In 2003, rapper Machakos Kyalo moved to Amherst, Massachusetts, from Machakos, Kenya, a country he’s made synonymous with himself and his musical output. “We moved here for better opportunities,” Kyalo says, and his budding career in the Pioneer Valley is a testament to that pursuit.

Kyalo is also the head of the ONE TRyBE COMPANy, a collective that includes him, Kenyan Afrobeat gospel singer Brainny, Kenyan reggae artist Mtu Saba, and Boston-based producer and singer Aaron Mentos. Through ONE TRyBE, Kyalo creates cross-continental musical collaborations that take him and other Massachusetts-based musicians regularly to his hometown of Machakos. One of these, the 2016 music video “Run Caleb Ndiku,” a collaboration with Kenya’s gold-medalist runner, netted ONE TRyBE over 27,000 hits on YouTube.

Not only have these collaborations formed many of the most exciting moments on Kyalo’s standout projects—Rose’s Boy: Kenyan Man Standing (2015) and RUDE BOi (2016)—but proceeds from RUDE BOi fund a project to plant 10,000 trees in Machakos. We spoke to Kyalo about unity, progression, and the links between western Massachusetts and Machakos, Kenya.

Take: Why has social justice or change become a focal point of your work?
Michakos Kyalo: I can’t ignore my life. The people that are against me are against me every day. The struggles—they’re kinda there every time I wake up. So for me to ignore that, I wouldn’t be true to myself. Racism, classism, all of those things, man. Just being a black man in this society. I feel like if I was just to make lit songs all day, that’s not me. I don’t even drink, I don’t even smoke—that kind of deletes around 90 percent of the songs out there right now. I can’t ignore myself. I can’t ignore who I am.

T: What role do you think the arts can play in the turbulent political climate we’re in right now?
MK: If everybody was to unify, it could dictate how the world would be tomorrow for our kids, for the next generation. It would ensure that there would be art tomorrow, and that art would still matter in the forefront of our nation. This probably is the time for us to unify. This is the time, more than ever. Will we do it? Some are doing it, some are not. It’s really all about that unifying, just us realizing what the monster is and what’s against us and deciding that we’re going to come together against it.

T: Was there a specific moment when you realized your art had the potential to affect people’s lives?
MK: There’s been a lot, honestly. From my nephews singing my music—and they are three and four years old—to my friends sending me videos of them getting stopped by cops and singing “walk the line, walk the line,” you know? It’s shit that goes down, it’s things that happen—little things like that—that just tell me, “alright, we’re on track.” Random people reaching out to me, from all over the world. It’s been a beautiful process. I don’t really look for outside verification; I just verify myself, on my own terms.

T: What’s the overall mission of your ONE TRyBE COMPANy collective?
MK: ONE TRyBE COMPANy is Africa’s new sound. We’re the African sound makers. It’s the next generation of what’s going to bring African music forward. We have all different types of sounds—we have gospel, we have reggae, we have hip-hop—and we’re all just bringing it together. And our big thing is inspiring the young to show them that, look, we’re from small villages just like y’all. The footprints are still wet. There are kids that were like, “I want to do music, but I don’t have money to pay a producer.” One of our members, Aaron Mentos, was like, “Yo, I’ll make you the beats. No worries.” The tree planting—that was my mission off of my music. My next project is where I’m challenging myself to build a school. I’ll be able to record the kids of that school. I’m trying to build a three-room studio, like three studio buildings, and just give one of the studios to that school. It’s really just pushing ourselves and looking for what’s needed.

T: What do you love about Amherst and Machakos?
MK: In Amherst, I can see all the people that inspired me to get into music. In Machakos, I’m the most happy. I’ll go to the city, to Nairobi, and I’m not happy. But as soon as I cross that little border, it’s like that feeling when you realize you’re almost at your house. You can close your eyes and you’ll still know where you’ll end up. That’s Machakos to me. I forever love Machakos. Machakos Kyalo til I D-I-E. I want to create opportunities and just be an ambassador of music between Kenya and the United States.

Machakos Kyalo–rapper, creator of ONE TRyBE COMPANY
Amherst, Massachusetts
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Illustration by Brittany Loar

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The Negus × BL&D Block Party was jumping on September 2nd in Hartford, Connecticut, courtesy of DJs; live performances by Vee Skeeno, Chad Browne-Springer, and Trey Moore; and a double Dutch contest.

photo by bethany anna

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The second annual mural festival POW! WOW! Worcester gave the Massachusetts city’s streets a creative makeover. At the closing party at Mercantile Plaza on September 2, party-goers danced to DJ John Field, mingled with LED dancers from The What Collective, and got down at a headphone-powered silent disco.

