1975: Vietnamese Diaspora Commemoration Initiative

At ArtHONK! Festival, the 1975 Team invites festivalgoers from all walks of life to create, reflect, and share what they hope to carry forward for future generations. Inspired by the banyan tree as a symbol of roots, resilience, and connection, participants can decorate bookmarks and miniature conical hats while responding to prompts about the memories, traditions, values, and stories they want to preserve. Together, these colorful creations and reflections will become part of the growing story of the 1975: A Vietnamese Diaspora Memorial, celebrating community, creativity, and the many things we carry with us across generations.

Website: www.1975vietdiaspora.com
IG: 1975vietdiaspora

Behind The Mask Studio & Theatre

Behind The Mask creates vibrant performance and arts educational programming with masks, puppets, murals, and residencies with themes of diversity, community, international folklore, and nature & wildlife conservation.

During ArtHonk! 2026 we will present masked and puppet animal characters from our latest production, Old Mr. Toad’s Nature Stories & Songs. These animal characters sing and tell stories about community, anti-bullying, nature conseravtion and biodiversity. The animal characters find commonality in their missions and learn to bring their different gifts together to create forest harmony. After each short section, we will engage to audience as the characters for dialogue about these topics. We talk about tough topics with gentleness, humor, and stunning artwork.

Website: www.behindthemask.org
FB: facebook.com/behindthemask1

Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

As an order of 21st-century queer drag nuns, our street performance, ministry, and culture-jamming are rooted in a dual vow: to promulgate universal joy and to expiate stigmatic guilt. Our interactive, public fabric works—the Veil of Remembrance (Joy) and the Veil of Shame—function not merely as performance props, but as community-driven altars of artistic activism. By inviting marginalized bodies to externalize their deepest internal landscapes onto these physical fabrics, we transform private isolation into collective, political liberation.

The sisters will have moments to discuss with participants of the festival about our different ministries throughout the greater New England area; obviously primarily centered in the Boston metropolitan area; the sisters are greatly embedded in political activism. We will be asking participants if they would like to voluntarily take a moment to write on the veils of joy and/or shame; the veils of joy will be given to one of the sisters to wear at future events and the veils of shame will be burned and destroyed. There will also be the opportunity, if they so wish, for participants to receive a glitter blessing from one of the sisters; this is a spiritual moment where one of the sisters “prays” over a member community and places some of our houses glitter on the forehead/hand of the participant as an outward sign of the beauty and shimmer we all carry within us internally.

www.thebostonsisters.org

Cambridge Wildlife Arts

Since 2012, Wildlife Arts has been finding ways to combine nature and art-making for city residents. We have birthed Giant Puppets, offered mask-making and animal model -making, and journaled about studied neighborhood trees. Celebrating urban wildlife in the community has been our joy. We also have an annual children’s nature art challenge in Cambridge.We hand our local species trading cards out to children wherever we go.

We see art as a way to build personal connections with local animals, plants, trees and ecosystems. In 2025 we expanded our programs to include sewing circles in libraries, parks, and neighborhoods, Whether strangers, neighbors, or friends; beginners or experts at sewing, anyone can join a sewing circle to cut, design, embroider, translate, or sew. Our banner lending library now includes “No Human Is Illegal,” “Build,” “Protect Safe Spaces,” and “Persist.”

Working with our hands to create a banner with a message of solidarity or dissent brings each member of a sewing circle into a moment of creative, mutual effort. The Wildlife Arts all-volunteer team welcomes you to a seat at the table. We’ll teach total beginners to sew by hand.

While our new website is in development, use our Linktree account to get the latest on what we do: linktr.ee/wildlifearts

Climate Crisis Cabaret

Climate Crisis Cabaret is a new group of Boston area theater artists, scientists, and activists who have organized to kindle action on the climate crisis. In March 2025, the group produced the first of a series of cabarets aiming to energize climate activism in our community.

At ArtHONK! 2026, CCC will be presenting its latest piece of political theater — “The Battle for the Future of the Earth.” It pits The Fossil Fuel Gang vs Earth Warriors — a rumble for the ages!

CCC is currently looking for artists, scientists, and activists who want to work with us. Interested? Visit climatecrisiscabaret.org, to learn about upcoming cabarets and activities.

website: climatecrisiscabaret.org
FB: @ClimateCrisisCabaretBoston

Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion is an international non-violent movement focused on raising the alarm about the climate and ecological crisis, pressuring governments to act, and inspiring people to get involved. This year we will be coloring animal and insect masks and painting cardboard props of trees and houses some of which will be painted to look on fire in preparation for the Extinction Rebellion “OUR HOME IS ON FIRE” theme contingent in the HONK! Parade on Sunday. Our interactive activity will also include a local wildflower seed bomb making station, where passersby can make and take clay or paper-based seed bombs to cast this autumn or spring, and get to know and improve some neglected spots in their neighborhoods or their own yards, and help our pollinators.

