Best of the Day: Pussy Riot – June 5, 2015
Welcome to Best of the Day, our daily recommendation for what to check out around town. If you do one thing in Boston today, consider this.
Pussy Riot / Still from “I Can’t Breathe“
This year, Boston Pride turns 45. Launched one year after the Stonewall Riots, the annual celebration dedicated to the LGBT and ally community has grown into a sprawling 10-day extravaganza. The crowning glory is its massive parade—last year’s march from Copley Square to City Hall Plaza drew a record 25,000 people.
The theme for Pride 2015 might be #WickedProud, but this fest is no provincial shindig: For today’s Pride kickoff, they’re bringing international social justice icons Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova—founding members of the Russian female punk activist collective Pussy Riot, famed for donning ski masks, throwing guerrilla protests, and getting stomped by Putin’s jackboots—to join Mayor Marty Walsh at noon for the annual raising of the rainbow-colored flag on City Hall Plaza.
Afterward, Alekhina and Tolokonnikova are off to the Wilbur Theatre for a conversation with WBUR’s Meghna Chakrabarti, introduced by Joyce Linehan, Mayor Walsh’s chief of policy. And there’s an awful lot to talk about: In just the past three years, the Pussy Rioters have served a prison sentence for their anti-Putin “hooliganism,” they’ve been attacked with whips by Cossack militia at Sochi, and in 2015, they released their first English-language song: “I Can’t Breathe,” whose title pays tribute to Eric Garner, who died after being put in a chokehold by police. They’ve started a prisoners’ rights NGO, as well as their own news service, MediaZona (now partnered with the Guardian). Oh, and they also made a cameo appearance on the third season of House of Cards—turns out, Frank Underwood is a fan.
$37, June 5, 7:30 p.m., Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St., Boston, 617-248-9700, thewilbur.com. For the full Boston Pride Week schedule, go to bostonpride.org.
