| | | | | HOLY SHIT, WE’RE TWENTY FIVE!!! |
| The Dirt Palace is turning 25! Time flies when you’re living amongst feminist friends! Not that we’re counting but we’re probably nearing the 1,300th house meeting. By our estimates we probably have about that many items in our library collection. Our dream for this milestone year is to look into the past and future at once by organizing and energizing our library/archive! So with that in mind, here’s the celebration that we’re planning. Brunch, Dirt Palace Fake Restaurant style, but on the lawn of the Wedding Cake House. Suggested donation $25. BUT if you donate to our library come for free. Save the date: Sunday August 24th 11am - 3pm Further details: $25 = order anything you want from the food menu - cocktails separate (yes it is a fundraiser! Yes, we’ll also have fun non-alcs!) There will be guest chefs and there will be some weird delicious stuff to blow your mouth’s mind! To come for free, donate to the library - here’s the catch, it has to be something that we want. If it is a book or zine written or made by you, a member of the local arts community, then we 100% want it (if we don’t already have it), though we do ask that you sign it! If it’s made by someone else who is a member of the local arts community and we don’t have it, then we also probably want it. If it’s made by someone who was local for a time or is very connected to the local community, there’s a pretty good chance that we want it. If you have something you’re interested in donating for a free ticket fill out this form.
ALL OF THE LINKS IN ONE PLACE To buy tickets To donate print materials To volunteer |
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| | FAMILY RESIDENCY AND YOUTH WORKSHOPS AT WEDDING CAKE HOUSE |
| | We've got our summer Family Residency coming up, which also means SUMMER YOUTH WORKSHOPS at Wedding Cake House. More details soon!
But save the dates:
workshops: July 22nd - 25th 1:30-4pm RSVP to weddingcakehouseresidencies@gmail.com
Family Picnic on the lawn: Sat June 26th |
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| | | INTERLACE PROJECT GRANTS OPEN JULY 14TH |
| Interlace Project Grants open July 14th. Want to get a jump on things before the portal even opens? You can review guidelines HERE - Grants due September 14th |
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| | | | June - July Window Artists: School One Students - Bjorn Emerson, Elizabeth Golaski and Finn Mertes |
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These students are part of School One's new program, the Art Pathway. The Art Pathway recognizes students as leaders in the Arts at School One: participants develop a portfolio for college applications, engage with the Arts community, and enhance their artistic and critical understanding of the Arts. |
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In this window display, School One students and staff have assembled the personal possessions and objects of Brigido Cavassos, known in short as Bree. This installation is a tribute to one of Providence’s most beloved local characters— a familiar face in Providence for decades. Bree was a director in Texas theater, an actor at Trinity, a graphic designer, a magician, a court jester, a shape shifter, a custodian, and a ‘man about town.’ Chances are that if you lived in Providence in the 1970’s to the early aughts you crossed his path. Bree was a local legend. The objects in this window explore the power of everyday objects to tell stories—stories about the people who owned them, the places they lived, and the times they lived through. When displayed together, these items begin to speak to one another, forming new connections and revealing layered narratives that reflect both individual lives and shared histories. School One is an arts-focused independent high school in Providence. Our hallmarks include a creative curriculum, a nurturing, inclusive culture, and a personalized academic program.
