“There’s this little lesson you give at the beginning of the show,” says burlesque performer Ruby Solitaire. “Basically, you say it’s okay to hoot and holler during the show. We want you to make a lot of noise. Just don’t be gross, don’t be cruel, and everybody’s going to have a good time. It’s about boundaries.”

Solitaire explains that defining expectations between burlesque performers and their audience or establishing “burletiquette” as coined by Bastard Keith, is an essential step in fostering the kind of atmosphere Solitaire wants at an Excelsior Burlesque show. She definitely aims for sultry, entertaining, and raucous, but she also wants her performances to be a space of expression, power, and body and sex positivity for the Excelsior performers of varying gender and racial identities.

Still confused about the difference between club stripping and burlesque? Solitaire has your differentiation: “[Burlesque is a] very artistic form of striptease that’s meant to tell a story and go beyond the capabilities of narrative that a traditional club stripper may have. [Club stripping’s] purpose is individualized attention, whereas burlesque is a three-minute play for the audience.”

Elsa Riot in Excelsior Burlesque. Photo courtesy of Ruby Solitaire.

Solitaire’s troupe used to perform in New York City, but after a change in cast and a few years hiatus, she’s back in New England ready, in a lot of ways, to start fresh. “Coming to New Hampshire, I realized I couldn’t assume that people had the lexicon for understanding burlesque, before they got into nerdlesque,” she says. (Nerdlesque is a subgenre of burlesque performance that uses nerdy references and pop culture properties as inspiration for themed shows or one-off acts.) Excelsior has its big homecoming show on December 9th at Jewel Music Venue.

Solitaire will bring in some performers she knows and trusts to do more classic performances before she starts doing the more brainy, subversive or “tightly themed” acts. No matter if she’s dressing up like one of Neil Gaiman’s characters from the extremely popular Sandman graphic novel series, doing a classic peel-off to reveal tasseled pasties, or if she’s stringing together acts as a tribute to the FX show show Archer, her performances are always “[a] nexus of strip tease, comedy, theater, dance and music. Raunchy, but with a wink and a nod.”

Harley Foxx. Photo by Pete Olsen

Ruby Solitaire’s pensive approach to burlesque performance goes beyond an entertaining rule-making, precise curation, and deep pop culture references. Hers is a political approach, specifically offering shows that are intentionally inclusive and body positive. “You have to be active in your casting if you want to be a body positive show and a diverse show,” she says. “You can’t just put out a casting notice saying ‘inclusivity encouraged’ or ‘we encourage people of color to apply for the show’ or ‘we encourage trans people to apply for the show,’” says Solitaire. “We actually have to go and seek these people out. But before that happens, you need to be sure you have a safe place to do it, in terms of the physical location and in making sure that people aren’t going to yell out horrible things. It’s definitely a challenge as a white, cis producer to do that, but it’s something that’s very worth doing.”

Ruby Solitaire – performer and producer at Excelsior Burlesque
Manchester, New Hampshire
Website
Twitter

Top image: Ruby Solitaire. Photo by William Skrainski.

The post Proper Burletiquette with Ruby Solitaire appeared first on Take Magazine.

For readers who have uncomplicated, loving relationships with their extended family coming to visit this Turkey Day, we say congratulations. For the rest of us who have a bit more fraught relationships with our close and/or extended families, here are some inoffensive and broad Shiny Objects. Hopefully an activity, live show or group outing will distract you from certain a family member’s off-kilter political leanings, backhanded compliments, and/or complaints about dates you brought home ten years ago. Head out and do something before the living room and dinner-time banter drives you to say or do something you’ll regret.

Things to do in Massachusetts 

It’s Alive! Classic Horror and Sci-Fi Art from the Kirk Hammett Collection
Peabody Essex Museum
East India Square,
161 Essex Street
Salem
On view until November 26th
10AM – 5PM

Trick your Trump-supporting uncle into seeing this collection of classic horror and science fiction art. He’ll think he’s just seeing a bunch of rogue brutal works owned by the guitarist of Metallica, but you’ll know he’s actually “[exploring] the interplay of creativity, emotion and popular culture.”

SAINTS SLUTS SIRENS: Archetypes of the Feminine
UnchARTed Gallery
103 Market Street
Lowell
Friday November 24, Saturday November 25
11:30am to 1am

The lucky ones have at least one super cool, feminist relative right? They’re the one you can knowingly glance at across the table when someone’s husband says something awful. Peel away from the rest of the family and go see this exhibit with that special relative who sees your distaste with it all.

