Community work

In a time where a new generation is waking up to the needs of its people, the arts cannot exist in a vacuum. My mission in life is to bring to make sure that the art I make and the events I host are in line with the needs of my community, which currently consists of Queer and Working Class Artists in the Greater Boston Area. Here are some of the initiatives I’ve organized or worked on to strengthen these connections.

> Weird Folk Fest is a grassroots community arts organization that centers programming based around community needs and leveling some of the systemic inequalities in arts and performance spaces. Program highlights include an annual event designed to provide resources and paid performance opportunities to unhoused performance artists and an annual Queer Qarnival designed to showcase the work of local LGBTQ artists and performers in a substance-free supportive space.

>For 4 years, I served as the events coordinator at Make Shift Boston, a performance space that provided affordable event rentals for QTPOC, persons with disabilities, formerly incarcerated persons, and unhoused persons. It was one of the last community art spaces left in rapidly gentrifying Boston and one of even fewer places where community members could host wheelchair accessible, sober events. Unfortunately, Make Shift is closing its doors, but I am so proud to be able to carry on its legacy virtually as the founder of the School of Arts And Social Justice (see below).

School of arts and Social Justice

The School of Arts and Social Justice (SASJ) was founded in 2020 to provide a virtual community space for arts and education initiatives. Programming centers LGBTQ people, People of Color, Immigrants, and persons with disabilities. Unlike other adult education programs, The School of Arts and Social Justice is entirely free. Programming varies from week to week and students can register for as many or as few classes as they want. We seek to offer a variety of classes without the pressure of certificate programs or homework assignments. Additionally, we have a majority LGBTQ faculty and a majority working-class student and faculty demographic. Our online classes are captioned professionally and we plan to remain online even after the pandemic, maximizing accessibility for students with disabilities, busy schedules, and children.

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT?

We strive to be a uniquely flexible adult education program where teachers and students can come together and learn from each other.

Faculty are majority LGBTQ
We don’t follow a certificate program or assign homework
We focus on student mental health by placing value on arts and community building instead of job training.
We have a majority working class demographic
We try to make our classes as accessible as possible, including professional captions for every online class.
We are always open to feedback on how we can be more disability-friendly
We don’t charge a mandatory admission fee, we only ask for voluntary donations.
We plan to continue online classes even after the pandemic so that students with physical disabilities or chronic illness, and parents who require childcare can still attend.

Please follow @sasjboston on Instagram or use the contact form on this website for more info.

Boston Artists Employment Network

The Boston Artists Employment Network is a space for arts freelancers across disciplines (including but not limited to music, spoken word, dance, visual art, tech, costume production, lighting, set construction, recording, audio engineering, composition, writing and marketing, etc.) to find paying gigs and post opportunities for fellow community members.

This is a space where seasoned artists and brand new/emerging artists can work together, find resources, and ask questions of each other. To my knowledge, It is the only artist’s facebook group in the greater Boston area where people can solicit gigs in arts disciplines that are not their own, where discussion on how to advocate for better labor practices is actively encouraged, and where requests for unpaid labor are forbidden. Join the Facebook group here.