Arts

The Footlight Club’s ‘Stepping Out’ Opens Sept. 16

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You can catch and laugh with The Footlight Club's newest show, Stepping Out, during the next three weekends. The Footlight Club describes the show:

"This show is a rollicking comedy about the attempts of some working-class amateurs to overcome their inhibitions and left feet in a low-rent dance studio. Mavis, a former professional chorus girl tries her hardest to teach the bumbling amateurs some terpsichorean skills for an upcoming recital. But before the dancing begins Mavis must mediate the minor dramas that erupt among this motley but lovable crew on their way to triumph at their recital. Liza Minnelli starred as Mavis in the popular film."

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Arts

Jamaica Plain Pianist Olivia Perez-Collelllmir’s Latin Jazz Album Debuting Sept. 15

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Jamaica Plain pianist and composer Olivia Perez-Collellmir debut album Olivia is debuting Sept. 15 and features musicians from all around the world. Perez-Collellmir fielded questions from Jamaica Plain News about her new album, her musical style, her creative process, and more. Q: What do you like best about your album? Perez-Collellmir: This album has allowed me to branch out to musicians all over the world.

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Arts

Opetubo’s ‘Wallpaper’ Exhibit Now on Display at Jamaica Plain Branch Library

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A new exhibit featuring the work of Boston-based artist Bosede A. Opetubo is now on display at the Jamaica Plain Branch Library. Opetubo is a self-taught artist who works with photography, installation, collage, and digital media. Her work explores the lives of women and what she sees as “the small choices that come to define us.”
The exhibit is displaying her recent digital collage series titled “Wallpaper,” inspired by her own experiences with pregnancy and motherhood, as well as themes of domesticity and identity. The project began as a paper sculpture installation in the artist’s home, and expanded into drawings and digital illustrations, with imagery that veers into abstraction merging human silhouettes with expanses of crumbled-up multicolored papers, at times resembling mountain ranges and at others, fallen leaves, according to a press release. Opetubo invites viewers of the exhibit to “join me on this overwhelming, necessary, and maddening journey that, as a parent, I try to find beauty and purpose in.”
Bosede A. Opetubo: Wallpaper is on view through November 1, 2023. The library is open Monday-Wednesday 10-6, Thursday 12-8, and Friday 9-5, and Saturday 9-2 (closed Sundays).

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Arts

11th JP Music Festival on September 9

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This year's JP Music Festival being held on Saturday will feature seven hours of continuous music on two stages from 21 local artists and bands. Held at Pinebank Field by Jamaica Pond, the festival is always free to everyone, and there will be something for everyone -- food trucks, activities for kids, bike racks, and dogs (whether they like music or not) are welcome. This year performers include: Aaron and the Lord • The Alchemists • Merrie Amsterburg • Bob Bradshaw Band • Terry Borderline • The Buttercups • Crooked Mowth • DS Scrolls • Epileptic Disco • Evan Greer • Jesse and the Hogg Brothers • Lemonshiners • Ray Liriano •  Matt York and the Hassle-Free Roses • Mamadou • Muzzins • The Roland High life • Sado-Domestics • Sand Machine • The Smack Dabs • Swampanova

The festival starts at noon. Whether you're familiar with the musical acts or not, here's a playlist for you soundcloud.com/jpmusicfestival/sets/jp-music-festival-2023. You can also download a program at jpmusicfestival.com (and there will also be printed copies at the festival). 

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Arts

Call for Art Proposals for Jamaica Plain Branch Library

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Calling all artists -- art proposals are wanted for the gallery space at the Jamaica Plain Branch Library. The Friends of the Jamaica Plain Branch Library are accepting submissions to select the exhibitions for 2024 season. These bi-monthly exhibits will be proposal-based and selected by a committee composed by representatives of the Central BPL, JP Branch, Friends of the JP Library, as well as members of the local business and arts community. Artists from across New England are welcome to submit recent two-dimensional work for a solo or group show, each lasting for two-month periods. There is no specific theme, but artists are encouraged to include work that can be enjoyed by the diverse visitorship of the JP Branch Library, including children, teens, and other community members.

