[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have a quorum, unfortunately. So we can't vote on them in it. That's OK. We have a guest here, Kate. You may know her from the Moments in Medford calendar.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Oh, we remember talking to you. Yeah, I was really lucky. We chatted quite a bit.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Welcome. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Kate and I talked a couple of weeks ago. She has some pretty exciting projects in the works. So yeah, if you want to talk a little bit about those, that'd be awesome. Sure.
[Unidentified]: So this year, our group has become fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, so we can operate as a nonprofit. And so we're going ahead with that. And we have several programs that we're running with the Medford Housing Authority. And the one that I'm going to talk about today is called Just Flix Medford. It's what? Just Flix Medford. And this is based off from, well, we are working with David Harris, who created this Just Flix program when he was at the Houston Institute. And he collaborated with Bob Glover, who's an Emmy nominated producer. He's produced things for Sesame Street and a variety of other things. But they have taken, this concept of using social media and smartphones to try to empower communities of color. And so they make three to five minute short films. And this year's cohort, we're working with 12 high school students from Medford that are recruited from the Medford Housing Authority. And so they've been working, doing research for their topic. creating a production plan for the video, and they are going to screen these across a few different sites in Medford. So the project is funded by Mass Humanities in collaboration with the Medford Housing Authority, the library, and the Royal House and Slave Quarters Museum. And so we'll have three separate screenings at each of those individual sites. And then we're working on one final screening at the Chevalier in the fall to winter. And that one we're hoping to invite some of the neighboring communities. So Arlington and Somerville, invite some high school students and the housing authority residents as well. May I ask you quickly, because I'm taking notes. Yeah. All right. I've got Royal House. What are the other two places? At the library. Library. OK. Yeah. And the Medford Housing Authority. Oh, OK. How many documentaries are you doing? So there'll be 12. Oh, wow. Yeah. And we will leave it up to the participants whether they feel comfortable sharing that with the audience. And what is it going to be?
[SPEAKER_01]: So there are social justice videos. And we really leave it up to the participants to decide. Within that framework. Yeah. So they can decide within that framework whether it's something that they've experienced that's negative or something they've experienced that's positive.
[Sheila Ehrens]: And how long is each documentary or film?
[Unidentified]: It's about three to five minutes. OK. Yeah. It's exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so it is very exciting.
[Unidentified]: I think what I've heard is they've had a really great group this year. And I haven't seen the final product, but from Divya Anand, who she And I and Lisa Tonello from the Medford Housing Authority have formed what we call ourselves the Mystic Project. It's our nonprofit. Yeah, Divya is a wonderful person. I did conversations with her. Yeah. Yeah. So she's run this in her college programs. Oh, cool. And so she has experience with that. And the videos that we've seen in there are just really, they're very moving.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Oh, sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we have, you know,
[Unidentified]: Our ask here is to support, one, some of the administrative costs that we're carrying, and then alongside that, just the basics that we need to run the screening. So that's, you know, some stipends for setup and breakdown and promotional material. Is Chevalier gonna donate the space? Yes, we've applied through the city. So we're waiting to hear back.
[Sheila Ehrens]: So the hope would be that... Like a night during the week when they don't have anything else going on.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: So we're waiting to hear back from the city and then we'll be able to... I think we have to wait a month or so before we can show it. So it'd be kind of October, November time frame. That's a good time because people are around before the holidays after school has started. Yeah. And with the shows at the Royal House and the medical, are those be around the same time or those be like a different timeframe? Correct. Yeah, they'll be at a different time. So those will be, we're hoping in late August into September, depending on, I think that late August is a hard time because of vacations. So we initially were planning September. So we'll see. But I think, I think that's that time when the students are coming back into school. And I think the last thing that we will provide will be some framed certificates for the participants. That's great. So we're excited about it. We are looking for funding from other places. We want to try to make it a little bit more of an event and have maybe an outdoor screening. Maybe have like California ice cream or something to make it a little bit fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are they going to shoot the videos just with their iPhones or phones? Yes.
