Meet Reid Simpson

Photographer Reid Simpson took photos for:

All Together Now #8 on 11/4/2017 to be posted soon!
All Together Now #3 on 8/27/2016
All Together Now #2 on 6/25/2016

Artist Q&A

Q: What drew you to photography?

A: My dad took a lot of pictures with slide film, recording family activities. I followed the example as a teen, mainly for Boy Scout events, not unlike what I do at concerts these days. In college, I started expressing more “artsy” views with textures and light effects with a 35mm Olympus OM-2n and a 50mm f1.8 lens.

Q: What do you try to achieve with your photographs?

A: For concert and event shoots, I want to catch the passion and craft of the performers. Expressions, movement, fingers, eyes, flexed sinew, flying hair… whatever evokes a memory of the moment.

Q: What do you think people feel when a camera is pointed at them?

A: By avoiding intrusion on the artist/perceiver connection, I’m trying to avoid forcing the performers to react to the camera. At a previous ATN, I quizzed Jaypix Belmer about subject engagement; I learned that it’s as easy as making the person comfortable with a smile, with the camera down, before starting to shoot. I’m still working on that.

Q: What will you be thinking about going into this All Together Now performance?

A: I’ve shot informally at other ATN events (and hundreds of shows), so I’m comfortable with the general staged performance environment. Music and spoken activities are instinctive for me now, but I’m expecting to be challenged technically and artistically by Amanda Graff and Muhammad Seven. Stretching my skills, camera and personal, is a big reason why I’ve participated in the ATN!

More Photos from 6/25/2016

Anna Rae of Hemway

Perfromance Artist Diana Oh

James Brooks of Hemway

Tracy Putnam with Jane Park

Robin Melendez with Jane Park

Performance Artist Diana Oh

Tara Tresner-Kirsch with Jane Park

Clown Performance by Hye Yun Park

Jon Keane with Jane Park

Shaun Utter of Hemway

Hye Yun Park, Clown, Filmmaker, Stand Up

Hye Yun Park, Clown, Filmmaker, Stand Up

Jane Park

Thank you to Suhayl Azan for another set of beautiful photos!

Photos from 6/25/2016

Hye Yun Park Clown and Stand Up Act

Shaun Utter and Anna Rae from Hemway

James Brook from Hemway

Tara Tresner-Kirsch playing with Jane Park

Jon Glancy and Jon Keane

Jon Keane playing with Jane Park

Diana Oh, music and performance art

Anna Rae

Hye Yun Park Clown Act

Tracy Putnam playing with Jane Park

Diana Oh, music and performance art

Diana Oh wipes make up off of Hye Yun’s face.

Jon Glancy plays with Diana Oh

Shaun Utter and Anna Rae from Hemway

James Brook from Hemway

Diana Oh, music and performance art

Hye Yun Park Clown Act

Jane Park

Robin Melendez playing with Jane Park

Hye Yun Park

Jane Park

Thank you so much to Reid Simpson for taking these wonderful photos! We appreciate all of you for supporting All Together Now, A Multimedia Series. We hope you can come to our final show of the series on August 27th.

All Together Now, June 25th

Meet Hemway

Hemway performed in the first All Together Now on April 23rd. They are also hosting and performing for the rest of the series on June 25 and August 27th.

Hemway :: Music :: Boston
Hemway is a melodic, song-oriented alternative/modern rock band from Boston. Their songs feature emotionally rich lyrics and unusual instrument voicing and relationships. Band members, James Brooks, Shaun Utter, and Anna Rae draw on years of performing and touring experience to bring audiences an energetic and eclectic mix of songs that reference multiple genres including rock, pop, blues, folk, and reggae.

Website: www.hemwayband.com

Artist Statement:

“As I’ve gotten older my relationship with music has changed… in the past it was about trying to “succeed”… meaning become rich and famous. These days its about feeding my spirit by participating in an activity that allows me to express my creativity without worrying about the end goals… without having any real goal at all other than to have fun writing good tunes and performing with people I enjoy.”

-James Brooks of Hemway

“When I went to music school I had a teacher once who asked a large lecture class I was in, ‘What do musicians DO?’

The answer was simply, ‘they play.’

This has resonated with me ever since. ‘Playing’ music let’s us connect directly to something natural and childlike and really helps to keep us young.”

-James Brooks of Hemway

Meet Diana Oh

Diana Oh performs for All Together Now on June 25th.

