{"id":20095,"date":"2021-08-19T10:23:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T14:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=20095"},"modified":"2021-08-19T10:37:32","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T14:37:32","slug":"jp-porchfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2021\/08\/19\/jp-porchfest\/","title":{"rendered":"JP Porchfest Arrives With New BIPOC Leadership And Spotlight On Artists Of Color"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBig news from Jamaica Plain Porchfest<\/a>,\u201d read the headline of the email that arrived at the end of 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cMindy Fried and Marie Ghitman, co-founders of Jamaica Plain Porchfest, are thrilled to announce that this much-treasured event is being handed over\u2014with love and gratitude\u2014to the amazing artists and art-managers from Dunamis<\/a>, a Boston-based nonprofit organization,\u201d the announcement read.<\/p>\n

The 2021 JP Porchfest<\/a>, which arrives under this new leadership this Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 21 and 22, is a free community music festival that presents performances on porches and other outdoor sites across the Boston neighborhood. Its mission is \u201cto use the arts to bridge divides of race and class and culture and immigration status,\u201d Ghitman told me in January. \u201cPushing people to check out other kinds of music, other parts of the neighborhood, and build community through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also time to not be running this as two white women. It should be run by people of color,\u201d Fried said. \u201cAs white allies, I think it\u2019s incumbent on us to step aside, not take up space, make sure people have a voice. The arts are an area where that can happen in a very powerful way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunamis was founded in 2017 to nurture artists and arts-managers of color. \u201cIt\u2019s an important opportunity for Dunamis, as an organization that supports the BIPOC community led by BIPOC people,\u201d said Neo Gcabo, Dunamis\u2019s Director of Marketing and Community Development, who is serving as lead producer for the 2021 JP Porchfest. She grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, and came to Boston to study singing at Berklee College of Music. She\u2019s previously performed at JP Porchfest and helped program a porch. \u201cWe want to support BIPOC communities. We want to find ways to compensate artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s JP Porchfest, with its increased \u201cspotlight and center BIPOC artists and creatives,\u201d offers both virtual and in-person options on both days. (Rain dates: Aug. 28 and 29.)
\nThe virtual option is one of the ways organizers are trying to keep performers and audiences safe during resurgent covid. \u201cThe festival will occur over two days to keep live audience numbers manageable We have capped the number of porches to a maximum of 18 per day An abundance of sanitizing stations will be available throughout the neighborhood,\u201d the website says.<\/p>\n

\"Johnny<\/a>
Johnny Blazes and The Pretty Boys play at 17 Segel St. during the 2015 Jamaica Plain Porchfest. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘JP Is Just Ripe For This\u2019<\/strong>
\nMarie Ghitman and Mindy Fried live \u201cthree doors down from each other\u201d and had babies in the same year, 1991. They created a child care co-operative with four families. \u201cThey grew up together,\u201d Ghitman said.<\/p>\n

Ghitman and Fried regularly attended Somerville\u2019s annual PorchFest, which began in 2011, inspired by an event in Ithaca, New York. The Somerville version has since inspired Porchfests in Arlington, Belmont, Brookline, Hull, Melrose, Milton, Plum Island, Quincy, Reading, Roslindale, Wellfleet, Winchester \u2026 and Boston\u2019s Jamaica Plain neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cJP is just ripe for this and it can be different from what Somerville is doing,\u201d Ghitman remembered thinking.<\/p>\n

Somerville\u2019s PorchFest is organized by the city\u2019s Arts Council and allows any musician to sign up to perform.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew there was a lot of talent in the neighborhood,\u201d Ghitman said. \u201cThere was a lot of concern about community building. And we knew there was a lot of segregation in the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghitman and Fried planned something more curated for Jamaica Plain to try to address these things. For the first Jamaica Plain Porchfest in 2014, they recruited 10 bands to play on three porches. They recall their Facebook page was \u201cflooded with interest,\u201d especially from white male musicians. \u201cWe can\u2019t just let it follow the path of least resistance,\u201d Ghitman thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trying to build community across the divides of race and class and culture,\u201d Fried said. \u201cThen we added immigrants as things got worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the event\u2019s second year, Ghitman said, \u201cWe recruited porches and then we opened it up to anyone from anywhere\u201d\u2014not just those based in JP. Connecting artists with porches at which they could perform was also a way to open it up to artists \u201cwho didn\u2019t have a venue,\u201d Fried said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe act of opening up private space, your stoop or your porch, and letting strangers come in is a powerful thing,\u201d Fried said. They aimed to bridge the divides between white JP and the Latin Quarter around Hyde Square and Jackson Square, as well as between poor and wealthy. \u201cOften people from these areas don\u2019t traverse the neighborhood to experience different parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

