ähts: The Boston Arts Festival

The Mayor’s Office of Arts + Culture presents the 11th annual “ähts: The Boston Arts Festival,” showcasing diverse performing arts, educational and interactive art activities, cutting-edge temporary public art, and more than 45 juried local artists selling their work.

“ähts: the Boston Arts Festival” will be held at Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park in the North End on Saturday, August 30th and Sunday, August 31st from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. both days.

“ähts: The Boston Arts Festival” is presented in partnership with State Street.

Performance highlights will include:

Saturday, August 30th:

12:00 - 12:45: TBA

1:00 - 1:45 City Stage Co.

2:00 - 2:45: Origination

OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center’s (http://www.originationinc.org/) four professional youth dance companies—NIA Dance Troupe, Girlz of IMANI, IMANI Jr and Aleye Boyz Troupe—will present a mix of dance styles from African to Modern Contemporary to Hip Hop with a twist of audience participation.

3:00 - 3:45: Los Rumberso de Boston

The trio of Mexican Bostonians won a 2013 Boston Music Award for “Best International Artist.” Guitarists Lito de la Isla and Angel Cespedes and percussionist Paul Sefchovich combine a host of Latin influences with traditional styles in blues, flamenco, rock, dance, funk and reggae. A truly global act, they’ve performed in Mexico, the U.S., Latvia, Russia, and Spain, and have shared a stage with Ziggy Marley.

4:00 - 4:45 J Hoard

5:00 - 5:45 Thalia Zedek Band

6:00 - 6:45 Nick Flynn

Poet and author Nick Flynn (http://nickflynn.org/) will recite his poetry.

7:00 - 8:00 Animal Hospital Ensemble

The Animal Hospital Ensemble (http://animalhospitalmusic.com/), with 20 musicians surrounding the audience with experimental music.

Sunday, August 31st:

12:00 -12:45 Cornell Coley

http://www.afrolatin.net/

1 :00 - 1:45 City Stage Co.

2:00 - 2:45 Grey Season

Grey Season is a 5 piece folk-rock band based out of Boston, MA. The members met in 2011 and began crafting their music by busking on the streets of Boston and Cambridge, learning how to please and cultivate an audience in the process.

3:00 - 3:45 Isis Lune

4:00 - 4:45 IntaAfrika

5:00 - 7:00 The Moth

The storytelling program, The Moth (http://themoth.org/) featuring true stories told live to be recorded for future use on NPR.

Public art events will run from 12 noon to 6 p.m. both days:

• The ear1 project (http://brackmorrow.org/), which challenges viewers to explore ways to perceive the environment in alternative ways through music, technology, and artwork.

• A miniature contemporary art museum installation by artist Pat Falco (http://www.illfalco.com/) exhibiting the work of over 25 local artists.

• Water Graffiti for Peace with artists Shaw Pong Liu (http://www.shawpong.com/), Mike Mei (http://wahar-art.com/about_the_artist), and teen artist assistants will offer a guided public water calligraphy play area, introducing writing of Chinese characters and encouraging them to create their own symbol for peace. Artist Mike Mei will set up a table to record people's creations and also display some of his ink calligraphy artwork.

• Sidewalk Chalk with Christian Guerra

• UP Truck with artist Cedric Douglas with screen printing t-shirts, live community painting, as well as the UP truck photo booth Live painting Percy Fortini-Wright (http://percyfortiniwright.com/) live painting a Boston theme canvas.

• Diablo Glass (http://www.diabloglassschool.com/) will be performing glass blowing demonstrations.

• Regina Schroeder from the Boston Paper Collective (http://www.bostonpapercollective.com/) will be teaching how to make handmade paper.

• Jennifer Zhang from Winchester School of Chinese Culture (http://wscc-ma.org/) will be teaching the art of Origami.

As always, the ähts village of juried artists will offer an eclectic selection of local, handmade jewelry, crafts, and artwork for sale.

Fireworks will take place on Saturday, August 30th starting at 9 p.m. provided by Boston Harbor Cruises.

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