinky’s Kittens & Doggies Too
BARBERSHOP o Alibrandi’s o Dente’s o Razor’s
MASSAGE o Blue Fern o Massage Therapy Works o Rasayana
GIFT SHOP o Davis Squared o Loyal Supply Co. o Magpie
PRINT SHOP o Loyal Supply Co. o Union Press o UPS Store, Somerville Avenue
DENTIST o Dr. Katie Talmo o Dr. Casey Cook o Smiles by Rosie
MECHANIC o Aris Auto o Chicken & Shakes o Eli’s
THRIFT OR VINTAGE SHOP o Buffalo Exchange o Goodwill o High Energy Vintage
DOG WALKING o Paws In the Ville o Pupperific! o Second Chance
MOVING COMPANY o Gentle Giant o Precision Moving Company o Safe and Reliable Movers
GOURMET OR SPECIALTY FOODS SHOP o Capone’s o Dave’s Fresh Pasta o Pepe Bocca
ECO-FRIENDLY BUSINESS o Beautiful Stuff Project o Elsewhere Salon o Green City Growers
OVERALL GYM o Achieve Fitness o Brooklyn Boulders o The Training Room
FLORIST o Bostonian Florist o Nellie’s Wildflowers o Wagner Floral Designs
PHOTOGRAPHY OR VIDEOGRAPHY o Siri Jones Photography o Starlab Studios o Zev Fisher
FRAME SHOP o Prince Gallery o Stanhope Framers
REAL ESTATE AGENCY o Bremis Realty o Centrury 21 Commonwealth o Thalia Tringo
FURNITURE OR HOME DECOR o City Schemes o Loyal Supply Co. o Sunshine Furniture
REAL ESTATE AGENT o Centrury 21 Commonwealth, David Bottari o Maven Realty, Claudia Urquillo o Thalia Tringo, Team Jen and Lynn
HAIR COLOR o Hair by Christine, Ashley o Hair by Christine, Christine o Work Shop Salon, Taylor
SHIPPING o UPS Store, Davis Square o UPS Store, Somerville Avenue
HAIR SALON o Clementine Hair Studio o Hair by Christine and Co. o Lindsay Griffin
TATTOO OR PIERCING STUDIO o Boston Tattoo Company o Empire Tattoo
HAIRCUT o Hair by Christine, Ashley o Hair by Christine, Christine o Lindsay Griffin Boston Hairstylist and Co
VET o Huron Veterinary Hospital o Porter Square Veterinarian o Winter Hill Veterinarian Clinic
INSURANCE AGENCY o Garrett Lynch o Transit Insurance o Wedgwood-Crane & Connolly
WELLNESS SERVICE o Float Boston o Massage Therapy Works o Outback Physical Therapy
LANDSCAPING o Generous Earth Gardens o Green City Growers o Your Garden Curator
YOGA STUDIO o Be in Union Yoga o Bow Street Yoga o O2 Yoga
KIDS’ SHOP o Magpie Kids o Maximum Hesh o Two Little Monkeys
Arts & Entertainment COMEDY SHOW o Old School Game Show o Sh*t-faced Shakespeare o Winter Hill Brewing Co, Beer Me! COMMUNITY CLASSES o Artisan’s Asylum o Mudflat o Somerville Media Center
JEWELRY DESIGN o E. Scott Originals o Jade Moran o Wagner Jewelers MUSIC VENUE o ONCE o Sally O’Brien’s o Thunder Road
EVENTS SPACE o Center for Arts at the Armory o ONCE o Warehouse XI
Wild Cards LATE NIGHT HAUNT o The Independent o Thunder Road o Trina’s Starlite Lounge
OLD FAVORITE o Mount Vernon o Somerville Theatre o Vinny’s
LOCAL (NON-SCOUT) MEDIA o Somerville Journal o Somerville Media Center, SCATV o Somerville News Weekly
PLACE TO PEOPLE WATCH o The Burren o Mike’s Food and Spirits o River Bar
NEW BUSINESS o NU Cafe & Juice Bar o Oat Shop o Sugidama
PLACE TO SPLURGE o Loyal Supply Co. o Sarma o Tasting Counter
VOT E O N L I N E AT S C O U T S O M E RV I L L E . C O M 22 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
YOUR FUN, NEIGHBORHOOD PUB A few of your neighbors have taken over the space formerly known as On the Hill Tavern. We’ve updated the menu, brushed up the look and welcome you to come by and hang with us.
4 9 9 B R O A D WAY, S O M E R V I L L E
SOUNDS OF THE CITY
24 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
THE UNSUNG HERO
IF YOUR BAND WANTS TO PLAY, RYAN THE TERRIBLE WANTS TO HELP MAKE IT HAPPEN. By Leanne Cushing Photos by Jess Benjamin
“I
think people think I’m pop punk ‘til I die,” Ryan Agate confesses from his seat at the Winter Hill Brewery bar. Agate—who promotes shows under the name Ryan the Terrible—started booking bands when he was 17. Since moving to the Boston area in 2004, he’s become a fixture in the city’s music scene, where, in addition to his day-to-day 9-to-5, he books the Allston venue O’Brien’s Pub and other venues throughout Somerville, Cambridge and Allston. But even if you’re not much for punk or haven’t been to O’Brien’s in a bit, you might be familiar with Agate: in October, Winter Hill Brewing Company co-owner Jeff Rowe brewed a beer dedicated to the local legend. “I wanted to start a series of beers that was the ‘Homage Series,’ and basically I’d try to focus on people—maybe a record, or a book, or whatever,” Rowe explains. “The first person that came to mind was Ryan, because we’re good buds and I wanted to make a smoked beer. I’ve had a lot of drunken nights with Ryan sitting around a fire with him, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna make a Ryan the Terrible beer.’” The brew was a 6.8 percent rustic rye ale with a touch of cherrywood smoked malt, and it was called just that: “Ryan the Terrible.” The name—you’ve probably seen it abbreviated “RTT Presents” on show bills—has been around since Agate’s high-school days. “I was in a
sh***y band in high school, and we all had viking names,” he says by way of explanation. “I was particularly terrible at playing bass, so the name is Ryan the Terrible (at Bass).” Rowe and Agate met around 1999 when RTT ran a radio show at Endicott College. “It was rare to find someone with that kind of enthusiasm, even though at that point, of course, he was just a fan,” Rowe recalls. “I guess in a way, he was still booking bands by bringing bands to his radio show.” Agate lived just outside Davis Square for about a decade, but rising rents pushed him over into Malden last year. It can be easy, as a fan, to overlook the amount of effort that goes into putting on just one show. When touring bands roll through town or hometown acts take the stage, it’s local staff who book, promote and produce the event, all while making sure musicians and venue personnel stay satisfied and the crowd behaves. It’s a lot of work—and Agate is the rare behind-the-scenes booker for whom this isn’t a full-time job, but who nonetheless stitches together lineups with two to four bands every night of the week. “He doesn’t get even close to the credit that is due,” says Rowe, an artist Agate has booked several times. For Agate, recognition isn’t the point. The reward for him as a promoter is clear: he gets to help build a local scene and weave the national music community into that family. He has an almost neverending list of bands and
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SOUNDS OF THE CITY
LONG AFTER RYAN IS DONE BOOKING SHOWS, I THINK THAT PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS GOING TO TALK ABOUT RYAN THE TERRIBLE.”