Silent disco at the POW! WOW! Worcester closing party. Photo by Bethany Anna

All photos by bethany anna

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Vermont’s oldest operating covered bridge crosses the Mad River in historic Waitsfield, a perfectly picturesque New England town of charming nineteenth-century clapboard buildings. But beneath that quaint exterior runs a cutting-edge current that has spawned several artistic ventures, creating a quirky clash of old and new.

A haven for skiers who prefer the unadulterated terrain of Sugarbush Resort and member-owned Mad River Glen, the Mad River Valley—with Waitsfield at its core—nurtures locals and transplants who march to the beat of their own drum. That sometimes means places won’t be open when expected or keep inconsistent off-season hours. The bottom line: before you wander to Waitsfield to see something specific, call ahead.

June Anderson equates Waitsfield’s sensibility with the defiant “ski it if you can” motto of Mad River Glen. “In the Mad River, you have to be willing to reach a little farther and work a little harder, but the reward is a little richer and a little sweeter.”

Anderson and her husband, Wendell, own the Bundy Modern, a boxy minimalist structure fronted by floor-to-ceiling windows—distinctly out of place in the sloping terrain—which serves as a contemporary art gallery and their home. It hosts exhibitions mostly in the summer; in the winter, she says, skiers tend to drive up late on Friday, hit the runs all weekend and go home without doing much else.

The Madsonian Museum of Industrial Design contrasts such modernity with a whimsical assembly of old motorcycles, gumball machines, toys, typewriters, telephones (with dials!), and other commercial creations of a former era. In the center of the Waitsfield Village Historic District, it’s open Friday through Sunday and by appointment.

Less dusty and open all year, the Big Picture Theater and Café merges a vintage movie house and tavern with an innovative, locally inspired menu that’s hardly an afterthought to the cinematic fare. Filmgoers can enjoy dishes such as fried chicken, tofu satay, and homemade desserts—including the famous Very Small Donuts— in the theater while they watch.

Back in the historic village, there’s an unexpected oasis of high fashion. 4orty Bridge Boutique features a well-curated collection of clothing and accessories made mostly by U.S. designers, including jewelry handmade by the shop’s owner. It’s one of those sophisticated surprises that pop up in Waitsfield and make it so incongruously appealing.

Illustration by Dylan Fant

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A five-story Battlecat prowls the side of a Providence, Rhode Island  

Battlecat, 2016

Mural by Nychos, located in Providence, Rhode Island. Curated by INOPERAbLE for The Avenue Concept.

Nychos
Providence, Rhode Island
Website

Photo by Ben Jacobsen

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In the small coastal town of York, Maine, you can pull in and fill ’er up at a unique studio and gallery space called Chases Garage. Co-owners and directors Cait Giunta and Ned Roche started renovating the former blacksmith’s shop/garage that’s more than 100 years old in 2012, opening the first artist studios in April of the following year, and the gallery a few months later. “The space was so empty—we were really able to decide what it would be and what went where,” recounts Giunta. Roche and Giunta are both ceramicists, as well as large-format print enthusiasts, so being able to put their large, heavy equipment precisely where they needed greatly benefitted their business concept.

In addition to the studios and gallery, Chases Garage hosts ceramic and printmaking classes taught by local artisans and the owners themselves. The gallery shows from May to December. “Our artists are primarily local and regional,” explains Giunta. “Ned and I curate our shows with artists whose work we think will complement each other and the space.”

With a pair of gasoline pumps out front, there’s no mistaking what Chases Garage once was. But the facade that once held a giant overhead door now welcomes visitors, students, and professional artists. “The Seacoast has a flourishing artist community,” says Giunta. “Our goal is to support artists who are not only looking to create work, but to join in a dialogue about it. The community is a huge component of why we started this endeavor.”

Chases Garage
York, Maine
Website

New photo by Erin Little; composite image by Izzy Berdan

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The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the only institution in Connecticut devoted solely to contemporary work, boasts 17,000 square feet of gallery space and a two-acre sculpture garden. Open since 1964, it has a history of showing now-legendary artists, including Agnes Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. Admission is just ten bucks. So why haven’t you been?

For one thing, “We’re in a colonial-era town, in a historic district—not the normal place you’d expect to see contemporary art,” explains executive director Alyson Baker of its Ridgefield location. But far from displaying musty antiques, the former home of visionary collector Larry Aldrich shows only the most of-the-moment art. Aldrich grew to understand that keeping a permanent collection limited his ability to support current artists. In the 1980s, he sold his acquisitions, and the Aldrich Museum was reborn as a place able “to be nimble and responsive,” says Baker. “Often, we’re commissioning artists to make work.”