[Unidentified]: Yes. So Bob Glover developed an app. that they can use, they can do everything with the phone. So they can, I think they take it to the computer that they film everything, and then they can convert it on to the computer and do all the editing there. And Bob Glover is the person who started just quick. David Harris. He lives in, he's from West Medford. He's retired now from Harvard, but he was a law professor. at Harvard, and this is where he created this program. And he's run this in other cities across the country. But this will be the first for Medford. I'm not sure if it's the first for Massachusetts. Why did he wait so long to bring it here? Did he reach out to you? Like, how did you connect with him? Well, Divya. Oh, Divya. Yeah. knows him, and then she had used this in her classroom. That's great. So how much would you like us to help you with? Oh, yes. To cover kind of those administrative costs and the basics, $2,000 would be great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I think it sounds like an awesome program. And just to see what the students come up with will be amazing.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, yeah. I think it will give us a completely different point of view of what's happening in Bedford and how others are experiencing it. So I think it'll be a group that doesn't have the opportunity to have a voice and to hear what's coming out of there. Are these all kids of color? I think it's predominantly kids of color. And then I think there may be a couple that are from the Medford Housing Authority, but are not. That may not be of color. Was it kind of self-selected, like the Medford Housing Authority put out this information that we're looking for people with my high school. So we did a little campaign and we hosted an event to kind of advertise and allow participants or prospective participants to kind of meet Bob and find out what it was about. And we have been working with one of the residents who's a mother and she's helped kind of be the mother hen and help bring the kids in and kind of help keep them organized and keep them informed of all the feeding. And so that's been really great. And so while we were at this event, we were just collecting names of some of the residents that were interested. And you had 12 sign up, or did you have even more than 12 sign up? We had 12 sign up. And I think that we had cut it off around there. Yeah, I remember at the Medford Moments event, there was like a little clip, and it was really cool what they were able to do. It was really, it was awesome. I wanted to go to that, sorry I missed it. Oh yeah, no, we need to, we also need to. Reach out, get our information out.
[Sheila Ehrens]: I would have definitely gone, but I had plans that night.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. So that's one thing that we were working on once we have wrangled some things. And we hope to hire some additional help so that we can get on top of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Awesome. We unfortunately can't vote on it today, because we don't have a quorum. Um, and how we can do it or no, we can vote without you. Um, probably next meeting we could do that. I'll make sure that we have enough people. Is that okay?
[Unidentified]: That's fine. Okay. As long as you need me to come back and explain, or will your notes be sufficient? Yeah, I hope so. As long as that's how it works. Yeah, that's fine. I think collectively we can all explain it. Yeah, you're not asking for a lot of money. No, it's like, you're asking for like, 200,000 dollars. I'm sure you would use it wise. Yeah, but we're excited. I think and hopefully this will be the person that we're planning for next year is to be an intergenerational school through, you know, you know, the seniors. Is this your material? I did bring some. This kind of is just what we basically outlined for our entire budget for the three events, excluding the Chevalier. But if this would be helpful. Yeah, it would be great. It would be helpful if I know. Yeah, sure. But yeah, all the very end is my request for the MAC. Everything else is just whatever else we're planning. Well, informally. Thank you. Right.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Hopefully you can come to our end of the year whenever we're doing our event.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it'll probably be around the same time, maybe a little earlier. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Well, if we get this, that's right. If I'm invited, I will come.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are very excited to get the support. It's a lot to have.
[Unidentified]: to have the backing of them. Yeah. And you always do such great projects. Yeah, I was just going to say that you do incredible work. So thank you.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Oh, thank you.
[Unidentified]: We hope we can continue that. And yeah, we're excited. This is our first year as this nonprofit. So hopefully, we can expand. It's so cool. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I have enough money to give for lighting.
[SPEAKER_01]: such an incredible project. I know. When she first told me about it, I was like, oh, this is amazing. And I think it'll be eye-opening for a lot of residents, too.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. The little video that they showed at the event was really cool. It was really well done. I don't know if it was David or Rob that spoke about it, but it was really cool and very powerful. I really liked it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, kids are super creative. Oh, they are.
[Unidentified]: I feel like people give them credit and then the high school students come up with these like amazing, super impressive. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, next on the agenda is blog updates. It's kind of on me because I haven't sent out the newsletter yet. I will be sure to do that.
[Unidentified]: The only update I have about that is I am So I talked to Laurel from the Art Collaborative Medford about the Art Collaborative Center opening, which they're going to target October. So I'm going to talk to the muralist, Hilary. She has this really cool, inclusive, engaging mural at the front.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Which one did they decide on?
[Unidentified]: I don't know her design, but Laurel was saying it's really cool. It's very warm. if you, she was kind of analyzing it and was, so I didn't really know conceptually what it looks like. So I talked to her and then I'm going to talk to Hillary and I figured we can post that in tandem with the release so that like more people know about it. So they don't know a date yet. So they're still trying to figure all that out. But once we have a firm date, then I can, we can probably plan to post that in late September, early October. Because they posted something for us to vote. I don't know if you saw that. Was that them? Yeah, that was them, yeah, to vote on the murals. Yeah, I just started following Hilary on Instagram. Oh, I should follow her. Yeah, she's really cool. Yeah, I'm really excited to talk to her. I've reached out to a few others, didn't really get a response back. So I'm going to try some other people, too. OK. And I know you have a bunch on there already. Yeah, I think there's maybe two or three more in the queue Do you have photos for all of those? For the ones that I submitted, yes. But if it's collaborative, I will probably go over there and see if there's any renderings that they have. Yeah. They're supposed to get into the building next month or in July? I think so, yeah. That's what she was saying. But then they have a lot of build-up to do. Well, build-up, but because it's kind of built out, I guess. Yeah, there's going to be like studios and individual spaces. So I'm so excited. It occurred to me. I don't know. It may not be. I think the event at Real Gusto last year was great. It was a great spot. But I was wondering, like Laurel was saying the other night, that they hope to have events there too. You know, general public can rent out space, but I would think that they would give the Arts Council. ideal to say the least, but you know, it could be mutual, I don't know, promotion or something, you know. I just saw, it was, I saw the Lowell Cultural Council had this event at the Whistler House Museum, and I saw photos of that online, and it was like, there were a lot of people apparently, you know, they have this whole, I've been to a lot of things there, and they have this whole large gallery that can hold quite a few people and it looked like it was full. So I was thinking, hmm, maybe a larger space with a little different, not that that wasn't good. I thought that was really good and this may not be, but I just thought maybe to float it around as a possibility.