26 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
stories from the past decade. In Somerville and Cambridge alone, the list of venues Agate has booked is extensive: Starlab Studios, Abbey Lounge, T.T. the Bear’s Place, the Middle East, the Plough and Stars, the Democracy Center, the Cambridge Elks Lodge, Charlie’s Kitchen, Cuisine en Locale (now known as ONCE Somerville)—and, naturally, Winter Hill Brewing Company. “I’ve done a lot of first shows, done a lot of last shows,” he says. “Done more first shows than last shows … bands just break up and don’t tell anybody.” He’s watched with joy as bands like Lemuria and Off With Their Heads grew from filling a small room to garnering an international following. “We have a lot of great music
coming out of this city right now, and I always say it’s one of the best cities for music in the country,” he adds. “You have so many talented bands, you have so many kids who come here not to be in a band to get famous, but to make good music.” Agate tries to attend shows at least three nights a week, often more. He has an extensive mental Rolodex of bands in genres ranging from blues rock to folk to metal (to pop punk, of course) that he can rattle off of the top of his head. He hopes that the music scene as a whole for Boston is in an upswing, and says that he only got involved because he didn’t see anyone booking or promoting the types of shows he wanted to see. “If there’s somebody who doesn’t see the show that they want to see happening, make it happen,” he says, “and people who know me know that I will try everything I can to get a band who wants to play shows on a show.”
Scout’s Honored: Vote your favorites until 7/25 at scoutsomerville.com/vote
Perhaps that’s why, scouring the list of upcoming gigs at Great Scott, Winter Hill Brewing Company and ONCE, the “RTT Presents” label isn’t hard to spot. From matinees to late-night shows, Agate can be found— sometimes, sitting in the back by the bar, often, right up front, singing along. He’ll continue to quietly do his part to keep Boston a place on the map for bands to stop. While Agate isn’t ready to hang up his hat just yet, those who know him know he’s made an indelible mark on the music scene. “Long after Ryan is done booking shows, I think that people are always going to talk about Ryan the Terrible,” Rowe says, echoing a belief held by many in the area. “He’ll be one of those people like Billy Ruane, who people talk about in Boston from the old days … He’s kinda this mythical show-booking guy, and I feel like Ryan the Terrible fits squarely in right after that.”
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SOUNDS OF THE CITY
VIOLINS and
Teamwork,
EMPOWERMENT
and
Popsicles
AT EL SISTEMA YOUTH ORCHESTRA, KIDS MAKE FRIENDS WHILE MAKING MUSIC
28 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
BY HANNAH WALTERS PHOTOS BY JESS BENJAMIN
T
he 2016-2017 school year may have ended in June, but music educator David Palombo hasn’t stopped thinking about the kids in his classes. “One of our big missions is to support the whole student,” he explains on a hot summer afternoon. Palombo is the executive director of El Sistema, an after-school youth orchestra at the East Somerville Community School. He oversees the program, which provides musical instruction, homework help and more—yes, including snack time and recess—on weekdays from 2:30 to 5:30 during the school year. El Sistema is both more than just an orchestra and more than just an after-school program. Intrinsic to El Sistema are principles of diversity, teamwork, academic success and emotional empowerment for its students. The roots of El Sistema run deep— they’re global, in fact, and older than you might think. Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu, a professional musician, founded the first El Sistema youth orchestra in his home of Venezuela in 1975. Seeing the educational inequality in his community, particularly in music, he decided to create a music program for students of all backgrounds. “All my life, I dreamed that all Venezuelan children have the same opportunity that I had,” Dr. Abreau said about his creation in a 2009 TED Talk. “From that desire and from my heart stemmed the idea to make music a deep and global reality for my country.” Dr. Abreu’s first El Sistema practice consisted of teaching 11 music students in a garage in Venezuela. It’s now grown into a worldwide network, and more than 100 youth orchestras work in the spirit of Dr. Abreu’s flagship around the world. In Somerville, that sister orchestra arrived like a phoenix out of the ashes of a December 2007 fire that destroyed the East Somerville Community School. Silas de Oliveira, the assistant director of El Sistema, explains that while East Somerville
Community School had a music program before the devastating blaze, Somerville Public Schools music director Rick Saunders used the reconstruction process as an opportunity to invest in East Somerville and “intensify the musical education” in the community. The district introduced its instrument giveaway program in 2007 after Mayor Curtatone ordered a $100,000 city payment, according to a 2012 story in the Boston Globe. That program provided students with more than 2,000 free instruments between 2007 and 2012, and Curtatone told the paper then that raising another $100,000 to launch El Sistema was a logical next step. “We’re going to make this happen,” he said at the time. “Money can’t be an excuse. There was some negative commentary asking how we could afford it, but I say how can we not?’’ When the East Somerville Community School reopened after six years of construction, El Sistema was part of its core programming. Now five years old, El Sistema Somerville was the first municipally funded chapter in the United States.
40 countries and 12 different languages, and the majority of students speak more than one language in their daily life. El Sistema educators embrace this diversity: “Students teach each other how to say ‘thank you’ in their home language,” de Oliveira explains. This year, as part of their five-year celebration on June 6, students performed music from Venezuela, Brazil and South Africa. They played alongside East Somerville Main Streets Carnaval musicians, further connecting El Sistema with the larger community. For Palombo, the most rewarding aspect of the program is watching how each student develops individually—not just musically, but also academically and socially. “It’s great seeing how students work together: making friends while making music,” he says. This resonates profoundly with de Oliveira as both an immigrant and a Somervillian. “When I came here from Brazil in 1999, I lived four blocks from this school,” he says. He attended Somerville Public Schools and graduated from the high school. He’s able to empathize with the
There are more than 100 El Sistema chapters around the globe, and Somerville’s was the first municipally funded one in the United States.
Parents pay a sliding-scale fee, and many students receive full or partial scholarships from the city to participate. At the close of its fifth year in June, El Sistema had a student body of 60, with 75 registered to participate next year. According to Palombo, it will expand to the high school in 2018, giving students the potential to participate from third grade until they graduate (the program now ends at the eighth-grade level). While rigorous music instruction is the crown jewel and mission of El Sistema, it’s only part of a greater mosaic of education and support the program provides. Teamwork, commitment, respect, communication and empathy are five “core values” of the orchestra; children learn to play music, but also how to feel empowered while supporting their peers. A big part of the program’s core values hinges on celebrating Somerville’s cultural diversity. The study body of El Sistema represents
harsh realities of being both a documented and undocumented immigrant, while also recognizing—like Dr. Abreau of Venezuela did—just how difficult it can be for a pupil to even lay hands on an instrument in other countries. He sees the rich educational opportunity students have in El Sistema. And thus, de Oliveira and the other instructors create more than just space for musical expression. The faculty pay close attention to what each student needs as they develop. Do they need individual instrument practice? Do they need to be in sectional? Do they need extra homework help? Or, do they need something else entirely? As de Oliveira puts it: “Sometimes a kid just needs to sit outside with a popsicle and talk about life. Sometimes what they need is a time to express themselves and be listened to.”
scoutsomerville.com July | August 2017 29
SOUNDS OF THE CITY
Please Pass the Podcast Sights and sounds from the Sonic Soirée, Boston’s monthly audio-editing potluck. WORDS AND PHOTOS BY ADRIANNE MATHIOWETZ @ADRIANNELACY
30 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
Photographer/videographer Marnie Crawford Samuelson gives feedback on a piece created for “The World” by Sarah Birnbaum. Left: Shannon Heaton (podcast: “Irish Music Stories”). Right: freelance producer and event host Amy Bracken.
