New Rep Theatre presents: Listen to Sipu
2021-06-10 17:30, 2021-06-11 17:30, 2021-06-12 17:30, 2021-06-13 17:30, 2021-06-18 17:30, 2021-06-19 13:00, 2021-06-20 17:30, 2021-06-23 17:30 (America/New_York) and 10 more dates | The Commander’s Mansion, 440 Talcott Avenue, Watertown, MA, 02472, United States
Listen to Sipu – A Watertown Historical Moving Play

By Morgan (Mwalim) J. Peters
Directed by Jaime Carrillo

Following the success of New Rep’s first Historical Moving Play, the Charles W. Experience, audiences were clamoring for more. Listen to Sipu answers the call with a captivating and powerful story that illuminates Watertown’s Indigenous history. Join in on a socially-distanced performance lead by a modern-day Tour Guide and meet Sipu, a quick-witted Indigenous woman who’s more than willing to correct misinformation when she hears it. Armed with facts, The Tour Guide begins describing Watertown’s local history only to find that the facts are missing a lot of truths. Sipu is ready to step in and set the record straight, as long as audiences are ready to listen. Click here to buy tickets.

Newton Free Library presents: The Cooking Gene with Michael Twitty
2021-06-10 19:00 - 20:00 | ONLINE, United Kingdom, E16 2DQ
This program is presented in partnership with the Groton Public Library. Please register here.
For African American culinary historian Michael W. Twitty there was a giant hole in the story of American cooking as big as the one in the story of most African American families. Putting the microscope on himself, Michael decided to fully trace out his family history through the story of Southern and American food. Using genetic research, historic interpretation, nature study, heirloom gardening and interviews with contemporary voices in food, his journey led him back to his family’s origins in West and Central Africa and a front ring seat in the debate over race and food in American life. Join Michael W. Twitty for an engaging evening moderated by Chef Bill, a Massachusetts-based chef and author. You can follow Michael Twitty on his popular blog, Afroculinara.
Registration for this program will end two hours before the start time. The login information will be sent just after registration closes. Please be sure to check your spam folder in case it lands there.

Newton Free Library presents: An American History of the Long Road to Freedom
2021-06-14 19:00 - 20:00 | ONLINE, United Kingdom, E16 2DQ
Join Dr. Matthew Delmont for a program that will explore the origins and importance of Juneteenth – a celebration of the end of slavery in the U.S. – and of the generations of Black Americans who have fought for freedom and equality. Juneteenth was first celebrated in Texas to commemorate the date when U.S. Army troops and news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached the state on June 19, 1865. Today, nearly every state observes this date, including Massachusetts, which will celebrate Juneteenth as a state holiday for the first time this year. Juneteenth is a time for joy, for building community and for talking honestly about our nation’s history.
Dr. Matthew Delmont is the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College. An expert on African-American History and the history of Civil Rights, he is the author four books, including most recently, Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African American Newspapers. His next book, Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad, will be published by Viking Books in 2022. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Public Scholar Award to support this research. He regularly shares his research with media outlets, including the New York Times, NPR, The Atlantic and Washington Post. This program is cosponsored by the Newton Human Rights Commission.
Registration for this program will end two hours before the start time. The login information will be sent just after registration closes. Please be sure to check your spam folder in case it lands there.

New Art Center presents: Media Musing
2021-06-16 16:00 - 18:00, 2021-06-23 16:00 - 18:00, 2021-06-30 16:00 - 18:00, 2021-07-07 16:00 - 18:00 | ONLINE, United Kingdom, E16 2DQ
Join us for a 6-week come as you are mixed media mashup inspired by our Women in Abstraction exhibition! Students will use mixed media to explore collage and other forms of making. Perfect for making friends with the inner critic, connecting with inspiration, or connecting family and friends. We will center on playful discovery to create a series of work through mark-making, layering, materials, and prompts (music and readings). Students will be given a weekly (optional) assignment as well as a demonstration on how to approach the materials and surfaces suggested. Register here.

Historic Newton presents: Juneteenth Celebration
2021-06-19 15:00 - 16:30 | Hyde Bandshell, 90 Lincoln Street, Newton, MA, 02461, United States
Celebrate Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, with Newton area speakers, musical performances, local artwork and a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation. Historic Newton will have a table with literature on the history Juneteenth. Masks and social distancing will be required.
Rain date, Saturday, June 26. Co-sponsored by the Newton Cultural Council, Newton Community Pride, FORJ, and the Harmony Foundation. Register here.