[Sheila Ehrens]: The only issue with that is why we decided to do it with real gusto is hands on board to do everything because it's very labor intensive to do an event, you know, other places.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bringing the food, you know, that's my only... And just them not knowing when they're actually going to be open. I mean, I guess maybe we could get in there before. It just scares me a little bit if they're not ready. And if we have a date set and they're like, oh, we're not ready. Yeah, no.
[Unidentified]: I think maybe next year. Yeah, I could certainly reach out to Laurel and say, let's see if it's a week.
[Sheila Ehrens]: And maybe next year, we'll have more people on board, hands on deck that are really willing to chip in and do the work.
[Unidentified]: So you know, you've done events before, so you know. Way too many, but yeah. Yeah. And even some personal ones. I had a big birthday party a couple years ago, and I had to do all the rents a little bit. But it worked out.
[SPEAKER_01]: actually if you let's just talk about the reception now anyway okay that's on the list anything else no other updates from the blog I mean that's great but nothing from Anita yeah so I mean I like the idea of having it a real Italian gusto again just because I thought it did go really well and now we know like know, you know who to talk to.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah, I would be happy to do, you know, do all the logistics. You know, I saved all the information about what we were doing. And they were great.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, they were fantastic. Yeah, I loved the flow of it. I thought it went well because there was like the section where you could like get the pizza and the drinks and there's like if you wanted to like take a moment to yourself, you go eat. There's also like that outer space, so I think the flow worked well and it was really good to be able to like mingle there easily yeah yeah it was good that that whole back area was was ours yeah and i think more people could have fit there too oh yeah and obviously it was a bigger turnout than i thought i thought it was great i thought the vibe was great and it was nice that there were tables so you could sit down and chat to people and eat It was definitely very refreshing conversation, because I feel like everyone there is just so passionate about their different projects, and they're there about these projects, and they're just so excited to talk about them. It was just very cool. It was a really great time. And then having the mayor show up. Yeah, that was great. It really couldn't have been better. And some council people. Yeah, Kit and Justin were there, and Rick.
[Sheila Ehrens]: So I don't know if it being at a restaurant and offering pizza, I mean, we could do the same thing if the collaborative is open, but then it's renting tables and, you know, it's more expensive too.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, more logistics, which is always more of a pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are people thinking for timing? When did we do it last year again?
[Unidentified]: I think it was like mid-October. I feel like it was. I plan to go back into my email. And then a reception for all the grantees. Oh, gosh. And isn't there like a patio in the back that was closed? But there might have been a little balcony. I was saying, like, if there is more of a space, we could do it earlier in the year. I can't remember. I'd have the emails. I'd save them. So I don't know if I can pull it up on my phone.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Let's see if it'll come up on my phone. Sometimes it won't. I have it in a folder on my computer.
[Unidentified]: We don't have it. Did you get my email? Well, when you do, use it. It was in November, you said?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[Unidentified]: I think that's fine. Or was there a reason you wanted to do it earlier? No. Was it early to be light out later or only thing to note with that week there is an election in November so that week it might be harder to get like City Council and the mayor You would know that It's been good yeah I'll pull papers next month. Oh, yeah. So. Oh, yeah, that's working on like my campaign literature and great administrative stuff, so cool. Yeah.
[Sheila Ehrens]: So I'm not loving who's really great guy is running.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, just good.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. Yeah. The Charter Review Committee is really great. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So who's on the city council right now? I know like Justin, Kit, Zach, Nicole. Who's been there?
[Unidentified]: Scarpelli and Adam, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Rick's okay.
[Unidentified]: I mean, I like Rick.
[Sheila Ehrens]: but he can, you know, I'm getting a little annoyed with, you know, his campaign and how he's, you know, a lot of it's bullshit.
[Unidentified]: It's true.
[Sheila Ehrens]: You know, politicians, they, you know, sort of twist things to make them look good.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right. So October. Should we aim, should I just pick like a mid-October date that we can aim for?
[Unidentified]: We could even do it like on a Thursday in place of like a meeting. Yeah. Like a week when we wouldn't have a meeting, but like a Thursday might be a good time.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Well, we may want to have a meeting because we may want to talk about the details of things, you know. That's true. So the meeting would be the 19th. Maybe the beginning of October might be better. I don't know. 26, as far as being close to Halloween, I don't know about that. I don't know. What do you guys think?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, like the week of the 2nd or the week of the 9th? Yeah. I feel like a Monday's probably not the best.
