[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelley. Shelley is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And Danielle is a community mobilizer and changemaker. And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat. All right, thank you both for being with me tonight. We're going to start with some introductions. So saying your name, your pronouns, and just a bit about who you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay. Um, I am cyan McDormand and my pronouns are they, them there. And I was on the Medford pride planning committee last year and I really enjoyed it. Um, I was interested in kind of getting involved in, um, some LGBTQ stuff and the. Uh, application came out and I thought that would be a good opportunity to kind of, you know, contribute to the city. And also I was like really excited about the fact that we were going to start having pride stuff here. So thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: And my name is Michael Lowe, they, them pronouns. I also, this is my second year being on the PRIDE committee, excited to be part of it as, you know, I run a little queer art collective out of Medford. So it's exciting to be, you know, again, helping out plan all of the cool queer stuff in the city I live in. So yeah, excited to get going with it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you both. Yeah, so I think tonight we're going to hopefully talk a little bit about how last year went and what to expect from this year. But before we do that, I'm going to ask you the same question that you answered last year, but also that we ask everyone, which is what your favorite place to eat is in Medford and what you like to eat there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I will go with four pizza in Medford Square. I'm a vegan and there's actually, I'm sorry, there's not a lot of vegan options in Medford, but they do have plant-based pizzas there. And I like to build my own with like banana peppers and spinach and garlic and stuff like that. And they do a good job. So, and it's walking distance from my house, so.
[SPEAKER_04]: All good things. For me, I think I gave the same answer last year, but it is It's still the same. Zamzam also in Medford Square. Really astounding Pakistani food. I believe it's Pakistani food. I don't know. The quality is always great. The helpings are always enormous. I can never say enough good stuff about them. It's always delicious.
[Danielle Balocca]: you. Yeah, we like their samosas down there too. All right. So, yeah. So, last year was our first kind of like major like city-sponsored pride events and we all, you know, some of us talked last year about how that went or what to expect and I actually had a great time. I was able to go to the flag raising. I brought my older son who was I think like six at the time. We really enjoyed like, you know, hearing the speeches and just kind of being with lots of other folks, celebrating pride. We also went to the, well my son didn't come to this, but some other adults and I went to the drag show at Carol's, which was awesome. Like I think I was expecting it to be great, but I wasn't expecting it to be that great, and we had a really, really good time. Um, I wasn't able to make it to the event at the Andrews, but, um, I did hear it was very hot. So, uh, you know, thank you for putting those things on. It was, it was great. And it was like, it just felt really nice to have, I felt, I think kind of emotional about it last year, just being able to have those events really like recognize and organize and honored by the city. It was a really great feeling. And so, um, I'm wondering what, if you all have any reflections about last year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, I guess I can go first. I had a really good time. For me, the highlight was actually the drag show as well. I particularly like drag, and I was kind of instrumental in trying to push us to have a drag show. I wanted to have kind of an adult's event. And I thought it went really well. I was not really sure what to expect, honestly, because I didn't really know the drag performers who were coming. And I wasn't sure who would be willing to come to Medford, and I wasn't sure how it would work in a restaurant in Medford. And I was kind of expecting it to be a little bit of a hot mess. But actually, the performers were very good. I think there were, like, seven or eight. I originally thought we'd have, like, three or four. But there was a good amount of performers. They all showed up on time, which is kind of nice for Drenica. They were all there. I bought them some drinks, and they were super nice. I talked to them, and they put on an amazing show for everyone. And people came out. People came out. It was very exciting. It wasn't empty. It was pretty full. And I think people were very excited, the crowds. Overall, I had a really good experience with that. The other events were good, too. We did do a lot of events, so it felt like a lot of work. And so I think that's part of the reason why, well, I know that's part of the reason why we decided to narrow in a little bit on doing fewer events this year. But I thought that the pride flag raising was like pretty emotional for me as well. Like it just really felt kind of amazing for the city to be doing something. And one of the things that struck me about that event was that Chief Buckley walked down a drag queen down the aisle. And I just never expected to see like the police chief of my city, hand in hand or arm in arm with a with a drag queen. So that was really, really sweet. And I thought she gave a nice speech and Reverend Wendy gave a really nice speech and Terry Carter gave a great poem and there was a lot of really great words on the flag raising day. And I also enjoyed the other events. But the last day, the last event, the community event, was very, very hot, which was a little bit of a problem. And people didn't stay super long for that. So that was logistically difficult with the heat and stuff. But there were some good bands and some booths with stuff. But yeah, overall, I had a great time. I thought it was great, pretty amazing success for the first year. Hoping to focus in and do a few fewer events and even bigger success this year.