Diana Oh is an Actor, Singer-Songwriter and Theatremaker, She is a Radical Diva Finalist and the Creator and Performer of the internationally acclaimed {my lingerie play}: 10 Underground Performance Installations in my lingerie staged in an effort to provide a saner, safer, more respectful world for women to live in featured in People Magazine, The Huffington Post, Upworthy and Marie Claire Netherlands. Her {my lingerie play} installation series culminates into an 80 minute concert-play of her own lingerie collection and her original music titled {my lingerie play}: Installation 9/10: THE FINAL INSTALLATION. She’s been featured in People and Upworthy calls her “badass.” As a singer/songwriter that performs internationally, she has two other solo concert-plays: Diana Oh is GOING ROGUE and the rock show, The Sister Rosettas (both with terraNOVA Collective). She will next be seen in Cherry’s Lane’s Mentor Project for Christopher Gabriel Nunez’s The Surgeon and Her Daughters mentored by Rajiv Joseph and Baby No More Times at The Knitting Factory. Other acting credits include Chimerica (Studio Theatre D.C., U.S. Premiere), How to be Single (New Line Cinema), On Sex and Love (BBC), Hey Yun (Wifey TV, Janet Mock NBC feature), Magic Trick (HERE), Judith Malina’s History of the World (The Living Theatre), Rob Askins’ PS Jones… (terraNOVA), Metro Cards (Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Foreplay Play, Mrs. Mayfields… (Caps Lock), Frankenstein Upstairs (Gideon Productions, NYIT Nomination for Outstanding Actress), Donkey Punch (Ivy Theatre, NYIT Nomination for Outstanding Actress) Me and Lizzie (Film Treason), New York is Dead (Better Werk). MFA, NYU Musical Theatre Writing (Thropp Fellow). Smith, NTI, and LAMDA alum. A NYTN Person of the Year, Radical Diva Finalist, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Last Call committee member and band member of the U.S. Open with Shawn Randall, Bobby Moreno, Steve Boyer, Jeff Biehl, and William Jackson Harper.

http://www.dianaoh.com

Q&A with Diana Oh:

Q: What do you want the audience to get out of this show?

A: “Damn, I feel good–so good that I could eat a car right now.” That’s how it felt like when I first fell in love–I felt like I could eat a car.

Q: Tell us about a mentor or idol who has affected your work.
A: Kathleen Hanna gives no fucks if you don’t agree with her but she wants you to get out of her way–I like that.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about the Boston art scene?
A: Boston is where I did my best nights out dancing to live music. My best friend from college and my first ex is from there — Boston = a lot of life for me.

Artist quote: “Over time, one thing I’ve learned about myself as an artist is: when you’re the best version of yourself, it helps other people be the best version of themselves.”

Meet Hye Yun Park

Hye Yun Park performs for All Together Now on June 25th.

Hye Yun is an writer, performer, filmmaker based in New York. She is Janet Mock’s newest obsession and one of 12 Emerging Feminist Game-Changers in Media, Journalism & the Arts. Her award winning web series HEY YUN, which she writes, directs and stars in, premiered its first season November 2013 to a welcoming crowd. The first episode was invited to American Cinematheque’s  9th Annual Focus on Female Directors screening, the LA Web Fest and it won the Audience Choice Awards at the Boxed Wine Film Festival and Indie Works. Season 2 premiered on Wifey TV.  FIRST KISS NYC, a viral video she made has been written up by the Huffington Post, Daily Mail UK and many more. When not making films, she is prancing around town taking pictures of toys, clowning around or acting in other people’s films. She hails from the salty seas of Busan, South Korea.

www.hyeyunpark.com

Artist quotes:

“What drives me to create is all the poisonous sh*t that happens in my life, which I can turn into golden nuggets of art.”

“I like to brew on things that stick with me — like a slow cooked soup. And through the brewing, I grow and my stories grow.”

Meet Jane Park

Jane Park performs for All Together Now on June 25th.

Jane Park is the solo project of Jane Park. Jane has been an on-and-off scenester in Boston for the past eight years. After playing violin for local bands come and gone, it was time to write her own shit and do whatever the hell she wanted. She played all around Cambridge as Bitch Trifecta for a few years, pirated a band, and recorded a full-length album The Wrong Thing. Now with a renewed sense of purpose, self-hood, and the rough-hewn, helping hands of her friends, she is now putting together another collection of songs that you can play quietly in a dark room by yourself.

Website: pooreliza.com

Artist quotes:

“The biggest idol in my life is Elliott Smith. The first time I heard ‘Waltz #2 (XO)’ was when I knew I had to learn how to play the guitar. I had no idea it would lead to this.”

“I try to be a little wreckless when I perform, because I want people to know that everyone feels crazy sometimes. But I also love the quiet moments. I hope it makes the audience feel like we’re living this life together.”