ds4si

Social Emergency Response Center (SERC) POSTPONED

This SERC is POSTPONED DUE TO EXTREME COLD.

Given the back to back events in California and Memphis, DS4SI will be hosting a Social Emergency Response Center this Friday. Our hopes are to create space for our friends, colleagues, and loved ones to witness each other, talk, eat together, reconnect with our breath and bodies, and--if desired--move into radical action.

Opening with Dzidzor Azaglo
Making a Collective Altar with mica
Interactive taiko drumming with Karen Young, mica, and Mel
Breathing with Born
Reflections on the moment with ds4si
Reiki with Nicole Flynt
and more...

Plus, we know it's gonna be COLD. Join us for delicious hot soups and bouyon, dirty rice, greens, sweet potato pie, and more! (All homemade with love.)

If you've never been to a SERC, you can learn more about our thinking by reading A Case for Social Emergency Procedures and/or watching our SERC video.

We hope to see you on Friday. For the safety of us all, we ask folks to wear masks or take one of ours. We will also have free Covid test kits to take home!

Friday, February 3rd, at 6pm - 8pm
@ The Design Gym, 572 Columbia Road, Dorchester

inPUBLIC @ DTX November 5th-7th! (Due to rain)

inPUBLIC 2021 is coming! Featuring over 60 artists.

a space for collective healing at the heart of the city

Friday, October 29th, 4-7pm--UnBound Bodies Collective


Saturday & Sunday, October 30th & 31st, 1-4pm

inPUBLIC: We will tend to the moment...

We are inviting artists and community members to collectively create an installation at Boston's Downtown Crossing Steps. The installation will transform the steps into a space of reflection and collective commitment to tending to one another.

Please join us to listen, witness, reflect and add to the interactive installation.

Check out work by over 60 local and national artists, listen to DJ Bruno, the inPUBLIC Voice Mail Project, and more...

Many thanks to our partners, the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) and the Downtown Boston BID for their on-going support and thought-partnership.

On Reparations Talk

On Reparations, a talk with Denise Ferreira da Silva

November 3rd, 6-7:30 (
register via zoom)

Demands and organizing strategies for reparations are gaining traction. What might growing efforts and advocates need to consider ethically and politically? How do we calculate ethically for example? And should we conceive of a reparations politic that extends beyond boundaries of the nation-state? We will take up these questions and more in conversation with Denise Ferreira da Silva, film producer, artist and author of Toward a Global Idea of Race and, her most recent work, Unpayable Debt.

To read Unpayable Debt, click this link for a PDF.

This conversation will be led by Tia-Simone Gardner, interdisciplinary artist, educator, and Black feminist scholar.

Register for zoom here. [FREE]

Fairmount Cultural Corridor Artist Relief Fund is Live!

About the application:
Are you an artist of color living and/or working in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan or Hyde Park?
Have you been negatively impacted by COVID-19?

We know that COVID-19 has hit artists hard, especially artists of color. If you have lost work or other income due to COVID-19, please consider applying for this mini-grant!

What? $1,000 grant to be utilized at your discretion

Who? In order to qualify, you must be an artist of color, which includes artists who are engaged in a wide definition of 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.

Where? Artists must live and/or work along the Fairmount Indigo Line (Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan or Hyde Park)

How? It’s simple! Just fill out a short google form.

When? Applicants must apply between Tuesday, May 5th and Friday, May 15th.

Really? Yup. It’s that simple! Please help us spread the word!

About the Fairmount Cultural Corridor (FCC) Initiative:

The FCC Initiative is a creative place making project that engages residents, artists, community organizations and small businesses to support vibrant, livable neighborhoods along the Fairmount Commuter Line. We have partnered with artists in our neighborhoods since we began in 2012.

The FCC is made up of a variety of partnering organizations such as DSNI, DS4SIUpham’s Corner Main StreetFairmount Innovation Lab (FIL), and Artmorpheus Inc.

Our Artist Relief Fund is sponsored by The Kresge Foundation to support the sustainability and advancement of artists along the Fairmount Corridor during this time of crisis. The Kresge Foundation is a private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America's cities through grantmaking and social investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development.

Augment and inPUBLIC Festival come to Upham's Corner!

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We are so excited to be partnering with Nick Cave, Now + There, Upham’s Corner Main Streets, Upham’s Corner Health Center, Company One, BAMS Fest and so many local artists to bring this event together!

As part of our two-day inPUBLIC festival of public-making—day 1 at Downtown Crossing and more details soon!—we will be connecting public art, collective healing, play, music and movement building. Don’t miss it!

Many thanks to our generous funders, including the Barr Foundation, the Hyams Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), the Kresge Foundation and the Surdna Foundation.

New Strategies Lab!

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Don’t miss our closing event with Marsha parilla! Dance for social justice Friday, 6-8pm !

New Strategies for New Atmospheres

Open Dojo / Studio Hours: Monday-Friday (January 28th-February 1st), 4-6pm
Workshops: Monday-Friday, 6-8pm
ALL FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC (intergenerational, elders, families, teens and children welcome)
At DS4SI: 572 Columbia Rd, Dorchester (Upham's Corner)

Part dojo / Part studio / Part workshop series
This week-long creativity lab will be part dojo (come work out--your ideas!), part studio (come try out new materials!) and part work shop series! It will be a chance to dive deeper into the design and strategy of holding spaces that build capacity and imagination for communities and community-based organizations to take on the new normal. The lab will bring together community organizing groups, artists and other radical thinkers in a container that challenges them to try out new ways of holding space, enacting social healing, and imagining new social arrangements that could challenge the status quo.

