Events

Malden Pride (not in) the Park: Fourth annual celebration of Malden LGBTQIA2S+ community

“I love my city. I love my community. I love my neighbors gay, straight, and everything all around.” – Leilani Ricardo, The Malden Pride Coalition By Jamie Perkins On Sunday, June 25, Malden residents celebrated the LGBTQIA2S+ community at The Malden Senior & Teen Enrichment Center. Originally advertised as “Malden Pride in the Park,” the event was scheduled to occur at Coytemore Lea Park but was relocated due to weather concerns. The coalition’s website describes Malden Pride as “an afternoon of celebration, joy, and education” that centers “the diversity, history, and future of our community.”  The Malden Pride Coalition began in 2020 with a group at the First Parish of Malden Unitarian Universalist Church. Since its origination, the coalition has grown and is no longer officially affiliated with the church. The organization is currently working toward achieving nonprofit status.  The Malden Pride Coalition saw a “tremendous response” from the community this year, said Aisha Cruse, one of the coalition’s founding members. Along with community partners such as Mystic Valley Salon and Boston Pole Fitness, the […]

Education

Growing for Malden: behind the high school community garden that could

By Bryan Liu In an empire of sawdust, a jungle blooms. Malden High School’s makerspace is a warehouse-sized engineering classroom that doubles as a fully-stocked workshop for hands-on STEM-based extracurriculars — but against the windowsill, a row of lush hydroponics sticks out like a sore thumb — a green one.  This is where Malden’s Youth Community Garden trains in the off-season.  Malden High School Senior, Jadelini Mora, explains that the makerspace is the perfect nursery for plants to mature indoors during the colder months until it’s warm enough for them to be moved into one of 23 planting beds that make up the garden outside. To expand their planting space, the club built a greenhouse in April. It’s somewhere between professional and DIY.  The thermal ‘greenhouse effect’ owes its namesake to the sheets of UV-resistant plastic affixed with only a mile of duct tape and several elbows’ worth of elbow grease. The layers of tarp are just translucent enough to glimpse the sun-kissed gloss of green-ish horticulture from a distance.  Now the club can garden […]

Education

Drinking coffee with the Song Dogs of Forest Dale

By Karen Buck Joey Kolbe, a professional wildlife photographer, leaned against a rock and sipped his coffee. His 22-pound camouflaged zoom lens was focused on his local and personal project: the lives of two coyote siblings living in the Forest Dale region of Malden, MA. Ten years ago, Kolbe and his family moved to Malden.  He was intrigued with the coyotes after his first local sighting in 2013.  His coyote project started in 2016 by filming a family of four, but by 2022 he was putting a more in-depth focus on the two siblings living in the Forest Dale neighborhood. Kolbe has observed these local Song Dogs for thousands of hours.  The Wildlife Photographer Lens Kolbe’s passion was sparked from an experience with his eight-year-old daughter two years ago. They had been exploring the Fells and were sitting by one of the water stations. Several coyotes appeared and were curious about the father and daughter.  The coyotes smelled the air; Kolbe described, “The bubble [atmosphere of smells and reactions] around us is very important to them. […]

Education

Indigenous wisdom, poetry and history guide community event at Malden River

By Anne D’Urso-Rose I know that our ancestors are really happy for the work that we’re doing. It’s been a 400-year fracture – with colonization and assimilation – and it’s really going to take all of us to come together, in ways like this, to bring balance back to the land and to the water. Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines, Jr. – Malden, MA, 9-24-22 As the country recognizes indigenous Peoples Month this November, Neighborhood View reflects on a recent community event that embodied the spirit of remembering, understanding and connecting with Native people, history and culture. “Words on the Water” (morning) and “Project Misik” (afternoon) was a combined day-long event on Sept. 24 in a spot along the banks of the Malden River that is generally hidden from public view. In that space, more than 200 residents, a sampling of Malden’s diverse community, gathered over the course of the day to take part in an Indigenous blessing ceremony, paddle canoes on the waterway, share a meal of Haitian food from “The Island” restaurant, and learn how […]

Arts

CD Collins aims to “move mountains” with spoken word

By Michael Cao “I want to take you take on a journey deep into the hills, up the hollows into the mist and mystery to Hazard, Kentucky, a drumming heart of the planet. Where we have so much treasure —the mountains, minerals, music and the people of Appalachia.”  – CD Collins Light drums and keyboard chords punctuated the words. The sounds were of music, poetry, stories. People were not sitting in a traditional concert hall, rather they were gathered in the backyard of a historic house in Malden to experience art in a myriad of forms.   In early October, musician, writer, and poet CD Collins organized a spoken word event, entitled “Words Move Mountains” at the Wilson House of Visitation, a historical house at 68 High Street in Malden. According to Bahai history, Abdu’l-Baha, the son of Baháʼu’lláh, visited the house in 1912. David Weigert, a retired professor from Berklee College of Music and caretaker of the house, co-produced the event with Collins. (Urban Media Arts did a podcast with Weigert talking about his story and […]