T
hey’re popping up in cities all over the country: San Francisco, Chicago, Portland. In New York, where they call themselves NYC Radio Club, more than one attendee has reported that their group harbors some jealousy for the Boston name. Around here, the group of public radio producers who meet up to share a meal and listen to each other’s work is known as the Sonic Soirée. Editing audio can be a mostly solitary, invisible business, but if you listen to WGBH or WBUR, subscribe to podcasts or have even taken an audio museum tour, you’ve experienced the results of an audio producer’s efforts. “All Things Considered.” “Radiolab.” “Theory of Everything.” “S-Town.” In the film world, an audio producer’s job might be most analogous to performing every single role at once: screenwriter, casting director, researcher, cinematographer, voice-over actor, occasional animal wrangler and some wild, all-purpose combination of engineer/soundboard/lights/key grip. But like many art forms, the most expertly finessed audio production jobs don’t announce their presence. You don’t notice how well something was edited, because when it’s well-edited you’re not thinking about its technicalities—how the music bed fades in and out, if an interviewee’s breathing sounds natural or how their consonants hit the microphone. Is the host conversational, or does it sound like they’re reading stiltedly from a script? Did additional sounds in the piece—ocean lapping the beach, ice cubes falling into a glass tumbler—give you a natural sense of place? (“If you can only share three seconds of sound to help a listener understand what it was like to be there in the room, then I’ll agonize over which three seconds it’s going to be,” producer and regular Sonic Soirée attendee Heidi Shin writes to me in an email.) Hopefully, you’re caught up in the story instead. The majority of Boston’s audio producers live in Somerville or Cambridge and tend to
Daniel Gross, producer for “The World” and freelance writer, offers suggestions after listening to Tammy Padina’s ambient music piece.
meet around those areas, according Sonic Soirée’s organizer Daniel Gross. Every month, he emails a poll with meeting date options for its 350 or so members (many are onlookers: approximately 50 regularly attend events), and one person volunteers to host, mostly alternating apartments between Somerville, Cambridge and Jamaica Plain. The group has also hosted events at the PRX Podcast Garage in Allston, the Association for Independents in Radio headquarters in Dorchester and various locations downtown. This May, the meetup was in Cambridge; freelance producer Amy Bracken offered to host at her apartment near Central Square. People began buzzing her doorbell around 6:30 in the evening, holding bottles of wine, bags of popcorn and covered dishes. Some of them had an MP3 stashed on a phone or laptop they planned to play later, but for the first half hour it was a cozy flurry of introductions, drink-pouring and munching in the kitchen. That’s where I meet Olivia Deng, a recent graduate from Boston University who had never been to a Sonic Soirée meet-up before. She’d become interested in audio production shortly after she began a video project inspired by the recent election. “We take two people who have very different opinions, and we get them to speak to each other and really listen,” Deng explains. “It’s not a debate: the goal is that by the end they can understand the other person’s position and experience.” She’s considering launching a purely audio version of her project as a podcast. I also speak with Ashira Morris, one of the producers behind the podcast “Adulting,” a tongue-in-cheek storytelling and interview show about millennials struggling to “figure out this growing-up thing,” and Kip Clark, the producer behind “Stride and Saunter.” And multiple people eagerly pointed me to Wade Roush, the host and producer behind the “Soonish,” a podcast that takes a more philosophical angle toward analyzing
Musician Tammy Padina discusses potential uses for her work in public radio. To her left: Wade Rouch (podcast: “Soonish”) and Tamar Avishai (podcast: “The Lonely Palette”).
developing technologies, discussing how they’re forcing us to make decisions and shaping our world. (“Oh, you should talk to Wade, his podcast is amazing!” “Have you spoken to Wade yet?” “‘Soonish’ is one of my favorite podcasts.”) Roush, a tall, gentle personality in a button-up shirt and rectangular glasses, speaks about his work—briefly, and with a quiet enthusiasm—then introduces me to others. Around 7 p.m., Daniel and Amy usher the 14 of us into her living room, where people pile onto her couch and chairs and sit cross-legged on her floor, creating a circle around her coffee table where a tiny portable speaker is plugged into a laptop. We take turns formally introducing ourselves. Almost a quarter of attendees work in other mediums— writers, photographers and videographers, who, like Galen Beebe, describe themselves as being in the “pre-trying-to-break-into-thescene stage.” First on deck is a to-be-aired news story adventurously reported and produced by Sarah Birnbaum, a new voice at “The World.” I don’t want to give too much away, but it involves biological heists, long hikes in the woods and 3-D printing of something you’d never expect. The group listens quietly during the setup of her eight-minute story, then the laughter begins, followed by the occasional clapping or sudden gasp. “No! You did not!” “I did.” Next, Tammy Padina, a musician, plays an ambient track she recently completed, hoping for feedback on how she could market her work toward radio producers as music bed material. Suggestions for different shows to pitch to are thrown into the conversation, everyone eager about what they had just heard. “We can’t all just keep using the same Podington Bear tracks,” someone jokes. Gross, also a producer at “The World,” plays a piece he created about a song written after the Bikini Atoll bomb tests, wondering aloud if scoutsomerville.com July | August 2017 31
Q+A
SOUNDS OF THE CITY
his transitions from archival material to new reporting were jarring. “Anything else? Anyone else want to play anything they’re working on, or something that inspires them?” “I have a question about … the paradigm of my show,” Shannon Heaton, producer of the podcast “Irish Music Stories,” pipes up. Discussion on establishing consistency and brand without falling into “being overly formulaic” follows. Throughout the evening, I ask different producers about their favorite aspect of doing this kind of work in Boston. The unanimous answer? The community. “I cherish the ability to know most of the players in Boston,” Gross tells me. “It’s a joy to feel that the creative audio people are all family and we’re all learning from each other. I’m constantly learning from the people who come to the Soirée.” The importance of getting input from others was emphasized by all, across different projects and production levels. “I’ve seen these paintings a million times, so to have someone say, ‘I’m totally with you, I can see what you’re describing ... until I can’t,’ it’s really valuable,” podcast producer and Somerville resident Tamar Avishai affirms. “That’s the feedback that I value the most—when people point out that there’s a disconnect, however minor, between my own mind’s eye and theirs.” At around 9, the Soirée wraps up, everyone gathering their dishes to leave the cocoon of polished sound for the din of Central Square. Once outside, people who’d just met each other linger under the street lamps, exchanging contact information before hugging one another goodbye.
