#ThePrelude Fall Review
A quick review of the BAMS Fest Fall ’17 event season
BAMS Fest was busy this fall with a total of five events during September and October, which included two parties in partnership with HUBweek. Now that we’ve had a chance to sit down and breathe we can let you know what you missed if you weren’t there — hopefully you’ve learned your lesson and you’ll come to all of our 2018 events.
We kicked off Fall 2017 with “PULSE: Black Masculinity, Arts, Music & Social Change” at the Codman Square Black Box Theater, which featured Latrell James, Paul Goodnight, Tory Bullock, Eddie Maisonet, Prince Charles Alexander, Anthony Febo, and BAMS Fest’s Tim Hall serving as moderator. Latrell took us from “Boston to London” with his performance before taking his place at the table with the other panelists. This diverse group of creative men discussed influential songs that describe them as artists, and their definition of “hypermasculine,” they which all agreed wasn’t included in their daily vocabulary. They also defined what it means to be man, and how that definition has changed over time.
A little over one week after PULSE we brought health, wellness, and financial professionals to the Lena Park Community Development Center for “Courage of the Verb: Artists, Musicians, Holistic Health & Wellness” to promote mental, physical, spiritual, and financial health for artists of color across Greater Boston. Matt Parker helped attendees evaluate their self-care habits and create new methods for dealing with life’s stressful moments. Crush Foster and and Kelly Keelo provided some great healthy eating tips, and Lindsay Joseph helped attendees create concise, attainable career goals. Fitness expert Chrystian Dennis led a yoga and meditation session and Leora Rifkin passed on her knowledge during her finance workshop.
HUBweek included two awesome Immersion parties, Live Silent Disco and The Cypher. Our silent disco party is exactly what is sounds like: a party where everyone listens to music through headphones rather than speakers. The headphones had three channels (red, blue, green), which played music from our featured DJs Bobby Bangers, Candy Raine and Savuth. Without the headphones “all you’d hear were some claps, shouts, and off-key singing along to a song you couldn’t hear,” writes Kaitlyn Locke of The Boston Globe.
In a Huntington News article about The Cypher featured poet and rapper Oompa, says the event got to “the very nature of hip-hop, as it’s very much about community and being in a non-judgemental space.” Sounds from The Cypher, which featured 12 local artists, called in HUBweek attendees from around City Hall Plaza festival grounds. After a brief set by each artist, the night ended with a cypher, an improvised collaborative performance.
Our last event for the season “Souls of Women: Womanism, Arts, Music and Social Change” took place at Zumix and featured 5 amazing women discussing how they’re redefining womanism, and using their creative work to engage diverse audiences, and shift culture across Greater Boston. Panelists included, Adobuere Ebiama, actress and model, Adrienne Hawkins, Artistic Director of Impulse Dance Company Boston, Dominican-American playwright, screenwriter and director, Paloma Valenzuela, and spoken word artist, Jha D. Williams. The panel discussion was moderated by Alyssa Jones, acclaimed educator, composer and performer, and started with an amazing spoken word performance from Jha D. that can been seen below.
Overall, the night covered the various experiences of the panelists, and how they felt their art is impacting culture in Boston. The panel also discussed changes they’d like to see in the arts scene in Boston, which included more women and people of color with seats at the creative table, leading to more doors and opportunities for women and people of color to make an impact. As well as changing the token-ism that’s found in many arts scenes and especially in Hollywood.
One major takeaway from this event was to support local artist whether it’s with money, time or both. It’s important that we show local creatives that their artistry and expression is important and valued. We can do that by simply showing up.
To find out more about our Souls of Women panelists and the other artists featured at our events, follow them on social media!
Thank you to everyone who attended our events this Fall and showed support! Without it — we know it’s cliche — BAMS Fest, Inc would not be possible. Although our 2017 event season is over, we’re already pumped up for 2018, which starts in April and leads up to the debut of the Boston Art & Music Soul Festival on June 23rd at Franklin Park.
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