We totally get why Che Anderson was named Worcester Mag’s Person of the Year in 2016. A fan of street art as an art form, the young staff assistant to Worcester’s city manager somehow managed to convince POW! WOW!, the world’s biggest mural festival, to hold its first-ever East Coast event in Wormtown. Now in its second year, POW! WOW! Worcester is putting the mid-Massachusetts city on the map as an art destination.

Take: Are you a native or transplant? If native: Who was your rival town growing up? If transplant: When did you know you were a NE’er?
Che Anderson: I am a transplant from New York City, and I knew I was a NE’er when I said ‘wicked’ unironically for the first time.

T: What one word would you use to describe New Englanders?
CA: I would describe New Englanders as prideful: of their sports teams, hometowns, chowdah, beer, and way of life.

T: What’s your favorite bizarre, historical, or quirky piece of New England trivia?
CA: Worcester is the birthplace of the Smiley Face, birth control, modern rocketry, and barbed wire!!! So random, and yet so awesome!

T: What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen while driving in New England?
CA: The bumper stickers…so…many..ridiculous…bumper stickers.

T: What’s pissing you off today?
CA: I still have never used the quadratic equation a day in my life.

The post 5 Questions with … Che Anderson appeared first on Take Magazine.

Get hammered

What is it: Classic cocktail muddler in jatoba. 11.5 × 1.5 in. Price: $48; ice mallet and Lewis bag (in hard maple and jatoba). 10.75 × 3 × 2 in. Price: $82.
Who makes it: Thea Price-Eckles of Masnu in Somerville, Massachusetts. “The more you enjoy using a tool, the more you love your work, the better your cocktails taste! I use these two woods because their density helps them hold up to frequent use.”
Why we love it: The minimal, curvaceous aesthetic lends sex appeal to the hard, hard work of making cocktails . . .

Sip stylishly 

What is it: Lowball and highball glasses. 3.5 × 3.5 in. and 3 × 5 in. Price: $60 and $70 each.
Who makes it: David J. Benyosef of Cambridge, Massachusetts. “I use a traditional Venetian process called cane, where I stretch a color 30 to 40 feet and chop it up into 5-inch sections. Each cane is fused together; then I twist the cane, causing the lines to spiral.”
Why we love it: The op art effect of these swirly glasses will make your guests’ heads spin before they take their first sip.

David J. Benjosef glasses, Diane Hoffman towel, and The Shade Tree tray. Photo by Dominic Perri

Clean up colorfully 

What is it: Chihuahua and Mexican hairless dog kitchen towel. 18 × 28 in. Price: $30.
Who makes it: Diane Hoffman of Providence, Rhode Island. “The Mexican hairless and Chihuahua projects were born in 2017 as areaction to the negative rhetoric of the current administration.”
Why we love it: A retro-mod design featuring psychedelic pups makes mopping up even the stickiest of liqueurs fun.

Hold everything

What is it: Tiger maple tray. 12 × 18 × 2.75 in. Price: $165.
Who makes it: Frank Dobai, owner of The Shade Tree in Moodus, Connecticut. “Tiger maple is a special, highly figured wood that’s durable and beautiful. When dye absorbs into the wood, it accentuates the grain even more.”
Why we love it: It’s not always about what’s on the tray. This bright pop of color will cure the winter blues and make your holiday cocktails even more festive.

Photo by Dominic Perri; Credenza courtesy of Danco Modern, dancomodern.com

The post Take It Home: Raising the Bar appeared first on Take Magazine.

John Bisbee: Maine sculptor, wannabe songwriter. Photo by Izzy Berdan

When not chopping up and pounding nails into beautiful art, Brunswick, Maine, artist John Bisbee loves to make music. “I write music when I have the chance,” Bisbee says. It’s still my favorite thing to do, to touch that guitar. Music and lyrics. It’s not very good—just what pops into my head. Melancholic, lonesome folk. Sadass white dude. I love it; probably few others do. I don’t really share it. But it is my favorite thing to do, when I’m not doing this. I love to discover chord progressions and try to put poetry to it.”

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The post Extra, Extra: John Bisbee appeared first on Take Magazine.

As described in our January, 2017 post, Brattleboro’s Joshua Farr has taken the Vermont lifestyle of having multiple jobs at once very seriously. In addition to being the director of the Vermont Center for Photography, Farr works for Good Bear Productions as a web designer, is in charge of event photography for the Brattleboro Art Museum, organizes Pop-Up Brattleboro, teaches at In-Sight Photography Project, and is a professional, documentary-style photographer. In his spare time (how on earth does he have any?) he also likes to repurpose old furniture. Despite having several 12-hour workdays in a row (“This is not humane self-treatment,” he admits), Farr took the time to answer some questions for Take.

