This powerful set of performances by artists in response to state-sanctioned violence against the black community is just as relevant now as it was a year ago...
Many thanks to all the artists, our videography team and Roots Media! Each performance will be posted in its entirely on our website shortly.
Explore the future of Roxbury through a series of playful “productive fictions”--interactive installations that create glimpses of a more just and vibrant social and civic life. Building on the Design Studio for Social Intervention’s Public Kitchen and Dance Court, this immersive and speculative tour / activity / performance will invite participants and passers-by to join over 20 local artists in five different locations. The tour will function as both a fun and highly interactive experience and an imaginative canvas where participants can experiment with their own ideas for new, more vibrant social infrastructures.
We're excited to share Danchi no Yume with you here at DS4SI and discussion with filmmaker, Sam Cole! Bring yourselves and friends - there will be pop corn! Free and open to all.
Sam Cole is a filmmaker and photographer living in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. His first feature documentary Danchi No Yume tells the story of Japanese hip hop artist Anarchy and his rise to prominence from the south side Kyoto ghettos.
www.samcole2020.com
We are delighted to host the first screening of Danchi no Yume in Boston
Check out the trailer here:
http://www.samcole2020.com/danchi-no-yume/
Last Saturday Soledad led the first group through a series of unconventional printing techniques at the first Art Unpacked. Check it out! The Art Unpacked series is free and open to all every Saturday in May and June.
People who came by got to learn how to transfer and lift photocopy images onto a number of surfaces, make a pamphlet using stitch binding. Foam grocery trays, linoleum blocks, wood and even gelatin were used among other great and easily available materials for some basic relief printing. Thank you Kalamu Kieta for the photos!
THURSDAYS IN MAY & JUNE
Come hear a diverse set of artists share how their work unfolds— what and who inspires their practice, their rituals, research, challenges, and more. Audience discussions will follow.
TIME: Thursday evenings, 6-8pm
LOCATION: Design Studio for Social Intervention, 1946 Washington St, 2nd floor, Roxbury, MA 02118
SATURDAYS IN MAY & JUNE
Join us for hands-on workshops that will give you new tools and techniques for your own art practice. Local artists will share their tricks for affordable and portable artmaking.
TIME: Saturdays, 10am-3pm
LOCATION: Dorchester Arts Collaborative (DAC), Erick Jean Center for the Arts
157 Washington St, Dorchester, MA 02121
Please sign up by emailing ArtUnpacked@ds4si.org
All workshops are FREE but spaces are limited.
All presentations and workshops are FREE & OPEN TO ALL thanks to generous funding provided by the Barr Foundation. Please remember to email us if you want to attend a Saturday workshop!
Kenneth Bailey is first and foremost an interventionist and also happens to be a founding member of DS4SI and its Sector Organizing and Strategy Lead.
Soledad Boyd is a jack of many trades and master of none as well as the Social Practice and Placemaking Lead at DS4SI
Sam Cole is a filmmaker and photographer living in Ft. Greene Brooklyn. His first feature documentary Danchi No Yume tells the story of Japanese hip hop artist Anarchy and his rise to prominence from the south side kyoto ghettos. www.samcole2020.com
Ian Cozzens is an artist, educator, & silkscreen maniac from Providence, RI who is always making prints, building stuff, and/or helping other people make and build things. He is currently the Resident Artist Mentor in Printmaking at New Urban Arts, where he works with high school students to realize their screenprinting projects.http://www.secretdoorprojects.org http://www.newurbanarts.org
Barrington Edwards is a multi media artist, illustrator, puppet maker and sculptor.http://studiovexer.blogspot.com
Vanessa L. German is a multidisciplinary artist: sculptor, photographer, painter, actress, poet and a lover of Homewood, her neighborhood in Pittsburh, PA.http://21stcenturyjuju.com
Jen Hall is a graphic designer, printmaker and carpenters apprentice.
Judith Leemann is an artist, writer and educator http://www.judithleemann.com
Ayako Maruyama is the Design Lead at DS4SI. She spends her time designing, producing and fabricating Creativity Labs that push how we approach about complex social problems. Her practice is influenced by her training in industrial design and city planning which are grounded by her Japanese and Filipina roots.
Maria Molteni is a Nashville-to-Boston-based multimedia and performing artist often working with participatory soft sculpture. Having completed a BFA from Boston University in Painting and Printmaking, her practice sprung from roots in formalism, but has grown to incorporate ritualistic research, social engagement, and community building. http://maria-molteni.squarespace.com
Mike Prokosch is a community activist, builder, calligrapher and teacher of all he knows.
