Category: Waltham Times

  • ‘How can we fix this?’: Andy Katz-Mayfield on his journey to co-found Harry’s and his Brookline roots

    By Hazel Nystrom

    When Andy Katz-Mayfield was getting frustrated with the limited, expensive options for buying razor blades, he asked himself a question: 

    “How can we fix this?”

    So began the Brookline native’s path to becoming co-founder and co-CEO of the popular shaving company Harry’s and its parent company, Mammoth Brands. Harry’s is well known for its subscription service and direct-to-consumer business model.

    Even while living in California, Katz-Mayfield, 43, still connects with his Brookline roots. When visiting, he makes sure to stop in at Anna’s Taqueria, bring his kids to the John D. Runkle School playground, or catch a Boston sports game with his family.

    In 2013, Katz-Mayfield founded Harry’s with Jeff Raider, whom he met when they were interns at the consulting firm Bain & Company. Harry’s – the name is intended to evoke the feeling of a friend – has since taken off and served as a disruptive force in an otherwise dominated market.

    Judy Katz, Andy’s mother, said she has had confidence in his entrepreneurship throughout his endeavors. She said she always knew Andy would do something interesting. “He’s a real thinker,” she said. 

    Andy is the fourth of five close-knit children and has always had a “very strong sense of family,” Judy said. 

    A teacher’s mark

    Katz-Mayfield traces his thirst for knowledge and knack for problem-solving to his early life in Brookline.

    Among the teachers who “left lasting impressions” on Katz-Mayfield was his junior year AP U.S. History teacher, Deborah Quitt. 

    “[Mrs. Quitt], was similarly just instilled in this thirst for just like knowledge and understanding the world around you,” Katz-Mayfield said.

    Quitt started her 38-year career at Brookline High School in 1968 and retired in 2006. She remembers Katz-Mayfield as a “terrific student,” who “always worked hard, always prepared,” she said.

    When Katz-Mayfield decided to apply to Duke University, he turned to Quitt for a letter of recommendation. “I wrote thousands of college recommendations,” she said. “I think his was the only one that I wrote to Duke.”

    For Quitt, it’s “comforting” and “very rewarding” to have left an impression on Katz-Mayfield. 

    “And I think he was like a sponge,” she said. “He was ready and eager, and willing to learn.”

    Buying a 100-year-old razor factory

    After graduating from Brookline High in 2000, Katz-Mayfield studied public policy at Duke but was initially on the pre-medicine track. He was drawn to the health care sector by the idea of fixing a broken system and solving problems, intentions he carried through in his entrepreneurship.

    “There’s an industry that’s broken. There’s a customer experience that’s broken,” Katz-Mayfield said. Again, the question arose: “How do I fix it?”

    Nearly 10 months after Harry’s launch, Katz-Mayfield took on a daunting yet thrilling endeavor: buying a nearly 100-year-old razor factory in Germany. Limited options in shaving brands are partly due to the product being particularly challenging to manufacture, Katz-Mayfield explained. 

    “It’s sort of hard to innovate if you don’t really control the whole process and are vertically integrated,” he said. “So we did it.”

    While the purchase was “stressful and hard and certainly risky,” Katz-Mayfield said it was a “formative experience.”

    Despite any nerves that came with the purchase, the Katz-Mayfield family has remained steadfast in their trust in Andy and his endeavors, Judy said.

    “We really have a lot of faith in him,” she said.

    In the early days of the company, Katz-Mayfield learned on his network of support in his hometown.

    “I’m still very close to a lot of my friends from growing up in Brookline and from high school,” he said. “They were all early users from prototypes of the products and giving feedback, [to] kind of rooting me on.”

    Harry’s scope extends well beyond Brookline now — there’s even a running joke in the Katz-Mayfield family on Andy’s success. 

    “There’s nobody that my husband’s ever met on the street or seen anywhere who’s not familiar with Harry’s within three minutes,” Judy said with a laugh. 

    In 2018, Harry’s launched a women’s brand, Flamingo. Andy said Flamingo was created in response to women having similar frustrations with expensive products that weren’t suited to women’s needs. 