Newton Free Library presents: An Evening with author Nate Marshall
2021-06-28 19:00 - 20:00 | ONLINE, United Kingdom, E16 2DQ
This program is presented in partnership with the Chelmsford Public Library. Please register here.
Join Nate Marshall, writer, rapper and educator for a reading from his recent collection, Finna (2020).
Definition of finna, created by the author: fin·na /ˈfinə/ contraction: (1) going to; intending to [rooted in African American Vernacular English] (2) eye dialect spelling of “fixing to” (3) Black possibility; Black futurity; Blackness as tomorrow
These poems consider the brevity and disposability of Black lives and other oppressed people in our current era of emboldened white supremacy, and the use of the Black vernacular in America’s vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets. Finna explores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative, asks how gendered language can provoke violence and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope:
nothing about our people is romantic
& it shouldn’t be. our people deserve
poetry without meter. we deserve our
own jagged rhythm & our own uneven
walk towards sun. you make happening happen.
we happen to love. this is our greatest
action.
Nate Marshall is the author and editor of numerous works including Finna, Wild Hundreds, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, and the audio drama Bruh Rabbit & The Fantastic Telling of Remington Ellis Esq. He teaches creative writing and literature at Colorado College. Nate was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago.
Registration will remain open until the program start time. Login information will be emailed upon registration.

New Art Center presents: Painting Intensive
2021-07-02 09:30 - 13:00 | ONLINE, United Kingdom, E16 2DQ
Intermediate and advanced students explore and develop personal themes while pushing their skills to the limit. Demos, group exercises, color theory, advanced painting techniques with regular critique and conversation support and extend creativity and competency. Click here for registration.

Historic Newton presents: Reading Frederick Douglass Together
2021-07-03 14:00 - 15:00 | Jackson Homestead and Museum, 527 Washington St, Newton, MA, 02458, United States
Come and hear a public reading of the famous Frederick Douglass address, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” The museum will be open special hours that day from noon to 5 p.m. with free admission. Bring a picnic lunch to enjoy on the back lawn of the Homestead. Funded by a grant from Mass Humanities.

6th Annual Linda Plaut Newton Festival of the Arts
2021-07-10 | United Kingdom
Celebrate Newton’s talented musicians, singers, bands, poets, story tellers & more!
Free and accessible to all
Outdoors at The Hyde Bandstand, 90 Lincoln Street, Newton Highlands
Outdoors at Suzuki School of Newton, 1615 Beacon Street, Waban
Inside at The Allen House Center for the Arts, 35 Webster Street, West Newton

Performance Schedule

SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021
Suzuki School of Newton, Waban
11:30am Rob Siegel, Folk Music
1pm Isabel Stover, Jazz Vocalist
2:30pm Nate Aronow, Nextet
4pm Tal Shalom-Kobi, World Music
5:30pm Albino Mbie, Afro Pop

Hyde Bandstand, Newton Highlands
11am Nikola Stajic, Jazz, Blues Guitar
12:30pm Barracudas, Jazz Ensemble
2pm The Eli Cash Band, Rock Band
3:30pm Zaira Meneses, Classical Guitar
5pm Newton Nomadic Theater Story Slam

SUNDAY, JULY 11, 2021

Hyde Bandstand, Newton Highlands
11am Maxim Lubrarsky, Jazz Piano
12:30pm Olga Lisovskaya, Opera
2pm Cross Street, Rock, Blues and More
3:30pm Nat Seelen, Klezmer
5pm Debo Ray, Global Soul

The Allen Center for the Arts, West Newton
1pm Andrus Madsen, Baroque Harpsichord
2:30pm Newton Baroque
4pm Pro Arte Quartet
5:30pm Maitreyee & Taposh,Bengali Pop Music & Dance
7pm Sandeep Das with Suhail Yusuf Khan, Journey in Rhythm

Festival of the Arts: Newton Nomadic Theatre's Story Slam
2021-07-10 17:00 - 18:30 | Hyde Bandshell, 90 Lincoln Street, Newton, MA, 02461, United States
As part of the 6th Annual Newton Festival of the Arts, the Newton Nomadic Theatre presents their next Story Slam.
NNT Story Slams have become legendary in Newton featuring everyone from celebrities, politicians, to next door neighbors. They provide the light, you provide the face and the story. The idea is simple – a community storytelling night, based loosely on NPR’s very popular Moth Radio Hour. Come to hear the stories, or if you’re game, throw your name in the hat to tell a story. They should be related to the night’s theme. They should be approximately 5 minutes long, and have happened to you. Beyond that, it’s up to you – funny, moving, poignant, insane, ridiculous whatever you like.
