We’ve always had the DIY aesthetic. If our town’s had any success lately, it’s because we yanked on our bootstraps so hard, something had to give. So we tip our porkpie hat to those artists, entrepreneurs, makers, instigators and punk provocateurs who are making it happen.
Jamey Haddad prefers jazz, so he’s inciting his group Under One Sun for a 3-night stomp at the BOP STOP. Handmade self-printed indie comix and artist books are making some noise at the Bound Art Book + Zine Fair at MOCA. Iggy Pop & the Dead Kennedys will serenade Shel Greenberg’s Wild FreedOm Punk Yoga classes. Trombonist Chris Anderson is shaking things up with the Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival.
You’ll find our kind of rogue free agents at the E. 185th Street Makers Market. You might want to attend a benefit for the Refugee Empowerment Agriculture Program, which trains farmers who had to flee. You might find the Pagan Pride festival in Bedford to your liking. You might be enlightened to read Mansfield’s take on our criminal injustice system, or our guest commentary on why no other public square has buses bisecting it. Then again, you might be a punk and not even know it. —Thomas Mulready