    It was important to stray from creating a “Harriet’s” or a “Sally’s” that was simply an extension of the brand, Katz-Mayfield said. Instead, they developed Flamingo with the intent to create a separate, distinct brand, with a team dedicated to serving women’s shaving needs. 

    Growing up in Brookline helped open Katz-Mayfield to a variety of ideas and perspectives, something he has brought with him to his work at Mammoth Brands, he said. 

    “Brookline was like a great community to grow up in, you know, in part because of the quality of the education, but also the diversity of ideas, of the population, the proximity to Boston, and all the sort of major cultures,” Katz-Mayfield said. 

    But his path to success hasn’t been without bumps in the road. 

    FTC throws up a roadblock

    After disrupting the market controlled by only a few giants, including Boston-based Gillette, Harry’s nearly united with one of them. In May 2019, Edgewell Personal Care, the parent of leading razor company Schick, announced it was acquiring Harry’s for $1.37 billion. 

    In February 2020, the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the acquisition, ultimately killing the deal. The lawsuit cited losing Harry’s as a competitor in the shaving industry would take away an essential disruptive force in the industry. 

    To buy a single razor from Gillette ranges from around $15 to $25, while Harry’s, as well as Schick, average around $10. 

    Reflecting on the tumultuous time, Andy’s mother touted his resilience. 

    “He had a tough year, and he doesn’t show it,” she said. “He really takes things in stride.”

    After being shut down by the FTC, Katz-Mayfield flipped the script. In 2021, Mammoth Brands acquired the deodorant brand Lume and in 2022 founded Mando, a brand focused on whole-body deodorant for men. 

    Mammoth Brands hopes to keep philanthropic work at the forefront. The company has donated over $20 million to nonprofit organizations. 

    A recent partnership that Katz-Mayfield is excited about is Flamingo’s Body Appreciation Program launched with The Girl Scouts, which seeks to help improve young women’s relationships with their bodies. 

    Andy’s 9-year-old daughter, Chloe, is a Girl Scout, with 6-year-old Isla likely to follow her. Through this partnership, Girl Scouts created six new Body Appreciation badges, distinct for different age groups, which Katz-Mayfield says his kids think is “very cool.” 

    Family and community are integral to Andy’s person, his mother said. When he returns to Brookline, Katz-Mayfield will meet up with his old high school friends and “Runkle Boys,” per Andy’s yearbook quote. 

    Andy hopes his children will grow up to be “Boston sports fans like me,” he said. When in town, he takes them to Red Sox, Bruins, or Celtics games “so that they can get indoctrinated into the culture.” 

    When Andy founded Harry’s, his mother said she and his father, Phil Mayfield, “were proud of him, and we were hoping that he also felt fulfilled,” throughout his career.

    Maybe next, “he could solve health care,” she quipped. 

    This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

    This article was originally published on October 18, 2025.

  • Years after working together, 93-year-old retired neurologist undergoes brain surgery by his mentee

    by Hazel Nystrom


    In a long line of photos of physicians lining the wall of MetroWest Medical Center, Dr. William Wiener’s is the very first. At 93 years old, the retired neurologist was in the medical field for over six decades and served in leadership roles at MetroWest. 

    Throughout his long medical career, Wiener, who lived in Brookline and goes by Bill, had many mentees. So, when the time came for Wiener to get brain surgery, he knew who to go to.

    Dr. Krishna Nirmel, a neurosurgeon affiliated with MetroWest Medical Center, operated on Wiener in August. Wiener had been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), a neurological condition caused by spinal fluid build-up in the skull. 

    As a mentor, Wiener trained medical students and residents who came through MetroWest, bringing them with him on his rounds and teaching them the basics of neurology, Nirmel said. Wiener also taught seminars for psychiatrists and neurologists hoping to pass their board exams.

    When Wiener went to Nirmel for treatment, he’d been having moments of confusion and couldn’t stand on his own. Despite risks like site infection and subdural hematoma, getting a shunt was a “no-brainer,” Wiener said. 

    The shunt uses a catheter inserted in a brain ventricle to drain excess spinal fluid into areas in the body where it can be more easily absorbed, like the peritoneal lining, which has a very fine membrane that can eventually return the spinal fluid back into the bloodstream, Nirmel explained.

    “I know a lot about this condition, and I understand that it may take me months to recover,” Wiener said. “But the alternative is permanent dementia and incontinence.” 

