By JoAnn Ireland
Boston Juggling & Flow (BJF) took place Saturday, April 4th in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specifically at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This festival was hosted by the MIT Juggling Club and Arthur Lewbel, located in the spacious, natural-light-filled Morss Hall within the Building 50 Walker Memorial. This event celebrated the 50th anniversary of the MIT Juggling Club and the 20th anniversary of the Boston Spinjam. The activities on Saturday included workshops, games, and a best trick competition, which was followed by an evening public show in room 10-250. The entire event was free to attend and open to members of the public.
Juggling at the MIT Boston & Flow
Juggling and Passing at the Boston Juggling & Flow at MIT
The following historical club information was from the event website:
The MIT Juggling Club was founded in March 1975 by Arthur Lewbel, a then-undergraduate, who merged his juggling group with Andy Rubel’s unicycle club. It’s been meeting weekly ever since, making it one of the longest continuously running public juggling clubs in the country. Over the decades the club attracted some remarkable visitors, including Claude Shannon, who developed the first mathematical theorem of juggling, and legendary high-speed photographer Doc Edgerton, who invited jugglers to his studio at MIT. Fifty years later, the club is still going strong.
As Lewbel puts it, “You don’t need dues. You don’t need members. You just need to meet at the same place and time every week.”
The MIT Campus and Jugglers in Morss Hall at MIT
Arthur Lewbel and (as was grandly announced at the festival) his fiancée, Mardene LeBliss, graciously provided pizza from the local restaurant Area Four, as well as cake for all of the festival attendees to enjoy as they celebrated the MIT Juggling Club’s and Boston Spinjam’s anniversaries. Note, another article about the MIT Juggling Club celebrating 50 years can be found here.
While I didn’t attend the evening public show, the performers included: Colin Campbell, Kevin Kinetic (Kevin Hogan: Insta @Kevin_kinetic_441), Space Dolphin (Maria Bartolotta (Insta: @spacedolphin), Peter Panic, Alex Feldman, and Thunder (Étienne). *See Editor’s Note Below
The MIT website impressively describes the community as:
“The MIT community is driven by a shared purpose: to make a better world through education, research, and innovation. We are fun and quirky, inventive and artistic, obsessed with numbers, and welcoming to talented people regardless of where they come from.”
Admission into MIT is highly competitive, the class of 2028 had 28,232 applicants and admitted 1,284 (4.5%) first-year students.
The cost of attendance best estimate, or “Sticker price,” at MIT for undergraduates for the 2026–2027 academic year is $92,760, which includes: tuition, non-waivable health services, student life fee, housing, food, books, course materials, supplies & equipment, and personal expenses. This does not include an estimate for a travel allowance. However, MIT acknowledges that many students pay far less than the sticker price. Similarly, the cost of attendance best estimate at MIT for graduates for the 2025-2026 academic year is $104,394, which includes the aforementioned expenses in addition to an estimate for transportation.
Boston is convenient to get to by air through Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), or Amtrak at the South Station (BOS), Back Bay Station (BBY), or North Station (BON). The nearest MBTA or T-station to MIT is Kendall/MIT on the red line. Parking in Cambridge was available in various nearby garages; considering it was a Saturday, the daily rate was $13 in one garage.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Like any large city, there’s plenty to see and do in Boston (and Cambridge), including the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, which is about nine miles from MIT and also conveniently on the MBTA red line at JFK/UMass. The museum had exhibits on his young life, campaigns, inauguration, the White House and oval office, the First Lady and Kennedy family, November 22, 1963; and his legacy. There was also a fun special exhibit on Presidential pets; however, that exhibit closes in late April 2026.
While I didn’t visit this time, the MIT Museum is quite impressive. Faneuil Hall and Marketplace is also wonderful to visit to watch the street performers. And if you’re looking for a place to eat, Flour Bakery + Cafe is always a great place to visit for a meal or a baked goods with locations near MIT in Cambridge and many others cafes throughout Boston.
As with any juggling festival, many individuals volunteered their time to make this weekend of juggling happen. This included teaching the aforementioned workshops, assisting with the games, performing in the Saturday evening show, or behind the scenes efforts to organize and run the festival. All of their efforts resulted in a fun time for everyone in attendance. Congratulations on 50 years to the MIT Juggling Club and 20 years to the Boston Spinjam!
*Editor’s Note: The no-less-than-diligent author of this article requested that I (Donnell!) add some details of the show since she couldn’t make it. Here’s me doing so to the best of my ability:
- Homie Kevin Kinetic did a dazzling display of three club flow to a bass-dropping trap mix of The Zombies’ “Time of the Season” with a literal pants shattering transition to show us his world champion footbag skills.
- Space Dolphin gave us a mustache-twirling demonstration of their rad hula hooping skills, going between dancing, isolations, and even moving into different shapes of hoops, like triangles!
- Peter Panic made the audience laugh alongside him while dazzling them with array of juggling tricks, decked out in his signature all green allusion of a costume.
- Alex the Jester did a rapturous clowning act while performing a list of incredible feats including playing three recorders at the same time. And Thunder closed us out by answering the question what if Johnny Lawrence had decided to join a circus instead of Cobra Kai, ending with a death defying Rola-bola act to send the crowd home.
- Arthur Lewbel also received an award for his lifetime of service to the Boston Juggling Scene.
The whole show was performed in one of the lecture halls of MIT, really setting the scene and reminding us of the privilege to be able to attend a juggling festival of such an esteemed campus, creating a nice sense of syzygy, and all without paying for, as JoAnne put it nicely, it’s “sticker price.”
*Editor’s note End.
JoAnn Ireland
JoAnn Ireland is a longtime hobbyist juggler who especially prefers juggling beanbags, joggles (running and juggling), and occasionally rides a unicycle. She is grateful for the opportunity to have been able to attend many IJA and regional juggling festivals.