In Conversation w/ stay silent
What started as a way to throw parties in PVD, stay silent has defied their name, refusing to remain quiet.
Building a strong following through engaging community events and functions, the creative company is an authority when it comes to social events in Rhode Island and beyond. With an emphasis on representation and supporting multicultural backgrounds, stay silent has always put their community first, a sticking point evident in everything they do. To commemorate stay silent’s 10-year anniversary, we linked up with Jason and Sabrina to get into the origins of the company, how their last Day Trill of the year went, and much more.
Q: For people living under rocks, what is stay silent PVD, and who are its founding members?
A: stay silent is a creative company founded by Jason Almeida and Sabrina Chaudhary that focuses on producing events, multimedia content, and products. Our mission through our work is to be a platform, a global cultural reference point, and a contributor to the Providence and greater New England creative community.
Q: What was the catalyst for starting out all the way back in 2012 and how does it feel to celebrate over 10 years?!
A: After collaborating as undergraduates at URI to produce programming for students of color and coming back to the city in post-grad life, there was a void of the types of experiences that we wanted to have and reflected our interests. 2012 was a turning point across the country and it felt like the traditional way that we used to party and interact with culture was changing for our generation. In hindsight, we and our peers were trying to break out of that and that’s essentially how stay silent came to be for New England.
10 years feels like we have actually arrived. That’s a long time to do anything and it feels like we are at the beginning of being a pillar or an institution. We have a track record and our own history to stand on now and that feels incredible.
Q: How did growing up in RI and your backgrounds/ home life inspire you guys to start the company?
A: Being from Rhode Island has had a major impact on why we started stay silent – from the intertwined multicultural nature of our neighborhoods to being the smallest state – we’ve always felt the responsibility and pride of wanting to put on for where we are from. We’ve had countless conversations about how we could be successful more quickly in bigger cities like LA or New York and it has been a driving reason why we chose to stay home and build our foundations here. On the cultural side of our home life, a stay silent party is a reflection of our experiences at any teen party, college party, or family function in Providence from our formative years. Our experience growing up in Rhode Island is one where we are very intertwined with many cultures with Hip Hop being the anchor.
Q: Can you speak to the importance of encouraging and cultivating creative networks and safe spaces, especially amongst underrepresented communities?
A: When we started in 2012, this was not an external goal point. We saw a need for spaces for ourselves and our friends and that was the initial spark for the creative spaces we formed. However, as our audience has grown, we have had more and more conversations with people who come to our functions or events that show us just how important feeling considered, thought about, and celebrated is and those are the things that continue to guide us.
"We saw a need for spaces for ourselves and our friends and that was the initial spark for the creative spaces we formed."
Q: Why did you guys decide to focus on event production as one of your main pillars?
A: Even prior to stay silent, the way that we connected to people was by going to parties and hosting our own parties. Parties are where you experience culture in real life. A party was social media – it was the way you socially connected. It was the way you were put on to new music or saw new gear. It was the way you met people from neighboring cities. It was the most accessible medium for us – it would have felt impossible for us at that point to write a book or publish a newsletter. We also both come from first-generation immigrant households – our communities connect with one another in the US in very specific ways. One of the major ones being functions. Music and dance are tied to almost every way that our families and communities engage with each other.
Q: You just had the last Day Trill for the year, what was the reception like? What were some of the highlights/ big moments?
A: It was a coming-home moment for us where we brought the event back to the first venue where we produced it from top-to-bottom by ourselves meaning we managed the bars, designed out the space, hired all of the security and floor staff in addition to the music programming, design, and digital marketing.
It was the summer of 2015 and that was the summer DAY TRILL went from a party to a festival. The September reception was great and it felt like so many people were feeling the nostalgia of that first DAY TRILL at the yard. We also had another full circle moment when we had Byron Messia perform his record of the summer ‘Talibans’ for the first time in the US. Jay and Bilindoff had been championing the record since before Memorial Day Weekend and to end the season with him live in the flesh was massive.
Q: Beyond a place for people to let loose and have fun, how has Day Trill become a place for people to express themselves through fashion and personal style?
A: We always say DAY TRILL is a holiday and just like any holiday, you have to come wearing your best. The DAY TRILL fit is a real thing and we love to see how people represent themselves year after year at the function. Our portrait photography during the event has become a lookbook of styles throughout the decade and it’s one of our favorite things to look back at.
"Day Trill is a holiday and just like any holiday, you have to come wearing your best. The Day Trill fit is a real thing and we love to see how people represent themselves year after year at the function."
Q: What’s coming up next on the calendar?
A: We’re active every week. Pull up on us at Crib in Providence.
Q: For anyone who has never been to a stay silent event / on the fence about going, what would you say?
A: stay silent has such a wide range of events because we have a wide range of interests. We host a small botanical-inspired cocktail night and then a 4,500 person DAY TRILL with the same energy. If you look at all of our offerings, we really do believe we have something that would interest most people and we welcome the opportunity to share joy and celebration with anyone who pops out to one.
Q: How do you guys hope to see the company grow as you look towards the future?
A: We hope that over the next ten years, New England is filled with creative agencies, event producers, designers, artists, etc. that have been able to build upon the access, lessons, and infrastructure that stay silent has contributed to. We hope that the information continues to circulate and when we have this conversation again in 20 years, that our region will be cemented as a major cultural hub and reference point.
Photography: Bilindoff and Momo Akoi,
with additional contributions from George Annan and Lucky Rhue.
