{"id":133,"date":"2014-08-21T05:00:04","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T05:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/?p=133"},"modified":"2015-04-02T19:08:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T19:08:07","slug":"from-applied-to-action-sociology-jamaica-plain-porchfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/2014\/08\/21\/from-applied-to-action-sociology-jamaica-plain-porchfest\/","title":{"rendered":"From Applied to Action Sociology: Jamaica Plain Porchfest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"00<\/a>For a couple of decades I have been an \u201capplied sociologist,” meaning that my sociology leaves the classroom and situates itself in organizational contexts. There are many ways that applied sociologists \u201cdo sociology.\u201d For the most part my work focuses on evaluating a range of programs and policies to help organizations get stronger and ultimately, bring in more funds so they can continue to do their work.<\/p>\n

Applied sociology may be perceived by some as the step child of academic sociology. \u00a0\u201cProfessor\u201d is a far classier title than Senior Research Associate or even, Wowza Evaluation Research Expert!\u00a0 But academic and applied sociology are equally good options; the choice to pursue one or the other has more to do with the job market and one\u2019s career goals and interests. That said, applied sociologists have fewer institutionalized steps along the career ladder to achieve \u201csuccess,\u201d and we experience less institutionalized scrutiny.\u00a0 For better or worse, applied sociologists also don\u2019t generally have a \u201cfamily\u201d of colleagues for life!<\/p>\n

\"01<\/a>
Woman doing limbo at Nate Smith House, affordable housing for elders. Band was Tempo International Rhythm Section.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lot of us \u201capplied folks\u201d are happy with our choice. The work is challenging, and the potential to improve programs and policies that improve people\u2019s health, education, incomes, and more is satisfying. Many of us also love to teach, but generally when we do, we\u2019re on the lowest rung of the totem pole as adjuncts, with low wages, no benefits and, depending on the institution, no status, even if one is a stellar teacher whose students adore you. But unlike adjuncts who are scraping a living together teaching multiple single courses, we may choose to teach a course, without fully depending on this income.<\/p>\n

Sociology in Action<\/h3>\n
\"02<\/a>
Sterling Rhyne performing at home of Betsaida Gutierrez, housing activist. Photo credit: Sam Sacks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This spring, I discovered another way to put my sociology into action, when I joined with a friend to organize a neighborhood music festival on porches called \u201cJamaica Plain Porchfest.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

My type of applied sociology had, for the most part, been stuck in a room, or on occasion, at an event or rally. But I felt ready to break out. While I have been evaluating arts-based programs for a number of years, I found that I could bring my sociological eye to designing and implementing a participatory arts-based musical event. Luckily I was partnered with a dear friend who brought the same sensibility and perspective.<\/p>\n

\"03<\/a>
JP Porchfest banner, created by Hyde Square Task Force Youth Leaders.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our sociological eyes went into motion from the beginning, as we identified the \u201coutcomes\u201d we wanted to achieve. We live in a community that is considered very diverse in terms of race\/ethnicity, class, and sexual\/gender orientation. But in reality, the community is very divided. There is a \u201cLatin Quarter\u201d which houses Cubans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and Central Americans; there are public housing developments that cloister poor people in large high rises; there are new mixed-income housing developments; there are sections of \u201ctown\u201d that are entirely working class, and others that are entirely middle class. Our goal was to bring the various strains of the community together \u2013 bridging race\/ethnicity and class \u2013 using music as the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\"04<\/a>
Damn Tall Buildings. Photo credit: Damn Tall Buildings (selfie!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The phenomenon of \u201cporchfests\u201d is not new.\u00a0 The first one was organized in Ithaca, New York in 2007, and now there are 20 of them in cities and towns throughout the U.S., including Tucson, Napa Valley, Boulder, Buffalo (my home town!), Salt Lake City and in Somerville, Massachusetts, the porchfest that initially inspired us. From the looks of the incredible photos on each of their porchfest websites, we can see that they are joyous events that build community. From our conversations with the Ithaca and Somerville porchfesters, we also know how successful they are in promoting community bonding, as people come out on the streets to enjoy music together.<\/p>\n

\"05<\/a>
Audience members at JP Porchfest. Photo credit: Jane Akiba.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In contrast to some of the neighborhoods where other porchfests take place, around half of Jamaica Plain\u2019s residents are people of color, including 25 percent Latino, 14 percent African-American, 4 percent Asian, and 50 percent white. Our commitment was to promote bridging and bonding, by pursuing three strategies: include a diverse range of musicians in terms of their racial\/ethnic backgrounds as well as musical genres; locate and include porches throughout the neighborhood where musicians can play; and engage and bring out diverse audiences. We hoped that these strategies would help to overcome some of the \u201ctri-furcation\u201d or \u201cquadri-furcation\u201d in the \u2018hood.<\/p>\n

Initially, we created a Facebook page with a call for musicians and porch hosts. But a lot of people don\u2019t go on Facebook, including 27 percent of online adults who don\u2019t use social media, and another group of people defined as Facebook \u201cresisters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"06<\/a>
JP Porchfest Facebook Page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So we reached out to local non-profit organizations, some of whom serve youth, others who manage low-income housing, others who coordinate small business activity, and yet others who run programs around maintaining a beautiful, large park in one of the neighborhood\u2019s low-income neighborhoods. We also reached out to students at a highly renowned local music college. We even \u201cscouted\u201d musicians, sometimes at a local park or other venue, as well as musicians we heard of through friends.<\/p>\n

