As proven by last weekend’s Women March, the new presidential administration has unintentionally united many of the people it intended to divide — in Boston, 175,000 people to be exact. The unity continues this Friday (January 27) at the Cambridge Elks Lodge with an audio-visual art benefit for the American Civil Liberties Union, curated by Boston quartet Jack Romanov. The benefit show combines local art and music, as well as premieres the group’s four-part music video “Par For the Course” in an effort to join forces and support the ACLU in the face of the new Trump Administration.
For the members of Jack Romanov, the 2016 presidential election hit close to home and spurred them to participate in the 45-track We Are Not Trump compilation, as well as organize their own benefit for the ACLU, hoping to find solace and support in combining multiple art communities.
“Like many Americans, we followed the election year very closely and alarmingly,” bassist Esteban Cajigas tells Vanyaland. “We have members of the LGBT community and first generation immigrants in the band, so we took a lot of the rhetoric that was used personally. As a band, we felt that the best way to help those most likely to be affected by the new administration’s policies was through music. We thought that by throwing a benefit we could bring a lot of talented artists in the Boston community together for a good cause and help raise awareness. We picked the ACLU because we believe in the work that they do. Our rights need to be defended and an injustice to one is an injustice to all.”
Jack Romanov enlisted a slew of local artists to take part in the curation of the visual arts portion of the benefit, including Abby MacLeod, Sam Aprea, Emily Pardee, Quinn Viens, Juan Esteban Cajigas, and Feminist Fiber Art. The film, “Par For the Course,” is a four-part music video that Romanov shot and produced with local artists from Open Casket Productions. The film will begin at 8 p.m., and music kicks off at 9 p.m., beginning with Wendy Eisenberg, followed by sets from Snowhaus and Jack Romanov.
“For the art, we primarily focused on the artists first,” Cajigas adds. “We didn’t want to just pick some pieces of art from local artists; we wanted to bring them on board and have them curate and select their own pieces. This way, the artists have more control and have more of an opportunity to express themselves.”
Aside from the goal of raising more money to support the ACLU, the band hopes that the benefit will bolster awareness and unity in an already tumultuous political climate. While the We Are Not Trump compilation raised more than $1,000 for the ACLU, the band is aware that when it comes to defending the rights of Americans, the work is never done.
“We hope that people come away from this event feeling positive and stronger through the experience of sharing art,” Cajigas says. “It’d be amazing if the event could bring some awareness to the issues that are going to be at stake for the next four years. We strongly believe that when a community gathers it only grows stronger.”