    Now, after the operation, Wiener can walk for short periods of time with the assistance of a walker, he has less cognitive impairment and no longer struggles with incontinence, he said. 

    For Nirmel, the procedure was slightly nerve-racking, because “anytime you open somebody’s head, there’s a risk.”

    “The last thing I want is somebody I care for, who is my friend, to have a complication,” he said.

    Despite the nerves that accompany most medical procedures, Wiener found comfort in knowing Nirmel would be operating on him. 

    “I knew this guy for years,” Wiener said. “I’d rather have somebody I know open up my brain than someone I didn’t know.”

    At MetroWest, Wiener served as a mentor for those around him. When faced with a challenging issue, Wiener tackled it head-on and was the doctor people sought out for advice, Nirmel said. 

    “The more complex the problem, the better,” Wiener said. “You have to be a bit like Sherlock.”

    One of the key lessons Nirmel learned under Wiener is that “observation is the key element”  for diagnosis, he said. It’s that very lesson that helped him diagnose Wiener with NPH. 

    Cognitive confusion, mobility issues and incontinence are all symptoms of dementia. But they are also symptoms of the much lesser-known, though often curable, NPH, which Nirmel contributes to the condition being particularly challenging to diagnose.

    “Less than 20 percent of people with [NPH] are properly diagnosed,” according to the Alzheimer’s Association,  an organization that seeks to accelerate global research and end forms of dementia. 

    For NPH, an essential part of diagnosis is the patient’s gait, or the manner in which a person walks. People with NPH often take wide, short steps and have trouble turning in a few steps, Nirmel said. 

    Oftentimes, by the time a doctor sees a patient, the patient has already had preliminary tests done and is often seated for the entirety of the visit. This can lead to doctors not seeing any noticeable gait abnormalities, Nirmel said. 

    “Even smart doctors, they don’t think of NPH as one of the things that you look for,” he said. 

    While awareness of the condition increased when singer-songwriter Billy Joel announced in May that he had NPH, Nirmel said there’s a long way to go. He hopes “education and awareness” can bridge the gap, he said. 

    Now that Wiener has the shunt in, the valve that regulates the flow of spinal fluid can be adjusted using a magnetic device to change the opening pressure, to prevent over- or under-drainage. The shunt catheter has two antibiotics that leech out for 30 days after the operation, which Nirmel says “dramatically decreased” risks of infection post-surgery. 

    Being able to change the shunt’s pressure has been a “fantastic” medical advancement, Nirmel said. Shunts used to have a fixed pressure, so to change it would mean changing the valve in an operation under anesthesia. 

    Now using the magnetic device, Wiener’s valve pressure can be easily changed with no pain. 

    While the surgery was largely a success, Wiener hopes to further improve his mobility and his hearing in the coming months. As for his memory?

    “I’m a little forgetful, but most 93-year-old people are,” Wiener said with a smile.

    This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

    This article was originally published on October 2, 2025.

  • Going to Porchfest this weekend? Here are 10 groups to watch for

    by Hazel Nystrom


    Brookline Porchfest  happens Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., so get ready to roam the streets and soak up all kinds of music.

    The lineup features more than 100 bands whose self-described genres range from “indie alt emo” and “original traditional folk” to “psychedelic dance party” and “everybody’s favorite tunes.”

    If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the daunting list, here are 10 groups to keep an eye out for. 

    We Became Whales

    1:10 to 2:10 p.m. at 1398 Beacon St.

    What started in 2019 as five Boston University students jamming in an Allston basement has become We Became Whales , an indie rock band “with a lot of punk and funk influence,” says guitarist and singer Aidan McCall. 

    Expect to hear songs inspired by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Need more We Became Whales? Their murder mystery concept album is slated to release on Halloween.

    “It’s going to be the coolest porch in Coolidge,” McCall said. 

    Em Wise

    3:10 to 3:40 p.m. at 25 Jenness Rd.

    At 23 years old, indie-alternative singer-songwriter Em Wise  hopes to “connect with people through [her] songs,” she said. With a “unique, dynamic sound,” Wise’s music draws from her personal experiences with identity and love. 

