Stephen Baird

Stephen is a public performer on dulcimer and other instruments as well as an activist for many causes. He explained to me the history of public performance in Boston and Cambridge and how he has had to go through many court cases to keep the right to public performance and even write some of the licenses carefully to switch the situation around. For example, he wrote the performance license rules in Cambridge so that you now go to the arts council to apply instead of the police department... this way you are treated like an artist rather than a criminal. And, the $40 yearly fee is recycled back into the artists by hiring them instead of spent on arresting performers.