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so I would say, gosh, I mean, the Dragon Show is kind of hard to beat. It probably was our best event last year in terms of just you know, how many people showed up, just how well it went. I don't think any of the other events went poorly, per se, but definitely the best, you know, highest attendance right there. I had a lot of fun, and I know I am the one who ran it, so I'll tout it, but the art show, well, very low attendance. We got to meet an amazing musician named Miles, and they will be joining us again this year, actually, which I'm excited about, at the flag raising to supply some nice ambient music of their own creation. So, yeah, yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah and I'm remembering though at City Hall they had the like the letters up that spelled out Medford Pride or Pride. I forgot about that part that we all got a picture after the flag raising that was like pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah Pride 02155. Yeah that's what it was.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah and there's that one's going to be going up again this year on I think on the first or sometime soon after.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah the local GSA Provided that oh and I forgot to mention that the other one another big another success. We had was the teen night So we had a teen skate night last year Partnered with the GSA and they I think they had a really good time a lot of kids who came out so and the police were there to give us protection and and and to And we had the DPW and the police were there. The DPWs marked everything off for us and helped set up the stuff. And Michael's friends were doing DJing. And it was a good time as well.
[Danielle Balocca]: The DJ at the drag show was also great, I thought.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was a good time. Yeah, that was my partner, Giovanna. Oh, nice. Great.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: DJ, right, Michael, for both?
[SPEAKER_04]: Both her and our other friend, Abby, who is stepping away from music for a while, but both of them DJ'd as a pair for both events.
[Danielle Balocca]: I remember talking to the mayor at the drag show and she was really excited that people had come from Somerville to Medford for this event. That seems like a big point of pride. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about what we can expect for this year.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I can jump in on that. So for this year, we are scaling it down a little bit so we can focus and make the events as good as they can be, basically. We're still going to have the flag-raising event on the 1st, of course. We're still going to have some good speakers. And like I just said, Miles is going to be joining us to give us some nice ambient music. And then our other large event is going to be the Community Pride Day event, which will be on the 25th, the last Sunday of June. And that is going to be at City Hall this year, which is super exciting. We're going to have vendors. We're going to have a bunch of informational booths as well for local queer organizations, you know, events. Basically, we're going to have stuff for all ages at this event. and hopefully we'll have a couple or a few drag performers there as well to kind of hype people up and give a good show. And then we're planning on having a handful of musicians and or bands playing throughout the day, throughout the event. And then right after that, we're going to be, courtesy of the vault, we're going to be having a little after party with another drag show like we did last year, but hopefully bigger and better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so just to add on to that, both events are at 4 p.m. June 1st is the flag raising at 4 p.m., and June 25th is the community event at 4 p.m. We are personally working on specifically the flag raising and the community event, and we're gonna be cross-promoting and helping to advertise other events. Like, the Vault event isn't really specifically planned by the pride committee but we're helping to like give some resources uh you know connections to drag performers and stuff to that um the person who wants to run that and then we're also going to give resources to other people if they if they want to run things so like we reached out to the gsa if they want to plan something we're going to try and help them out um with that as well but the plan the planning committee itself is really doing those two events um and then there's a series of other events that will be happening as well so there's like an interfaith um interfaith prayer celebration thing on the first as well, I think it's around 7 30. We will put up, we'll put up calendars and stuff on our, our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds for that information as well. And there's also like a few shows at the Chevalier and there's like an LGBTQ book club at the library. So there'll be other pride events in Medford in June, but the main two that we're doing on the first and the 25th at 4pm.
