Anthony Romero, …first in thought, then in action, 2019. Mixed media sculpture, performance, and community-based activities, dimensions variable. Developed with Dan Jackson and Jules Rochielle Sievert of NuLawLab and Giordana Mecagni of Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections, and assistance by Eli Brown, Matt Joynt, Brittany Thomas, Sebastián Parra, and local area collaborators. Courtesy the artist. Photo by Mel Taing.
Anthony Romero, Not Peaceable and Quiet, 2018. Performance collaboration with Matt Joynt and Josh Rios. M:ST 9 Performance Art Biennial, National Music Centre, Calgary, Alberta. Courtesy the artist © Anthony Romero.
Stable Ground Artist Residency Workshop with artist LMerchie Frazier. Photo by Hakim Raquib
The ICA invited Boston-based artist, organizer, and educator Anthony Romero to create …first in thought, then in action, a project that expands ideas, questions, and provocations beyond the museum’s walls. Romero has developed the project over the past year, with a focus on East Boston, organizing a series of listening sessions and community gatherings to collect local histories of activism, migration, and displacement from East Boston perspectives. At the ICA, he premieres a new sculpture and sound piece as well as a corresponding series of public talks, conversations, and performances with local organizers and community members that touch on gentrification, housing, and displacement.
Scheduled talks, performances + activations:
Stable Ground: Anti-Displacement Lab with NuLawLab
Thu, Nov 14, 6–7:30 PM
Teens Perform
Sun, Dec 1, 2–3 PM
East Boston Perspectives on Immigration
Thu, Dec 19, 6–7:30 PM
Stable Ground: Anti-Displacement Lab with NuLawLab
Sat, Jan 11, 2020, 2–3:30 PM
East Boston in Focus with Lydia Edwards
Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 7–8:30 PM
Performance and Celebration with Anthony Romero and collaborators
Sun, Jan 26, 2020, 2–4 PM
Anthony Romero’s …first in thought, then in action is supported, in part, by Robert Nagle, a Live Arts Boston grant from the Boston Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.