I wrote about the Boston Compass reaching a milestone in the latest Dig Boston:

“Directing you to underground shows and awesome happenings! in Boston,” Samuel Potrykus scrawled across the top of the first edition of the Boston Compass.

He debuted it on March 6, 2010, as just a single photocopied sheet of paper. Each month since, the Boston Compass has arrived as a sort of oracle. The broadside grew into a newsprint newspaper. It was a magical window into a far out, fringe, independent, underground world of secret house shows filled with fuzzy garage rock and experimental noise—that the police were trying to infiltrate and shut down.

“People who have no voice or no platform or no foundational support, we are a place for them,” Potrykus says. “…It’s literally navigating you to something you otherwise can’t get to. That’s why it’s called the Compass.”

Now, eight years later, and with the help of dozens and dozens of volunteers over the years, the Compass has reached its 100th issue and Potrykus and friends (including his partners at Boston Hassle and Brain Arts) are celebrating the “Compass Centennial” with a free party featuring DJs, snacks, beer and a “fashion photo booth” at the Garment District in Cambridge from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 31…

Read the rest of this article at Dig Boston!

Update: Photos: Boston Compass Centennial Celebration at Garment District


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The original pasted-up master copy that Samuel Potrykus assembled for the first Boston Compass, dated March 6, 2010. (Greg Cook)
The original pasted-up master copy that Samuel Potrykus assembled for the first Boston Compass, dated March 6, 2010. (Greg Cook)
Emma Levitt (left) and Samuel Potrykus at the offices of the Boston Compass at Dorchester Art Project in Boston, May 2, 2018. (Greg Cook)
Emma Levitt (left) and Samuel Potrykus at the offices of the Boston Compass at Dorchester Art Project in Boston, May 2, 2018. (Greg Cook)
The Boston Compass. (Greg Cook)
The Boston Compass. (Greg Cook)
Categories: Books Music