[Danielle Balocca]: But yeah, you guys are really busy last year, so it's kind of focusing on these main two events and kind of promoting the other other events that maybe you aren't planning like. golden girls of the Chevalier. It sounds like the Ford is going to be having a drag bingo sometime in June as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that's actually on the first as well at 9am.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great. Anything else that you think is important for people to know in terms of getting involved? Are there volunteers involved or anything like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the important thing to know is that the city of Medford is really trying to evolve and grow. And there really is a strong focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, which helped with the hiring of the new diversity, equity, and inclusion director. I think there was one before, but I feel like she's ramped things up a little bit. that the city of Medford cares enough to have a committee for planning pride. I just really appreciate, and I think people should be aware that Medford is a welcoming city, and Medford has LGBTQ people here. We've always had LGBTQ people here. But the acceptance, I think, is growing. I felt like when I moved here back in 2007, it was a pretty tolerant place. I wasn't getting hassled regularly or anything. Um, but I feel like it's moving, it's moved a lot more towards a welcoming place now where it's actually, you know, not just tolerated, but kind of celebrated. And it's like, it's, it's, it's fine. It's, and it's good. You know, if you're LGBTQ, that's fine. If you're not, that's also fine. Like we have stuff going on here and this is a place where you can be. And, um, and I just, you know, would invite people to try to come if they can make it to any or all of our events.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. I think and also so you two are two members of the pride planning committee. Do you want to mention other folks that are involved or kind of what the planning committee does?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jacqueline is our newest member and then we have a bunch of people returning from last year. So Francis, Jacqueline, Sian, Michael, Merland, Paul is returning from last year. And Joan is exciting because we had Joan on the list, but Joan was completely unable to make it in April. And Joan came in like a roaring race car this week, and she's back, and she's planning stuff, and she's making calendars, and she's reaching out. So I'm very happy to have Joan back. So yeah, we're pretty much a superstar team. Was there anyone I missed, Michael, on the list of names?
[SPEAKER_04]: Now that you actually listed them out, no, that is everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we did actually have a guest from the junior high, I think junior high last year. And she was a great consultant for helping us kind of reach out to the GSA and stuff. And unfortunately, she wasn't able to make it again this year. So we do have Frances reaching out to the GSA to see if they want to plan something. But we don't have a particular, I guess she was kind of like an honorary member, but that's one difference from last year.
[Danielle Balocca]: Awesome. Well, anything else you want to mention before we wrap up?
[SPEAKER_04]: I guess just that I'm excited. I'm excited for the fact that we were actually able to get together and do this a second year and hopefully, you know, I'm excited to be a part of it or even if I'm not in the future, you know, or any of us that it just continues and will, you know, continue to grow and, you know, grow larger visibility for the queer community and You know, I just hope we can make something big and cool out of this over the next five years, the next decade, however long we're able to, you know, just exciting to be exciting to see this happening, you know, growing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's exciting that it's a series now. This is the second one. So now we have something to refer back to, and I think we can just keep growing it and making it better every year. And I think we've already been talking about it, but I think with some of the new businesses that are opening in Medford, we're hoping that there'll be opportunities and that some of these businesses are gonna wanna like, you know, maybe start doing things like that's exciting that there's a drag bingo. And I guess maybe that's not even the first one. And hopefully, there'll be more of those. And maybe there'll be some other drag shows that are happening or other queer nights or events that are happening, you know, on a more regular basis, not just in June.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, there's so many kind of like community events in June that like, you know, we have like Circle the Square, Clippership Day, like that. My hope is that like eventually this is just a normal thing that's in the rotation. Like last week of June, we'd have our pride celebration or like, you know, that it sort of becomes just this like normalized community event that everybody looks forward to. But I think we're on our way there. It sounds like.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, thank you both so much. I can't wait for the events, and I think they're going to be great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you.
