#WhereToBe 4.14–4.20

Published in

Transformative Culture Project

7 min readApr 14, 2017

Each Friday, Epicenter features a special “where to be” post on their blog to make sure every day of the week has some sort of cultural event to check out. We hope that you all can come out into the community, learn, and commemorate some influential people and events around Boston! Have something coming up that you’d like to see here? Tweet us @epicentercom and follow the hashtag #WhereToBe.

Friday 4.14

The House Slam: Last Chance Slam Featuring Anita D

Hosted by: The House Slam at The Haley House Bakery Cafe and Haley House Bakery Cafe

“There will be A SHORT open mic this week because we are hosting our very first Last Chance Slam!

The Last Chance Slam is an opportunity for a poet to literally “sneak” their way into House Slam Team Finals. Meaning, any poet who hasn’t already qualified, can slam on April 8th for the chance to compete in our Finals/Team Selection Slam on April 22, 2016.

(A little context, the last team to be selected for The House Slam went on to win the National Poetry Slam in 2015)”

When: 6:30pm

Where: Haley House Bakery Cafe 12 Dade St, Roxbury, Massachusetts 02119

For more info go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/123558691515055/

Saturday 4.15

Write Down the Street

Hosted by: Boston Public Library

“Want to get into creative writing, but not sure where to begin? Get inspired with a FREE session at your local library. For one hour, you’ll meet fellow writers, and learn to tell your story through fun directed exercises in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. New and practicing writers welcome!

This class takes place at the Boston Public Library’s Grove Hall branch, 41 Geneva Ave, Dorchester, MA 02121. If you have any difficulty signing up online, please call 617–695–0075. ”

When:11am

Where: BPL — Grove Hall Branch 41 Geneva Ave Dorchester, MA 02121

For more info go to: http://www.thebostoncalendar.com/events/write-down-the-street-autores-a-la-vuelta--18

Sunday 4.16

Story Slam Funny Business

Hosted by: Doyles Cafe

“Third Sunday of the month story slam series at Doyles Cafe in Jamaica Plain . The theme for this slam is “funny business” Any funny story. After Easter dinner take those funny stories and bring them and tell them. Guest host best selling author and storyteller Jon Papernick

Embarrassing moment? Awkward situation? Family dinner gone wrong? you bring it and tell it. 5min. trues stories from your life. $50.00 cash prize and a chance to move onto the Grand Slam on May 5th 7:30PM at The Company Theater in Norwell”

When: 7pm

Where: Doyles Cafe 3484 Washington St. Boston, Mass. 02130

For more info go to: http://www.thebostoncalendar.com/events/story-slam-funny-business

Monday 4.17

LEFT ON PEARL Documentary Premieres at Boston International Film Festival

Hosted by: Boston International Film Festival

“Lately, women’s marches have made the news, but the surprise ending of a women’s march over 45 years ago still reverberates in the Boston area today. On March 6, 1971, International Women’s Day marchers turned left on Pearl Street in Cambridge to seize and occupy 888 Memorial Drive, declaring it a Women’s Center.

LEFT ON PEARL is a fast-paced, humorous 54-minute documentary about a highly significant but little known victory of the Women’s movement during another turbulent time of social protest. Many of the questions raised in the film — about economic justice, feminism, black power, gay and lesbian liberation — are still being fiercely debated.

The occupiers of 888 Memorial Drive acted for women and the surrounding community. Their first press release included demands for childcare, healthcare, legal aid, self-defense, a safe space for lesbians, and support for community demands for low-income housing in the largely African-American Riverside neighborhood.

While building occupations were not that unusual at the time, this takeover was one of the few with a positive outcome. The energy, courage, and creativity unleashed at 888 Memorial Drive led to the creation of the Cambridge Women’s Center, which is still vibrantly active. LEFT ON PEARL is an inspiring story of resistance that could not be more relevant for our current times”

When: 5pm

Where: AMC Loews Boston Common 175 Tremont St. Boston, MA 02111

For more info go to: http://www.thebostoncalendar.com/events/left-on-pearl-documentary-premieres-at-boston-international-film-festival

Tuesday 4.18

Trivia Night

Hosted by: Dudley Cafe

“Join us for Trivia Night with Pops & Dre at Dudley Cafe. We’ll be serving our full cafe menu with beer and wine!!!

When:8pm

Where: Dudley Cafe 15 Warren St, Roxbury, Massachusetts 02119

For more info go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/1832264227043731/

Wednesday 4.19

Black Artists Speak: Opportunity, Activism, and Community

Hosted by: Black Artists Speak

“Artists Heather Hart and Jina Valentine will be at Boston University conducting Black Lunch Table sessions and wiki edit-a-thons, as well as participating in a public panel discussion on black artists and activism.

Co-sponsored with Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground and Boston Black Artists

Panel Discussion: Black Artists Speak: Opportunity, Activism, and Community

Wednesday, April 19 at 7 pm

Photonics 206

Featuring visual artists Heather Hart and Jina Valentine, playwright Kirsten Greenidge, and musician Danny Mekonnen of Debo Band, moderated by Victoria George.

We are also hosting:

Black Lunch Tables: Friday, April 21 (Artists & Art Workers of the African Diaspora) & Saturday, April 22 (Open to all). Noon — 2 p.m.

Mugar Library, Estin Room — 302.

Wiki Edit-A-Thons: Friday, April 21 & Saturday, April 22. 2:30 p.m. — 5:30 p.m.

Mugar Library, Estin Room — 302. Open to all. No experience necessary. Bring your laptop.

The Black Lunch Table (BLT) is an ongoing collaboration between artist and UNC Assistant Professor of Art Jina Valentine and New York-based, media and social-practice artist, Heather Hart. First staged in 2005 at the preeminent artist residency Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, this project augments the dominant history of contemporary art with the testimonies of living, working, African American artists. Our primary aim is the production of discursive sites, wherein cultural producers of color engage in critical dialogue with one another on topics directly affecting our community. The Black Lunch Table cultivates audience contingency — participants become constituents as they find their agency within the project.

RSVP and bios for each event at www. bu.edu/arts/black-lunch-table ”

When: 11am

Where: BU Arts Initiative 775 Commonwealth Ave, Suite 201, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

For more info go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/711391872363637/

Thursday 4.20

Jason Palmer Quartet at Parish of All Saints, Dorchester

Hosted by: Greater Ashmont Main Street and Mandorla Music Series

“Greater Ashmont Main Street and Mandorla Music Series present the Jason Palmer Quartet in Peabody Hall at the Parish of All Saints Ashmont. The $15 door cost includes an opening dessert reception featuring one of our local bakeries (tbd), as well as non-alcoholic beverages. Wine will be available too.

Trumpeter Jason Palmer is becoming one of the most in demand musicians of his generation. He has performed with jazz legends like Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock and Jimmy Smith — Verve Records, and top contemporary players like Greg Osby and Ravi Coltrane. For this show, he’ll be joined by Max Light on guitar, Jared Henderson on bass and Lee Fish on drums.

Jason was a recipient of the 2014 French American Cultural Exchange Jazz Fellowship and was named a 2011 Fellow in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Jason took 1st Place in the 2009 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and the June 2007 issue of DownBeat Magazine cited Jason as one of the “Top 25 trumpeters of the Future.”

He has recorded on dozens of albums as a sideman, and has released eight albums under his own name, most recently ‘Beauty & Numbers: The Sudoku Suite’ (2016). Palmer has toured worldwide, and will have been teaching in Singapore days before the All Saints appearance.

At home in Boston, he leads the weekend house band at Wally’s Cafe, and presently teaches at Berklee College of Music and Harvard University.”