Design Gym Re-Opening Party!

Design Gym Spring Re-Opening
Monday, 3/20 @ 6pm - 8pm
572 Columbia Road, Dorchester

RSVP HERE.

The Design Gym re-opens on Monday, March 20th, and we are excited to welcome you back into the space as we dream, strategize and create this season. We have such a dynamic roster of workshops around Making (painting, sewing, sign making, photography, woodworking, etc.), Designing (Civic Design, Youth Activism Design Intensive, I-A-E and more), and Strategizing for success for artists (grant writing, financials, time management and balance), and so much more.

And get this!! For the very first time, we are opening up a DESIGN GYM MEMBERSHIP for YOU -- our community -- to be a part of regular convenings and work out your ideas with like-minded people immersed in creativity.

Join us on March 20th at The Design Gym for a tour of the new and improved space, sign up for classes for the season, and leave with your Design Gym Membership Card in hand, which gives you access to our Open Gym hours, our Personal Trainers and our monthly Friday Night Life events!! 

Also-- this is all FREE and open to the public! So bring a friend. Bring the youth.
Let's build Together!

COVID SAFETY PROTOCOL: We are not requiring folks to wear masks in the Design Gym space, but please know that it is a preferred practice. We all have various comfort levels and loved ones that may have compromised immune systems. We want everyone to feel and be safe. Please do stay home if you are feeling ill, and know that we will have masks and sanitizer on site for those who need it.

Many thanks to our generous partners and funders! All Design Gym programming is FREE thanks to the Barr Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Surdna Foundation, as well as our partners at Radical Imagination for Racial Justice: MassArt and the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture.

Dance Court Video!

Check out the Dance Court from Mary Hannon Park last Fall! Many thanks to Danny Villanueva at New Village Media, not to mention all of our dancers, DJs, participants, and funders. Special thanks to our lead artist, Stiggity Stackz, for helping make it all happen.

We look forward to being back out in the park in 2023.

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

Scenes from Dance Court

What would you do if your neighborhood had a Dance Court? Scenes from Mary Hannon Park. Many thanks to Stiggity Stackz Worldwide’s Ashton Lites, our lead artist on the project.

Imagination Methodologies Series

(Image above from Sahyeh Sorkh / Red Shadow, an experimental short film by Rashin Fahandej.)

Imagination Methodologies Series (on zoom)

DS4SI’s Design Gym will be offering their first online series, Imagination Methodologies.

Wednesdays 6-7:30pm ET (come to any or all), November 9th, 16th, 30th,
Design Dialogues w/ John Sharp, Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, and Rashin Fahandej

Can one become better at creativity and imagination or is it simply a gift? In Imagination Methodologies, we’ll talk with three different creatives who use methods and techniques as part of their practice of imagination. Through the sharing of these techniques, we hope to make the case that we can all practice imagination.

John Sharp--November 9th

Register here for zoom event.

John Sharp is a designer, art historian, curator and educator. John's current design work focuses on cultural games, art games and non-digital games. Along with Colleen Macklin, John co-directs PETLab (Prototyping, Education and Technology Lab), a research group focused on games and their design as a form of social discourse. He is an associate professor at Parsons The New School for Design.

Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo--Nov 16th

Register here for zoom event.

Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo is a Black feminist rap artist and producer from Ithaca, NY, with family roots in Cote D'Ivoire and the Congo. She is an Assistant Professor of Music at Brown University, teaching rap songwriting and feminist sound studies.  Enongo is also the Director of Audio for Glow Up Games, a women-of-color led game studio and a member of theKEEPERS, a Hip Hop collective mapping the international contributions of womxn and girls across Hip Hop's 50-year history.

Rashin Fahandej--Nov 30th

Register here for zoom event.

Rashin Fahandej is an Iranian-American futurist, immersive storyteller, and cultural activist. Fahandej’s artistic initiatives are multiyear experimental laboratories for collective radical reimaginations of social systems, using counter-narratives of care and community co-creation to design equitable futures. Her projects center on marginalized voices and the role of media, technology, and public collaboration in generating emotional connections to drive social change.

Last day for Public Kitchen and Dance Court

Public Kitchen & Dance Court…

Don't miss our last big day at Mary Hannon Park!

Saturday, October 22nd, 2-6pm
Sunday--rained out

(621 Dudley St, Roxbury)

Public Kitchen:
Saturday: Jollof Cook-off! Featuring Suya Joint, Pelloma and Kwasi of Comfort Kitchen (4pm tasting and voting!)
Conversations about rice, Boston Food Forests, and more...

