Elm Street Interactive Area

We’re closing Elm Street to cars and turning it into a dynamic arena for interactive art making and activism. HONK! is hosting a diverse group of artists to lead participatory activities. We invite you to work with these artists – create something and get involved with an activist cause. Make a flag, write a protest poem, build a just city, tag a rose, or stencil a suitcase. Support a cause or protest an issue — march with your own activist art in the Sunday HONK! Parade as part of a parade group.

Julz Roth’s resist banner

Elm Street Projects

• League of Just Us: what sparks you to action? Climate change? Economic inequity? Racism? Sexism? Mass deportation? Create a stenciled bandana, flag or badge with this Worcester-based artist/maker collective and make your views known! Wear it with pride during the HONK! Bring your message our Sunday Parade – join an activist group and march!
• Street artist Julia “Julz” Roth Julz Roth: add a shape or slogan with spray paint and stencils to a dynamic parade banner. Julz will work with the message: RESPECT HER! Open to interpretation, the banner urges people to listen to the marginalized voices of women and to treat the earth, the environment, and our own bodies with respect. It is an urgent call to action to celebrate and preserve the divine feminine in all of us and in the world around us.
• Parts and Crafts: What do you think keeps your neighborhood strong, diverse, and interesting? Affordable housing, parks and playgrounds, language labs, skate board ramps and artist studios? Contribute your ideas and build a utopian city from cardboard, duct tape and paint with the artist/makers of Somerville’s first fab lab! Advocate for neighborhood resources by carrying a sculptural city in the HONK! Parade on Sunday with members of the P&C collective. Learn how we can make Somerville inclusive and affordable for everyone to live in!
• Bread and Puppet Theater: the amazing activist artists of B&P Theater – founded in 1963 and based in Glover VT – will transform Elm Street with an installation of their large scale artwork.
• Nora Valdez: outraged by our government’s treatment of immigrants and refugees? Curious about their personal stories? View an exhibition of Nora’s Suitcase Project created in collaboration with MIRA (Mass Immigrant & Refugees Advocacy) Coalition. Stencil a suitcase with a message of protest and solidarity for MIRA’s participation in our parade Sunday. Better yet, join MIRA and march yourself!
• Cedric Douglas: when is it ok for the police – or anyone – to shoot someone? Reflect on this and other issues around violence and racism and share your thoughts. Help put together the Rose Memorial Project, a performance at 5 pm to commemorate African Americans killed by police. Cedric and members of Extraordinary Rendition Band will walk in a procession around Elm Street culminating in 7 Hills Park when ERB kicks off their 6 pm set.
• The Red Flame Hunters: New Orleans has a rich history of combining art, spectacle, and activism through its Mardi Gras culture. Learn about the Mardi Gras Indian traditions; meet Big Chief Tugga and other visiting youth leaders of an initiative founded by Big Ed Buckner to enlist neighborhood NOLA youth in preserving the exuberant costuming arts of these African American “tribes.” See some of their exuberant costumes and connect with NOLA traditions by beading your own bracelet or Mardi-Gras mask.