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Arts
Voci Angelica Trio played its folks-inspired classical on Boylston Street at JP Porchfest, Saturday, July 9, 2016.

A Musical Genre for Everyone’s Taste at Jamaica Plain Porchfest on Saturday

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This year's Jamaica Plain Porchfest will feature more than 60 different performances on Saturday. Performances are from noon to 6 pm across the neighborhood, and there's music, dance performances (and plenty of opportunities for you to dance!) for everyone of all ages and music tastes. Just a sampling:

The Femmes (12:30-1:30 pm at 58 Round Hill St.) are an all-woman and non-binary wedding band specializing in songs by female and non-binary artists

movement improvisation (12-12:30 pm at 30 Sunnyside St.) is an exciting and vulnerable dance improvisation by local movement artists

Tokyo Tramps (5-6 pm at 13 Armstrong St.) is named after Bruce Springsteen’s song “Born To Run,” and has been creating unique and exciting Blues/Rock with New Orleans funk groove and Hendrix-inspired guitar sound. They've released 9 original albums in a 20+year musical career

Dance Class with Jean Appolon Expressions (3-4 pm at 42 Horan Way) Come dance with Mcebisi Xotyeni of JAE! Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE) is a contemporary dance company deeply rooted in Haitian-folkloric culture that celebrates, nurtures, and empowers a global community.

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Arts

Eliot School’s Artist-in-Residence Working with Teen Bridge Program This Summer

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The Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts recently introduced its 2023 Artist in Residence, Feda Eid. Eid is a Lebanese-American artist who’s current body of work, صنع في أمريكا (Made in USA), explores her upbringing as Arab, Lebanese, and Muslim in the U.S. She explored her work in the context of America's “melting pot” of assimilation, discrimination, orientalism, and dominating negative stereotypes perpetuated by art, politics, and the media, said a Eliot School newsletter. This summer, Eid is working with young artists from The Eliot School’s Teen Bridge program. She's helping them create self-portraits by exploring themes of home, pride, borders, and the creation of all things made in the U.S. She is encouraging them to draw inspiration from their own experiences. Working with Boston Public Library (BPL), teen artists will also create portraits of community members alongside oral history interviews.

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Arts
Kiki D raps at the River of Life Church stage at JP Porchfest, Saturday, July 9, 2016.

Deadline to Sign-up to Perform, Host, Volunteer for JP Porchfest is June 30

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Have you ever wanted to host, volunteer or even perform during JP Porchfest? Well, you've got until June 30 to sign-up. JP Porchfest is August 19 this year, and it's going to be great time all over the neighborhood. Artists do not get paid to perform, albeit Dunamis, the nonprofit that organizes the event, piloted a stipend payment in 2021, but they need more sponsorship money to try to pay artists. And maybe you don't want to perform, but you know someone who would like to perform -- they don't need to live in Jamaica Plain.

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Arts

Two Jamaica Plain Authors Named 2023 Massachusetts Book Awards Must Reads

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Two Jamaica Plain authors books made the Massachusetts Center for the Book (MCB) Must Read titles in the 23rd Annual Massachusetts Book Awards program.  

The titles represent achievements in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people’s literature by Massachusetts writers and illustrators during 2022.  The Must Read nonfiction picks include By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners (W.W. Norton) by Jamaica Plain's Margaret A. Burnham. Burnham's books is a “paradigm-shifting investigation” of little-known violence in the South in the 20th century and the legal establishment that sustained it. The Must Read poetry picks includes American Treasure by Jamaica Plain's Jill McDonough.

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Arts

Brown’s ‘Motherhood is Perennial’ Quilt Exhibit at Jamaica Plain Branch Library

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Quilter Christine Brown's "Motherhood is Perennial" show is now on exhibit at the Jamaica Plain Branch Library. The show opened May 4 and will be on display through June 28, and features textile works of Brown's. A multidisciplinary artist and educator, Brown credits her sewing skills to the local 4H club, an experience which led to her commitment to teaching sewing to the next generation of artists through lessons and workshops, according to a press release. Her exhibit explores the quilt as an object that provides warmth and comfort, similar to the ways a mother does. Saved and mended through generations, quilts transform as they age, and gain personality through their owners.

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