32 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
Get to Know Your Local Podcaster
TAMAR AVISHAI, “THE LONELY PALETTE” Tamar Avishai has two longtime loves in her life: art and public radio. You can often find her at the MFA, giving 15-minute lectures in which she expertly ropes unsuspecting people into a painting’s context, with all the intrigue and human connection that history can offer. Her bi-weekly podcast, “The Lonely Palette,” was born out of these so-called Spotlight Talks, in which the first thing Tamar does is point the microphone at museum-goers, and ask: “What do you see?”
Tamar Avishai: The premise of the podcast is making art accessible to the masses, going one painting at a time. Art history has two words associated with it all the time: It’s either boring, or it’s snooty. My goal is to deliver art history in short little digestible bites that make it as interesting and compelling as the history that it’s bearing witness to.
develop in their mind’s eye what they think the painting looks like. It’s two minutes of that, then my little intro music, and then like a 15-minute audio essay. You have to give the good stuff at the beginning; you have to hook people. And then they’ll stay because they keep wanting to know what happens, and then you can tie it back into the piece! So it’s like good storytelling... except with fine art, which people don’t expect to be that interesting.
SS: the arc of a usual episode?
SS: now?
TV: interview people—so you know,
TV: at the Mona Lisa episode for
Scout Somerville: What’s your podcast about?
Can you kind of run me through
When I give those talks, I also
I’m working for the museum, but I’ll bring my gear. And I’ll ask people who have never seen the painting before to just describe it. I edit that into the beginning of every episode, so that listeners can kind of
What are you working on right
I’ve actually been chipping away
months now. I keep it on the back burner when I produce other episodes—it keeps eluding my grasp. How do you pare down the most famous painting in the world to a 20-minute podcast? How do you
say something new while still doing the object justice? How do you separate the celebrity from the fact that it’s just a puny little portrait? It’s a real work in progress. More broadly, though, I’m coming off the high of a successful Patreon [crowdfunding] launch. It’s still a thrill to know that people are giving me money to something that gives me so much joy. I’m also working closely with a friend and collaborator from the Soirée, Wade Roush, to partner up and create our own podcast platform. The project is called Hub & Spoke, and though it’s currently still very much in its infancy, we hope to have it ready to launch within the year.
SS: favorite podcasts? What are your
TV: “The Daily,” “Civics
The New York Times’
101,” “Nancy,” “Soonish,” “Why Oh Why,” “Freakonomics” and, my most beloved of all, “Again With This: Beverly Hills 90210.”
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SOUNDS OF THE CITY
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These musicians bring unexpected compositions to your favorite bars and breweries.
by emily cassel. 6. 5% Alc. /Vol.
34 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
W
hat sounds do you associate with a taproom? The clinking of glasses? The hum of pumps and boilers? Maybe some radio rock blaring from a speaker in the corner? You probably don’t think of classical music that combines violins with electronics, or of Vellumsound, the resident string ensemble at the Museum of Fine Arts. But that’s just what visitors to Slumbrew’s American Fresh Brewhouse in Boynton Yards got to hear last summer, when pianist and composer Kirsten Volness stopped by the bar to play her spiritual string music while backed by the MFA’s band. This was Original Gravity—a series that combines new classical compositions with original, limited-batch beer from local breweries specifically made to compliment the evening’s music. Original Gravity has partnered with Slumbrew, Aeronaut Brewing Co. and Bantam Cider, plus a number of breweries beyond Somerville— and they’re not the only ones bringing classics from the concert hall to the bar. Each month at the Burren, Opera On Tap invites listeners more
Scout’s Honored: Vote your favorites until 7/25 at scoutsomerville.com/vote
accustomed to hearing Irish folk to take in some arias instead. Why combine classics and beer? (Besides, you know, the obvious.) Scout sat down with pianist, composer and conductor Keith Kirchoff, artistic director for Original Gravity, and Opera On Tap Boston co-manager Abigail Krawson to learn what these events are like and how heading to the bar helps them reach an untapped—pun very much intended—audience.
Original Gravity facebook.com/ originalgravitymusic
Scout Somerville: Where did the idea for this kind of collab come from? I have to say, brewing and classical music aren’t things I’d necessarily put together.
SS
Keith Kirchoff: I can totally see how one might think them incongruous, but I’d argue that brewing and classical music aren’t actually all that far apart. Both are creative arts steeped in history, and both can be really inspirational to the consumer.
KK
two artists coming together and sharing their creative craft with an audience. How does the process of brewing and creating music work? The breweries hear the pieces and... work backwards? Is there any back-and-forth between the musicians and the brewers?
SS
For each show, I share the composer’s music with the brewer a couple months before the concert. They listen to the music and design a beer they think best reflects that music’s attributes. For example, for our concert at Rising Tide Brewery, the brewer—Adrian BeckOliver—wanted to highlight the experimental nature of the music and accentuate the woodiness of some of the sounds (there was a lot of percussion). He ended up brewing a wild farmhouse saison that I thought paired beautifully! Back-and-forth? Some. Sometimes the brewer will send me a couple different ideas and I comment with which seems to resonate more. But most often the brewer just does what she or he feels is most appropriate. We really want to give them full artistic freedom!
KK
And when you can sip an inspirational drink while listening to an inspirational piece, that’s when the magic happens! I often hear people argue that “classical music is dying.” I really disagree with this sentiment. What I think is accurate, though, is that people are growing disinterested in the concert hall. For people who haven’t grown up or are unfamiliar with the classical music culture, the concert hall can appear dry or stiff. But this really isn’t a reflection of the music, just the venue. A brewery is a naturally relaxed environment. People are free—encouraged!—to drink and move around during the concert. It’s still a concert (it’s not just background music to people drinking), but in the relaxed environment of a brewery, people naturally become more receptive to new sounds and new art. I am insistent that I put the beer and music on equal footing. Both the composer and the brewer address the audience during the show. Because I value each art equally, I am very careful to let them complement each other: the brewery isn’t just “a venue,” nor is the music just a background band. These are
Can you talk about experiencing the music and the beer together? How do they work in concert, so to speak?
SS
We actually take the pairings pretty seriously. Different beers work well with different types of music. If the music is super fun and upbeat, a light, sessionable beer makes a good pairing. But if the music is a little more abstract or requires a little bit more thought, I always recommend a contemplative, big beer: a slow sipper that heightens focus. Though we don’t really program any, one of my favorite pairings is Mozart with an Austrian-style Pilsener. Mozart’s music is so clean and precise, and on the surface appears simple and light. But in reality, this music is incredibly difficult to perform, and any mistake will be immediately noticed by
KK
Photo: String players Daniel Dona, Nicole Cariglia, Rose Drucker and Heather Braun perform at Aeronaut Brewing Co. Courtesy of Original Gravity.