Dance Court:
Saturday 2-6: 6 workshops + Social Clash Exhibition

• 2:00 - Kizomba workshop

• 2:45 - House w/ @rthymz

• 3:30 - New Style Hustle w/ @kenzie_j_illnest

• 4:15 - Popping w/ @mega_kingz

• 5:00 - Dancehall w/ @ice_mpyre

• 5:45 - Latin Movement w/ @lumyrd

• 6:30 - Social Clash Exhibition (Street & Club vs Partner Dance)

Public Kitchen & Dance Court!

Dance Court & Public Kitchen

Mary Hannon Park, 621 Dudley St, Roxbury (across from the Kroc Center)

Friday--CANCELLED DUE TO RAIN
Saturday, October 15th, 5-9pm
Sunday, October 16th, 2-6pm

Highlights of Weekend 1 include:
Dance Court:
Dance classes, DJ Savuth, Madtunez & Ninrod, open floor
Saturday night: performances by Modern Connections/ Samba Viva/ Lock Unity/ Sidestreet/ Afro Beats Boston
Sunday: DJ Ninrod, 2pm salsa workshop by Liliana, open dance session led by Lumry, , Salsa Y Control, and Kenzie J Illnest
Public Kitchen:
Food demos by Kray Plates, Elle Simone Scott, founder of SheChef (SUNDAY), and more!
Spanish and Haitian rice, fresh greens from Dudley Greenhouse, tricked out rice krispie treats, and more!

2nd weekend
Friday, October 21st, 5-9pm
Saturday, October 22nd, 2-6pm
Sunday, October 23rd, 2-6pm

Highlights of Weekend 2 include:
Dance Court:
Dance classes, DJ Indiglo and Black Mamba, open floor
Saturday night: 6 workshops + Social Clash Exhibition (Hustle, House, Popping, Chicago Step, Dance Hall, and more!)
Sunday: Bachata with Lumyr, open dance, and more
Public Kitchen:
Food demos, garlic circle, and more
Saturday night: Jollof Cook-off!
Sunday: Rice Party! Who makes the best rice?

The Dance Court and Public Kitchen serve as installations designed to help us reimagine, experiment and realize the ways in which public infrastructures can improve the quality of our lives. We have room to imagine the futures we want to create! Doing this takes experimentation and creativity. To spark this, we invite you to experience the Dance Court and Public Kitchen as “productive fictions" in Mary Hannon Park* in Roxbury, over the course of two consecutive weekends.

We are honored to welcome Ashton Lites as our Dance Court Design Lead and Sasha Coleman in partnership with Comfort Kitchen as our Public Kitchen Design Leads. These community gatherings will include music, dance, and food from a variety of cultures and genres. There will also be opportunities for YOU to lead your own workshops.

MORE DETAILS COMING SOON! We can't wait to share time, space and a meal with you…

On Reparations

DS4SI is excited to announce that we have rescheduled our talk On Reparations, with Denise Ferreira da Silva, for May 10th at 6pm EST.

Register via Zoom link here. The talk is FREE and open to all.

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 via Zoom link here. The talk is FREE and open to all.

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]

inPUBLIC is back @ Downtown Crossing! Now hiring!

inPUBLIC Festival past & present:

In 2019, DS4SI hosted inPUBLIC, a 2-day festival in Boston that highlighted the importance of “public-making”—the collective creation of opportunities for interaction, laughter, dialogue, learning and surprise. inPUBLIC exuberantly demonstrated the connections between public space and public discourse, outdoor play and collective healing, pop-up performances and shared food, comedy nights and performance art.

Now we want to radically welcome one another back into public spaces, while honoring the complexities of public life in this moment of multiple pandemics. We are individually and collectively processing prolonged grief, trauma, and exhaustion, as well as the continued impacts of violence experienced by communities of color for simply existing in public space across the country. In the midst of this, DS4SI is partnering with the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) and the Downtown Boston BID to engage artists in co-creating inPUBLIC 2021, a space for collective healing, imagination, and connection.

inPUBLIC 2021 will take place in Downtown Crossing in Boston on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons in September.

inPUBLIC EVENT PRODUCER:

The inPUBLIC Event Producer will lead DS4SI’s collective planning process, coordination, and promotion for this year’s festival, including onsite logistics during the festival.

Skills and Experience:

We are interested in candidates who have:

·       Extensive experience with artistic production, particularly but not exclusively in outdoor spaces

·       Knowledge of and experience working with artists of color from the greater Boston area

·       Experience working across arts and activism

·       Ability to work independently and on a team

·       Can both listen and lead in collaborative working environments.

·       Strong organizational, communication and relationship-building skills

·       Experience with promotions including social media campaigns

·       Strong understanding/knowledge about Boston and Boston’s neighborhoods and communities

Salary:  This part-time temporary position will take approximately 18-20 hours per week. Salary range is $32-38/hour. The position runs from late June to mid-October. Estimated total compensation will be approximately $15,000.