    Classically trained in viola, Wise says her music finally “clicked” when she picked up guitar. If you like songs with “themes of queerness, love, loss, heartbreak,” Wise says you’ll like her music.  

    The Strummerville Ukulele Club featuring The After Jam

    3 to 4:30 p.m. at 361 Washington St.

    It won’t get more light-hearted than Strummerville Ukulele Club . Composed entirely of ukulele players, Strummerville accepts anyone and everyone, of all ages and all experience levels. Alongside classic sing-alongs, expect to hear “songs that have no business being played on the ukulele,” said John Soares, Strummerville’s co-leader.

    “It’s a little messy, it’s a little bit of a train wreck at times, but we lean into it in the best way,” Soares said. 

    Strummerville seeks to cultivate a friendly and welcoming environment as the group tours Porchfests in the Greater Boston area, Soares said. “You’re not going to find a more fun band.”

    Neponset Monastery

    1:50 to 2:20 p.m. at 85 Stanton Rd.

    Neponset Monastery  is a genre-bending goth “post dark-wave” punk band, with vastly ranging musical influences. You “haven’t heard a band that sounds like us,” said Sidney Lyon, the band’s singer. 

    If you aren’t into the goth style, Lyon said you should still give Neponset Monastery a shot.

    “Even if you don’t like the genre, you will feel the energy of my performance in a way that promotes empathy and connection,” Lyon said. “It’s very human, very raw, very real.”

    For Lyon, Neponset Monastery is all about human connection. “We are a goth punk band, but we are also really warm, kind, friendly people.” 

    Seth Hanson

    1:50 to 2:50 p.m. at 7 Griggs Terrace

    You might know Seth Hanson  as Mr. Seth, the persona he takes on when he performs his music for children. While he plays music for both children and adults, the former allows him “ a different kind of freedom and simplicity and silliness,” said Hanson, the 30-year-old artist and music teacher.

    While he won’t perform as Mr. Seth this weekend, this family-friendly artist hopes to create a welcoming environment on his porch, and to simply “play some songs that are nice to hear.”

    Usually Seven

    5 to 6 p.m. at 69 Columbia St.

    Usually comprising seven members, this jazz group, part of the music school Music Makers Studio  usually meets at 7 o’clock, says Mark Leccese, band member and former journalism professor.

    A Brookline Porchfest veteran, this aptly named seven-piece combo jazz band has played the event since 2018. Lecesse hopes to add to the “vibrant scene of amateur musicians” in Boston, he said. 

    To Leccese, Brookline Porchfest adds to that scene by making “music by members of the community, for members of the community.”

    Vices Inc

    4:50 to 5:20 p.m. at 81 Toxteth St

    Check out Vices Inc  for a taste of alternative rock, a sound that evolved from the band’s pop punk beginnings. 

    But even if you don’t love rock music, Vices Inc might have something for you. They play rock-inspired covers of pop hits like Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” and Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.”

    “We play what the crowd is looking for,” said guitarist Jagger Hicks. “We’ve done everything from rock to dance music to country music.”

    The Wiggly Tendrils

    2 to 3 p.m. at 188 Winchester St

    Acoustic guitar, electric cello, analog synthesizer, mandolin, banjo and electric violin — these are the instruments that make up The Wiggly Tendrils  “quirky” sound. The four-piece band is a “cross between a farmer’s market string band, and Star Wars cantina band,” said Conor Loughridge, the band’s principle singer and songwriter. 

    The band is working on an album that will comprise of around 100 songs, each dedicated to a single tree. Loughridge often wanders the Arnold Arboretum to find the album’s next subject.

    If you’re looking for “songs about science, science fiction, love, fantasy, or trees, you really can’t find a better band than us,” Loughridge said.

    Brighton Jazz Trio

    12 to 1:00 p.m. at 30 Stanton Rd

    Brighton Jazz Trio  plays jazz throughout the ages, with a mix of New Orleans jazz and more modern styles. The trio of clarinetist, guitarist and upright bassist will be playing Porchfest for the third time this year.

    For clarinetist Andy Moore, Porchfest provides a “festive spirit” and brings music back to its humble beginnings. 

    “You’re just playing to the people,” Moore said. “That’s what music was like thousands of years ago.” 