Sheldon Scott is an artist and writer working in performance, sculpture, spoken narrative photography, ephemera and Immersive installations. His work surveys the intersection of Race, Economics and Sexuality with a critical lens on ideals of the Black Male form, while assessing the social taxes levied on Back Bodies and Psyches. http://sheldonscottstudios.com
April 9. 2016
Every month, our ExpressingBoston public art fellows meet at DS4SI. This week we reviewed some terrain research and began rough prototyping !
It was wonderful to finally have Tiago at the studio with us to share his work for Black History Month and the Expressing Boston public art fellows! Feb. 9-11, 2016
Tiago Gualberto is a visual artist and researcher at Museu Afro Brasil. He is a vibrant part of the emerging Afro-Brazilian contemporary art scene. He has taken part in over a dozen of collective exhibitions in important Brazilian institutions, such as the Nova Mão Afro-brasileira in Museu Afro Brasil, in 2012; and three solo exhibitions, such as the one titled Magia Negra in SESC Pinheiros, during the same year. Outside of Brazil, he has participated in various collective exhibits, like the Bienal de Valença: Encuentro entre dos mares in Spain, in 2007, and AfroBrasil: Art and Identities at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, in Albuquerque, USA, in 2015. He did a residence at the Tamarind Institute, part of the New Mexico University, during the project Afro: Black Identity in America and Brazil, in 2012. During that year, he stood out as one of the finalists in Visual Arts category in the Programa Nascente, promoted by the Pró-Reitoria de Cultura e Extensão USP and, in 2015, became one of the finalists of the Bolsa Funarte de Fomento aos Artistas e Produtores Negros, the biggest prize destined to African-Brazilian artists.
Event Descriptions:
Kizzy's Appeal—by a collective of artists
A performance comprised of spoken word, visual art, and dance. This performance started from the maternal question, "Have you seen my child?" Kizzy's Appeal mirrors the impact, historically and currently, of systemic violence that robs black and brown communities of loved ones.
Two Things –by Letta Neely
A spoken word performance that expresses the current state of black emotions and feelings amidst the backdrop of state sanctioned violence and the recent Charleston massacre
Blind Spots—by James Montford Jr
A performance to explore, expose, and discuss the social construct of exclusion and through a performative process manifest potential for change. The artist will tell several short stories about "difference" and intimating/identifying the cause being Blind Spots in our behavior.
Of / From—by Sheldon Scott
Performative intervention interrogating the 14th Amendment
Divided We Fall—choreographed by McKersin Previlus
John the Baptist was something of a biblical spectacle—a long locked, loud-voiced, wild gesticulator.
This dance performance brings his central question to mind: what did you come here to see?
Black Body Survival Store—by Intelligent Mischief
A pop-up store featuring the Black Body Survival Guide—a compilation of rules and regulations for surviving in the U.S. as the owner of a black body—and related products
Terror, Beauty, Pain, Solace—by Marlene Smith
We know, and have been reminded, against our will, that we can hurt and be hurt in public. This spiritual intervention asks the question, can we heal and be healed in public?
Frederick Douglass—Annual Reading “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
A communal reading of the fiery July 5, 1852, speech in which Frederick Douglass took exception to being asked to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Midnight Vigil—by Boston area Youth Organizing Project
A midnight to noon vigil asking the question, “Are blacks citizens?”
Some weeks ago an esteemed colleague of ours asked us this hard question. In turn, we asked others. In response, the Black Citizenship Project was formed--a loose collection of local and regional Black artists who wanted to respond to the state sanctioned violence against Black bodies and communities. Our collective response is one of performance, celebration, loss, prayer, healing, dance, protest and music.
Join us...
Please join us in kicking off #dontshootinmyname You can do it yourself, spread it as a profile photo on Facebook, tweet it, put it on Instagram, etc. We want to shift the conversation. Right now it's being framed as a "black issue". It's a civil society issue. It's all of our issues. We all need to step in, step up, and say no to police brutality in the name of public safety. We all deserve to be safe.
Spread the word and save the date! More info coming soon...
