Part I:
A new COAST Projects collaboration is in the works — and while you could say this one was born directly out of the COAST Is Clear Festival weekend this past December, in my head it started a few years back, so let’s begin there.
It was probably early-2019, and I was screen printing shirts on the front porch at COAST like I often do.
Drop the screen, drag the paint, flood it back, quick fold, then set on the ledge to my left where the sun has just peeked over the roof to dry the ink quickly — repeat.
The window to my right is open and a speaker straddles the sill — songs whistle from inside the shop and breeze past me onto Whitehead Street where tourists bustle by in search of Hemingway’s house just one block away. They sometimes stop, gawking at the archaic t-shirt-printing-machine that is magically putting painted designs onto otherwise blank t-shirts.
I pay no attention — lost somewhere in the moment.
Then, on that particular day, a song came on that hit me like few ever do at first listen.
It was…