    Jam Sandwich

    4 to 5 p.m. at 34 Manchester Rd

    Together for 15 years, Jam Sandwich  (not to be confused with Jammwich , another band playing Brookline Porchfest) is a primarily classic rock band that has something for everyone. 

    “We play everything from the ‘50s through the 2000s,” said guitarist Rich Miller. “Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elvis, Beach Boys, Tom Petty, Skynyrd.”

    Grab a shaker or a tambourine provided by the band, and jam out to your favorite classic rock songs. 

    This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

    This article was originally published on September 24, 2025.

  • ‘People are looking to learn’: Brookline Booksmith, Prison Book Program expand access to reading in prisons

    By Hazel Nystrom

    Brookline Booksmith is expanding its partnership with a nonprofit that gives free books to people in prison thanks to an anonymous donor.

    For Banned Book Week, which runs through October 11, the donor will match the cost of all books purchased from the Prison Book Program’s wishlist  on Booksmith’s website, which is compiled through requests by incarcerated individuals. 

    Booksmith has partnered with the program for the past four or five years, said Peter Win, the store’s co-owner and co-manager.

    On the wishlist are books on language learning, legal aid, self-help and trade skills, as well as an assortment of novels.

    Kelly Brotzman, executive director of the Prison Book Program, said the books on the list can provide essential information to incarcerated people. 

    “People are looking to learn,” she said. “They’re looking to improve themselves. They’re looking to gain skills. They’re looking to do better in life. They’re looking to prepare for release.”

    Dictionaries are the top request. “We send thousands and thousands a year,” Brotzman said. 

    The Prison Book Program, which is based in Quincy and has been operating since 1972, is an approved book vendor for over 1,000 jails and prisons in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam. Last year, Brotzman said the organization sent around 70,000 books to incarcerated people. 

    As part of Booksmith’s partnership with the Prison Book Program, the bookstore donates ARCs, or Advance Reader Copies, which are pre-publication books used for promotional purposes that can’t be sold.

    “We’re lucky that we get a lot of ARCs from publishers to preview,” Win said. While the store  had been donating ARCs to county jails independently, “it has been helpful to give those to the prison book program as well.”

    The Prison Book Program is run entirely by volunteers who comb through prison regulations on book content and formatting, write personal notes, and package and mail books.

    Among those volunteers are “book fairies,” people who peruse vintage and second-hand stores, and garage or yard sales to help source books for the program.

    Despite their large volunteer base, fund-raising is “extremely important,” Brotzman said. The group spent $125,000 on mailing packages last year.

    “The cash match comes in really handy in helping cover those postage costs,” she said.

    During Banned Book Week, Win hopes to bring attention to book bannings and challenges, and wants people to understand that people in prisons are “very interested in having reading material.”

    “Reading is important for everybody,” Win said.

    For people outraged about book bans in libraries and schools, Brotzman hopes they turn their attention to the inequities in the prison system.

    “Jails are not statutorily obligated to provide any kind of programming whatsoever,” she said. And “even when libraries exist in the prisons, they’re very, very inferior.”

    While nearly 2,500 unique titles faced censorship attempts in 2024, according to data from the American Library Association, Brotzman hopes to highlight the “very limited universe of content” incarcerated people have, she said.

    “The prison system can literally ban any book they want to… for any reason they want to,” Brotzman said. “It’s really important for people to know that the limitations on the freedom to read are much, much, much more severe for incarcerated people than for anyone.”

    Win hopes to continue the standing relationship between the Brookline Booksmith and the Prison Book Program in the years to come.

    “I think our work with them has been successful,” Win said. “It’s beneficial for them and beneficial for us.”

    This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

    This article was originally published on October 7, 2025.

  • In Town Field, ‘Journey of Light’ installation illuminates the path to a permanent memorial

    By Nathan Metcalf


    Below a glowing canopy of lights and traditional nón lá hats, each affixed with a slip of paper bearing a Vietnamese family’s immigration date, nearly 100 people gathered Sunday night for a temporary art installation marking a milestone in the campaign to establish a permanent Vietnamese diaspora memorial in Boston.