\"07<\/a>
Promotional flyer for JP Porchfest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My organizing partner and I started with the idea that we\u2019d do a \u201cpilot\u201d event with three bands and three porches. But if were to stay true to our goals, we needed to do more than that. Ultimately, we had 60 bands sign up and enough porches committed so that two bands could play on each porch. We spent hours poring over the mix of bands and porch hosts we would match, focusing on bringing together a mix of people from diverse backgrounds by race\/ethnicity, gender, and where possible, class. In the end, diverse bands and solo musicians shared a stage \u2013 a.k.a. porch \u2013 hosted by a third party who generously offered her\/his porch.<\/p>\n

We had been informed that one of the other porchfests almost got shut down one year because there were crowds of people roaming the streets, obstructing traffic and trashing neighbor\u2019s lawns. So we created a tiered structure, in which each porch had a \u201cPorch Fun Manager,\u201d each cluster of porches in a particular part of the neighborhood had a \u201cCluster Manager,\u201d and the overall event had two \u201cNetwork Managers\u201d (me and my partner), who kept an eye on the whole thing. Organizational sociology in action\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"08<\/a>
The Amy Hoffman. Photo credit: Jane Akiba.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the two of us organized this event, we realized we were operating within the construct of social institutions that needed to be privy to our plans, offer advice, and inform us of limitations. We met with officials from the City and the police, and from a neighborhood services department that does city permitting. (We were committed to NOT having permits for each porch! We didn\u2019t have the budget, and we didn\u2019t want to deal with the bureaucracy.)<\/p>\n

And did I mention that we had NO budget whatsoever? This was one of the appeals of the event. Nothing commercial. No \u201cbrought to you by\u201d banners, logos or even food trucks! We received a few in-kind donations: one from a friend, another from the City of Boston which paid for printing colorful maps of the porch routes to be used on the day of the event, and another from a printer who didn\u2019t charge us for printing postcards to announce the event. For many people, the fact that JP Porchfest was commercial-free was a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n

\"09<\/a>
Gut and Buttons. Photo credit: Sue Dorfman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So how did it go?<\/h3>\n

On the day of the event, we had 7,000-8,000 people roaming throughout the neighborhood listening to music and hundreds show up at a local restaurant, Bella Luna Restaurant, and Milky Way Caf\u00e9 for an after-party that served $5 all-you-can-eat pizza!<\/p>\n

Anecdotally, it seemed that everyone loved the event from the audience to the musicians to the porch hosts. But a good \u201caction sociologist\u201d can\u2019t just leave it there! We needed to evaluate the impact of the event.<\/p>\n

\"010<\/a>
Porchfest Stickers!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To count the numbers in attendance we used porchfest stickers. We had intended to count the leftovers to gauge the size of the crowd, except we ran out of stickers in one hour! We consulted an audience researcher on how to calculate the final numbers and it\u2019s her figures \u2013 7,000-8,000 \u2013 we are citing.<\/p>\n

We also distributed very short surveys with a few questions that would help us learn what worked and what didn\u2019t as well as to identify the demographics of the porchfesters. Nearly 100 percent reported that the event was “excellent” or “very good” (we\u2019re still working on analyzing this data).\u00a0 In addition, we had two sociology graduate students from Brandeis University (my alma mater) traversing the event and interviewing participants about their experience.<\/p>\n

\"011<\/a>
Cornell Coley and Hyde Square Task Force. Photo credit: Jane Akiba.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And we queried musicians and porch hosts to provide more detailed feedback on their experiences performing at JP Porchfest and learned that they made great connections with the band with whom they shared their porch, and with their porch hosts. They were pleased that they were able to add people to their mailing lists and increase their CD sales.<\/p>\n

We heard that small businesses had also increased sales. One of our colleagues and friends from a local nonprofit conducted her own short survey to see if business picked up in the \u201cLatin Quarter\u201d and interestingly, small shops like the local beauty shop and local rotisserie chicken take-out place increased their business by anywhere from 100 to 400 percent!<\/p>\n

\"012<\/a>
Filmmakers planning Porchfest videos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, we wanted to document the event. We put together a team of professional filmmakers who shot the event and will produce two videos.\u00a0 One is a documentary about JP Porchfest that centers on three narratives: a long-time Latina political activist who had just moved into affordable housing and wanted to use porchfest as a way to unite her racially divided neighborhood; a veteran rock musician who writes songs about JP, and is a staple in the \u2018hood; and a group of youth leaders from a local non-profit organization who were accompanied by two filmmakers who documented their response to the event and the different types of music. The other is a 5-minute “how-to” video, which will be accompanied by a training guide that we write, in order to help other communities produce their own porchfests!<\/p>\n

\"013<\/a>
Son of Chris Antonowich, Riding Shot Gun. Photo credit: Sue Dorfman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reflecting Back, Looking Forward<\/h3>\n

My organizing partner and I were initially worried that no one would show up, and then after the event, we worried that we would experience a post-event malaise. But we have been disproven twice!<\/p>\n

We are now planning JP Porchfest 2015, this time knowing a lot more than we knew before we started. Soon we\u2019re going to launch a Kickstarter campaign, and Bella Luna\/Milky Way has offered us their venue for two fundraisers.<\/p>\n

In the end, we determined that we had done a pretty good job, maybe even a really good job! While roughly one-third of our musicians were people of color, we want to increase the diversity of the audience, and we are developing a strategy to do so.<\/p>\n

In a follow-up conversation I had with Ayanna Pressley, a brilliant African-American City Councilor who spoke at the event, I lamented that the audience wasn\u2019t as diverse as we wanted it to be, and she told me, \u201cyou are acting like a woman!\u201d\u00a0 I was startled. What did she mean? She told me that the event was a great success, but I was focusing on the negative. \u201cWe\u2019ll work on that for next year,\u201dshe reassured me.<\/p>\n

Watch this video of Rick Berlin and the Nickel and Dime Band:\u00a0 “I Love My Street.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n