XRBoston.org
IG: XRBoston

Eyes Wide Open II: The Human Cost of War

Massachusetts Peace Action is a grassroots movement for peace and justice. Through grassroots organizing, policy advocacy, and community education, we promote human rights and global cooperation, seek an end to war and the spread of nuclear weapons, and support budget priorities that redirect excessive military spending toward human and environmental needs. We are an affiliate of Peace Action, the nation’s largest grassroots peace and disarmament membership organization, with more than 100,000 members and 30 chapters across the country.

Eyes Wide Open II: The Human Cost of War is a collaborative traveling exhibit developed to visualize the human toll of the US-Israeli war on Iran and provide a sacred space for public reflection, mourning, and generating ideas for action to end the war. The original traveling exhibit typically features artifacts of loss, displays of children’s shoes, backpacks, and stuffed animals representing the Iranian schoolchildren killed when U.S. missiles struck their school in Minab, Iran, on February 28, 2026. Fifteen pairs of combat boots represent U.S. service members who have lost their lives in the war.

At ArtHONK! Festival, we are showcasing Eyes Wide Open II: The Human Cost of War, featuring prints of drawings by children from the Minab school as well as paintings of some of the children’s portraits. This visual display is designed to humanize the statistics and facilitate direct connection with the perspectives of children living through the war. Visitors are invited to participate by writing messages to their elected representatives on postcards created from Minab children’s drawings. We will also provide markers and crayons for children who stop by our table to write letters and create drawings that will be sent to the surviving children of Minab. Their artwork will be added to the display for the duration of the event, transforming the exhibit into an evolving space for cross-cultural dialogue.

masspeaceaction.org
IG: @masspeaceaction

HONK! storysharing

Soul Activism Storysharing from the Heart is a group of storytellers passionate about shedding shame and releasing the stigma around speaking the truth within us all. In our open mic and writing workshop events, we create brave spaces of storytelling that invite in the whole self to express authentically and be heard in our vulnerability.

We believe storytelling is a form of liberation, activism and connection and are excited to bring this modality to artHONK! Come visit our storysharing booth to tell your story about how HONK has impacted your life and what this group has taught you about the spirit of community. We will be capturing stories by video to share with the HONK community to uplift the spirit of disruptive joy, contagious music-making and true community connection! See you this Saturday!

https://sites.google.com/view/soulactivism/home
IG: @soulactivismstorysharing

If Not Now – Boston

We are a movement of U.S. Jews organizing our community to end U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid system and demand equality, justice, and a thriving future for all Palestinians and Israelis. We speak powerfully and act publicly to call American Jews into action: in the streets, in our communities, and in our politics. To do this, we must take a firm, loving approach to transform our Jewish communities to fight for a vision of Jewish liberation: which means our safety does not come at the expense of others, but is bound with the liberation of all people. Join us!

IG: @IfNotNowBoston

International Portal

Honk! is global! we will have a big screen set up on Elm Street in Davis Square, where international bands will be livestreaming in.

The following bands have now confirmed, as of today:

1:00 – TOETERS EN BELLEN, Amsterdam
1:15 – BANDA BASAGLIA, Naples
1:30 – ELGON YOUTH, Mbale, Uganda
2:00 – STREETNOISE ORCHESTRA, Innsbruck, with FANFARA OBBLIGATORIA NON CONVENZIONALE, Milano
2:30 – TINITUSSIS, Hamburg
2:45 – TITUBANDA, Rome
3:00 – BLAST FURNESS, Cumbria, UK
3:15 – FIATELLE BLASKAPELLE, Dresden
3:30 – FANFARE INVISIBLE, Paris
3:45 – LE POMPIER PONEY CLUB, Marseilles
4:00 – BABADAN, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
4:30 – MARCHING DISORDER, Toronto
4:45 – LES MUSES TANGENT, Paris
5:00 – STRAMPALABANDA, Torino

The Puppeteers Cooperative

The Puppeteers Cooperative specializes in community workshops, giant puppets,bpageants, and parades. It includes The Back Alley Puppet Theater, which operates the Puppet Free Library, Puppaganda, which works in toy theater and video, and The
Construction Section, which builds puppets and masks.

At ArtHONK! 2026 the Collective will be making small fish puppets with the public, that will encouraging everyone to think about the environment and parade with their puppet on Sunday.