    Artist Ngọc-Trân Vũ organized “Journey of Light: A 1975 Memorial Field,” a multisensory installation of illuminated conical hats, projected visuals, music, and intergenerational storytelling in Town Field Park, at the heart of Dorchester’s Little Saigon cultural district.

    For Vũ, the nón lá were not just cultural emblems but “vessels of stories,” a way to honor lives uprooted by war and displacement, and to expand remembrance beyond traditional war memorials that center narratives of American soldiers to include the families and communities who endured the Vietnam War’s aftermath.

    Growing up in Dorchester, home to New England’s largest Vietnamese-American community, Vũ often visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Morrissey Boulevard with her father, a South Vietnamese veteran, and his friends.

    “That memorial only has American names,” she said. “There’s no Vietnamese name represented here. What would it mean for our community to have a space where our stories are recognized?”

    This year marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, remembered by many in the Vietnamese diaspora as Black April, when communist North Vietnamese forces captured the capital on April 30, 1975, sealing the collapse of the South Vietnamese government. In the months that followed, hundreds of thousands fled the country by land, sea or air. Many who remained were sent to so-called “re-education” camps, where they endured forced labor and political indoctrination.

    Though the nation it once represented collapsed half a century ago, the yellow flag of South Vietnam, streaked with three red stripes, billowed over Town Field Park on Sunday night. As the programming began with a flag-raising ceremony, elderly veterans in faded uniforms stood at attention and saluted.

    “Journey of Light” is part of a broader, years-long effort known as the 1975: A Vietnamese Diaspora Commemoration Initiative. The community-led campaign has hosted dialogue nights, design showcases, and archived dozens of oral histories, all efforts to build momentum for a permanent memorial in Boston’s Little Saigon so Vietnamese Americans can see their history honored alongside the city’s other monuments.

    Khang Nguyễn, vice president of the Vietnamese-American Community of Massachusetts, emphasized the project’s wide support during the event.

    “This is not one organization – it has support from more than 25 groups,” he said, before adding with a smile: “In November, please vote for the candidate that’s going to help us get this memorial.”

    The installation sparked a range of memories and reflections, from elders who lived through the war and its aftermath to younger Vietnamese Americans seeking to understand their inheritance.

    For some, the canopy of hats called back painful memories of displacement. Trần Trung Đạo, a 70-year-old poet from Braintree, recalled fleeing by boat after the fall of Saigon, before ending up in a refugee camp in the Philippines, where he met a young girl whose story has lingered with him for decades.

    “She was six years old,” he said. “She lost her father, she lost her mother, she lost her sister in the ocean. She came to the camp with her two-year-old brother, and other people took care of them. When I wrote a poem about her, I cried.”

    Nia Dương, 37, who grew up in Dorchester and now coordinates UMass Boston’s Asian American Studies program, said the installation reflected the diversity of the Vietnamese diaspora, which came to the United States in four major waves, from the first evacuees of 1975, to the “boat people” of the late 1970s and ’80s, to Amerasians and former soldiers who arrived through government programs in the 1980s and ’90s, to more recent family reunifications.

    “People left for many reasons, not just politics,” she said. “A lot of us came for opportunity, because of poverty.”

    For younger Vietnamese Americans, the installation offered space to connect with histories they did not live through and reflect on the larger meaning of the war.

    “Every Vietnamese family was affected by the war,” said Aaron Nguyễn, 24, of Little Saigon. “The US should not have been in the war, but it both harmed and helped the Vietnamese people. Most people didn’t want the country divided in the first place, they just wanted peace.”

    As night fell, organizers handed out small blue and white tea lights and asked attendees to close their eyes in remembrance. People were invited to think of someone they had lost, then exchange their light with a neighbor, a symbolic gesture of carrying one another’s stories forward.

    “White is about memory, mourning, and honoring our ancestors,” Vũ said. “Blue is about water and sky, migration, the journey, and hope.”

    This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

    This article was originally published on October 2, 2025.

  • ‘Father’d A Child’ by Fields Corner rapper serves as a bridge between three generations

    By Nathan Metcalf

    When rapper MaceyOMaze from Fields Corner released “Father’d A Child” this spring, the song carried the weight of three generations.

    He conceived it as a tribute to his father, who had been raised without a dad, but he also crafted it to a beat by Boston legend Edo.G, whose 1991 rallying cry for men to step up as parents, “Be a Father to Your Child,” helped put the Boston rap scene on the map.

