Members of our local, regional, and global communities come to us with dreams of what they want to bring alive in our historic spaces, and we do our very best to work with each and every one to realize their live event, attended by their biggest fans who are also enriched in the process. We do this in an ever-growing number of ways–through our own programs like the Spotlight Series, the Performance Opportunity Program (POP), the Feet Keep the Beat Festival, Somerville Winter Farmers Market, and ROOTED Café Exhibitions, and through the 750+ events we host in our spaces each year using a sliding scale model that provides equity and inclusivity so that all dreams can come true. Thank you for giving as generously as you can to Arts at the Armory this season.

Arts at the Armory welcomes back cuatro player, singer, composer, and educator Fabiola Méndez as a headliner to our Spotlight Series. Her artistic vision and original music focus on the exploration of her culture, her ancestry, and her identities.

Native to Caguas, PR, Méndez began playing the cuatro, a 5-double string traditional guitar of Puerto Rico, when she was 6 years old. In 2018 she graduated from Berklee College of Music as the first student to play the Puerto Rican cuatro as principal instrument.

To open the concert, there will be a special viewing of Méndez’ first documentary, “Negrura” (released in 2022). The film is an audiovisual storytelling experience that showcases the stories of Afro-Latinx folks from Boston’s Latin Quarter Cultural District. Music, at the core of the project, creates spaces for reflective and healing conversations about colorism, anti-blackness, discrimination, and racism within the Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latinx communities.

Fabiola Méndez’ performance is funded in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the City of Somerville, and in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.

Petición disponible en español (haga clic en el botón de arriba)
Petição disponível em português (clique no botão acima)
Petisyon disponib an kreyol ayisyen (klike sou bouton anlè a)

Experience Chris Pureka live in Somerville on September 22nd as part of Arts at the Armory’s Spotlight Series. Doors at 7pm and opening sets begin at 8pm. After a five-year recording hiatus, Chris Pureka is touring their latest album The Longest Year, a collection of tender and hopeful songs written and recorded during the pandemic.  

Kym Register, contributing a politically charged, queer lens to the southern rock ethos, is touring with Pureka and will open. Boston-based roots music favorite Rachel Sumner will also play an opening set. 

Funded in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the City of Somerville