Arts

Cartoonist Keith Knight reflects on growing up in Malden, education, race and the value of art

By Anne D’Urso-Rose Keith Knight, a Malden native, infuses his work with humor, creativity and social activism. His nationally syndicated cartoon series (K Chronicles, DAILY, and (th)ink) have won awards and inspired the live-action comedy series “Woke” on Hulu. Loosely based on some of his real life events, Knight co-created the show with Marshall Todd and drew the animation that opens the show. Knight went to high school in Malden, lived for a while in California’s Bay area (where the “Woke” series is based), later moved to Los Angeles and now lives with his wife and two children in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Knight returned to the Boston area last May to give the commencement address at Salem State University, his alma mater. On May 22, he attended the unveiling of the mural he created for the Malden Arts mural series along the Northern Strand Bike Trail near the Breakfast Club (formerly Doo Wop) Diner. The mural is a Malden-centric take on his popular comic series “Life’s Little Victories.” Neighborhood View caught up with Knight […]

Arts

ChronoSquad Malden: Exploring History and Identity through Virtual Worlds

By Amanda De Rosa In a cross between Pokémon Go” and a historical tour, a new gaming app lets users both young and old visually travel back in time in Malden to experience the city’s colorful past. ChronoSquad: Malden – a free gaming app available to download via Google Play and Apple Apps stores – follows four detectives, Tam, Su, Francis, and Max, who discover a magic camera that can see through time, called the Chronoscope. The app transforms the user’s mobile phone camera into the Chronoscope, and the app’s integrated map and clues from the ChronoSquad help players discover various portals throughout Malden. [Note: as of April 2024, the iOS app was no longer available.] When these locations are discovered, the Chronoscope reveals hidden histories using augmented reality. This local history scavenger hunt features five different episodes of play, each focusing on different areas of Malden, and reveals historical stories of immigration, abolition, suffrage, and labor. Celia Pearce, the creative director of the ChronoSquad: Malden, is a game developer and professor of game design […]

Education

Malden students walk out amid faculty changes, cite communication problems

By Taylor Lee Earlier this month, hundreds of Malden High School students walked out of classes midday to protest layoffs in the Malden public schools. The next day they held a vigil in downtown Malden attended by Malden residents and faculty. Protestors were concerned that 105 education faculty members did not have their contracts renewed.  “I will continue to march and protest in honor of this,” said Juliana Davidson, a senior at Malden High School. “I will not be silenced until resolutions are solved.” “We have 105 flameless candles, representative of the 105 educational relationships extinguished by the office of the superintendent,” said Malden Education Association President Deborah Gesualdo at the vigil. “We’re leaving them here to continue to represent every single one of those people. Every single one of those educators. As an acknowledgment of what will be lost in our district.” Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Ligia Noriega-Murphy released a statement on May 13 saying 63 “non-renewal letters” were sent out. She listed a variety of reasons, including performance-based cuts, low enrollment in classes and some faculty being temporary hires […]

Events

North Shore Black Women’s Association carries on the spirit of Dr. King

By Martha Bezzat For several hundred members of the Greater Malden community, the Saturday before the Martin Luther King holiday was a time to gather at Anthony’s of Malden for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon. These past two years, the event has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and many deeply felt the loss of that tradition. “The North Shore Black Women’s Association’s MLK Jr. Luncheon is all about rejoicing and rededication,” said Adam Weldai, Ward 5 School Committee member. “It has been sorely missed these past two years, especially as the challenges of structural racism and inequality that so many have known and lived for so long have been brought to the forefront for those who it was less familiar to.” He added, “The luncheons, through speakers, song, and moments of reflection give us a chance to be among a caring community, remind us how connected we truly are, and give us the joy and strength to move forward with the work that needs to be done.” For 27 years, […]

Events

Campaign season over: A look at the 2021 municipal election in Malden

By Saliha Bayrak. Photos by Keren He. On Nov 2, residents of Malden headed to the polls to vote for councilors-at-large, city councilors, and school committee members. Excitement was high as candidates and Malden residents stood outside voting locations with signs in support. Incumbent Craig Spadafora and two newcomers, Karen Colón Hayes and Carey McDonald, won seats for councilor-at-large.  “We ran a very serious, competitive campaign from the beginning, and that was a campaign built on reaching out to all parts of the community,” said McDonald on an Urban Media Arts livestream during election night. His campaign focused on knocking on doors, working across neighborhoods, and ensuring that citizens had access to information in their own language, McDonald said.  Peg Crowe (Ward 1), Amanda Linehan (Ward 3), Ryan O’Malley (Ward 4), Barbara Murphy (Ward 5), and Jadeane Sica (Ward 8) were re-elected for city council in their respective wards. Chris Simonelli joined Ward 7’s city council after a hiatus from city government, while Stephen Winslow, formerly councilor-at-large, was elected to the Ward 6 seat. The […]