Desde Brownsville a Boston

Our good friends, the Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4SI), invited Las Imaginistas to attend inPublic, a two-day festival highlighting the importance of “public making” in Boston, MA.

On Friday, September 13th, we joined dozens of Boston-area artists, healers, activists and makers at Downtown Crossing for an evening of outdoor play, food, music, art making, and collective healing. There was also an interactive storytelling and community building intervention led by The Unbound Bodies Collective, and a performance by the 1491s Indigenous Comedy Troupe.

On Saturday, September 14th, Las Imaginistas participated in the Joy Parade, featuring inflatables by textile artist, Nick Cave. The parade was part of “Augment,” a multifaceted project by Cave that “asks us to reflect on the power of the individual versus the collective, and on the difference between happiness and joy as a means to confront a time fraught with division.” We marched three miles through the historic streets of Boston, dancing, playing music, and expressing collective joy with more than 500 community members. The parade ended at Upham’s Corner, where we settled for another day of fun and festivities.

As part of the festival, Las Imaginistas held a tortilla-press printmaking intervention. We created beautiful prints using blocks carved by RGV youth artists as part of our summer Reportistas Printmaking workshop. We met dozens of folks, who were intrigued by our rasquache press, and eager to learn about our “Taller de Permiso” and “Hacemos la Ciudad” projects.

We had a blast, and are grateful to DS4SI for inviting us to be a part of such an amazing event!