Our Club served over 200 Somerville youth this year. Club dues are only $30/year so any child can attend! We are independent from the Boston Clubs and raise our own funds. Donations and volunteers from Somerville are key to our success!
scoutsomerville.com July | August 2017 35
SOUNDS OF THE CITY
Opera on Tap
operaontap.org/boston Scout Somerville: So, full disclosure: I first heard of Opera on Tap after a friend of mine went on a date at the Burren and all the sudden there was opera. He was like, “You’re never going to believe this, but…” I bet that happens to you a lot.
SS
Abigail Krawson: [Laughs] Definitely. It sort of depends on which venue we’re at, but I’d definitely say people are most surprised at the Burren, especially because they’re known more for folk music and Irish music. No one’s surprised that there’s music there, they’re more like, “Opera? At my dive bar?”
AK
SS
How did this series get kicked off?
Opera on Tap was actually started in New York by our head honcho, Anne Hiatt. It was her idea to give herself some more performing opportunities, but in a less structured, formal, more low-pressure situation. She found a bar in New York that was like, “Oh, you wanna sing opera? No problem.” New York is obviously a pretty opera-heavy city, but as she was talking to other friends here and there throughout the country, other branches started forming. It’s the 11th anniversary this year, and it’s picked up quite a bit. And one of my best friends actually started the first international chapter in Berlin two years ago. It’s really, really picked up speed.
AK
The brewery isn’t ‘just a venue,’ nor is the music just a background band. These are two artists coming together and sharing their creative craft with an audience.
any listener, regardless of their experience with the music. A Pilsener is exactly the same—the most popular beer style in the world, it’s light and super easy drinking. It’s super pleasant, but easy to not pay attention to. Yet while it seems so simple, it really is the most difficult style to effectively brew: there’s no room for error. Any flaw would be immediately noticed by any drinker. What’s the audience at one of these nights like? I’d imagine the experience is a little unlike your, uh, classic classical music production?
SS
e audience is pretty Th varied. Probably most concert-goers are in their 30s or 40s, though we have several retired audience members as well. Pretty much anyone who likes beer, music and the slightly unusual will find themselves at our shows. Though we certainly have some regular classical concert-
KK
36 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
goers, we are really targeting people who wouldn’t generally consider going to classical music concerts. Our goal is to expand the audience for new classical music, by introducing it to people who probably didn’t even know it existed. But, most often, people walk away really excited about what they hear. I read in your bio that you’re always traveling in search of the perfect pint. Have any of these pours come close to achieving that?
SS
There has been some amazing beer brewed for Original Gravity! A couple of highlights were a barrel-aged wild ale brewed by Rising Tideand a gruit by Mystic. But the quest for that perfect pint is a lifelong journey!
KK
Original Gravity’s next pairing brings Boston Percussion Group to Barrel House Z in Weymouth on July 30. The complete 2017–2018 lineup is available at keithkirchoff. wixsite.com/originalgravity.
So the goal was really just to have more opportunities to showcase your craft?
SS
Well, the idea was that this was a way to make opera more accessible—to make it more fun, more approachable, less stuffy. Opera has some preconceived notions that I think go with it. Her mission was self-fulfilling in that she’d get to perform and
AK
Photo: Opera On Tap soprano Laura Ethington performs in the Burren Backroom. Photo by Adrianne Mathiowetz.
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SOUNDS OF THE CITY
Opera singers are everywhere. We just served you your chai latte at Starbucks. We’re the receptionist at your dental office. We’re not weird creatures of the night.
have these extra chances to sing, but also to help the art form by offering it in a more convenient and a more relaxed atmosphere, so we might catch people who aren’t necessarily opera-goers, who’d be like, “Oh, well, that wasn’t bad. Maybe I would go see an opera. Or maybe I’d at least go to another one of these.” There’s four of us who run the Boston chapter, and we’re all women, and we all love it. We do it for the same reasons that it was started: a chance to perform, to make opera more accessible and, really, to have fun. We get to sing opera with our friends, we get to drink beer while we do it—it’s a pretty good gig.
SS
What can people expect in an Opera on Tap performance?
What we usually do is we pick a theme. We don’t do a whole opera—I call it cabaret style. You have selections from this opera,
AK
38 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
selections from that opera. So one we recently did at the Burren was “Nasty Women of Opera.” But we also do musical theater, and sometimes we do jazz. We’re not solely stuck in operaland. We have anywhere from four to six singers at every gig, and we try to have a nice mix of soprano, mezzo, tenor, bass, baritone. Any last words for those who remain unconvinced that they might actually enjoy an hour or two of opera?
SS
I guess I’d say, it doesn’t cost any money, so you can go out and drink a beer with your friends on a Saturday afternoon and do it while experiencing something you’ve never heard of before and you’re not familiar with. We want to make you feel like you’re part of the show, like you’re just hanging out with us backstage and we happen to be singing opera. People think opera costs
AK
a lot of money, and most of the shows we do are free or minimal cost. It’s opera by the people for the people, so to speak. And you know, I think sometimes people are surprised that young people sing opera. We did this campaign one time where we were like, “We’re among you.” Opera singers are everywhere—we just served you your chai latte at Starbucks. We’re the receptionist at your dental office. We babysit your children. We’re not weird creatures of the night. We’re normal people, and we want to invite you to the show so that you can get to know us and get to know opera, which is not this hoity-toity, unapproachable thing. Opera on Tap is taking a break at the Burren this summer, but they’ll be back this fall with “The Nasty Women of Opera,” “Opera on Tap Oktoberfest” and their annual Halloween show. In the meantime, catch a free outdoor performance in Boston’s Worcester Square on July 20 at 7 p.m.
Photo: The Opera on Tap crowd at the Burren Backroom, courtesy of Opera on Tap.
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“We Really Are All Together Now.” A look at the local event series that’s uniting poets, musicians, activists, artists and more.
