A MassQ is a ritual application of confront paint in a unique style that is intended to carry out the wearer’s character and condition of head. Callahan coined the phrases MassQ and MassQed, but he’s rapid to take note it has roots in traditions from about the globe. “You’re transformed into a strolling perform of artwork via paint,” he discussed in a Zoom interview.
That is only the commencing of what awaits guests who enterprise into the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in Jamaica Simple following Saturday afternoon. Co-produced by Callahan, the arboretum, and multidisciplinary inventive cohort Castle of our Skins (which celebrates its 10th anniversary this yr), MassQ Ball is intended as a area for therapeutic, learning, and connecting throughout communities, with the tall conifers of Hemlock Hill all around. Admission is free of charge, and all are welcome.
“The thought of this ball is intimacy,” claimed Castle of our Skins artistic and executive director Ashleigh Gordon in a Zoom interview. “Being capable to trade and interact with buddies and loved ones, and getting equipped to travel via the performance knowledge in more compact groups.”
This is how it comes about. On arrival, friends will be invited to be MassQed. You can do it oneself, or you can be MassQed by one of quite a few artists skilled by Callahan. “They’ll talk with you for a little bit and get more of a experience of who you are and the place you are, and how that incorporates into line and shade, and then they will paint that onto your encounter,” Callahan mentioned.

Where a traditional mask conceals, a MassQ is intended to expose “who and what you are in the minute the MassQ is developed. So I by no means do the exact MassQ twice,” he extra. A single of the earlier MassQs on Callahan’s website reshaped its subject’s deal with with bold arcs of crimson on a industry of black, yet another coated a deal with with a mosaic of pastel-colored lightning bolts, and nonetheless one more re-designed a summer sky full of wispy white clouds.
After attendees have donned their MassQs, groups of about 30 people will be guided alongside a path of performances and visual artwork by Boston-primarily based artists including spoken-word poets Dzidzor and Harlym 1two5, mariachi bandleader Veronica Robles, set up artist Lilly Manycolors, and a string quartet from Castle of our Skins.
Callahan and Castle of our Skins first threw a MassQ Ball in 2017 it was subtitled “Convergence” and took place at Roxbury’s Hibernian Hall. This year’s occasion, the 2nd, expands on the 2017 edition “in just about every way possible,” Callahan said. It is for a longer time, that includes extra artists, and visitors can get there at any time throughout the function.
Gordon hopes the outdoor setting will support folks really feel additional relaxed with regard to COVID-19 hazard as well as stimulate interactions by “being in a position to see each other in new techniques staying in a position to do so once more in a place that is a absolutely free and open area for all,” she claimed. “We’re making an attempt to spotlight for folks of colour to know that [the arboretum] is a area the place, primarily if you haven’t in advance of, you can delight in a lot of walks and imaginations listed here.”
Castle of our Skins output coordinator Jacqui Dumornay said she appreciated currently being capable to see her childhood stamping ground from a new viewpoint although setting up the occasion. “A whole lot of my skinned knees have been from using my bike off path,” stated Dumornay, who grew up five minutes from the park and worked with the arboretum’s horticultural team to create an obtainable and immersive expertise devoid of disturbing the park’s conservation initiatives.
“When we get caught in the hustle and grind of staying in an urban center, being in the arboretum seriously presents individuals a prospect to hit pause on that,” claimed Dumornay. “We’re not discouraging phones, but we’ve designed a solid work to arrange the exhibition in a way that feels purely natural, so folks really don’t have to use their phones to navigate.”
The best aim of the ball, stated Callahan, is to transcend boundaries and carry persons with each other.
“I think Boston has usually been to some degree of a segregated town,” he said. “Boston has a good deal of range, but typically people today continue to be in their enclaves. So a cultural party like this that provides persons together to celebrate every other — not only in what makes us the exact as human beings, but what tends to make us distinctive . . . was likely a stunning issue in Boston.”
MASSQ BALL: ORIGIN
July 9, 2-7 p.m. Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Jamaica Simple. www.massqball.com
A.Z. Madonna can be attained at [email protected]. Adhere to her on Twitter @knitandlisten.