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Boston artists honor the sprit of Martin Luther King, rally against war, domestic violence
MLK Jr. Day "It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare," said Mark Twain. We’ve seen a lot of physically courageous acts recently, and a regrettable dearth of the morally courageous variety. It is that rare moral courage that Martin Luther King Jr. possessed above all else, and his words ("Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts," for example) are as pertinent today as they were 40 years ago. Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and what follows is a variety of celebrations, events, and commemorations in and around Boston. On Monday, Northeastern University hosts "Change Our World: Be a Drum Major for Justice and Peace." In the morning, participants in collaboration with Artists for Humanity will help create a mural of Dr. King on a wall of "Peace and Justice Reflections." Teen-based activities include oratorical and poetry contests, an art gallery displaying theme-related works, and a youth dialogue on power and class led by Project Hip Hop. In the afternoon, Jeff Swartz, president and CEO of the Timberland Company, speaks; the Weston School Choir, the New Jewish A Capella Group, and the Covenant Steppers perform; the Harvard Spoken Word Society presents poetry; and local radio personalities Chubby Chub and LBD appear. The event is free and runs from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Curry Student Center, 346 Huntington Avenue, in Boston. Call (617) 451-5010 ext. 30. Down the street, the Museum of Fine Arts honors the day and the man with a daylong Open House. Freedom rings in the form of free admission from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. on Monday. (Admission to the special exhibition "Impressions of Light: The French Landscape from Corot to Monet," which normally costs $20 or $18 for students and seniors, will cost $5 on Monday.) Besides access to the MFA’s sweeping range of exhibitions, the museum hosts gospel artist Freda Battle and the Temple Worshippers at 11 a.m. Jazz saxophonist Andre Ward dips into gospel, as well as pop and R&B, with his versatile improvisation, at 2 p.m. Both concerts take place in Remis Auditorium. The museum will also offer a variety of programs throughout the day, including an African mask-and-sculpture project. That’s at 465 Huntington Avenue, in Boston. Call (617) 369-3300. A newer institution to Boston, the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity is a place to "explore the power of ideas throughout history to inspire individuals and change the world." On Monday, the Library offers free performances of "Big Blue Earth," a collaborative musical project with a message of community, peace, and cross-cultural bridge building. That takes place every 10 minutes throughout the day in the famous Mapparium, where visitors traverse a glass bridge in a three-story stained-glass globe. At 1, 2, and 3 p.m., the Underground Railway Theater presents "Freedom," a 20-minute drama highlighting triumphs of freedom including the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Mary Baker Eddy Library is at 200 Mass Ave, in Boston. Call (888) 222-3711. The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center is presenting a weekend-long program of events. On Saturday at 2:30 p.m., the Traveling Blues Schoolhouse tells history through music. African-American history and traditions are explored in multimedia events featuring blues, gospel, funk, oral histories, soul, spirituals, rap, and hip-hop. That’s at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second Street, in Cambridge. Tickets are $12, $10 for children under 11. Call (617) 577-1400. And on Sunday, the CMAC presents the annual "Joyful Noise" concert, which includes gospel-group greats like the Silver Leaf Gospel Singers, the Union Baptist Church Choir, and Michael Payne and Redeemed Praise, is hosted by BMaynard Scarborough. The performance takes place at 5 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, in Cambridge. Tickets are $20, $15 for students, seniors, and children. Call (617) 496-2222. The MCA/Strand Theatre presents an afternoon of film in collaboration with the Boston Jewish Film Festival. Strange Fruit, this year’s audience winner for Best Documentary Film at the Boston Jewish Film Festival, screens at 2 p.m. Directed by Joel Katz, the film explores the history of the anti-lynching protest song written by the Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. Following Strange Fruit is Sweet Old Song, directed by Leah Mahan. The film portrays the marriage of Boston-based musician Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong to sculptor Barbara Ward, a union that began when Armstrong was 73 and Ward was 30 years his junior. Drawing on nearly a century of African-American history, the film is also a look at love and the creative spirit. The Strand Theatre is at 543 Columbia Road, in Dorchester. Tickets are $15, $10 for students, and $5 for seniors. Call (617) 282-5230. Also on screen on Monday is Shadows, a film directed by John Cassavetes that broke ground both in style and subject matter by telling the story of mixed-race siblings in ’50s Greenwich Village. That’s at 7:30 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street, in Brookline. Call (617) 734-2501.