To download the job description as a PDF, click here.

Applications DUE by June 16th. Please apply here via our fiscal sponsor, TSNE MissionWorks. BIPOC artists and arts administrators with outdoor event production experience strongly encouraged to apply.

DS4SI is hiring!

Cedric Douglas engages passers-by during DS4SI’s Making Planning Processes Public

Full time Creative Civic Engagement Design Lead (Principal)

APPLY BY JANUARY 13TH, 11:59PM.

At DS4SI, we deeply believe in the right of the public to shape their surroundings and everyday life. Our civic engagement projects are dedicated to finding creative ways for community members to engage each other in imagining the spaces they want to live, work and play in, and the futures they want to build together. We aim to create unique opportunities for residents, artists, activists, merchants and others to both imagine and advocate for equitable development and civic life. Our Creative Civic Engagement D­­esign Lead is responsible for the design, development and documentation of all of our civic engagement projects.

 Additionally, all principals of DS4SI participate in project design and implementation, fund development and organizational development. Additionally, principals are responsible for securing projects and contracts as well as reporting on the projects they lead.

Key Responsibilities

• Communicating with partners and clients to co-design and deliver high quality, interactive and accessible engagement experiences

• Co-creating civic engagement activities and participatory action research projects that ensure real community input in civic projects

• Project management from design through implementation and documentation

• Supervising artists and community members collaborating on civic engagement

• Developing new clients and methodologies

Qualifications

• At least 3 years of experience in community engaged arts, community/urban development, civic engagement design, community organizing or related activity

• At least 2 years of experience in project management

• Experience working in public in ways that facilitate dialog, engage passers-by and welcome a diversity of experiences, opinions and backgrounds

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal

• Good analytical and problem-solving skills

• Strong time and task management skills

• Genuine commitment and sensitivity to residents and community issues

• Respect for economic and cultural diversity, experience working with diverse groups of people

• Highly motivated and independent, yet team-oriented

• Must be able to work occasional weekends and evenings

• Must be willing to work onsite in Boston (office is currently open, working remotely is fine until conditions improve and a vaccine is available)

• Must be available for occasional travel (post Covid-19 vaccine, when travel is safe)

• Reliable transportation a plus (not required)

• Computer and other standard office equipment skills sufficient to prepare flyers and other communications, maintain databases, run zoom meetings, update social media, etc.

Additional Skills and Experience

• Background in 2 and/or 3D design a strong plus

• Background in design research and/or Participatory Action Research a strong plus

• Bilingual (particularly English/Spanish) a strong plus

• Background in training facilitation and/or community development a plus

Salary and Benefits
Salary range is $43,000-$60,000 based on skills and experience. This is a full-time, benefited position.

To Apply

Apply online HERE via our fiscal sponsor, TSNE MissionWorks. You will need to attach a CV or resume and paste in a cover letter.

DOWNLOAD this job description as PDF.

Projecting Our Future this Weekend!

Many thanks to Dan Albright for the video!

Projecting Our Stories, Projecting Our Future

Projecting Our Stories Open Call for Images

With Projecting Our Stories, we intend to highlight the Upham’s Corner community and nearby artists by projecting their work high onto the side of the Strand Theatre. Even while our lives are transformed by the social, economic and emotional challenges of Covid-19, we want a collective embodiment of who we are. We want Projecting Our Stories to help people see each other and see ourselves, in ways that help us all feel our collective strength.

In some ways, we imagine Projecting Our Stories to be like turning the Strand inside out. A dance that might have been performed on stage will be projected larger-than-life above Columbia Road, now set to the sounds of Upham’s, and attended by all who pass by. A photo exhibit that might have nestled into the Strand’s gallery space will now star humans practically touching the sky.

Process:

Selection: We will include as many images as we can, emphasizing ones that are high resolution and high contrast. In order to highlight and project onto the Strand Theatre as many images as possible, there is no stipend attached to this call. All participating artists will be recognized both with their projection and in promotional literature.

What and how to Submit: Please submit up to 3 high resolution, high contrast, landscape orientation (horizontal) images or short video clips (up to 3 minutes, understanding that no sound will be played). Remember that images should either 1) reflect something about the Upham’s community at large or 2) be by an artist who lives and/or works along the Fairmount Cultural Corridor. Images must be original art, and can be photos, performances, animations, drawings, paintings, collages, etc.

Images can be submitted via email to: submissions@ds4si.org. Please also include:

• Full name

• Email address

• Where you work or live along the Fairmount Cultural Corridor (Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan or Hyde Park). 

Timeline:

• We will be accepting images/clips until September 18th, at 11:59pm.

