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Event Schedule
Sunday, March 22
Poetry Workshop with Katytarika Bartel
In times of uncertainty, poetry and personal writing can act as the tools we need to access joy, healing, and intentionality in our day-to-day. Boston-based artist & educator Katytarika Bartel will read some of their new poetry and offer generative writing prompts as resources for inspiration and clarity in times of quarantine. This virtual workshop will focus on expression first and craft second. Come ready to write, ready to share, or ready to tune in quietly. All will be welcomed wholly.
Katytarika Bartel (they/them) is an artist, educator, and organizer based in Lowell, Massachusetts. Katytarika is a queer, mixed race Thai-American photographer and award-winning filmmaker interested in shining light on spaces of in-between. Katytarika is fiercely passionate about making photography more accessible, letting young people do things, and the color yellow. Katytarika is an arts educator and co-founder of the Boston-based art collective ANGRY ASIAN GIRLS, which works actively in the community to promote and uplift the narratives of APIA young folks.
In a harrowing time of increased uncertainty, Katytarika is feeling the full effects of being a freelancer at the intersection of arts and education. At the same time, they have never felt a stronger sense of community, resilience, and passion to create new in the spaces that we have experienced extreme loss. They are grateful for the use of technology to bridge those spaces.
About the Artist
Monday, March 23
Curated by: Yara Liceaga-Rojas
Short and savory performances with Q+A
Performances by:
About the Artists
Yara Liceaga-Rojas
Yara Liceaga-Rojas is a queer Afro-Caribbean Puerto Rican mother, poet/writer, performer, cultural manager, and educator. Brother Thomas Fellow. Her projects revolve around the visibility of marginalized subjects. She's the curator/coordinator of the multidisciplinary art series Poetry Is Busy and has led the projects 'Acentos espesos/Thick Accents' for Creative City 2018 and 'El despojo: ¿Alguien ha/Has Anyone? for Live Arts Boston 2019. Her latest book, "Hacernos el adiós" was published by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture.
Facebook: @yaraliceagarojas,
Lío Villahermosa
Lío Villahermosa is a Puerto Rican, queer, multidisciplinary artist. He is also an art educator and a community leader. Villahermosa shifts between the mediums of visual arts, Afro-Boricua dance, writing, and performance, while his work is anchored in intuition as a catalyst. His artistic endeavors focus on themes such as spirituality, gender, masculinities, the body, and the city, among others. He currently holds a grant from the Puerto Rican Art Initiative from Northwestern University in Illinois, a platform of support for Boricua artists and their creative practices after Hurricane María struck the islands.
PayPal: liovillahermosa@gmail.com
Porsha Olayiwola
Black, futurist, poet, dyke, hip-hop feminist, womanist: Porsha is a native of Chicago who now resides in Boston. Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the artistic director at MassLEAP, a literary youth organization. Olayiwola is an MFA Candidate at Emerson College. Porsha Olayiwola is the author of i shimmer sometimes, too forthcoming with Button Poetry and is the current poet laureate for the city of Boston.
Lilly Manycolors
Lilly E. Manycolors is an mixed Choctaw interdisciplinary artists who’s works are anchored in decolonial healing, reclamation and resilience as response to colonialism.
Paloma Valenzuela
Paloma Valenzuela is a Dominican-American writer, director and actress originally from the city of Boston. She is the creative director of the production operation La Gringa Loca Productions based in Boston and the Dominican Republic. She is the writer/producer/creator of the comedic web series "The Pineapple Diaries". The show was featured in the Latina Magazine's "5 Web Series Every Latinx Needs to Watch Right Now". She is a 2019 City of Boston Artist Fellow. She works as a teaching artist in Boston and has taught in various programs for organizations such as Grubstreet.
Fabiola Méndez
Fabiola M. Mendez is a Puerto Rican cuatro player that has taken part in a musical movement, crossing over the lines of genres such as folkloric, jazz & Latin. A graduate from Berklee College of Music '18, Fabiola has worked and performed for artists such as: Totó La Momposina, Eddie Palmieri, Puerto Rican Symphony Orchestra, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Cucco Peña, and Pedro Capó, among others. She was a luminary at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and currently works as an independent artist all around New England, collaborating with organizations such as Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), Celebrity Series of Boston, Hyde Square Task Force, PR Veterans Monument Association, and Agora Cultural Architects.