[Sheila Ehrens]: I think Thursday worked out. People like to go out toward the end of the week. So maybe the 12th? Yeah, the 12th would be good. Oh, we could do it the 19th and have our meeting on the 12th to switch it around.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Sheila Ehrens]: I mean, I don't know that we'll, you know, need to, but we may want to talk about some, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tie up some loose ends. Yeah.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do we want to plan for that?
[Unidentified]: So should we get some swag for that? And then we can either wear it or show it, even if it's like a sticker, a button, and then we can have it on us or give out some. I want them. I want to get dressed. I'm not going to wear a Medford t-shirt.
[Sheila Ehrens]: I'm sorry.
[Unidentified]: It would be like a pin, or like a sticker, or like something that people can grab. Tattoo. So, we're saying definitely it'd be the 19th? I'm just saying selfishly because we're going to be away a little bit in October. It's not in Italy or anything. Yeah. So, will you be able to come on the 19th or the 12th? Yes, if I know when it's in. We won't be away then. Stuff we can plan. We're far out. Good. What little travel we got there. So many trips.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dwayne, will the 19th of October work for you for the grantee reception?
[SPEAKER_05]: I should. I don't have any plans up today, so.
[Sheila Ehrens]: And we'll make sure that you have the right time, Dwayne, so you don't come after the events all over, because we'd love to see your face there.
[SPEAKER_05]: For sure.
[Sheila Ehrens]: You know I'm just teasing you, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Okay. But we felt bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: What time do we have last year?
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah, yeah, I think that we're good because people could come right from work.
[Unidentified]: Or was it 630? I believe it was at 6. Okay, so let's do that. I'm just going to invite everyone now. Yeah, look at my calendar. have an even bigger turnout. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I feel like we're more on the ball this year.
[Unidentified]: We should also try and like get photos at some of these events too. I think that'd be nice. I think Anita took some. Yeah, we were a bunch on the website or I don't know. I saw them. I saw a ton of photos. Yeah, she was great. And do we have a team photo?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we have them with all of us.
[Unidentified]: That could be fun to put on the website too. It's a good idea. It doesn't have to be immediate, but like If we all go to Fortress or something like that, we can get it out in the evening.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah, I was thinking our Forge Day is the weekend either.
[Unidentified]: Oh, the Sunday after Fortress. Yes, I know. It's the alternate date for PorchFest. I'll come to our thing for like an hour, but I think, you know, after doing the PorchFest, it's like... Too much music for us? No, and also the porch, the music is so freaking loud. Does anyone know Like, I don't know who's planning Port's Fest. I would love to see, like, kind of a map, like, Somerville does of where the- That would be helpful. I'm sure that they would have to do that. They might have. I think they did. They would have to do that. How would you find the band? Yeah, I follow a couple of people, a couple of friends who are artists. I don't, like, go on all the time.
[Sheila Ehrens]: But they would have to do that.
[Unidentified]: I think they must. Yeah, they have a website somewhere.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Did you go to Somerville for Christmas this year? No, I was home for Mother's Day. Oh, did you bring away to Vermont? Oh, that's nice. I'm sure you folks appreciate it. Yeah, I sent my grandma too. This is your other grandma? Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, there's no map yet on the... Interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you know what? I think they're still taking They probably haven't finalized it yet. I think they finalized it on Sunday or something.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, even Somerville does it late in the game. I don't care, as long as I can know a little bit in advance to see where I want to go, because I'm not going to. What's the date of it? 3rd, June 3rd. 12th Saturday.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah, I really want to go in and know where it is. I would like research all the bands and write everything down where I want it to go.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I just, you know, there are, If there's a cluster in an area, I'm going to, I know I'm going to do that rather than go here and there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got it. It's fun to just kind of like wander around.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. I used to like that about the West Medford Open Studios too when they had it. Oh, I'm so excited for that. Well, it's in Duggar Park. I kind of like it. It's nice that way, but I love doing all the houses and walking down the street. Yeah, that is true. There'd be bands playing in some people's driveways and stuff. Yeah, that is true. Yeah. In your name, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, this is nice to a plug for another June event. There's the pride flag raising ceremony in June 1st and I'm going to be speaking at that. People are available. They want to come. It's at City Hall at 4 PM on the 1st. I've got it in my calendar. But when I was wondering, what is the. the agenda. Do you know, like, when you're going to be speaking? Yeah, so it's going to start at four. There's going to be some background music. I'm going to do, like, an opening welcome. Thanks so much for coming. We're going to have a couple of performers. Terry Carter is going to be there. He's going to say something. And then I think we'll have a few other people, and I'll kind of be emceeing in between. So it should be pretty cool. Is that City Hall? City Hall, yeah. Lots of things going on, including you speaking at the beginning. I think, I feel like I would say maybe the first or second thing. I need to ask the Pride Planning Committee on that. I don't know the hard agenda, but I think it's going to be like, maybe a performer, I say something, a few more performers and raise it. And then there's also an interfaith event at the church over here that night at 7. lots of stuff on the first.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever happened with the poet laureate? Kate and Jacqueline and I met with Lisa Koliani and Steve Yerke actually yesterday. There were four applicants. We kind of discussed who we thought was good, so we made a few cuts. So moving forward with two, they are going to record themselves and then we're going to reconvene and decide on the final.
