Magazine Beach

Last night the park was busy with celebration, with birthday parties, family picnics, our 2nd Annual Traditional Irish Session, and ArtBoat.Traditional musicians from the Druid and dancers from O’Riley Irish Dance took the stage, along with some exuberant members of the audience, large and small. Thanks are due to the organizers: Sean Clohessy, Jackie O’Riley, and Brian O’Donovan; and to those who provided essential bits: the Boston Dance Alliance (for the dance floor), Home Depot (for the generator), and the Riverside Boat Club (for the chairs). What a lovely evening!

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Then, Laura Perovich, PhD student in the Object-Based Media group at the MIT Media Lab, brought ArtBoat to the park.  To art and creative expression at Magazine Beach!

ArtBoat as photographed by Jorge Valdez (jvaldezm2503@gmail.com)

If you’d like to be added to the ArtBoat mailing list to learn about future events, see pictures from the event, and provide feedback, go to:  https://goo.gl/forms/TWoXkU7jCR4j8dpx1 or contact Laura Perovich at artboat@lauraperovich.com.  Laura asks, “please share your pictures from this event! Post them with the hashtag #ArtBoatCambridge or send them to artboat@lauraperovich.com.”

Bring a picnic, your instrument, and your dancing shoes to the park for our 2nd Annual Traditional Irish Session, 5:30-7:30pm. Some of Boston’s best traditional players, including Joey Abarta (Uilleann Pipes), Tina Lech (fiddle) and Ted Davis (banjo/guitar) will play and Jackie O’Riley, of O’Riley Irish Dance, will lead free instruction in traditional Irish step! Thank you, the Druid, Jackie O’Riley and Brian O’Donovan, for bringing this amazing event to the park. Meet at the dance floor beside the pedestrian footbridge (at the foot of Magazine Street).

Then, from 8-9pm, Laura Perovich of the Media Lab will bring us Light Painting with Art Boats, making light paintings on the Charles.  Meet behind the swimming pool to drive remote controlled boats that will paint the river.

Parking: If the park’s 3 parking lots are full, you can park in the neighborhood where it says residential parking only–it’s Sunday, and parking is easy in Cport. Better yet, though, take the T to Central Square, or bike or walk to the park.

Fly, Buzz & Honk! Festival on Friday Celebrated the Many Creatures With Whom We Share the Park

On Friday, the Cambridge Wildlife Puppetry Project of Green Cambridge brought the Fly, Buzz & Honk! Festival to the park. An all-star cast including Mass Audubon, Ranger Jean of Fresh Pond, Green Cambridge, Meadowscaping for Biodiversity, and, of course, the CWFF,  led beetle, bee sock puppet and nature journal making, pollinator relays, nature exploration, and music, too. Thank you, all!

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Note: Due to rain, the Fly, Buzz & Honk Festival has been postponed to Friday!

Lisa Kumpf of the Charles River Watershed Association spoke with teens about wetlands.

On Monday, 25 teens from the two Cambridge Mayor’s Youth Employment Program, Team Green Sense and C.C.C. STEAM, toured the park to learn about ecology, watersheds and the history of the park and how humans have changed it over time. (Long ago, it was an island surrounded by marshes.) Partners from Mass Audubon and the CRWA collaborated for a fascinating, if a bit wet, program.

Students in another Mayor’s Program, YEEP, the Youth Environmental Entrepreneurship Program, joined us July 11 to check out the new pollinator garden that Meadowscaping for Biodiversity gave us in May. The plants are thriving and bees and butterflies abound!

On Tuesday, Mass Audubon returned to the park with Nature Detectives (for little ones, Tuesdays at 10am). Mass Audubon will be back again on Friday for the  Fly, Buzz & Honk! Festival, July 27 (the rain date!), from 10am-12:30pm. Come join us! Explore nature, play a pollinator relay game, make puppets and craft your own nature journal. Bring your lunch and then cool off afterwards at the spray deck or swimming pool. Check here in the morning to see if the program is ON or whether is will happen on Friday instead (due to the weather!).

These events have been postponed to NEXT Sunday, July 29. While it’s GORGEOUS out right now, the rain will come early this morning and is predicted to stay with us all day Sunday. See you at the park on the 29th! Please help to spread the word.

Come one, come all: All Irish instrumentalists, singers, dancers, and listeners are welcome! Head to Magazine Beach NEXT Sunday, July 29 at 5:30pm for our 2nd Traditional Irish Session and then to the Druid afterwards for more great tunes. Many thanks to Brian O’Donovan of WGBH’s Celtic Sojourn for inspiring this event, to Sean Clohessy for organizing the musicians, and to Jackie O’Riley of O’Riley Irish Dance for leading the dancing.

Afterwards, at 8pm, we’ll also have Light Painting with ArtBoats at the park. We will make light paintings on the Charles River. Come meet behind the swimming pool to  drive remote controlled boats, control the color of lights on the boats and on land, or take long exposure photographs to make collaborative light graffiti. Organized by Laura Perovich, MIT Media Lab. FOR EVERYONE!