BY EMILY CASSEL
40 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
A
nna Rae didn’t know if this thing was going to work. Rae moved to Boston to play music about seven years ago, which she does as the bassist and songwriter of the band Hemway. But the more she familiarized herself with the city, the more she realized that there was a problem in the area’s arts community. “I was learning a little bit more about the city and the demographics of the city, and was starting to understand how
Scout’s Honored: Vote your favorites until 7/25 at scoutsomerville.com/vote
segregated it is racially and how that affects all kinds of resource flow: spaces to make art, money to make art, resources to do the art,” Rae explains. “Obviously, that shows up in rock music, which is still very white, male, hetero … the numbers are crazy off.” At the same time, she was starting to feel a little bored, quite frankly, with folk and rock shows. It all seemed the same: three or four bands performing familiar songs, repeating the rituals. Performers, she says,
can sometimes get lazy, which in turn means the audience isn’t well-served. (She compares it to Starbucks—sure, there’s something to be said for knowing what you’re going to get, but are you getting the best? It means you’re never really challenged to think differently or try something new.) Rae knew there were inspiring artists out there, like Boston’s burlesque dancers, or the avant-garde performance artists she saw on trips to New
York City. Why, she wondered, couldn’t she bring that energy to a rock show? What about a multifaceted, multidisciplinary night of art, music and more? “I wanted to try creating space that I wanted to be in, that would be more diverse, have more genres and start bringing in artists from out of town,” she says. “She kind of decided to just create it,” laughs Jane Park. Park, who performs under the name Poor Eliza, was already friends with Rae and familiar with her work. She’d attended songwriting workshops at Rae’s home, where local musicians often discussed the straight, white, male state of Boston music as they honed their songs. “We’d talked about how we go to shows and see the same kinds of people on stage all the time,” she recalls. “[Anna Rae] took it further and developed this idea of putting together a show specifically for women, people of color, and performers who identify as LGBTQ+.” Rae called the series All Together Now, and it launched last year. It was a risk, financially, and otherwise. Rae wanted to pay all the artists—which she did—and hire professional photographers to capture the energy of each evening—which she did. But it took a lot of work, and the first three shows in 2016 were a trial run of sorts. She wasn’t sure if other people wanted an event like this, if they were hungry for those kinds of spaces. As it turns out, they very much were. “It was kind of surprising and really heartwarming who responded to the concept,” Rae says. For example, there’s a group of middle-aged, white, straight men who who says have been incredibly supportive—sharing every post, attending every show. “They really get why this is beneficial, not just to the people I’m making space for but also to them,” she says. One of those men is Reid Simpson, a photographer who loves art, music and theater but jokingly describes himself as “whitebread, middle-class America.” “I’m 56 this year, turning 57, a suburban guy,” he says. “I’ve
Photo: Anna Rae photographed by Reid Simpson, Hear and There Photography, at All Together Now’s second installment.
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SOUNDS OF THE CITY
I was starting to understand how segregated [Boston] is racially and how that affects all kinds of resource flow: spaces to make art, money to make art. – Anna Rae 42 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
tried to engage and change my perspective as much as possible, and Anna Rae and others have been instrumental in opening up doors and opening up eyes.” As he attended his first All Together Now event, Simpson was somewhat worried that it would feel like everyone was in cages—“in that the population she was supporting would be looking at me, and I’d be looking at them, and we wouldn’t interact except through the bars.” But that hasn’t been the case at all. “She actively engages everybody,” he says. “There are no outsiders in her world. And
when you’re there, it works. It is all together now. We really are all together now.” After receiving a grant from the Boston Foundation this year, Rae is keeping it running, and the sixth All Together Now installment will come to the Burren in August. Park, who’s performed with All Together Now and later came on board as the Marketing Assistant for the series, acknowledges that Rae isn’t the only artist in Boston who’s trying to make a space for marginalized groups. But the show is somewhat different in that it engages people from so many communities rather than sectioning performances into silos: “This is a queer show. This is a show for Southeast Asians.” And Rae, of course, sees the value in having intentionally and specifically queer spaces, womenonly spaces, spaces for people of color. That’s just not what All Together Now is about. “I feel very strongly that feminism is for everyone and that men are as isolated as women, just in a different way,” Rae explains. “They have a lot of privileges that women don’t have, but it’s not a happy space to be in, being isolated in male-only space. I think the goal is for all of us to share space together.” That means breaking down barriers between different communities, be they separated by race or by gender or by genre. At any given All Together Now evening, you’ll find experimental filmmakers on the bill with beatboxers and magicians. Musicians take the stage with comedians. At one All Together Now production, there was an adult clowning act involving fried chicken. It’s a truly unifying—and truly one of a kind—experience. “People have maybe been to a female music festival, they know what that’s about,” Rae says. “But to have a space that’s about diversity and out of town acts and multidisciplinary performance, it’s pretty unusual.” All Together Now #6 will take place at the Burren on Saturday, August 19 at 7 p.m. You can find more info on the series at alltogetherbos.wordpress.com.
Photo, top: A clowning performance by Hye Yun Park at All Together Now #2. Photo by Reid Simpston, Hear and There Photography. Photo, bottom: Cambridge rapper Tashawn Taylor performs at All Together Now #4. Photo by Jaypix, jaypixstudios.com.
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SOUNDS OF THE CITY
PICTURE THIS FROM THE BOSS TO BOSTON, RON POWNALL HAS PHOTOGRAPHED JUST ABOUT EVERY ROCK LEGEND THERE IS. 44 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
Scout’s Honored: Vote your favorites until 7/25 at scoutsomerville.com/vote
BY EMILY CASSEL PHOTOS BY JESS BENJAMIN
C
an’t make it out to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Photographer Ron Pownall’s Somerville studio is a pretty solid substitute. The walls of his loft at the Brickbottom Artists Association are lined with decades of rock history. Here’s the guys in Boston, passed out in their tour bus as they travel between cities. Here’s the iconic 1976 image of Elton John leaning out the window of a New York City hotel, photographed for the explosive Rolling Stone cover story in which the musician came out as bisexual. There’s Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, applying his makeup backstage or, in a charming series of 1977 shots, engaged in a beerchugging contest against the band’s road manager. “This shot, I’ve had hanging here for years,” Pownall says, gesturing to a photo in which the Aerosmith guys are grinning. It’s one he took during their “bad boys from Boston” days, when the band rarely smiled in shots. “I could never, ever replace it.” It goes on like this. Bruce Springsteen. Tom Petty. The Rolling Stones. Bob Dylan. Debbie Harry. One wall houses dozens of photos of David Bowie performing throughout the years. And it’s all the more incredible when you learn that he stumbled into rock photography somewhat accidentally. In 1968, a 20-year-old Pownall landed a summer job as a photographer with the Chicago Tribune, where he started shooting the Vietnam
scoutsomerville.com July | August 2017 45
SOUNDS OF THE CITY
War protests at the DNC. By far the youngest member of the paper’s photo department, he began taking concert assignments largely because his coworkers didn’t want them—they were married with kids; they couldn’t be out all night shooting shows. His first four assignments? Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Cream. Pownall’s next big break came in ’74, after he’d moved to Boston. Queen was on their second headlining tour, and he was asked by a local organizer to photograph the band during their Boston dates. “In those days, you’d go home, develop the film, make prints in the morning and then try and peddle them,” he explains. But when he showed up to do the peddling part the following night, their management wasn’t thrilled… turns out, he hadn’t gone through the appropriate channels. 46 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
“He’s literally having me thrown out the stage door, and I said, ‘Well, I shot them last night. Can I show you the pictures?’” Queen’s people liked them, and they put Pownall in the photo pit. When those photos were good, too, they offered to fly him to New York to shoot Queen for three nights at the Beacon. It was the beginning of a relationship that lasted 25 years. “That one link of getting almost thrown out of a Queen show,” he chuckles. The LA publicity group that managed them would eventually connect him with everyone from Liza Minnelli to Elton John. Pownall is full of stories like this, where he somehow managed to be in the right place at the right time—but of course, he still had to know where the right place was. Here’s the advice he gives students when he’s invited to speak at career fairs: “I tell them that luck is
The Aerosmith guys made regular trips to Pownall’s home in Harvard Square, where they’d sit down together to flip through a slideshow of his latest shots.