Special thanks to Dirt Palace, Anthony Champa, School One students: Finn Mertes Bjorn, Emerson, Elizabeth Golaski. To see scanned drawings and writing from Bree’s notebooks use this QR Code |
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| | | | July - August Word Shelter artists Ali Van and Miranda Zhen-Yao Van-Boswell |
| | Ali Van and Miranda ZYVB are cousins and collaborators. They share roots in Hong Kong, overlapping briefly in New York City; Ali’s birth place, and Miranda’s present base. In 2023, Miranda joined Ali in nurturing a.f.t. Cooperative, all for time in dedication to living and breathing values. Here, Ali joins Miranda to celebrate her home once lived, and the spirits of being in transit together. |
| | | | | | | Hey, I’m Ziggy Smith. I’m new to the Dirt Palace. Right now I’m really enjoying reading “Mules and Men” by Zora Neale Hurston. I just moved in so I’m excited to get back into the flow of things. |
| | Hiii, it’s summertime!! I have been research and process-oriented in gaining new skills in sound, composition, and woodworking, in a phase of organizing personal goals and goals around planning events, and am chasing a day job that can sustain me enough to be able to prioritize what I want to be making. I’ve found myself splitting my attention in how whatever task in-creation I enjoy is almost definitely procrastination on my immediate survival until I have an income locked-in better. Thus far, it's selling my personal record collection, and clothes are next! So… A bit of a chasing-my-tail, Sisyphean situation, but I’m getting there. It seems the most lasting area of my work is mapping the internal. When I lost my mother in March, it felt like my brain broke along with my ability to process a conversation in real-time, and my autism has become really hilariously (sometimes painfully) apparent to me. Of course, this attitude of curiosity around challenges of feeling disconnected in my body and the feeling absurd with it informs the lens I create through. I feel like a really silly guy but am having fun with it! :-)
Flow state activities have been a great break from feeling frantic! I’ve been shedding new fingerpicking exercises on guitar and in the left-right and bellows coordination on accordion, shedding the voices of opinions in my head that don’t serve me, and getting back into footwork inspired by running ladder drills at soccer practice- but now it's on dance floors or the Dirt Palace floors. I’m out observing what plants are growing, placing the chorus of what birds are around me, and stopping to look at that cool shiny bug. Some days, I feel intimidated by socializing and can only comfortably function to look up at the birds and bugs. And I guess that’s why I’ve been getting a lot out of playing music with others; speaking an abstract language of grooves and painting a picture in the colors of different harmonic movements with a sprinkle of a new modal melodic element or simply leaning into a nice texture. In the last couple months, I’ve jammed with a handful of different players and am getting a sense about what I like about others’ styles or the range of their instruments when they are non-standard to my prior rock repertoire. I’m looking to get a band together to flesh out arrangements for music I write! (hit my line, let’s jam!) Work has been happening in the home studio department, and I have started my journey in learning things about live sound and instrument repair. I’m a one man band out here playing with drum machines, tinkering with a little FM synthesis, and trying to wrap my head around concepts in voltage control, once again. How to record acoustic instruments is a complete challenge, as of now. The accordion choir has officially expanded into composition club territory, and we are attempting electroacoustic elements for the latest piece Kristina put forward. I’m working to learn how we can have 7-9 accordions mic’d and processed by a synthesizer without feeding back. A goal of this work is to run sound for events at Dirt Palace. I’ve been going to shows with the intention of getting to know what is going on in the region between music and performance art. I’ve also been playing shows with the Bicentennial Memorial Accordion Choir. We played 3 Boston dates last month (wow!). We’ll be playing Allston’s Pissmas July 20th and on July 19th at the New Bedford Roots and Branches Folk Festival. There will be Cape Verdean traditional music, Caribbean steel drum music, Appalachian folk, West African drumming, and a performance by the Wicked Queer Puppet Theater! The festival is July 18th and 19th, and you don’t want to miss it! I’ll be volunteering, and they are looking for more volunteers. Sign up here!: https://signup.com/mobileweb/2.0/vspot.html?activitykey=981698462061#choose_event_page Festival information: https://www.nbrootsandbranches.com/special-events
P.S. I am looking for guitar/songwriting students! P.P.S. or just $$!
Be well, friends! |
| Q (John-Francis Quiñonez) |
| Oh - Dear Dirt Palace Readers,
It is Summer. The Days are Long. The Crops of Asparaguses & Strawberries are quickly Waning. I am spending most of my waking hours making & serving so much Ice Cream, but at Night I dream of fashioning an Impossibly Long Duvet to stuff my Body & Commute into. I love these months for all the plants & be-cutoffed creatures of Earth, but it is simply not my time to shine.