[Unidentified]: What did you think? I guess there were two really good candidates. Oh great, great, great. Yeah, you know how at one point Steve suggested maybe we could Because we really, all of us liked the two of them very much. Yeah. And. Oh, did you go? You went?
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Well, it was a Zoom meeting. Oh, okay. And we also went to Cachet's meeting the night before. Oh, I wish I would have known. I wish I would have known about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: The poet Gloria? Yeah. Yeah. I just, she wanted to keep it a small number, but it's on zoom.
[Unidentified]: It was on zoom, right? But we still were all, yeah, no, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have, but anyways, he had had from the mayor's office had said, well, you know, since we are, we both are. we all liked the two candidates very much, like our second choice, we're very close to first. It was like maybe we could choose one for this period and then say who the next one was going to be. At first I thought it sounds kind of good, you know, it was like I can feel better that way, but I was thinking later I don't like that idea because that would discourage other people from applying.
[Sheila Ehrens]: And he meant it in a good way.
[Unidentified]: It was just that we don't want to say no to either one of these people. How was the Cache meeting, by the way? Good. Awesome. Yeah, it was a very fun energy. Yeah. It was just so, such like a little sprite. Yeah. I don't know her at all, but had you met June? No, and all of the people that spoke were just very, like, fun, and they were talking about finances, and then, like, people just kept popping up, being like, let me tell you about my organization. It was just, like, a very fun atmosphere. Oh, great. Yeah. Yeah, and it was a nice setting at the rural house, which I said, I'm not, you don't need to do my list. Oh, I'd love to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was talking to the guy who works there works there and what's his name who runs it. I'm not sure. I don't know if he was the person who runs it, but he works there.
[Unidentified]: He said we could ask him to do like our own private tour.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tom. Oh, that's cool. I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because he said sometimes if you like just go there, there's a massive.
[Unidentified]: Tom Lincoln is the Brooks Estate guy.
[Sheila Ehrens]: No, actually, I reached out to him for royal house for an event there.
[Unidentified]: Okay, maybe he's doing both because he was very involved in a lot of things. Yeah. And it was Grace Law, Simmons was the person who spoke about the royal house. Yeah, yeah. And there was a woman at our event on November 3rd who is, I don't know, she's the executive director. I mean she's like up there with the royal house. Yeah. She came to our event. I remember she was there with Terry Carter. Oh, I didn't realize that she was the director. Yeah, I remember Terry coming with another woman. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think they said they do tours every Saturday.
[Unidentified]: Oh, yeah, Saturdays and Sundays. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll send out a doodle for that.
[Unidentified]: There's a lot going on.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
[Unidentified]: There really is. Spring is like, yeah, there's so much stuff. The guy who writes the Arts Across Medford calendar said that like April was like the biggest month in terms of like how many events were going on. And I think the biggest night was like five events around the city, which is really cool. Yeah. It's really exciting. And there's going to be a lot of musical performances. Yeah. There's a ton of the Condon show. I guess there's going to be Friday night concerts in Medford Square. They're going to do the Friday night concerts at that little plaza.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah. Those were so wonderful. Yeah. I highly recommend it. We went to several. And you can go to the Tenoche and get some food.
[Unidentified]: It's really a nice, nice evening. Yeah, let me check that out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was talking to Heather Meeker Green, who helps with the farmers market. And she was saying that, you know how they have like musical acts there, obviously. They're all going to be totally different. And there's no repeats. There's like that many people who are interested.
[Unidentified]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: She also said they got a cheese bender for this year. I'm stoked. I know Meredith is going to be very disappointed to have a cheese bender. So what about swag? What about swag? Do we decide on that? I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking in my notes. No, no, no. That's all right. I was looking for the real politics. I was like, I forgot we talked about swag. So let me pull up Marge's email. Marge did do some research. She said she's in touch with a Medford printer on Mystic app, which I think it's nice. I wasn't even thinking of using some local. It didn't even cross my mind, to be honest with you. But I think that's a good idea. It's probably a little more expensive, but who cares, right? He needs the design and the type of T-shirt. I asked for general pricing for short-sleeved crew neck shirts, but he didn't respond with a price. So I think we need to kind of finalize what we want the shirt to look like maybe before we get back. So we'll send that to him, and then he can kind of give us an estimate.
[Unidentified]: Can we do some scoop neck? Or do you want to just do all crew neck?
[SPEAKER_01]: I like a suit neck. Usually, printers have only certain kinds of t-shirts.
[Unidentified]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know. Let me look into that.