[Danielle Balocca]: We're not done yet, folks. We have some more bonus content from Reverend Wendy about her summer program, AM to PM for Medford youth. All right, thanks for joining us today. If you could just introduce yourself with your name, pronouns, and just a bit about who you are.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Great, thank you. Thank you so much for having me on. Again, we did this once before, Danielle my name is Wendy Miller all up on and the pastor of Sanctuary United Church of Christ that partners with the hillside community church over in the hillside neighborhood to make love and justice real in Medford, and I am. she, hers, identified, soul. Is that it for that? Yeah. I've been a pastor in Medford for 10 years now. It's been 10 years. It's the longest I've ever been a pastor in a community. I love Medford. I'm an activist. Again, somebody who cares about making love and justice real and change in things, change in the world. That's a little bit about me.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you, Andy, and I think those themes will come up and what we're gonna talk about today. But first, if you could answer our favorite question. So what is your favorite place to eat in Medford and what do you like to eat there?
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: You know, I'm having a tough time with this question and I even gave it a little thought because I I have a very narrow food place, but I'll name one of my family's favorite places, which is, and actually it might be in Somerville, but we love Ball Square Cafe. Ball Square sits in both communities, so I'll claim it as Medford's. We love Ball Square Cafe as a family, my sons and I. Well, actually, also, you know what? Tasty on the Hill. Tasty on the Hill is one of my favorites, too. And it's a great, inexpensive burger that I love. So I'll claim Tasty on the Hill right now, so.
[Danielle Balocca]: Sounds like you've taken a side in the ball square sound bites.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: I have. I totally have taken a side. Good to know. Mike treats me like royalty when I come in.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. So if you could tell us, I know you're here to promote a program that you're running for the summer for some youth. So if you could tell us a little bit about what that program is.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, thank you so much. And thanks for making space for this, because we really want to let people know, particularly, there's a couple of markets of families that we want to try to get at. I'll say a word about that later. But we have for years held this AM to PM youth community service program, and the AM2PM is such a silly name, but it stands for Working from Morning to Night to Save the World, right? That's what the AM2PM comes from. But we have been operating this for years, and then the pandemic sort of put a hold on it because, you know, gathering and taking kids out into the community to do community service was tough to organize for the last couple of years. But we're back and we're back with a kind of a new vision that we're so excited about. We are holding a high school youth leadership and community service development program for a week where we teach high school youth, not only will they get the 60 hours of community service that they need for graduation, but they'll have the opportunity to become a paid peer mentor for a middle school program that we will then run after the July 4th weekend. So it's an opportunity to both get leadership and life skills, to get some experience in the world serving others, to learn about the systems that are creating the need for volunteerism. So why are people hungry? Why are they homeless? Why is there injustice around race and LBGTQIA issues? Why is the environment crumbling? So we're going to teach them about what's undergirding the need for volunteerism, give them a chance to reflect on it in a circle of peers, but then also give them the kind of leadership and like mental health first aid support. So we're going to give them some skills that they can then become paid stipend mentors to middle schoolers. So it's just a great opportunity. Then the middle school kids will get similar kinds of experiences, a little bit more about the service and the reflection, but still some life skills, you know, CPR and some mini reflection on how to be a good friend of somebody who can help a friend who's in trouble, how to get access to the resources that they need to support each other. So, really just love the way this has unfolded to be sort of a multi-layered You know, you're going to connect not only with each other, but with adults who care for you, with community organizations that are in the business of caring for others. So it's really about this sort of circle of care and connection that we hope, we know, we know will make a difference in kids' lives and give them, empower them to know that they too can make a difference in the world.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I love that. I love this sort of concentric nature of me in my community that has been built into this format. Beautiful. Can you speak to possibly the ideal candidate for this program? Like what folks should apply?