This year I have committed to simplifying my Sunny Season. Less Booking. No Touring. Mostly focusing on researching, resting, and locking in for our first Summer over at Big Feeling Ice Cream. I hope you will come visit us at 769 Westminster in PVD. Weds-Sunday 12 to 9 (til 10 on Fridays and Saturdays). It has been busy and it has been s w e e t !
If I don’t see you in the shop for a cone, might I suggest:
🍓Open Library Hours at Queer.Archive.Work./Binch Press on select Sundays. It’s been my pleasure to be a New Board Member with this organization I so deeply love, and it feels that even amidst the debilitating chaos we are making good changes towards growing and thriving.
🍓Lost Bag for Figure Drawing on Mondays. Doors at 7:15, Starts at 7:30. I’d also like to plug my next Middle Distance Presents show on August 11th with More Eaze & Thor + Friends (more details and flyer soon).
Hope you are holding up as well as can be out there, Best, Q |
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| It’s official—I’m the next DP housemate getting voted off the island!! lol, no, but seriously, I have been living at DP the longest out of this current group. That means I’ll be moving out soon. That also means I’ll be 26 soon. July 6th to be exact!
I LOVE CANCER SEASON (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ AND I LOVE SUMMER (◡‿◡✿)
here’s my June 2025 recap ———>
First up, an honorable Senoj mention. I am nothing without my fluffy girl. |
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| | currently reading <——— in preparation for the classes I’m teaching at AS220 Youth this summer!
Below on the left is the poem “Affirmation,” by Assata Shakur. On the right, is my poem after Assata. |
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sneak peak of an up & coming project: |
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I will have more to say about this come July! Farewell friends. Next time we speak, I’ll be in the later half of my twenties. Cheers! |
| | hello! so nice to see you again? continuing to be painfully tired! trying my best to work through it. my focus has been tattooing and hanging out. the summer makes me feel strange… i’ve gotten to use my coping skills toolbox more than ever. making art about sex! reading coming to power (i don’t know how i’m only just now reading) and it is inspiring. working on tattoo projects that feel inspiring. getting to make art with people that are so trusting of my ability and it feels so sweet. i have two very pregnant cousins (dear autumn and liz) and i have learned a tip i want to share! you’re supposed to wear kind of nice outfits to baby showers!! kinda fancy brunch attire!! don’t make my mistake and look drab while everyone is going Hard and looking beautiful! officially renewed for my third year of DP and i’ve moved rooms! the change of scenery has been a kick in the butt to get working on stuff. the heat has slowed this down… but maybe going to the beach will solve my never ending fatigue and get sand on my feet and butt…. just maybe
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| | | I’m still typing away into the substack void. The last one (DEEP HOLE) is here. Subscribe for free here. Does all of this substack stuff sound like a broken record? Well on the topic of broken audio, there’s a voice recording on this one, cause I myself am an audio book listener - but you know, it's a little bit rickety, like no editing style. Siren’s and a couple of coughs. Do you have any audio book rec’s - please lmk! (contact info here on my website). BIG THANKS
Last winter I got to work on a cover for Megan Milks’ new book MEGA MILK: Essays on Family, Fluidity, Whiteness and Cows. Its a great read and I had a blast working on it. Its not out yet, but its up for pre-order!
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| | | | | ·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ BULLETIN BOARD ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙ |
| | | | Hi everyone! My name is Mikayla, and I’m digging through the Dirt Palace archives this Summer, having a blast :) The plan is to update all you lovely readers with some of my personal favorite finds every Friday over on the @dirtplace instagram account. This is one of my favorites so far! It’s a Kinofist Imageworks zine sporting a manifesto calling for the creation of amateur film. I don’t call myself an artist (which is very hard because I’m surrounded by lovely artists at Dirt Palace, but I’ve worked with oodles of oodles of film and always find myself procrastinating for fear of not being good enough. Thanks David Kinofist for that inspiration push to just go make! |
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