[Unidentified]: Would you want to do a front and a back, or just a front? I was very sketchily working on some ideas. Ooh. Oh, right, with all your graphic design background. Yeah. What are you thinking? big logo, small logo? I like a big logo.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Oh, I was going to say, I like a small logo. What I was suggesting is that we do the logo on the front without Medford Arts Council, without the writing, and then on the back, do Medford Arts Council, maybe a small logo underneath it. It's kind of nice. She did a mock-up, maybe you can show that to them, with just the logo on the front. It's kind of cool. without saying Medford Arts Council.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I guess it was a logo without words. This is what I put together. I love that color. Oh, that's so cool. I like it with just the logo on the front. I think it looks really cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Duane, let me share my screen so you can see.
[Sheila Ehrens]: What do you think? Just having a logo without the writing? On the front, yeah.
[Unidentified]: I like that. Yeah, it's a cool graphic, too.
[Sheila Ehrens]: um part of me also wouldn't mind having like have it say something like support local artists you know on the back yeah yeah i think that's oops sorry or something even more creative about art something you know art is the lifeblood of us no you know what art is you know the soul art is soul or something maybe a little more poetic than that
[Unidentified]: You can come up. We'll ask the poet laureate, but something that's a little poetic that really brings home. Yeah. I agree with that. I know I'm not going to come up with it, but I like the idea of it. I might come up with it. Just Google something. You get a moment of inspiration.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it happens. Can you see my screen?
[Sheila Ehrens]: Inspiration.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Hard as anything you can get away with. What do you think about that? Sure.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think the logo should be smaller. But other than that, I like it.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK. I'm with you, Joanne. I could do, why don't I do a couple of different mock-ups and then. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. I'm like, my thing is I'm a minimalist when it comes to like logos and stuff. But one thing I thought when you guys were talking about it was just the logo should definitely be on there. So that's all. I like the color, obviously. That's my work color.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah, I love the color too, Dwayne.
[Unidentified]: I love that color blue. It's a beautiful color. Hopefully we can get something that's close to that. Oh, that's right. This is kind of a tangent, but have you ever heard of the game Cues and Cues? No. It's a color-based game. And so you get to come up with like fun colors, not just like green, it's like emerald or forest. And so like the person will describe the color using a word and then everyone has to put like a marker on where they think it is. And then you see like, oh, it's actually a shade darker than forest green. It's really, it's really fun games. You get to be creative. Yeah. It's good with a group of people. You could also play with two people.
[SPEAKER_01]: I used to play this game where it was like, it would have, it was like a giant gradient kind of, and then you would have to put the squares in like the right spot to make it complete. Cool. It was very like meditative.
[Unidentified]: Are we going to do stickers?
[SPEAKER_05]: Are we getting stickers now? Or white shirts or like gray shirts or just teal colored shirts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know. What do you think, Dwayne?
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I just think the teal color would be more expensive, I would assume, versus the gray, white, or blacks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe. It might not be.
[SPEAKER_05]: True. I'm just putting that out there, I guess.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. No, it's a good point.
[SPEAKER_05]: But yeah, I like it. And I'm looking forward to see the other designs, if you will, my other designs as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: I'll put some together. I love this. I don't know if this would be offensive to people. Some people aren't as a spiritual experience as it is, but everything is offensive to everybody. And then yeah, I think we should definitely get stickers. Um?
[SPEAKER_01]: I've ordered stickers before. I can probably just look into that. There's a place called Sticker Mule that I've ordered.
[Unidentified]: I think they'll be great whenever we are somewhere to have them like out on a table.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like at the Mystic River Celebration, Chuck's Community Day.
[Unidentified]: just hand them out. Yeah. There is, um, a person I work with on the pride planning committee that makes stickers and I could see it could be open to, like, if we'd want to partner with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Keep it local.
[SPEAKER_01]: For sure. Yeah, definitely.
[Unidentified]: She makes stickers, huh?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Like different stickers and buttons and they have like different, like bending opportunities. So they go all over the table. Triangle manner.
[SPEAKER_05]: I also live near like a sticker company like thing, but I live near Somerville. So if that's not Medford. So I guess if your thing falls through, let me know.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are not giving any money to Somerville. What's the name of the company, Dwayne?
[SPEAKER_05]: I think they're called like Ville Shoppe. V-I-L-L-E. They're like right on. Oh, is that the one by... Like Dunkin' Donuts and CVS.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it's like a small boutique at like the... Whitehorse Tavern, what?
[Unidentified]: Yeah. Yeah. And now it's really like the condos. It's like Trump Field, you go up the street, and then we're like in between squares, and it's like that little, trying to kind of, yes, like ribbon. What is the new place that's that giant place? Like, do they have sushi, have something else?
[SPEAKER_05]: It's called Broadway.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. What's that? Have you been doing?
[SPEAKER_05]: Never, but I walk by it every day. It looks nice. I'm going to try to go.