Things to do in Connecticut

Rags: An American Musical
The Goodspeed
6 Main Street
East Haddam
Friday, November 24 2PM & 8PM
Saturday, November 25 3PM & 8PM
Sunday, November 26 2PM 6:30PM

A good ol’ American musical about immigrants coming to the United States in the early 20th century. Certainly not an uncomplicated topic, but with a score by the songwriters of Annie and Wicked, everyone should be enamored for (at least) the duration of the performance.

Things to do in Vermont

Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium
1302 Main Street
St. Johnsbury
9AM – 5PM

With differing natural history exhibitions and contemporary programming in the varied locations across their Arts and Culture Campus, there’s something for everyone here. Study the museum map BEFORE you get stoned with your cousins and unsuccessfully attempt to locate the planetarium.

Things to do in Maine

19th Annual Animation Show of Shows
Portland Museum of Art
7 Congress Square
Friday, November 24, 2PM & 6PM
Saturday, November 25, 2PM
Sunday, November 26, 2PM
Portland, Maine

Animation is truly an incredible medium. Animated characters can reduce your Trump-supporting uncle to tears just as easily as it can provoke existential questions from your sibling getting his PhD in bioethics. In other words, animation is broad, entertaining and distracting, making it a perfect shared experience for any group.

Things to do in Rhode Island

Bowen’s Wharf Block Party
13 Bowen’s Wharf
Newport
Friday, November 24th
4:00-8pm (Parade starts at 6:15 PM)

It’s a harmless block party by the sea! Take the whole fam to watch the boat parade and while they’re distracted, sneak into one of the shops to do some pre-holiday shopping.

Things to do in New Hampshire

Art on The Hill Open Studios
Art on The Hill Kittery
78 Government Street
Kittery
Friday November 24 – Sunday November 26
10AM – 5PM

Here’s the plan: bring the whole family, separate from the group with your favs, leave the unwanted and unsavory relatives behind to fend for themselves. With three floors and dozens of studios to peruse, you should be able to disappear pretty easily.

The post Shiny Objects: November 24th-26th appeared first on Take Magazine.

This week’s Shiny Objects are a bit unexpected: Nan Goldin photographs in Maine, authentic Ethiopian cuisine in Vermont, and miles of outdoor sculptures in New Hampshire. It’s time to put on some pants, and go out to suss some fun before the seasonal depression sets in.

Massachusetts

Larkin Grimm
The Dreamaway Lodge
1342 County Road
Becket, Massachusetts
Sunday, November 12

Escape to the dreamiest spot in New England for food, stranger banter by the fire, and the “musical sculpture” of Larkin Grimm.

Connecticut

Famous Dex
Toad’s Place
300 York St.
New Haven, Connecticut
Sunday, November 12th
9 pm

This is your chance to see the Chicago-born, trap sensation Famous Dex in person at one of New Haven’s most legendary and intimate venues.

Vermont

Authentic Ethiopian Night
ArtsRiot
400 Pine Street
Burlington, Vermont
Sunday, November 12th
4:30pm – 10pm

Join chefs Alganesh Michael and Mulu Twelde for a pop-up night of Ethiopian cuisine featuring a full menu and a “traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony where the coffee beans are roasted and brewed to order.”

Maine

Nan Goldin
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
Portland Museum of Art
7 Congress Square
Portland, Maine
through December 31, 2017

You’ve probably seen the generation-defining photography of Nan Goldin in art history books, and libraries across the world. Come see one of the installations that started it all—The Ballad of Sexual Dependency—as it returns to New England for the first time in 30 years.

Rhode Island

Pushing Wood Book Signing
Civil Providence
86 Main Street
East Greenwich RI
Saturday, November 11th
1pm – 4pm

Take Magazine fav Ramiro Davaro-Comas will be hanging at Civil Providence ready to sign copies of his new book Pushing Wood. There’s also talk of free stickers, t-shirts and a Vans giveaway, so get there early.

New Hampshire

The Millbrook Gallery and Sculpture Garden
236 Hopkinton Road
Concord, New Hampshire
Tuesday – Sunday, 11am – 5pm, and by appointment

Pretty soon it’ll be legitimately unpleasant to outside, so get to one of our favorite sculpture gardens in New England before it’s too late. Millbrook has several permanent exhibitions on view, but don’t miss their current indoor/outdoor Fall Art Exhibit.

The post Shiny Objects: November 10th-12th appeared first on Take Magazine.

Exeter, New Hampshire, is only ten miles, yet seemingly worlds away, from Portsmouth—long considered the Seacoast’s creative hub. A picturesque town best known for being home to Phillips Exeter Academy and the state capital during the American Revolution, Exeter is now a destination for artists, musicians, and other creatives priced out of Portsmouth.