The Fairmount Cultural Corridor is a creative placemaking initiative that combines collaborative efforts of residents, artists, community organizations and businesses to support vibrant, livable neighborhoods along the Fairmount Line, made stronger through an active local creative economy. DS4SI has been a partner in this placemaking efforts, including our Upham's Corner Public Kitchens, Making Planning Processes Public and StreetLab: Upham's installations.
FCC and lead partner Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) are looking to hire 4 Artists-in-Residence. These artists will work with the DS4SI to design opportunities for residents, merchants, youth, and other creative practitioners to reimagine public spaces, public forms of community expression, and social interventions that increase vibrancy and community connectedness. Artists will be based in a distinct community along the Fairmount Line, including Upham’s Corner, Four Corners, and one who will work with four local schools. All artists will be based out of local nonprofits.
The positions are 20 hours per week @ $25/hr. To apply, download the job description and application. Full applications, including 3 art samples, must be submitted by August 29th. Local artists and nontradtional artists and craftspeople encouraged to apply.
Please join us to celebrate our three DPI Artists-in-Residence and their community partners! Food, conversation and an informal chance to learn about the creative work they've done over the past year.
The ExpressingBoston Public Art Fellowship program will offer selected artists a 9 month fellowship with DS4SI between October 2014 and June 2015. The fellowship is aimed at supporting artists in thinking through and testing new ways to do their art practice in public spaces, in ways that increase the authority which artists and community members feel to claim public spaces in their neighborhoods. Artists will receive a stipend of $5,000 and up to $2,000 for materials for their participation in this community of practice.
This fellowship is open to artists who are engaged in a wide definition of art and public art. This includes both temporary and permanent art, as well as traditional and nontraditional arts such as (but not limited to): culinary arts, dance, street theater, performance art, music, photography, fashion, body art, game design, graphic design, poetry, fine arts, social practice, puppetry, jewelry, graffiti, fabrics, ceramics, etc.
Funding priorities include supporting artists who live and/or work along the Fairmount Cultural Corridor (map) and whose art represents one or more of their community’s rich history, cultural traditions, identities and assets. We look to gather a diverse community of practice across cultural background, age, experience, gender and art practice.
For more information and to apply, go to: http://bit.ly/ExpressingBoston2014 You can also learn more at our information session on July 8th, from 5:30-7pm.
Many thanks to the Boston Foundation for their support for local artists and the ExpressingBoston Public Art Fellowship.
New art commission open at the Studio!
DS4SI is excited to announce a new art commission, open to artists and art teams interested in working with us to redesign our current website. We are looking for experienced web designers who can partner with us to create a more vibrant and interactive site for us and our visitors. For full details on how to apply, click the PDF below:
DS4SI Art Commission--Website Redesign
And please take note of the new final deadline for applications--June 18th!
The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (CCVA) joins Creative Time and Independent Curators International (ICI) to present a customized iteration of Living as Form (The Nomadic Version). Free and open to the public, the exhibition surveys groundbreaking works from around the world that together register one of the most important developments in recent art history: the rise in the last twenty-five years of a renewed sphere of artistic practices that blur the lines between art and everyday life in projects emphasizing political concerns, participation, and forms of dialogue.
EXHIBITION: LIVING AS FORM (THE NOMADIC VERSION)
February 7—April 6, 2014
Main + Sert Gallery
(you can visit their facebook event.)
We're excited to announce the 3rd annual DS4SI Black History Month Series. This year our theme is "REEL Blackness" This series explores black creativity through film. It's particularly geared to creatives looking to explore or venture into some aspect of video, film, acting, etc. In addition, we'll conclude the series with a special tribute to Nelson Mandela.and a look forward to how his legacy can create a "regeneration of liberation."
As usual, it will happen every Tuesday night in February and include good food and great conversation. Hope you can join us and our fabulous hosts and presenters!
Vision Lab was the centerpiece of The Praxis Project's Roots & Remedies 2 national gathering in San Antonio, Texas during the summer of 2013. Over two days, Vision Lab brought together the approximately 200 participants and challenged them to imagine a future based on winning the social justice battles of today. For more on this DS4SI creativity lab, click here.
And thanks again to the Praxis Project, their Communiities Creating Healthy Environments initiative, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Thanks also to our talented video team Erroll, Eddie and Dave.
The Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4SI) partners with communities, artists, and social justice practitioners to imagine, demonstrate, and collectively rebuild places to be more just and vibrant. Get in touch to inquire about art commissions, residencies or to hire us to run a creativity lab or other generative process for your organization, coalition or campaign.