They sought out artists, activists, community groups, emerging artists, amateurs, professionals, musicians who played a variety of music\u2014gospel, rhythm and blues, soul, jazz, country, folk, classical. In the second year, they added youth performances, spoken word, dance, comedy, and politicians. They worked with the Boston Housing Authority to offer Porchfest performances at the city\u2019s Mildred Hailey Apartments (formerly Bromley-Heath). \u201cWe wanted to break down the fears people had of going in that area,\u201d Fried said.<\/p>\n

By 2019, around 800 artists were performing at JP Porchfest, Fried and Ghitman said. \u201cWe can\u2019t pay everybody, so it really becomes a labor of love. People wanted to do it because of the spirit of it \u2026 the sense of belonging in the neighborhood wherever you go,\u201d Fried said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Trump came in we felt that we needed to be more direct,\u201d Fried said. They offered a \u201cresources and mobilization area\u201d at First Baptist Jamaica Plain, \u201cone more step into being more explicitly political.\u201d JP Porchfest presented testimonies on homelessness and housing struggles. Bikes Not Bombs led a bike tour of the neighborhood. Fried and Ghitman recruited others to curate porches. The dance collective MetaMovements coordinated a dance porch. Dunamis programmed music near the Jackson Square MBTA station.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople started getting it as an opportunity for them,\u201d Fried said, \u201ca platform to share their creative selves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Solars play on Centre Street during the Jamaica Plain Porchfest, Boston, July 8, 2017. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Pass It On\u2019<\/strong>
\n\u201cA couple years ago we started feeling: We grew this thing and it\u2019s great and it\u2019s probably time to pass it on while it\u2019s good,\u201d Fried said. \u201cOften the problem is founders can\u2019t let go when they should. I feel like the timing for us is really right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghitman and Fried began developing the transition in 2018 and 2019\u2014looking to turn leadership of the festival over to people of color. (The 2020 festival was cancelled due to covid.) Leadership was transferred to Dunamis at the end of 2020. \u201cThey share our mission and they have a lot of experience and they have their own mission of creating leadership opportunities for young people of color,\u201d Fried said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been struck by Mindy and Marie\u2019s intentionality towards celebrating the rich and diverse JP and artistic communities via a refreshingly genuine and authentic servant leadership model,\u201d Dunamis Executive Director\u00a0J.Cottle said in the late December announcement. He had been a volunteer coordinator for JP Porchfest for two years and curated a Dunamis porch for two years. \u201cPart of our work at Dunamis is to transform Boston to fully recognize its potential as an arts-hub and this is work that JP Porchfest has been doing to much success with equity at its core.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this time of uncertainty, the arts have been forced to pivot as we navigate the challenges of covid,\u201d Neo Gcabo said in the announcement. \u201cAt Dunamis, our focus is to steer the work of Porchfest to highlight BIPOC-run organizations and communities, elevate the collaboration of community partners, and create long-lasting relationships between artists and community members through a robust, safe and engaging festival. With the fundamental work Marie and Mindy have done, we are excited to launch a reimagined Porchfest to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJP is a community filled with multiple communities,\u201d Gcabo told me in January. \u201cIf there\u2019s one community that supports its people, it\u2019s JP. \u2026 JP is one of the most heartwarming communities that I\u2019ve been through. \u2026 I feel like I can life safely in this community and be a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to walk around your neighborhood and feel a sense of community,\u201d Cottle said of the festival. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to lose the heart of Porchfest, which is very much participatory, you walk around and there\u2019s a level of intimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBIPOC communities that have previously been marginalized and seen as marginalized have the ability to stand up and do the work,\u201d Gcabo said. \u201c\u2026No longer are we going to stand for being a marginalized community. We can take the reins on our own creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, nature, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, (hopefully) weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2021 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Kelly<\/a>
Kelly Dogtooth plays at 255 Chestnut Ave. during the 2015 Jamaica Plain Porchfest. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Francie<\/a>
Francie Latour (left) of Wee The People helps kids stencil T-shirts at their “Protestival” at Boston’s Mozart Park, during the 2017 Jamaica Plain Porchfest, July 8, 2017. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gyovanni<\/a>
Gyovanni (Giovanni Houessou) sings at First Baptist Church at 633 Centre St. during the 2015 Jamaica Plain Porchfest. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBig news from Jamaica Plain Porchfest,\u201d read the headline of the email that arrived at the end of 2020. \u201cMindy Fried and Marie Ghitman, co-founders of Jamaica Plain Porchfest, are thrilled to announce that this much-treasured event is being handed over\u2014with love and gratitude\u2014to the amazing artists and art-managers from Dunamis, a Boston-based nonprofit organization,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[921,165,166],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20095"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20095"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20108,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20095\/revisions\/20108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}