“A contradiction to the heralded First Landing of the Pilgrims, Provincetown’s colorful identity was indeed a magnet for both unconventional sojourners, outlaws, and outsiders.”
Though sometimes it feels like we spend most of our time at Talking Joints Memo covering products and cannabis policy, we nonetheless consider ourselves to be the descendants of innumerable strange iconoclastic independent publishers and writers—including those who smoked and wrote about weed back when getting caught burning landed people on government watch lists.
When it comes to Massachusetts history, many people are aware that the Bay State has been a hub for revolutionary media since Sam Adams drafted his darts against the British at the Green Dragon Tavern. But what’s less commonly known is how multiple generations of much less conventional geniuses after that cross-pollinated in the commonwealth.
For well over a century, one of the premier places for such extraordinary congregations has been Provincetown. And starting this Thursday, the organizers behind Camp Provincetown’s 1st Annual Outsiders Festival will pay tribute to the long list of creatives who have passed through—from artists like Edward Hopper, to anarchists like Emma Goldman, to writers including Norman Mailer, to Edith Lake Wilkinson, who an HBO doc described as a “writer, a ballet dancer, the wife of F. Scott, and an artist who anticipated psychedelia.”
All icons considered, I am excited to participate in the festivities set to unfold in Provincetown this week—as the editor of Talking Joints Memo, as well as the editorial director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. In addition to preserving history, the team behind Camp Provincetown invited some of us who are still active in underground media and art to jump in. If you’re on the Cape, be sure to join us and burn one. More from the official announcement below:
Camp Provincetown is proud to announce our 1st Annual Outsiders Festival. The Outsiders Festival is a celebration of us as a vibrant community of world-class performers and artists in every sense of the word.
The ultimate goal of Camp Provincetown is to help sustain a climate that is sympathetic to the values of both creative and self expression, and in doing so serve to assure the isolated and aliented artist that they are not alone and in turn thrive spiritually and economically.
2025 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Provincetown institution, Scream Along With Billy. Billy Hough, Sue Goldberg and a cast of characters have been masterfully recreating classic and cult albums before adoring audiences. On Saturday, May 10, Billy takes over the hallowed Provincetown Town Hall as an homage to Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable five-day 1966 Provincetown Museum run. The performance will be captured as a multi-track recording and film.
The Commons will be hosting, HERESY an interactive salute to the 1964 Here Comes Everybody (HCE) Gallery and the legacy of Provincetown Happenings. Spiritus Pizza and Ice Cream presents the photography of Michael Koehler. Dancing, A reading of Jackie Curtis’ “Vain Victory” with the original composer, Lary Chaplan. Karen Cappotto curates Provincetown Collagists v4.0. Dance the nights away at the Gifford House.