For example, take a look at Your Turn. Through April 22, artists Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley are living on either side of a wall-like structure comprising sliding modules—bed, desk, kitchen—that can only be used by one person at a time. Visitors can chat with the artists as they go about their day.

Baker hopes pieces such as Your Turn will make Ridgefield your next art destination. “Places like MASS MoCA have done a great job of making people understand that contemporary art can be seen in places that are non-traditional or unexpected,” she says. “You really have to make it a sort of pilgrimage.”

Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Website

Illustration by Jen Epervary

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Henniker, New Hampshire’s Youdhi Maharjan unfolds new eternities between hidden words and displaced punctuation, meticulously reconstructing old books rescued from thrift stores. Maharjan doesn’t make art to evoke feelings or unveil some grander purpose. It is in the painstaking process of reconstruction, of meaningless repetition and rediscovery, that he finds higher truth. “Art for me does not have purpose,” he says. “There is no hope, there is no emotion in my work, there are no politics. Art for me is just a process where I can hide away to quiet my mind.”

Beginning with inspiration from a book’s title and a simple rule, Maharjan moves through the text, disassembling it. In Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom, Maharjan erased every word, leaving only periods behind. In other texts he may leave a word or letter, connecting what is left behind through lines or shapes. “In the process, I experience a different kind of eternity, the sweet kind, that lasts for few material moments but feels like forever,” he explains.

Youdhi Maharjan, Of Murmuring Streams, 2017, text cutout on book pages, 40 x 3.35 in. each. Photo by Youdhi Maharjan

After being introduced to Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, Maharjan became deeply rooted in notions of a Sisyphean eternity, the “monotonous repetition of the same labor over and over again, with no hope or expectation for an end.” Born in Nepal and trained in mathematics and science in military school, he finds comfort in uniformity and precision. What is a book without words? What is art without meaning? Maharjan believes truth exists in the mundane, in the repurposing of action, in the repetition of nothingness, forever.

Youdhi Maharjan–artist
Henniker, New Hampshire
Website

Top image: Youdhi Maharjan, Buddhas Breath (detail), 2017, collage on book pages, 24 × 21 in. Photo by Youdhi Maharjan

The post Quick Takes: Joy in Repetition 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.

Willa Van Nostrand is not one to knock a basic vodka soda. But the craft cocktail maker and owner of Little Bitte Artisanal Cocktails also loves to go beyond the basics, drawing on her imagination and creativity to produce inspired beverage presentations for events of all sizes. “It’s really set and setting all the way,” admits the Providence, Rhode Island-based mixologist who creates cocktails—complemented with charcuterie—to match a particular setting and theme. For example, a seaside celebration might have her foraging for sea beans as an edible garnish. In the deep winter, Van Nostrand leans heavily on the bitters she concocts herself, which she believes are the essential salt and pepper for every drink.

Willa Van Nostrand of Little Bitte. Photo by Ian Travis Barnard

Growing up in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, with her bartending minister father and herbalist midwife mother, was an education in cocktail culture for Van Nostrand. She loves presenting things in duality: food/drink, art/artists, drink/garnish. World’s Fair Gallery, her studio and gallery in Providence, brings like-minded artists to showcase their work, and gives her a space to test-drive cocktail creations.

“Bitte,” which means “please” or “you’re welcome” in German, captures the essence of what Van Nostrand is doing—carving a throwback to the golden age of hosting. Her theater arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College has helped Van Nostrand set up similar productions for her bartending and food catering events. “I see this as an extension of my artistic embodiment,” she says. “It’s all a big production.”

Van Nostrand is always up for a challenge. The most outrageous drink she’s ever crafted? A black cocktail for a design firm, made up of gin, aquavit, fresh anise hyssop, black licorice, and . . . squid ink.

The Take cocktail. Photo by Ian Travis Barnard

We asked Van Nostrand to concoct a cold-weather cocktail just for Take. It’s a spin on the Old Fashioned with a warming kick of crystallized ginger and allspice dram in lieu of the traditional Angostura bitters and muddled sugar base. Savor a sip of this handy recipe, and you too will be pirouetting through the season.

The Take

INGREDIENTS

2 oz. bourbon
⅟₄ oz. St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
Crystallized ginger for muddling
Orange twist
Crystallized sage for garnish*

*Coat both sides of a fresh sage leaf
with citrus juice, and dust with sugar.

PREPARATION

Muddle allspice dram with crystallized ginger in a rocks glass and add ice. Add bourbon and stir for 15 seconds. Garnish with a generous curl of orange zest and crystallized sage.

Willa Van Nostrand–owner, Little Bitte Artisanal Cocktails
Providence, Rhode Island
Website

Photos by Ian Travis Barnard

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