    “For me, it was about bridging a gap between the old and the young within the Black Boston community,” said the 22-year-old MaceyOMaze, speaking in the basement of the Boston Public Library’s Copley branch, clad in orange 3M Peltor headphones and a gray JNCO hoodie. “My pops grew up listening to Edo.G, and now I get to work with him. That’s a full-circle moment.”

    If not for a chance meeting, the collaboration might not have happened. In 2021, MaceyOMaze and his manager, who goes by the name Ty, attended a community event where KRS-One, a pioneer of socially conscious hip-hop, was performing.

    “They were some of the only young guys in the place, and that stood out to me,” Edo.G said. “I respect what the younger generation is doing — that’s their thing. But it’s not the music I listen to. What caught my attention with Macey was that he’s making real hip-hop.”

    Born in Boston, MaceyOMaze spent parts of his childhood in foster care and homeless shelters before his family found stability in Fields Corner, “the first place my parents had in Boston as a family,” he said. “So, when people ask me where in Boston I’m from, that’s my neighborhood.”

    It was there that his dad, who grew up fatherless in the ’80s, would play him Edo.G’s “Be a Father to Your Child.” Hearing that song and watching his father live by its message showed MaceyOMaze that hip-hop could both come from his own backyard and carry a message powerful enough to change lives.

    As MaceyOMaze and Ty made their presence felt in Boston’s underground scene, he and Edo.G reconnected and decided to collaborate on an album. “To see their progression, from when I first met them to now, that’s beautiful,” Edo.G said. “That’s what made me want to produce the record and do the project.”

    The result was “See You in Boston,” a project that combines the “boom bap” sound and socially conscious themes of hip-hop’s golden age with crisp, modern production and fresh rhymes. Among its tracks, “Father’d A Child” has stood out as MaceyOMaze’s most successful release, drawing more than 1,500 views on YouTube in less than two months.

    Both songs — Edo.G’s in 1991 and MaceyOMaze’s more than three decades later — are rooted in the same idea: challenging stereotypes about absent Black fathers and celebrating the men who step up.

    “It’s very important to have father figures in the Black community, especially with how the media makes us out to be deadbeats or animals,” MaceyOMaze said. “Truth is, we’re human beings like everyone else. We have kids, we raise them. It’s important to show, ‘No, that’s not the only thing that goes down in this life.’”

    For him, that message goes hand in hand with hip-hop’s very essence. “Hip-hop has always been the voice of the oppressed,” he said. “And joy is a form of resistance. Us being happy is us showing that no matter what you throw at us, we’re going to figure out a way to be happy and still be us.”

    That belief carries into his day job with Beat the Odds, a Dorchester nonprofit where he teaches young people audio engineering, music production, and mental health skills. The group also shot the “Father’d A Child” music video, which featured local fathers and their children. 

    “It just shows within hip-hop, young and old school can coexist and bring value to each other,” said Ty, clad in green and black Celtics gear. “Every generation, there’s a new young face that’s going to take over. I truly believe MaceyOMaze is going to be that one.”

    The rapper is already looking ahead. He performed outside Massachusetts for the first time in Burlington, Vermont, last month, and hopes to tour internationally within two years. But for all his ambition, MaceyOMaze insists his goals remain simple.

    “My motivation is to inspire more people to speak out for themselves, whatever form of expression they choose,” he said. “That’s what hip-hop has done for me. If I can do that for even one person, I’ll be happy.”

    This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

    This article was originally published on September 26, 2025.

  • ‘We’re everywhere’: At Brookline’s No Kings rally, crowd fills Coolidge Corner to protest Trump

    By Lauren Albano

    About three miles from the Boston Common, where over 100,000 people gathered  for the second “No Kings” protest, over 100 Brookliners of all ages filled Coolidge Corner on Saturday to do the same. 

    Organized by local activist groups Speak Out, Seniors! and Brookline PAX, the demonstration represented a microcosm of a nationwide movement which brought out nearly 7 million people to streets across the country this weekend to protest the “authoritarian” policies of President Donald Trump’s administration. 