Tim Hall
Tim Hall is a musician and performance poet from Detroit, MI, now residing in Boston. His poetry draws inspiration from his lived experiences - charting the nuances of blackness, masculinity, and the beauties of life. He’s an Assistant Professor in the Professional Music Department at Berklee College of Music, was nominated for Session Musician of the Year by the Boston Music Awards (2018, 2019), received a 2019 Artist Luminary Award from local youth arts non-profit Zumix, and was honored by WBUR’s Artery 25 as 1 of 25 millennials of color impacting Arts and Culture in Boston.
Paypal: tvhallbooking@gmail.com
Tuesday, March 24
Curated by Grace Givertz
Music Performances with Live drawing
With Performances by:
About the Artists
Grace Givertz
With a large voice packed into a tiny body, Grace Givertz is a multi-instrumentalist who uses her honest lyrics to bring a refreshing sound to folk. Born and raised in Jupiter, Florida, Grace has been writing songs and performing since she was eleven years old. Grace has performed at many Boston venues including Great Scott, Club Passim, ONCE Ballroom, The Red Room and The Burren, opening for favorites like Lucy Dacus, Neyla Pekarek (The Lumineers), and John Paul White (The Civil Wars), and Erin Rae.
Grace’s first full length album Year of the Horse showcases Grace’s ability to turn lemons in to lemonade. “…The only real option is to smile at how much she packs into a tiny punch of a song,” Nina Corcoran writes in digboston. Two years after her first EP The Light, Grace has turned her wit to grit to create her most vulnerable release yet. She writes openly about living with chronic illness and how it has affected every aspect of her life, turning tragedy into a triumphant debut.
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Sweet Petunia
Sweet Petunia is a Boston-based, harmony-driven, folk-Americana duo composed of musicians Madison Simpson and Mairead Guy. They use their powerful lyricism to bring love, advocacy, and the roots tradition to the college DIY scene.
Personally (Maddy), COVID-19 has cost me both my main source of income at my cafe job and my former home as an RA on campus. Both of us have had our last semester of art college cut short with very poor replacements offered to finish out the year, and we both face uncertainty in making money as a band in the months ahead.
Annie Cheng
Annie Cheng (they/them) is a Boston based illustrator and creator. They focus on natural portraits and colourful botanical pieces. Lately, Annie has been focusing on delving deeper into emotional connection and exploring that through their art.
Due to COVID-19 they have been placed on unpaid leave from their job until further notice. They are making art full time. Join them on their journey!
Oliver Esposito
Introducing Oliver Esposito: Songwriter. Singer. Multi-instrumentalist. Trans. Queer. Activist. 19 years old. It should be no surprise that in 2018, folk music at its finest is being made by a teenager. Esposito’s music is an acoustic mixture of folk, classical, bluegrass, an unsurprising blend considering the company this young artist has been keeping. In 2012, Amos Lee, in his headlining set at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, introduced 12-year old Oliver to the stage to join his band. “In that instant, the lives of everyone in attendance changed for the better,” wrote The Huffington Post about that appearance.
Since childhood, Esposito has shared the stage with a veritable who’s who of the folk/bluegrass community, including David Grisman, Tim O’Brien, Chris Thile. "I’ve had the great privilege to play with some incredible musicians in my life. Rarely have I come across one who is both virtuosic and profoundly raw and soulful at the same time. I don’t think many people are given either, let alone both. Oliver’s got it.” says Langhorne Slim. “It’s mind blowing to watch, spiritually elevating to play along with, and damn exciting to see what this incredible human has in store for us all.” Esposito’s latest EP, “Ghosts Underneath My Skin” is an audacious debut from a voice well beyond Esposito’s years. We would do well to listen and follow as they shine a flashlight in the dark.