• The Projecting Our Stories Art Show will be featured on the Strand Theater on evenings of Friday, September 25th and Saturday, September 26th.

Many thanks to our partners: the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture, the Strand Theatre, Masary Studios, Boston Design Week, Downtown Boston BID, and the Fairmount Cultural Corridor!



Projecting Our Future Art Commission

Note: this commission is now closed.

This current moment—with both Covid-19 and the Movement for Black Lives—is creating a powerful opportunity to examine and re-imagine the arrangements of daily life. As many of us are removed from our normal routines of work, school, activism, art, social life, etc., we have the distance to imagine new ways of being in the world. We assert that now is the time to question and reinvent what’s normal. We believe that artists can lead the way in imagining and proposing new arrangements, ones that are more just, creative and joyful.  

 For this art commission, we invite artists along the Fairmount Cultural Corridor to map, draw, animate, dance or otherwise represent their response to this prompt:

 Has this moment of pause and reflection stirred or opened your imagination in some unexpected way? Has this moment allowed for you to dream or imagine new ways you’d like to arrange life? It could be a re-arrangement of your day or your home, your school or work life, your neighborhood, city or region, or it could not center you at all, but rather be about time, or food, or water… 

Process:

Selection and Stipend: We will be selecting 10-12 pieces of work that represent a wide variety of art approaches and new arrangements of life. If your work is selected, you will receive a $300 commission.

What and how to Submit: Please submit up to 5 high resolution, high contrast and landscape orientation (horizontal) images or short video clips (up to 3 minutes, understanding that no sound will be played during the show) that capture your idea for rearranging life.

Images can be submitted via email to: submissions@ds4si.org. Please also include:

• Full name

• Email address

• Where you work or live along the Fairmount Cultural Corridor (Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan or Hyde Park). 

Timeline:

• We will be accepting images/clips until September 11th, at 11:59pm.

• The Projecting Our Future Art Show will be featured on the Strand Theater on the evenings of Friday, October 2nd and Saturday, October 3rd. We are also in conversation with the Downtown Business Improvement District to have this show projected onto a storefront in Downtown Crossing in October. Date TBD.

  It will also be featured in Boston Design Week.

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, DS4SI, Upham’s Corner Main Street, Fairmount 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.

The 1491s are Coming!

Join DS4SI and inPUBLIC for the brilliant and hilarious 1491s indigenous comedy troupe! They’ll be highlighting each day of inPUBLIC.

Friday, September 13th, 7pm-8pm at Downtown Crossing Steps

Saturday, September 14th, 3:45-4:45 at 555 Columbia Road lot (Upham’s Corner)

Augment and inPUBLIC Festival come to Upham's Corner!

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.

Stories from the Womb: Afro-Colombian Activists' accounts of Resistance and World Building

Stories from the Womb: Afro-Colombian Activists' accounts of Resistance and World Building

Thursday, May 23rd, 6pm

Nonprofit Center, 1st floor

89 South Street
Boston, MA 02111

 

What are the situations black organizers and movement builders face in South America? What are the connections between black struggles there and here in the US? Can a hemispheric black movement be built?

DS4SI is hosting a small group of Afro-Colombian activist women from Casa Cultural el Chontaduro, a completely grassroots and autonomous organization at the heart of the largest Black neighborhood in Cali.

Vicenta Moreno Hurtado, a leader in Casa Cultural el Chontaduro, will talk about situations she and other activists face in Colombia.

Beatriz Balanta, Professor, Art History Southern Methodist University, will facilitate our larger conversation about how to support and collaborate across struggles.

Hope to see you there!

DS4SI

AUGMENT: A Community Joy Project Led by Nick Cave

COLLAGE WORKSHOPS are coming to Upham’s and you’re invited!

Our friends at Now + There are producing Augment, a dynamic new public artwork by internationally-acclaimed artist Nick Cave. The installation includes a giant sculpture made of lawn inflatables (!) and a building wrap in the heart of Upham's Corner.

For the community element of the piece, DS4SI is partnering with local artists to facilitate a series of collage workshops that will bring community members together to explore and express what brings them joy. Our awesome crew of partnering artists include Ekua Holmes, L'Merchie Frazier, Destiny Polk, Wilton Tejeda and Barrington Edwards. The collages will be incorporated into the building wrap, hung on street banners and on display in local storefront windows. Workshops are being held at the Cape Verdean Day Center, the Upham's Corner library, local schools, Bird Street Youth Center, St. Mary's Church, DS4SI and more. You can also find Wilton Tejeda out with our Augment Cart engaging residents as they head to the bus, store, or  home.

This project is in collaboration with DS4SI and Now + There. Read Now and There’s blog post to learn more about this collaboration.

The next workshop is at DS4SI and is FREE and OPEN to all!