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Devo at 50: ‘We're like the house band on the Titanic at this point’
Devo's 50th anniversary tour called "50 Years of De-Evolution… Continued!" is headed to Boston on May 9.
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June 28, 2024 - Week in Review: Boston theatre, international art, and Will Smith
Mfoniso Udofia. Frustrated as an actor when she didn’t see roles reflecting her or her reality, she picked up the pen, and never let go.In total she wrote a nine-play cycle chronicling three generations of a Nigerian-American family. Now a coalition of local theaters and arts organizations are putting on a two-year festival celebrating and producing these works.Then, it’s a casting conundrum. In 2008 Sean Penn played the openly gay politician Harvey Milk, and won an oscar. Today he says that a “timid and artless” climate makes it impossible for him to play a gay role today.Finally, it’s follow-up Friday, where we update you on the stories we’ve been tracking, which includes the sisterhood of the traveling museum exhibit that’s skirting a gender discrimination suit. -
June 27, 2024 - Danza Organica, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, and Shaker design
Danza Orgánica, a Boston-based dance company, has been collaborating with members of the Aquinnah Wampanoag in a performance that explores the indigenous people of two islands, Martha’s Vineyard and Puerto Rico, and what the two cultures have in common. Titled, “We Still Dance,” it is a multimedia theatrical performance, making its Boston Premiere this Saturday in a free performance at MassART. Mar Parilla, choreographer and founder of Danza Orgánica, joins The Culture Show for a preview.Then, has the time come to prop up the local theater scene? A proposed theater tax credit could turn Massachusetts into a breeding ground for Broadway if the Massachusetts Legislature passes Governor’s Healey’s economic development bill. Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll has experienced this first-hand. As the former Mayor of Salem, she knows the power of arts and culture tourism. She joins The Culture Show to talk about why this tax credit is included in the economic development bill.Finally, we head to Hancock Shaker Village. Their Executive Director and CEO, Caroline Holland joins The Culture Show to talk about marking the 250th anniversary of Shaker design, which includes the US Postal Service issuing a Shaker Design forever stamp collection. -
June 26, 2024 - Sheila E, sports and art, and Queer AF
Percussionist and vocalist .Sheila E. is known for her solo work and her collaborations with Prince, and a setlist that spans R&B, Funk, Jazz, and Latin Pop. Now she's bringing her beats to Boston by way of two shows at City Winery. She joins The Culture Show with the preview.From there, how does Boston, the city of champions, honor the stars who made this town a sports town? With public art. Julia Swanson takes us on a tour of the bronzes and bursts of color celebrating athletic greats. Julia Swanson is a multidisciplinary artist and award winning photographer who is the creator of The Art Walk Project, a series of self-guided micro tours.Finally, we get a jump on what is known as the “Met Gala of Massachusetts.” Queer Art +Fashion – a fashion show put on by the nonprofit Love Your Labels. They have their Queer AF kick off tonight, looking for models of all sizes and identities to walk the runway. Joshua Croke, president and founder of Love Your Labels, a non-profit that supports queer and transgender youth in Central Massachusetts. -
June 25, 2024 - Boston theatre, Black history in the Gilded Age, and Sebastian Junger
Today on The Culture Show, contributor Joyce Kulhawik goes over the latest plays and movies to take in. She’s an Emmy-award winning arts and entertainment reporter and president of the Boston Theatre Critics Association. From there we enter the Gilded Age. When families such as the Carnegies, Rockefellers, and Vanderbilts expanded their wealth, they needed to spend it. In the summers, they decided to do that in Newport, Rhode Island, creating one of America’s first resort towns by building mansions on the rugged coastline. This is the Gilded Age most people know. But it’s far from the full story. This was also a time of Black prosperity and Newport was a place where African heritage families were an active part of the community.An exhibition at Rosecliff Mansions places Black history in the context of The Gilded Age. It’s on view through the end of the month. Culture show co-host James Bennett II gives us an overview. Finally, Sebastian Junger. He is an author and award-winning journalist whose reporting takes him–and his audiences- into treacherous places. He plunged us into the horrors of commercial fishing by way of his bestselling book, “The Perfect Storm.” Through his reporting and filmmaking he showed us what war looked like, embedding with a US platoon in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. But it is from his home on Cape Cod where he brings us into his most palpable encounter with death–that would be his own death.It’s the subject of his latest book “In My TIme of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife.” -
June 24, 2024 - The Museum of Bad Art, Dirty Old Boston, and BAMSFest
On The Culture Show we talk a lot about museums and their efforts to be more accessible, but that has been the mission of the Museum of Bad Art. Since its inception it’s been free to the public, with wall text that easy to understand –and entertaining, and now that their home is Dorchester Brewing you can even drink a beer while taking in their collection. With MOBA marking its 30th anniversary, Louise Riley Sacco, Permanent Acting Interim Executive Director of the Museum of Bad Art and MOBA’s Curator- in- Chief, Michael Frank join The Culture Show to talk about the making of MOBA, From there it’s “Dirty Old Boston,” the facebook page with a cult following. Jim Bottielli started it in 2012, uploading photos that captured a city slipping away amid development, construction and gentrification. Two years later it became a book. Now this archival photo project is on view at City Winery through June . He joins us to talk about a city in transition.Finally, we get a preview of this year’s BAMSFest–a massive music festival featuring Black and brown artists playing R&B, funk, soul, hip-hop, house and more. Catherine T. Morris, the founder and artistic director of BAMSFest, joins The Culture Show to talk about it.