[Sheila Ehrens]: I don't think it's, depending on what you like for food, I think it's very sort of, I think it's more Italian and not, you know, good Italian, more like,
[Unidentified]: Yeah, you know, I was just going to be like, uh... Have you been to the Ford yet? I've been to the Ford. Do you like it? Would you recommend? Um, it was a pleasant place. I liked the way it looked. Um, the food was okay. I'd give it an okay. It wasn't terrible. I would go again. It was, you know, pleasant. They were having music that night, so it was getting really crowded. Um, I would, yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say no, but I wasn't overwhelmed. Whatever I thought, there was a guy at the next table, this is the best whatever it was I've ever had, and I was thinking, you're like, that's the best I've ever had. Yeah, it is, and they're opening up, the owner of that is opening up a pub right two doors down from where the, what is it, supposed to be, Well, it turned out anyway, they are opening up supposedly for the last three years, a restaurant right on Salem Street. And this is going to be two doors down. There's going to be an Irish pub there by the door. So I'll be happy. But I don't care what their food is like. There'll be somewhere to go like after going somewhere in the square. Yeah, everything closes early.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. Well, it's a little different. Not Colleen's. Carol's is no deep cuts. Yeah, it opens Saturday.
[Unidentified]: But Carol's is the vault now, where Salvatore's used to be. That's the owner of Carol's opened this place, the vault. I had no idea what it was like. My neighbor went, she said, no, it's about the same. She said it's pretty much the same menu. It's sort of generic.
[SPEAKER_05]: What's the tea brand?
[Unidentified]: Huh?
[SPEAKER_05]: rebrand, I mean, just change the name of the building.
[Unidentified]: One of my neighbors is in the know about this. That's what my neighbor told me and had leased it to Salvatore. I was wondering why they closed, but it wasn't, I guess, that they weren't doing the business. He, I guess, they moved there from the other place. Yeah. anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want to look at any other swag ideas? I think we talked about like a tote bag last time. Did you like that idea?
[Unidentified]: I did like that idea. What about like, I know like my husband likes baseball caps.
[SPEAKER_01]: We always get one
[Unidentified]: Like if we're at an art museum, for example, or the Vineyard Museum had a really nice logo and he got a hat. They don't have it anymore. They don't have hats anymore. But like Portland Museum of Art, he's got, you know, I'm not into baseball caps, so for people who are, a nice logo looks good. I like the fitted ones.
[SPEAKER_05]: What about a keychain thingy, Nicole, again? That the long thing that you're all good. What was that, Dwayne? The key chain thing that goes around your neck.
[Maria D'Orsi]: I think I would just call it right now. I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sorry. I'm thinking very small things. I don't know how grainy you want to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it'd be nice to, like you were saying, like have handouts when we're on these events and stuff.
[Sheila Ehrens]: I think it's a good idea. I mean, I think it depends on how much money we want to spend. So are the T-shirts, are we going to be giving them away or selling them?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I think we're just going to have the T-shirts for ourselves.
[Unidentified]: Oh, for ourselves. I think so.
[SPEAKER_01]: At least for now. And if people are like, I want one, then maybe we can order a T-shirt.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, that's what I'm kind of thinking, too. We can start somewhere. Yeah, if we got a big order, we'd save money-ish on the amortized per shirt or something, but we don't need to get a big order of anything. We can just do two things now. they catch on in their hot items, then we just, you know, we meet. Everyone needs to make it exclusive. Yeah. T-shirts are flying off the shelves. I mean, we meet every month. We could vote on it again. We're going to get this now. I think stickers are really inexpensive, you know, handout at our event.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah. You know, I don't know, like refrigerator magnets, but I think something like, you know, I'm just thinking pencils, but like, I don't know, it'd be cool if you could
[Maria D'Orsi]: pencil. Actually, I went to an arts festival and someone had their, like an open studios and it was like a paintbrush shaped pen. So cool. It was like, it had like the, you know, the brush part and then their name was on the It was really memorable. I still have it, yeah. Really good idea.
[Unidentified]: Well, that could be next month's slide.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Yeah. I mean, what's our budget? What do we want to spend on this?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think we have We have around $1,800 to spend on stuff for like ourselves. But we need to keep in mind that that also needs to cover the grantee reception. Right, that's what it's going to pay. Which I think ended up being like... I think it was only like $300.
[Unidentified]: I think it was at most including to like $400. Yeah, that was good value.
[Sheila Ehrens]: And I do wonder, I know I've gotten pushback about this, whether we can sort of pare down the pieces a little bit.
[Unidentified]: The next day, I know, I know we've gotten pushed back. I mean, I'm just, I was pushing back. I don't know. I think you are pushing back too. The wine was included too, right? No, no, no. Was we got our own? They didn't have like, we paid for our own drinks.
[Sheila Ehrens]: No.
[Unidentified]: Did we? Oh, okay. Well, that's reasonable. That's fine. I was going to say, I was trying to think, was it lined up up? No. Okay. No. That's yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so things to look into. Do you mind reaching out to that person? And then Dwayne, do you want to go to that place in Somerville to see if you can get like a quote or anything?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I can do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Awesome, thank you. And I will work on the t-shirt design.