really important. But what’s luck? It’s the intersection of preparedness and opportunity.” Pointing to an intimate photo of Paul McCartney tuning his bass, he recalls creeping through the stadium during soundcheck, snapping away. He wasn’t technically supposed to be there, but Sir Paul saw him winding through the stands and invited him to come down to the stage. Perhaps the best example of the right place, right time, hard work formula came when Pownall connected with Boston’s favorite sons: Aerosmith. It was 1973, and he’d gone to a sock hop at Boston College’s Roberts Gym to photograph the opening act, a local band called Duke and the Drivers. He stayed for Aerosmith too, and, well: “It’s the earliest shots of them live,” he says. The band and the photographer struck up a deal: He’d shoot them for free, but they’d pay for film, processing and contact sheets. Pownall captured everything from live shows to posed portraits to those relaxed, behind-thescenes moments from tour, images that would appear in album liners and ads and on posters. Aerosmith would come to his house in Harvard Square, and they’d all sit down together to watch a slideshow of his latest shots, approving the ones they liked for print. He ended up working with them until the ’90s, and he’s spent so much time with the band he’s practically an Aerosmith historian; when the History Channel was working on a show about them, he acted as a consultant, filling in the gaps and sitting down for an interview in his studio space. Of course, these were different times. “I think at the Paradise, I shot Tom Petty, Billy Joel, Aerosmith—these people were playing that little club,” he recalls wistfully. “Bette Midler, she played five nights.” Pownall doesn’t shoot shows as much these days, citing the increasing corporatization of the industry, among other factors, but says there’s still nothing like the rush of capturing a band’s live performance on film. And for all of his good luck and preparedness, even he has the one that got away. While he’s hit the road with Aerosmith and photographed everyone from Meat Loaf to Jeff Beck to Tina Turner, asked if there’s anyone he never got the chance to take a photo of, he hardly stops to think before replying. “I have two: Prince and U2.” scoutsomerville.com July | August 2017 47
WHO’S RUNNING? Voting in municipal elections is one of the easiest ways you can make a difference in Somerville (though if you’re looking for other ways to help, just turn the page—we’ve got 53 of ‘em).
Please note there will be preliminary races for Mayor and Ward 1 School Committee.
Below, we’ve listed each of the contested races in this year’s election. Look these folks up, learn what they’re about and get out to vote for the candidate whose platform resonates most with you this fall.
MAYOR • Joseph A. Curtatone (incumbent) • Kenneth C. Van Buskirk III • Payton Corbett ALDERMAN AT LARGE • William A. White Jr. (President) (incumbent) • Dennis M Sullivan (incumbent) • John M. “Jack” Connolly (incumbent) • Mary Jo Rossetti (incumbent) • Stephanie Hirsch • Will Mbah • Kevin Tarpley
7
WARD 1 • Matthew C. McLaughlin (incumbent) • Elio Lorusso
6
CITY HALL
48 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
5
WARD 2 • Maryann M. Heuston (incumbent) • JT Scott WARD 3 • Robert J. McWatters (incumbent) • Ben Ewen-Campen WARD 4 • Jesse Clingan • Omar Boukili WARD 1 SCHOOL COMMITTEE • Guillermo Samuel Hamlin • Kenneth M. Salvato • Emily Ackman
4 2
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DO N A C U O SY G N I H 54 T
S
omerville is home to a veritable army of nonprofits, community organizations, meetups and groups working to make our little corner of the world a better place. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed and want to do something right now, why not find other people who are doing something awesome and ask, “How can I help?” Here’s a list of places you can start!
I N S O M E R V IL L E BY KATIE GRADOWSKI
TO MAKE CHANGE
1. Become an ESOL teacher at The Welcome Project. 2. Use your tech skills! Help The Welcome Project develop a rapid-response system for immigrant families.
3. V olunteer to canvass for the Safe Communities Act and help other cities become sanctuary cities. 4. Watch Somerville Neighborhood News, Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on Channel 3—it’s seriously the best local news. 5. Get a SCATV membership and help make Somerville Neighborhood News. 6. Take a class at SCALE— learn some skills, meet your neighbors and build stuff at the high school. 7. Pick a local campaign and spend the weekend canvassing in your neighborhood.
8. Donate to Books of Hope; follow their FB, spread the word to youth and young adults who want to publish books, run writing workshops and host open mics!
50 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
9. Find out when your local Resistat meeting is happening. Go and ask tough questions.
10. Get to know your ward alderman. Find out what’s on the docket for land use and legislative affairs. Advocate for the things that are important to you. 11. Meet your School Committee member, and start a conversation about what’s happening in the schools.
15. Talk to your neighbors about the transfer tax. One percent of every real estate transaction for affordable housing! 16. Volunteer as a tutor at Somerville Public Schools. 17. Make friends at the Center for Arabic Culture at the Armory, every second Saturday from 4 to 6:30 p.m. 18. Register to vote. 19. Run for local office.
12. Read the municipal budget (new and improved as of June!) to find out what Somerville spends money on. 20. Vote in the upcoming municipal election.
13. Host a house party and donate the funds to MIRA to support immigrants and refugees statewide. 14. J oin AHOC (the Affordable Housing Organizing Committee); become a member of the Somerville Community Corporation (SCC).
21. Comprehensive zoning overhaul starts up again in the fall; go to the zoning meetings and ask how it will impact you and how it will impact developers.
22. R un a workshop at the Mystic Learning Center. 23. Be a reader at Freedom Connexion’s summer program — or better yet, sponsor a scholar!
24. Volunteer with the Somerville Boys and Girls Club. 25. Donate to the Ryan Harrington Foundation to help combat substance abuse disorders.
26. D onate materials to Parts and Crafts and Beautiful Stuff Project; share your crafting skills as a workshop leader. 27. W alk to Save our Homes to help combat displacement and support the Somerville Homeless Coalition. 28. C heck out the Black Lives Matter Cambridge Action Plan and support their summer fundraiser. 29. Become a member of Union United —the group meets the first Thursday of the month at St. Joe’s, from 6 to 8 p.m.
30. G o to Teen Empowerment’s Annual Peace Conference to support incredible youth. 31. D onate and volunteer with the Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) and other organizations vulnerable to federal funding cuts. Help with community outreach and organizing. 32. G et to know the people at CAAS, the Ruby Rogers Center, the SCC, Mystic Learning, and other organizations that work directly with low-income folks in Somerville. Spread the word and share with friends who might benefit from these services!
33. Go to the Somerville Overcoming Addiction annual vigil and honor lost loved ones. 34. Help MIRA with voter registration drives. 35. Go to meetings on new developments and public park design. Encourage low-impact design to reuse our stormwater and better planting practices, and push for healthy green spaces.
41. Join up with Indivisible Somerville and Our Revolution, two dominating new voices for change in the post-Trump era. 42. Join a nonprofit board and put in some hours helping with the mission.
