Photos by Frank Santangelo
Dozens of people gathered in East Somerville this past Sunday for the 2015 This Is East Event Festival.
About:THIS IS EAST FESTIVAL!
It was a Free festival for the public!
Featuring performances by Federator No1 and Banda Bahia!
A community storytelling performance by True Story Theater
Roaming performances by Esh Circus Arts and interactive skate parks and parkour demonstrations by Parkour Generation
The festival celebrated three NEW art installations along East Broadway including: 100 foot mural on Deano’s Pasta Factory wall at Cross Street East , a mosaic mural at Somerville Public Library-East and an amazing installed mural by artist, Nate Swain at Caldwell Park. All made possible by coordinator Laura Smith, the Mudflat Pottery School and The Beautiful Stuff Project!
With ceramic tiles created with help by East Somerville Community School (Official), East Somerville Community School, Somerville Council on Aging, and other local residents!
The Video Walking Tour which is accessible at http://www.thisiseast.org/map. This features video interviews from 10 East Somerville residents.
In addition a 1 hour feature film combining all the interviews with over 70 local residents was shown at Mudflat Pottery Studios on Sunday 3:30-4:30 and 4:45-5:45.
The National Endowment for the Arts has award East Somerville Main Streets in conjunction with the Somerville Arts Council, a grant to fund a placemaking initiatice for East Somerville during 2014 and 2015. The initiative, called “This is East” will celebrate, maintain and promote East Somerville’s identity at this time of change for the neighborhood. This event is only one piece of a much larger placemaking initiative that includes video stories, other events and more.