For more details about both events, click here.

Over the last weeks, thousands have been drawn to the park to swim, splash, picnic and engage in our summer programs.

Vanessa Trien & the Jumping Monkeys delighted July 3.

Coming up this week: Stories & Song, Yoga, Nature Detectives, CCD Open House & Bike Maintenance Workshops, African Drumming, a Traditional Irish Session, and Light Painting with ArtBoats. Click here for details.

Note: Due to today’s thunderstorms the CCD’s Open House and Bike Workshops at MB have been cancelled. They will be rescheduled for a date TBD.

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How fitting that the 1818 Powder Magazine be restored on the Bicentennial of its construction. Yesterday, we celebrated this occasion with a ribbon cutting and birthday party. An all-star cast of speakers–DCR’s Comm. Roy, Sen. Boncore, Rep. Livingstone, Mayor McGovern, City Manager DePasquale, Ex. Dir. of the CHC Sullivan (and I, too) spoke of the collaboration that made the renovation possible.

The community advocated. The politicians representing us pushed. The City led. And the State (DCR) dedicated some of their limited resources to the renovation and oversaw it. Working together, we’ve made concrete, constructive change.

Now to find a community-oriented tenant for the building who will activate the space and serve as the guardian for the park. Got ideas? For more about the restoration of the Magazine, click here. Contact jennifer.norwood@state.ma.us.

SAVE THE DATE: Sunday, Sept. 16 , 6-8pm, we’ll hold our Benefit Party for the park at the Powder Magazine to raise money for additional park improvements. We’re not done yet!

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Many of these photos were by Bimal Nepal. Thanks!

Finally the heat and humidity is breaking. Tomorrow will be a cooler, sunny day—perfect for our Bicentennial Celebration & Ribbon Cutting for the Powder Magazine—a birthday party! See poster below for schedule of events. (Speaking program at 5pm. Cake at 5:30pm. For further info, click here.)

Come join in the fun in celebrating this momentous occasion. It’s not every day that the oldest structure on the Charles River Basin turns 200. And it’s not every day that the State (DCR), City (Cambridge) and community pull together to restore a building of such historic significance. In 1818, it stored gunpowder; in 1899, it became a bathhouse for Charles River swimmers; in 1954, it became a MDC garage; in 2018, ????? But we’ve done it—we’ve breathed new life into that old granite block building.

Interested in becoming the Magazine’s 21st-century tenant? Community surveys have suggested that it should become a concession, a meeting space, a performance venue and rental. Email: jennifer.norwood@state.ma.us.

Parking July 7: There will be overflow parking at the Morse School after the Farmers Market closes at 2pm. I’ll also be requesting permission from the Cambridge Police Department for out-of-towners to park in lower Cport –in residential permit spots–from 4-7pm today. But better yet, arrive by bike, foot or bus!

July 4th at Magazine Beach

Family

Sitting under big old shade trees

Feeling the cool river breeze

The pool! The Spray deck!

Grilled burgers, hot dogs and chicken

Comfort, joy and delight.

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The pool will be open from 11:15am-6:45pm, and the spray deck from 9:30am-7pm. Please picnic in the areas that are not fenced off. DCR has reseeded the area where the broken wading pool was and it isn’t yet established. It will be ready for you in just a few more weeks.

Parking will be a little tricky. You can’t park at the park, but you can drop off stuff at the parking crescent (across from Magazine Beach Shell) and park in the neighborhood, even without a residential permit, OR in the Morse School parking lot.

Happy picnicking and Happy July 4th!

Return THIS SATURDAY, July 7, for the 200th Birthday Party and Ribbon Cutting for the Powder Magazine. At long last, its renovation is almost complete. Thank you DCR, Cambridge and the community for making this happen!

We’ll celebrate with salsa dancing, children’s games, kite flying, music, a Powder Magazine open house and tour, and, of course, birthday cake! For more info, click here.

Come hear Vanessa Trien & the Jumping Monkeys tomorrow, Tuesday, July 3 @ 10am (rain location: Morse School). A New York City native, Trien has been performing music for kids and families for more than a decade with her lively band the Jumping Monkeys. Her music for kids and families has won a NAPPA (National Parenting Publications Association) Award, an Academics’ Choice Award, and four Silver Parents’ Choice award. Co-presented by Cambridge Arts Summer in the City.

AND THEN on Saturday, July 7 (rain date: July 8), 4-7pm we’ll celebrate the Powder Magazine’s 200th Birthday with a party & the Magazine’s renovation with a ribbon cutting. Bring a picnic, bring the kids, bring your swim suits, and enjoy a fun evening at the park. For further information, click here. Co-sponsors are Knucklebones, Blue Hill Observatory and the Dance Complex! Birthday cake at 5:30pm.