We caught up with the four local artists who make up Cohort Five of the Accelerator Program: Krystle Brown, Eben Haines, Tanya Nixon-Silberg, and Ponnapa Prakkamakul. They are all bees-y developing artworks for Boston. Here’s what they absorb as they plan, prep, and build their way to transforming 25K into four BIG projects for YOU to experience this summer!
BOOKS of wonder
21 Days of Community - The Zine by Lorenzo Diggins Jr.
With this book, Krystal Brown explores the meaning of community from the perspective of 21 people.
Ponnapa Prakkamakul hopes this book supports participatory design and community engagement.
Fact: Nabeel has consulted on participatory action planning and the upgrading of slums in cities to all the major international development agencies and charities and NGOs worldwide. He is the author of Housing without Houses (IT Publications, 1995), co-author of Making Micro Plans (IT Publications, 1988) and Action Planning for Cities (John Wiley and Sons, 1997) and editor of the collected volume Educating for Real (IT Publications 1996). --This text refers to the paperback edition.
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
A staple for your learning this year (from Tanya Nixon-Silberg), this book explores politics, social movements, Black feminist thought and tradition, and cultural identity.
I'm not nostalgic. I'm looking back to mine the past for what it can help us with right now, and for what it can help us pass on and create. - Demita Frazier
FILM for fact-finding
Tian Mi Mi (1996) Directed by Peter Chan
This colorful drama centers love, obstacles, and metropolitan life. There are also threads about youth, displacement, identity, and culture, all wrapped beautifully in 118 minutes of rich details.
Beyond entertainment, the movie talks about Chinese immigration in the 60s-80s with small anthropological details. I’m wondering which parts of the movie came from the real experience of our families.” - Ponnapa Prakkamakul
MUSIC to beat the winter blues
We are really worried about you by Divide and Dissolve
The band sees this song as “a call to transformation and freedom.” With compelling visuals and a distinct, incisive, and fierce soundscape, it demands full attention and would surely make Morticia Addams’ playlist. Thank you, Krystal Brown, for this offering.
Heavy Dancing by Swain (formerly known as This Routine is Hell)
This four-song EP is a bit like a small collection of sticky sad poems shouted over hardcore beats. The first SWAIN - HEAVY DANCING (FULL EP) song starts with “Sharpen your teeth,” and the last ends with “Baby, I’ve got the Blues” – perfect echoes to Eben Haines’ moody paintings.
A Face in Your Life by Pet Fox
10 energetic and upbeat songs perfect for road trips, high school nostalgia, beach days, or perhaps painting sessions with Eben Haines.
POETRY to commemorate
Featured in her Accelerator final pitch, Tanya Nixon-Silberg’s poetry recommendation makes our hearts swell for Black girls.
Pro-tip: Send a lovely poem this month to a woman-identifying person you love!
Have an essay or song to share? Leave a comment below!
Header Photo: Artist Ryan Dais-Toppin, assistant to Ann Lewis, dancing at the opening of Lewis’ “See Her” mural in 2017. Photo (c) Dominic Chavez.