Why a New Strategies Lab?
In 2018, the scale of systemic attacks on immigrants, the environment, young people, Muslims and public systems at large has been devastating.  We believe what we are seeing now is the new normal—not individual moves that outrage us and demand protest, but a systemic move towards heightened repression, state violence, terror and hatred towards communities of color. When we respond to each new atrocity with the force it deserves—but with the approach that each atrocity is an individual one—we become emotionally drained and too worn out to imagine new solutions. To move away from a case-by-case treatment towards more sustainable practice-building, DS4SI will create a space that builds the capacity of local organizing groups and artists to find more creative and commensurate ways to address this new reality. We want to create the conditions that will help us collectively strengthen our efforts—emotionally, spiritually and strategically.

All free!
The New Strategies Lab is generously funded by the Hyams Foundation so all workshops are free!

We look forward to seeing you!
DS4SI team

Destination Upham's This Weekend!

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THIS WEEKEND in Upham's Corner:


The Gentrification Game , Oct 25 & 26, 4-7pm (and November 1&2!)
Tory Bullock
A life size board game where players try to keep up with the cost of living in Upham’s! Tip: Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Check out Tory's teaser video and details here!

Print Ain't Dead: Pop-Up Bookshop, Oct 26th, 7-10pm and Oct 28, 12-5pm
Arielle Gray and Cierra Peters

A series of pop up bookshops and storytelling events that focus on the works of writers of color--particularly Afro-diasporic femmes. Check out their splash page here!

Onwards & Upwards Jazz Series, Oct 27th, 2-5p
Fredrick J. Woodard and friends

Featuring the Lance Martin Trio. Check out his facebook event here.

Radical Black Girl x L'Merchie Frazier of Cross Cultural Collective, Oct 27th, 7-9pm
A healing evening of visual art making, dance movement and open-mic performances. See flyer below!

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Announcing Destination Upham's Artists

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DS4SI is proud to announce our selected Destination Upham's Artists! Together they represent a diversity of approaches and perspectives and a collective rich in talent and vision. As we continue to work with our programming and space partners around Upham's Corner, we will update you on the exact times and locations. In the meantime, take a look at all these reasons to come to Upham's:

RESIST(D)ANCE: UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Radical Black Girl

Part open forum discussion, part rising talent showcase and part dance party--Resist(d)ance is a family-friendly celebration and call to action.

Hip hop, BreakDancing, Graffiti Art Shows +
Frenell Jean-Georges

This interactive 4 part hip hop event includes a Graffiti Art Show, a DJ Showcase & Dance Party, a Break Dance Lesson & Performance and a Local Hip Hop Music ShowCase/ Rap Cypher.

Pop-Up Bookshops
Arielle Gray and Cierra Peters

A series of pop up bookshops and storytelling events that focus on the works of writers of color--particularly Afro-diasporic femmes.

TimeSlips
Melissa Nussbaum Freeman and Red Sage Stories

A multi-sensory creative storytelling tool that uses images, smells and sounds to inspire and enable multicultural, multilingual storytelling with Playback Theatre dramatization for Upham’s seniors.

Live Jazz
Fredrick J. Woodard and friends

Four live jazz events for the whole family to enjoy. Featuring  The Fred Woodard Collective, The John Kordalewski Trio, The Kurtis Rivers Quartet, and Lance Martin Trio
 
Community Square
Cross Cultural Collective : Allentza Michel, Ashleigh Gordon, Daniel Callahan, L’Merchie Franzier, Melissa Alexis, Tiffany Cogell

The Community Square will function as both a collectively-built 3D square and a space for community members to come together for conversation & performance.

 Afro-Futurist Interviews and Afro-Mixer
Jordan Holmes
An intercultural afrofuturist audio-theater piece featuring the voices and languages of Upham’s diverse Black community of the future--complete with an Afro-Mixer listening party!

The Gentrification Game
Tory Bullock
A life size board game where players try to keep up with the cost of living in Upham’s! Tip: Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Destination Upham's is funded in collaboration with the Fairmount Cultural Corridor, the Barr Foundation and the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA).
 

Stay tuned for Dates and Locations!

Home / Portal: Christopher Cozier and Friends This Thursday!

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HOME Series: The Portal

How do we find home?

DS4SI wraps up this season's HOME Series with a return visit from Trinidadian contemporary artist Christopher Cozier. Cozier will present on his piece Home/Portal, inspired by his time in the Upham's Corner area, that has since engaged artists from Kingston, Jamaica to Bogota, Columbia, Port of Spain, Trinidad and here in Boston. Collaborating artists from those cities will join us via Skype, while local artists from HOME 1 and HOME 2 (Intelligent Mischief and Keith Deviere Donaldson) will join us in person. Together we will explore how we find--and make and connect--home in a time of global environmental and political crises. 

 

THIS Thursday, November 9th, 6-8pm

Design Studio for Social Intervention
1946 Washington St, Roxbury, MA

#feelsthatway

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#dontshootinmyname

 

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.