Take: Are you a native or transplant? If native: Who was your rival town growing up? Transplant: When did you know you were a NE’er?
Joshua Farr: Born in Maine, went to school in New Hampshire, and now living in Vermont. I always say that I’m moving west one state at a time. Considering the fact that my extended family hasn’t lived outside of Maine for many generations, I often feel like a transplant. But then I remember that both states have the same obsession with moose and maple syrup, and I suddenly feel right at home again.

Take: What one word would you use to describe New Englanders?
JF: Salty.

Take: Who are some of your favorite New England-based artists? (could be music, visual, etc.)
JF: This is a loaded question to ask a gallerist/curator! But if I had to rattle off a few, I’d probably mention folks such as my very own college photo professor Doug Prince, furniture-making mad man Johnny Swing, photographer Tanja Hollander, and of course, the uncategorizable Jonathan Gitelson.

Take: What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen while driving in New England?
JF: Brattleboro has its very own resident world-class competitive exercising enthusiast, “Real Bill Kathan,” who can frequently be seen doing speed-jumping-jacks to music on Main Street, or jogging for miles while balancing a baseball bat on his hand. He knows how to capture folks attention—without a doubt.

Take: What’s pissing you off today?
JF: The fact that Brattleboro picks up trash every OTHER week. Over the course of the time between pickups, our local rat/raccoon/feral-cat population manages to lock in coordinates for our trash shed and strew stinky trash all over our yard for me to clean up—only to come back inside for dinner smelling like a dumpster. It just makes my day. Every. Single. Time.

Top image: Joshua Farr. Photo by Bob George

The post 5 Questions With … Joshua Farr appeared first on Take Magazine.

There are countless reasons why we love living in New England. Sure, there are the tourist faves, like Cape Cod beaches, Vermont maple syrup, Maine lobster, and, of course, our fall foliage. There’s also the wonderful quality of life: historic New England homes nestled in the hills and valleys; farm stands and farm-to-table restaurants; small towns with quaint main streets populated by local businesses. All proximate to the big cities of the northeast.

But New England also has a vibrant and dynamic arts scene, born from our region’s hundreds of colleges and arts schools, as well as a plethora of old mill towns full of raw, affordable industrial space being rapidly converted into artists’ studios.

While there are regional magazines that play up New England’s country charm, and state and city publications that address the arts to some degree, what we’ve lacked is something that covers all of our diverse, edgy, and engaging contemporary culture—from Greenwich, Connecticut to Caribou, Maine. Since Take Magazine’s inception in 2015, its mission has been to fill that particular void, sharing stories through thoughtful prose and gorgeous imagery of interesting people doing extraordinary things all over New England. You can expect much of the same when we return to print later this year.

But there’s more that we need to do.

In the six months that Take has been out of print, our world has been turned upside down. A divisive and hate-filled election cycle has led to a thin-skinned, bullying businessman using the power of the presidency to tweet unspeakably vile personal attacks, actively censor government agencies, denounce the media as the opposition, and traffic in alternative facts. Orwell’s fictional dystopian autocracy, made real on American soil. Most recently, and perhaps most egregiously, the president has signed an order that discriminates against one particular religion while favoring another, banning some from coming to our once-welcoming shores. To “make America great again,” he is going against our country’s core values. The Statue of Liberty’s torch is flickering; the world is watching.

We’re angry, but we’re also energized—as are so many others in the arts, who are using their talents and creativity to powerfully, and beautifully, express their dissent through their work. #TakeAction, a feature that’s already appearing on our website and will be integral to the relaunched print mag, will promote New England’s artistic and cultural voices of political protest. We hope that, in doing so, we’ll inspire others to rise up and join us in this critical fight for freedom and democracy.

Now, more than ever.

Stacey Kors
Editor in Chief

The post A Letter from our new Editor in Chief appeared first on Take Magazine.

When Brattleboro artist David Nielsen was asked to talk about his work on WVEW’s “Art Talk” hosted by Jim Maxwell, he decided instead to use the broadcast as a platform to discuss protest art in America, as well as a creative call to artists to take a political stand and make their voices heard in the wake of the painfully divisive presidential election. Take Magazine spoke with Nielsen about the role of art in these turbulent times.

Why is art especially important right now following the election?

DN: For me, and I think for a lot of artists, art is about affirming your humanity, about saying I’m alive and this is what I’m doing. This is what I believe in during my very brief period of time on this planet. We have elected an anti-human president and we have an anti-human government. It reminds me of the Reagan years. It reminds me of both the Bush wars where there was a populist movement of folks who didn’t want anything to do with war, didn’t want anything to do with the destruction of the middle class, didn’t want anything to do with the monopolization of power in the hands of very few.

I think it’s incumbent on artists and those of us who give a shit about their lives and about what happens after we’ve gone to make a stand in whatever way is possible. It’s not just about the stand that we’re making for ourselves today: it’s about what we leave behind for the next generation of artists and human beings, so they can see that there were people who didn’t like the direction the planet was going in, and wanted to do something about it.

When you talk about protest art in response to a particular political climate, what are some of the historical periods that really speak to you?