It also runs an informational website about making giant puppets:

Website: puppetco-op.org//a>
FB: The Puppeteers Cooperative

The Rainbow Beard Show

We are an interactive experience, led by Ricky Rainbow Beard, that features puppets, games, stories, songs, surprises, and absurdist humor. We explore deep and simple themes and regularly focus on big feelings, curiosity, and care. At Honk 2026 we will be asking the question – “What is Noise?”

Our performances act as one big question mark, full of easily-poked-through-holes that allow kids ages 4-8 to see through our authority and encourage them to take part in calling out our conceit.

We believe that curious young minds deserve to be nurtured to build their critical thinking skills and ability to question authorities and oppressive systems that seek to control us all.

Website: www.rickyrainbowbeard.com
IG: @rickyrainbowbeard

Limitless Bingo

Limitless Bingo is an invitation for us to become and outspoken leader of local campaigns and a full time believer of all we can obtain. Author/Bicycle Benefits founder Ian Klepetar and Illustrator Danielle Marino have teamed up to challenge you to play Limitless Bingo…an interactive game to beautify your life and enhance your community.

Mutant Kazoo Adoption & Instrument Petting Zoo

Come jam with the teachers of WholeTone Music Academy at ArtHONK in Davis Square! We will be hosting our Mutant Kazoo Adoption Agency and a small Instrument Petting Zoo. You can try out a new instrument, jam with new friends, and adopt a kazoo! We have a multitude of funky kazoos looking for a new home.

Website: wholetoneacademy.com

The Freedom Flyers: Immigrant-Justice Butterfly Art!

We invite adults, youth, and children to join our free art workshop on Saturday making many-sized monarch butterflies to take home or – better yet- to fly with us by joining our troupe in the HONK! Parade on Sunday.

The Monarch butterflies are symbols standing against the cruelty of ICE and for justice and respect for Immigrants.

After-all, Wings Know No Borders!

At our ArtHONK tent, you can color and decorate your own fantastic Freedom Flyer Butterfly and, if you wish to make them activist statements, add slogans to them or ribbons with names of those tragically lost to ICE!

Also you can paint and give color and life to our larger collective butterflies that will be carried in the HONK! Parade.

“Freedom Flyers” is a special project of Serendipity Stilt Dancers, who will in turn lead a vibrant butterfly parade troupe at the HONK! Parade.

Many volunteers have come together to make our Freedom Flyers ArtHONK and Parade work happen and to take a stand through art to honor those who have died in the fight against ICE and support those who continue suffering under the cruelty of ICE!

Hope you enjoy making butterflies and come join us in the Parade!

Note: Monarch butterflies are common symbols of immigrant justice and also interestingly often considered to be spirits of the ancestors returning home when they migrate back to Mexico to their winter forest roosts.

Actual monarch butterflies are threatened or endangered in many places and are on a review list with the federal government and so we also want to honor them- and not just their symbol.

Website: http://www.MayaGoldRiverArts.com
FB: @SerendipityStiltDancers

Where Is Home?

TPS (Temporary Protected Status) is a humanitarian protection program designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security to nationals of designated foreign countries who are already in the United States and whose home countries are unsafe to return to due to conditions such as environmental disasters (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, epidemics), ongoing armed conflict, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions. TPS is a temporary program that protects recipients from deportation and provides work authorization, but does not lead to lawful permanent resident status or give any other immigration status. We understand TPS is created as a temporary humanitarian solution to complex situations. However, many TPS holders have been living and working in the United States for many years-some for 20 – 30 years. These TPS recipients are business owners, homeowners, healthcare workers, taxpayers, and have families as well as U.S.-born children. They are an integral part of the American Society and a large contributor to its economy. The MA TPS Committee is one of the leading organizations to fight on behalf of more than 1.3 million families and their 350,000-plus U.S.-born children who have lived in the United States for decades.

Where Is Home? A collaboration between the MA TPS and the Boston Experimental Theatre Company, Where Is Home is an interactive collage and storytelling project that amplifies the voices and lived experiences of families with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) who face deportation and family separation. At the heart of this project are personal materials and stories shared directly by TPS families, some of whom have been living here for more than 25 years, have US-born children, have started businesses, and for whom the U.S. is the only place they call home. Through these interactive collage and immersive street theatre performances, we invite visitors to listen, create, and reflect on their own experiences of What Does Home Mean to You? And what does it mean to be forced to leave it behind?

Website: www.masstps.org & bostonexperimentaltheatre.com

IG: @masstpscommittee