Opera Unlimited Opera Unlimited has run into some limits. The biennial festival of contemporary chamber opera — a collaboration between the Boston Academy of Music and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project — was originally set to launch its debut season in February. Now, says BMOP artistic director Gil Rose, the festival will move to June. "As we continued to explore the possibilities for Opera Unlimited," Rose said in a press release, "we realized that the potential impact of the productions and their satellite events was much greater than we initially anticipated." In other words, they need more money. But the event organizers have released a full schedule of events set to take place June 5–10. When the event was announced at a press conference last March, organizers said they hoped it would eventually become an international event, with composers represented from every decade of the 20th century, and with special attention to Boston composers — not to mention 21st-century work. The inaugural season will feature world premieres of Daniel Pinkham’s The Cask of Amontillado (based on the Edgar Allan Poe story, with a libretto by the composer), and Elaine Ruehr’s Toussaint Before the Spirits (based on Madison Smartt Bell’s novel All Souls’ Rising, with a libretto by the author and his wife, poet Elizabeth Spires). Also on the bill are Pinkham’s The Garden Party, the American premiere of Thomas Adès’s Powder on Her Face, and John Harbison’s Full Moon in March. On Wednesday, June 4, the lead in Toussaint, baritone Stephen Salters, will give a special performance at Club Passim in Harvard Square. The opera performances all take place at Mass College of Art’s Tower Auditorium.
‘Not Our Presidents’ Day’ Musician and freelance journalist David Wildman has found a sponsor, a venue, and a date for his planned "Not Our Presidents’ Day" political-protest event. It will be Sunday, February 16 at the YWCA, 7 Temple Street, in Cambridge. Thus far, Mission of Burma/Alloy Orchestra/Binary System man Roger Miller has agreed to perform. Wildman is also looking for speakers — and comedians. "We want to get you laughing and get you thinking," says Wildman, who’s trying to bring political consciousness back into the world of rock. Naturally, the pending war with Iraq is a big motivator. Thanks to Wildman’s sponsor, United for Peace with Justice, the event, which runs from 1 to 5 p.m., will be free. "We don’t need to raise money — we just want to get people talking," Wildman says. For more information, go to www.indecentmusic.com.
Responding A slew of Boston artists will be featured on the Respond II benefit CD that will be released by Catalyst Disc/Signature Sounds this Wednesday, January 22. The album is the project of Respond Inc., an organization founded in 1974 that seeks to end domestic violence and to aid domestic-violence victims. Its activities include a 24-hour hotline, emergency shelter, a safe-home program, individual and group counseling, children’s services, and a teen-dating violence-intervention program. The first Respond CD in 1999 was an all-Boston affair, which featured the likes of Patty Larkin, Juliana Hatfield, Jess Klein, and others. This second double-CD set again covers a wide range of music, with contributions from Joan Baez, Neko Case, Ani DiFranco, Bebel Gilberto, the Indigo Girls, Sleater-Kinney, Julie Miller, Odetta, Dolly Parton, Angélique Kidjo, Suzanne Vega, and more on its 32 tracks. Boston-related artists include Mili Bermejo, Tracy Bonham, Jonatha Brook, Tanya Donelly, Patty Griffin, Kay Hanley, Kristin Hersh, Wannetta Jackson, Aimee Mann, Erin McKeown, Monique Ortiz, Meghan Toohey, Susan Tedeschi, and Toni Lynne Washington. All the tracks have been previously released. Advance copies are available at www.respondproject.org. All proceeds go to Respond Inc. and the Family Violence Prevention Fund.
Issue Date: January 16 - 23, 2003
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