DN: The entire twentieth century, actually. Protest art was made throughout the entire twentieth century. Sometimes it was direct protest art, and sometimes it was observational art after the fact, like Picasso’s Guernica. Photographs of soldiers in the moment they’re being shot. Spoken word poems. Text-based art like that of Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger. And then we get into identity politics, especially in the 70’s and 80’s with women identity artists. That need to speak up and have a voice. One can directly say, Fuck you, Trump as a form of protest, or you can make something magnificent that goes beyond just the anger and gets at the heart of what it means to be a human being with a conscience.

We’re a pretty solid band of blue here in New England. Do you think that living in a progressive region impacts how we, as a community, respond to our current political climate, either positively or negatively?

DN: I know this will piss some people off, but I think that it can make us complacent because we feel less directly threatened by what’s going on. I recently saw a protest march in downtown Brattleboro. There were a couple hundred people there, which was heartening. I went over, and a fellow in the middle had an acoustic guitar and they handed out paperwork and everybody was singing “We Shall Overcome.” I thought it was complete bullshit and I walked. It’s an easy, unfocused, not terribly useful, not galvanizing, thing to do; and I understand there’s a need for community, but I think the election has just shown us that these are much more wicked times than a happy little ’60s protest song will ever manage to fix.

I spent ten years in Portland, Oregon before I came out here, and Portland has had some of the rowdiest protests of any city in America. Even in a blue state you can be angry. Even in a soft little town like Brattleboro you can be outraged. I think a lot of people are dealing with hurt right now, and they’re choosing to indulge and wallow in their hurt as opposed to saying, let’s just move past that. We’ve already been through this; we know how this goes. Eventually we’re going to be angry, and eventually we’re going to mobilize, and eventually we’re going to make decisions that affect our lives. Let’s just get there right now as opposed to waiting and seeing how we feel about things later. I think we’re pretty clear about how we feel about things. It’s what we do about things that matters.

Le Morte de Gaia | THANK YOU #1, 2012 | acrylic on canvas

What’s the most important takeaway for you from the election?

DN: When Roe v. Wade is threatened, when our civil rights are threatened, when trade deals are threatened, when our sovereignty is threatened, when the white supremacists have klan marches in support of Donald Trump and the Right begins to flex its very grotesque muscles, we really do need to learn to protect ourselves. In an era of state’s rights, we need to be more proactive, instead of waiting to have these things dictated to us. That is what the Right has done. I think it’s a lesson worth learning.

Nielsen’s discussion on protest art can be heard on “Art Talk” with Jim Maxwell Friday, December 9 at 4pm on WVEW, 107.7, Brattleboro, or streaming at WVEW.org. Following the broadcast, Graffiti Sandwich in downtown Brattleboro will host a show featuring Nielsen’s Le Morte de Gaia (The Death of Earth), a triptych of triptychs about what happens when the first thermonuclear bomb drops. The work will be up through the end of the year.

The post Art in The Age of Uncertainty appeared first on Take Magazine.

During a bitterly divisive campaign season in which Donald Trump has promoted racial profiling and threatened to build a wall between countries (and believe me, that wall was going to be HUGE) Hartford choreographer Sonia Plumb is crossing cultural borders and embracing diversity through dance. Fire or Ice, an ambitious new production that premieres at Hartford’s Bushnell Performing Arts Center October 22–23, marries modern dance, ballet, breakdancing, and salsa with music ranging from pulsing Latin rhythms to the haunting strains of Eastern European mysticism—all performed on one stage by the Sonia Plumb Dance Company and area composers and musicians.

The idea for the production, the first staged by a Greater Hartford modern dance company at The Bushnell since 1999, stemmed from Plumb’s recent experiences teaching composition at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. “I started seeing this interesting dance divide between my students based on culture,” explains the veteran choreographer. “The girls from suburban areas were heavily trained in ballet, and the more urban, African-American and Latino students had this whole other rhythm, other cultural dances that were in their bodies—everything from hip hop to Mexican wedding dancing. My goal as a teacher was to help them bridge those divides and work together, to share and combine those different languages.”

Plumb brought this cross-cultural exploration back to her company, and then took the idea one step further: in addition to choreographing new works for her dancers, she suggested they conceive one of their own. “I didn’t teach my dancers anything,” she says of The Sun Shines, the final composition in the Fire or Ice program, “they taught each other. It’s blending all of the movement they know from their backgrounds, their home cultures, the classes they’ve taken, then coming together and creating something new.

“It’s truly a melting pot. And that,” she adds as an apt reminder, “is beautiful.”

“Fire Or Ice”
October 22nd & 23rd
A symposium on cross-fertilization will follow the Oct. 23rd performance.
The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts
Hartford CT
Tickets can be purchased by calling the Bushnell box office at (860) 987-5900 or online.

Top image Reynaldo Garcia and Juanita Harris | photograph by Thomas Giroir

The post Dancing Across the Divide appeared first on Take Magazine.