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Right? That's a great way to answer that question. I mean, I think we are looking for high school kids that have a sense of call to this kind of pair of others. Not that they have to have that experience, but that leadership and being a peer being somebody who's going to show up for another would be the ideal high school candidate part of the other, the other piece of the vision that I haven't even talked about yet is that we intend for this to be a year round program so while there'll be a summer camp. aspect to it, we are looking for kids who are willing to be a part of this for the rest of the year, so we'll build in some quarterly opportunities to go out and do something in the community of service. try to get those peer high school peers to stay attached to the middle school kids to help them with their transition into high school those kinds of things so. We are looking for high school kids that have a sense of wanting to make a commitment, but also to invest themselves in their community and each other. In the case of the middle school kids, I think also just being able to make the commitment for a couple of weeks to be a part of it. We are specifically as well, Shelley, looking to reach into the communities that are historically underrepresented, historically harmed by racism and cisgendered, homophobic kinds of things. We really want to try to connect with families that don't have this opportunity, whether that's because of their economic status or they're just our conditions, excuse me, their economic conditions. You know, as I said to you guys when we were gathering, I think there's a lot of families in Medford who already know what's happening for their kids this summer. They have the resources to send their kid to a summer camp, but there are a lot of families that don't. And so we've been really deliberate about hiring leadership. to run the program from communities of color and LBGTQIA community, and those are kids that we really want to offer the scholarship. We have scholarship money. We have money to pay these stipends. We want to give this opportunity to kids that don't typically have access to it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you, Wendy. It sounds incredible. Could you tell us a little bit about how to apply for this program?
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Yes, thank you. So you can go to the Sanctuary UCC website. Right at the top, there's a dropdown that says what's on and you'll see the AM to PM program. But probably if you just Google AM to PM youth, you'll find a link to it. But the web address is sanctuaryucc.org slash AM to PM. And that'll get you right to the page. All the details are there. It'll give you a sense of what the kids would be doing during the weeks that they would be participating. There's a button to apply. And then there's a nice FAQ for moms and dads and other parents to take a look at any questions that they might have. And of course, the program director whose name is Kashana Harling is available as am I and as is Tom Hathaway, my colleague in this work to answer any questions. So the program is listed with a cost, but again, we're offering full pay, partial pay and full scholarship options. We do have the resources to be able to offer it to anybody who's looking to have this experience. Thank you, Wendy.
[Danielle Balocca]: And is there a deadline for applying?
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Well, we currently are listing a June 1st deadline. The program doesn't begin until the last week of June, and so we may end up with a little bit of flexibility about that as we see how the applications come through. So we have 15 slots in each of the opportunities, and so 45 kids will have the chance to do this, and yeah. Well, that sounds great.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Amazing dear young people apply this sounds like an incredible opportunity.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: yeah we're going to have some fun, I mean I mean I didn't say anything about the experiences, but you know, not only will they have a chance to go and meet some unhoused friends, you know who and serve. food and sit and eat with them, but we have a day at the Wright Lock Farm where they'll get a chance to learn about, you know, organic farming and the environment. We usually go out and clean up some invasive species in the river. We will do some work with the NAACP. So really a smattering of experiences potentially a trip into Boston to the African American History Museum in Boston. And then there'll be film and there'll be discussion and there'll be lots of fun too. We'll be sure to have some fun and lots of great food. I mean, I want to go. This sounds awesome. Well, we're out. By the way, we're looking for volunteers. So we got space for volunteers and always, of course, opportunities for people to make donations. So if this charges you up as you've listened to this podcast and you want to help, also that same email, that same address, sanctuaryucc.org slash am2pm. There's a donate button there. You want to volunteer. We're loving, we're looking for people to help out. We have plenty of adults that will support both the emotional well-being as well as the physical experience of moving those kids around and going in different directions.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Awesome. Thank you so much, Reverend Wendy.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Thank you. Thank you for asking and letting me brag a little bit about this amazing vision. We're really excited about it. Thank you and good luck. I hope it goes well. I know it will. Thank you. The big guys in charge of that.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Casherman. Music is made by Hendrik Idonis. We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. You can reach out to us by email at medfordpod at gmail.com, or you can rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites. Never Bites. Good job.