“There are people here making a living as artists and musicians, and residents who have never seen or heard their work,” says Scott Ruffner, an Exeter native and local realtor who’s also a musician and an ardent advocate for the town’s artistic culture. The founder of the Arts Industry Alliance and its community initiative TEAM (Town Exeter Arts Music)—nonprofits supporting local independent and emerging artists—Ruffner helps organize the town’s First Friday art and music walks and the Exeter Arts & Music Fest, gathering local talent to perform on Swasey Parkway, a downtown park.

On the west side of town, visitors are discovering Art Up Front Street, an artists’ collective owned by Rose Bryant and her husband, Mal Argondizza. Combining studio and gallery space, it’s the first venture of its kind in the area. “I think creative people in Exeter are starved for someplace to land,” Bryant states.

Not far away, Alan and Joanie Mason are transforming a former turn-of-the-century dance shoe factory into artist studios and industrial workspaces. Painter Bradley Castellanos, who relocated to Exeter from New York City last year, is one of two artists currently renting space.

Established local venues are using art to build community, including Phillips Exeter Academy, whose new center for theater and dance is slated to open in 2018. The school’s Lamont Gallery spotlighted regional artists this summer with the exhibition Neighboring in a temporary space downtown. Audiences are also flocking to live music and spoken-word events at the Word Barn, an intimate performance space inside an antique barn on the outskirts of town.

As the creative community grows, so does downtown Exeter, with its quaint nineteenth-century storefronts and restaurants. Dining options run the gamut, including savory quinoa bowls at Laney & Lu Café; lattes at D2 Java; burgers and pizza at Station 19; and local seafood at Otis, located in a former jewelry store.

To Ruffner, the changes confirm his sense that the town is on the edge of something big. “Exeter is on the cusp of something. We’re ready to shake things up a bit.”

Exeter, New Hampshire
Website
Facebook

Top illustration by Rachel Sumpter

The post Take Place: Enter Exeter appeared first on Take Magazine.

Some bands can be easily pigeonholed. Others can’t. Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s own People Like You fall into the latter category, possessing a sound that, at times, can be best described as folk. At other times, funk-imbued psychedelic rock would be more fitting. Some of their songs even border on bona fide pop.

People Like You buck trends and reject classification. They’re a band with a sound as unique as one of their singers, the inimitable Eli Elkus.

“We never set out to write a certain type of song. It just happens, and the final result is whatever comes out in that moment,” Elkus says. “We rely on a lot of different elements and sounds in our music in the same way I would never paint a picture with just blue. That makes us black sheep, of sorts. The scene where we live is saturated with jam bands and white boy reggae—things you can describe to people in a couple of words. To me, we’re just fun, ‘freak folk.’”

People Like You first took shape in 2013 with a couple of members coming and going before the lineup solidified in 2015. The group has already recorded two albums, including People People, which was released physically earlier this summer and will be digitally released September 22nd. Before the end of the year, Elkus says People Like You will wrap the recording sessions for their third full-length, which will boast as many as 17 tracks.

Elkus (who plays guitar) and the four other musicians who make up People Like You (Eli’s brother, drummer Max Elkus; keyboardist and accordion player Justin Sheriff; bassist Rob Littlefield; and guitarist and singer Andrew Polakow) are mostly lifelong New Englanders (Polakow is the exception), and the eccentric frontman thinks a band like this could only exist where progressive minds dwell. “I think part of the reason we’re over the board musically is because it’s a conducive environment to be such a band,” Elkus explains. “I’ve been to 48 states, but I always come back to New England. It is the most authentic part of the country, and we have all four seasons here, which really weathers people and tests people physically and emotionally. Being able to live here a test of character.”

He says the band derives inspiration from New England’s majestic nature and scenery. “That definitely bleeds into our music,” Elkus says. “A common theme that I find in our music is it always sort of sounds like some party that should be going on in the woods, or on the beach. It’s a grounded sound and we are not afraid to get weird.”

Just don’t confuse New Hampshire’s People Like You with the People Like You from Massachusetts. Elkus says he’s spoken to the indie jazz outfit, and there’s no bad blood. “But they are mutant robot imposters,” Elkus jokes. “They’re not the real People Like You. I am pretty sure they don’t have blood running through their veins. I’m pretty sure they don’t have veins.”

Want to hear what Elkus is listening to on Spotify? Check out our Take a Listen Spotify channel. While you’re there take a listen to the other musicians we’ve profiled and some of the faves of the Take staff.

Eli Elkus–musician, People Like You
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Website
Facebook
Soundcloud

Top image courtesy of Eli Elkus

The post People Like You Are Not Your Average Band appeared first on Take Magazine.