    “We’re here to bear witness and to tell people who feel the same way we do that there are others, so they can feel some sense of solidarity,” said Deborah Finn, a Speak Out, Seniors! organizer who spearheads the group’s weekly 2 p.m. Saturday standout.

    The Brookline rally was accessible for seniors who may not feel comfortable commuting downtown or standing in large crowds, Finn said. Senior demonstrators had space to sit or use walkers as they raised signs and waved to passing cars, whose drivers honked frequently in support of their cause.

    John Bassett, 86, stood at one corner of the square playing old protest songs, such as “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” with his trumpet. Several of his family members, including his grandson, accompanied the senior standout regular to the No Kings rally. 

    “I’ve had a good life, and I would like my grandchildren to have maybe even a better life, or at least just as good,” he said.

    Bassett participated in protests against Vietnam and nuclear weapons in the 1960s and 70s. He said he appreciated the Coolidge Corner rally being organized in tandem with both the Boston Common protest and the thousands of No Kings demonstrations nationwide.

    “It’s arguable that a lot of smaller demonstrations in a lot of different places is as good as, or maybe even better, than everybody being in one place,” he said. “This way, you can’t get away from us. We’re everywhere.”

    Finn said as an older, white woman, she is “least likely to be suspected of being a troublemaker.” Given recent federal immigration crackdowns in Boston, Finn said it’s important for people of lower-risk demographics to speak out.

    “This is a town full of immigrants,” she said. “There are people here who are vulnerable, and the people who are theoretically less vulnerable have to stand up in front.”

    Lea Hachigian, a 35 year old who works in biotech, came to Coolidge Corner with her husband and two kids for the rally. Hachigian said her kids are old enough to pay attention to the news and have begun asking questions.

    “We’ve been trying to talk about it at home a little bit, and we felt like these democracy rallies are a very positive way to get involved and focus on the good aspects of what it means to be an American,” she said.

    Lea Hachigan, right, came to the No Kings rally in Brookline with her husband and two children. Photo by Lauren Albano

    Hachigian said she has been “dismayed” by the Trump administration’s actions, but this moment serves as a reminder to appreciate the government citizens have had. 

    “Hopefully, we can do something before we destroy more and more parts of this incredible system that’s lasted hundreds of years,” she said.

    Holding a sign that read “No kings since 1776” was 87-year-old Gail Flackett , who attends the senior standout nearly every week and brought her two grandchildren to the No Kings rally. 

    She comes from a long line of activism, noting that her grandmother helped people get abortions before they were legalized. Flackett recalled traveling to Washington, D.C. in the 1990s to advocate for Planned Parenthood. 

    “My parents would be very shocked if they knew that Trump was president,” she said.

    Flackett encouraged people to think about their values and question whether they are truly being represented in the government.

    Mica, a public health researcher who wished to withhold her last name, held a sign reading, “No kings. No fascists. No hate.” She noted the impact of federal research cuts on her work.

    “We’ve lost a ton of public health federal funding for research,” she said. “Our research saves lives, and all of the cuts at the federal level are going to impact science research for decades.”

    Jeff Rudolph, 51, said he dislikes Trump’s practice of seeking “retribution” against those who challenge him politically. He said the ongoing government shutdown is a prime example of this.

    “Not being able to do any negotiation across the aisle [is] because no one trusts him,” he said. “And now we’re seeing programming cut, all kinds of people that need help aren’t able to get resources they need, and it all comes down to him.”

    Elisabeth Pendery, 70, a retired Public Schools of Brookline teacher, attended the Boston Common rally before coming to the Brookline demonstration. She said the country is in a “very dangerous, precarious time right now,” so it’s crucial for people to stand up and make their voices heard because “democracy is an action.”

    Former Public Schools of Brookline teacher Elisabeth Pendery, right, attended both the Boston Common No Kings rally and Brookline’s local event. Photo by Lauren Albano.

    “To say you’re not political is to say you don’t care about your community, and I think people have to take a little more personal responsibility about trying little things to make a difference,” she said.

    Bassett emphasized that protests are important for displaying the ideology and values of a community. He said while holding demonstrations can seem trivial, they make a difference. 

    “Each action is a drop,” he said. “Eventually, the drops spill the bucket, and those things that we did eventually help change our policies.”