[Sheila Ehrens]: We'd love to see your smiling face in person one of these days at our meeting.
[SPEAKER_05]: I can make, okay.
[Maria D'Orsi]: No pressure.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll get there. I just feel like I'm always busy on Thursdays. My computer opening and log on. But yeah, I definitely need to make an effort to go out. So I definitely will.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, we would love to see you. I said no pressure, but we would love to see you.
[SPEAKER_05]: For sure. No, my therapist would definitely agree with you.
[Unidentified]: We were just talking about anxiety. Welcome to the group. I'm very open about
[SPEAKER_05]: like mental health nowadays, well, past couple of years, kind of get more into it. So I'm definitely for it. But yeah, I leave my computer. And like.
[Sheila Ehrens]: And you know, not to be sexist, but a lot of men don't want to go to therapy. So good for you.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's not even a sexist thing. It's more like a cultural thing. Like a lot of like West Indians, like my brother just started doing therapy. And then my other brother, because he did it, he was doing therapy.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I think it's important. I mean, I've had a therapist for like 10 years and it's really helpful. I forced my mom into therapy too. I strongly suggested it.
[Unidentified]: I wish mine would've gone. Because she needed it in her body, right? Is that what you're telling me? or the trauma I caused. It's those expensive dinners. That's right. Very traumatic.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right. The last thing we had on the list was to vote on the funding for Kate Godden, but we can't do that.
[Unidentified]: And I haven't put a lot of this stuff in the notes. That's fine. You've got time. I mean, the important stuff. There's none of the therapy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we'll do that next meeting. Yeah. All right. I think anyone have anything else.
[Unidentified]: I haven't heard from Laura.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope everything's fine. Oh, yeah.
[Unidentified]: We shouldn't be Yeah I don't know. I'm a flowery person.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I think flowers was one of my first thoughts. Oh, have you guys been to Nellie's Wildflower in Davis Square?
[Unidentified]: Yes, that's beautiful. Yeah, it's I don't know it. Well, you know, there's another garden. Yes, and road and road. Yes, that's a local method. And she's a lovely person. I've sent people flowers. Or do we want to get something for the baby? I don't know. Just, you know. Well, we can think about it. Gardening road. Gardening road, alternatives, and something. Yeah. What do people think? Flowers more than a gift for the baby? Flowers are expensive. I was just thinking of something for a flower. Yeah. Or like a little kid's book. Yeah, like about murder or something. Yeah, a book about art that she could read to her baby.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Yeah, a little book. I know, new parents love books. What did I just read? I just saw something really cool about a children's book.
[Sheila Ehrens]: Did I save it?
[Maria D'Orsi]: There's so much going on. Oh, the bear and the butterfly. This was actually more of a spiritual book. The bear and the butterfly, Little Ponderings. I don't know where it's from. Yeah, we're going to be there with the library. Friends of the library.
[Unidentified]: And she's having a chat with a girl.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Yeah, we're going to have a table. It's going to be a girl. Some volunteers.
[Unidentified]: Someone from the directors of the library. What was the person's name? Leilani. Leilani, yes. And she was there with other women who worked with tall, with very short hair. Oh, Sarah? Sarah. Did you volunteer last weekend for the sale?
[Maria D'Orsi]: I made bananas.
[Unidentified]: Oh, they're so good. I paid the sale on Friday night for that. They don't have a website. I've been wanting to do that for a while. I only got six.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Are you going to the party to volunteer tomorrow?
[Unidentified]: I'll be there. I'm not going to wait for that. Yeah, that'll be comes out and go up to the bar. Can you bring it? in between courses you have to bust your table. Kate, how was your Thai food last night? Great.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was good. I still have some.
[Unidentified]: I like it. Yeah, but I'm not sure. My wife and I love Thai food. We all are. It's important to us. We're always dressing your own food. That way we can keep the cost down. Sugar and spice. Sugar and spice. Okay. That's what that place has been recommended to me. I would recommend doing it in person because look, it's a woman. Take out their adult. So, I don't know how, but it's good. Well, Newer, we have been in a couple of years, but we can't really spend $1,000 for dinner. And so we got together one time last year when they were homebrewing, and they liked this place, too. But I'm not a judge. I like what they have. But I was just reading today, somebody recommended showing you guys.
[Maria D'Orsi]: I love these racks. I wanted to try that one.
[Unidentified]: You have to try that one, Bernie. Yeah. He's kind of content. You always get to have Ty. You always get the same thing, you know? So he's fine. But I like to try different stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And everyone had to evacuate and they were like, you just need to leave. Like, and then there was a cart full of stuff. And then we ended up having to go to the grocery store and we were like, almost done. Yeah, seriously. So I talked to a couple of different people. Thank you very much. Oh, I'm sorry, Dwayne. Dwayne, we're not, it's my fault. We've been shooting a shit with Meredith, I'm sorry. Bye Dwayne, take care. Bye.