37. Check out Freedom Connexion’s finale to support young scholars in the community. 38. Volunteer at the Growing Center, or South Street Farm, Concord Street Farm, and ArtFarm. Apply to be an urban agriculture ambassador, start your own community garden and compost! 39. Join with Somerville’s Climate Forward to lay out next steps in becoming more sustainable to reach our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
40. Talk to your neighbors about the condo conversion ordinance. Let’s get something on paper we can actually enforce!
49. Turn the compost or tap a tree at the Somerville Community Growing Center.
43. Send a thank you card to ISD (they inspect all the buildings in Somerville — hard work!)
44. Support your local firefighters. 36. Call the aldermen and ask them to push the city to plant native trees.
48. Join a tenant association or neighborhood council. Get involved! Meet your neighbors!
45. Submit public testimony at local and state hearings on issues you care about. 46. Push for a city-subsidized and promoted stormwater management system — depaving driveways, hooking up rain barrels to downspouts, planting rain gardens.
47. G o to development meetings for projects that are happening in your neighborhood.
50. Support citywide recycling initiatives. 51. Go to a workshop at your local public library.
52. Run for a board position in the Union Square Neighborhood Council. 53. The next time appointments come up for a city committee, put your name in for a spot. 54. Get to know your state delegation! Mike Connolly, Pat Jehlen, Denise Provost and Christine Barber are doing the people’s work. Go to their office hours, find out what’s up, advocate accordingly.
C
ould we make it even easier to get involved? We think so! Head to scoutsomerville.com/start-right-now, where you’ll find this list plus handy hyperlinks guiding you to the websites for these organizations and actions. This list was put together for the Somerville Arts Council’s How to Fix the World Festival in June. If you have stuff to add, email scout@scoutmagazines.com and katie.gradowski@gmail.com, and we’ll put it on there!
scoutsomerville.com July | August 2017 51
CALENDAR JULY 11
| FILM
JULY 22 & AUGUST 12
JULY 12
| BOOKS
JULY 27-30
BEST OF BOSTON’S 48 HOUR FILM PROJECT 7:30 p.m., Price TBA Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville What happens when you give teams of filmmakers exactly 48 hours to write, shoot, edit and score a movie? In June, New England film crews did just that—and you can see the results at the Somerville Theatre!
JONNY SUN PRESENTS EVERYONE’S A ALIEBN WHEN UR A ALIEBN TOO: A BOOK 6 p.m., $5 The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge Twitter personality, comedian and MIT PhD candidate Jonathan Sun’s Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too (our copy editor would like you to know that’s how the title is actually spelled) tells a heartbreaking, perspective-shifting story that’s a must-read. But don’t just take our word for it: “Read this book only if you want to feel more alive,” says Lin-Manuel Miranda.
JULY 12
AUGUST 2
JULY 21
| COMMUNITY
Photo by Thomas Cole
| DANCE
FOURTH ANNUAL SALSA SQUARED 7 p.m., Free Brattle Plaza, Harvard Square, Cambridge The Harvard Square Business Association is bringing the heat with the return of its annual “Salsa Squared” dance party—where not only can you get down to fiery Latin dance beats, you can also chow down on salsa and snacks from restaurants in the square.
52 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
| FOOD & DRINK
CHAR & BAR WARS 5:30–8:30 p.m., $35 University Park, Sidney Street, Cambridge A burger battle and cocktail competition all in one—you won’t want to miss the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce’s first ever Char & Bar Wars, which finds local chefs serving up their finest sliders while the city’s best bartenders mix it up on the beverage side. Plus, you get to decide who wins!
| STORYTELLING
ARTBEAT 6–10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday, Free Davis Square, Somerville ArtBeat’s back in 2017 with dozens of craft vendors and artisans, two stages of live music and tons of family-friendly events (and food). This year’s theme is “voice,” which makes it a pretty conveniently fitting follow-up once you’ve paged through this “Sounds of the City” issue.
| PERFORMANCE ARTS
GLOW FESTIVAL Times Vary, Tickets From $25 Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Cambridge The inaugural GLOW Festival “aims to secure Cambridge a star on the international festival map,” according to organizers, with diverse, progressive programming that span genres and defy expectations through cabaret, storytelling, oneperson shows and more.
THE MOTH 7 p.m., $10 ONCE Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville Join local storytellers as they spin five-minute yarns around the theme of denial—and maybe prep a totally true story of your own you’d be willing to tell in front of a live audience.
JULY 14 & 15
| NATURE
INVASIVE PLANT REMOVAL 9 a.m.–12 p.m., Free Blessing of the Bay Boathouse, 32 Shore Dr., Somerville Do a good deed and have fun in the sun all in one with this summer’s volunteer cleanup opportunities along the Mystic. Find more info and register at mysticriver.org.
Scout’s Honored: Vote your favorites until 7/25 at scoutsomerville.com/vote
AUGUST 20
| FITNESS
AUGUST 31
| MUSIC
RACE TO THE ROW 9 a.m., $25–$35 Assembly Square, 275 Foley St., Somerville Lace up those kicks for the fifth annual Race to the Row, which benefits East Somerville Main Streets, Somerville TrackPAC and the Somerville Auxiliary Police. There’s a 5k, a fast mile and a free fun run for kids, plus food and drink from Somerville restaurants.
SHEER MAG 7 p.m., $13 The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge These Philly punks are bringing their classic rockinfused cacophony to Cambridge for an all-ages ripper at the Sinclair. With support from Haram and Lost Balloons.
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SCOUT YOU
Social justice-oriented dance company Danza Orgánica performs a piece based on the impact of mass incarceration on women and their families at Boston-based indie folk singer-songwriter Grace Givertz performs at the June’s How to Fix the World Festival in Union Square. Photo by Greg Cook. How to Fix the World Festival. Photo by Greg Cook.
Jake Viens and Meghann Ackerman are all smiles at the first-ever Big Gay Dance Party in Union Square. Photo by Christine Andrews. Somerville’s Amanda Playwith performs at the Big Gay Dance Party. Photo by Christine Andrews.
Community members gather at City Hall to protest Federal Realty Investment Athletes from organizations including the Somerville Media Center, Groundwork Trust’s request for an affordable housing waiver in Assembly Row. The waiver Somerville and Somerville Teen Empowerment strike a pose at the first-ever ultimately passed in June. Photo by Katie Bowler. Somerville Nonprofit Kickball Game at Nunziato Field. 54 July | August 2017 scoutsomerville.com
“
When you go around Somerville during Porchfest, you realize that every neighborhood has a band. In fact most neighborhoods have multiple bands. We’ve got brass bands, old guy rock bands, kids with unbelievable hip hop flow, salsa bands, tribute bands, folk bands and everything in between. Grab a didgeridoo, a theremin, a zither, some bagpipes and a human beatbox and you’ve got yourself a Somerville band. The sounds that comes out of this city are amazing.”
– MAYOR JOE CURTATONE F I N D O U T M O R E A N D G E T I N VO LV E D AT J O E C U R TATO N E .CO M PA I D F O R BY T H E CO M M I T T E E TO E L E C T J O E C U R TATO N E