Sipping a drink at a chic Newbury Street café, sporting pinstripes, rimless glasses and square-toed shoes, Alexis Berthier, co-founder of the Make Music Cambridge festival, might come off a bit serious. But ask the French-native about politics, travel, most anything, really, and he'll lean in, tap his knee and speak with an earnestness that is quite notably un-Boston.

"There is one thing that I don't like," he says. "People who put themselves in boxes."

It's with this signature enthusiasm and desire to force people out of those "boxes" that inspired Berthier and a few other local français transplants to create Make Music Cambridge, a free festival that brought 75 local musicians to the street corners of Harvard Square on June 21st.

"It's really at the corner of the street, that's the idea," he says. The festival had no vendors or stages, just lots of music, from glass harmonica to Britpop, classical flute to Brazilian drums.

Berthier—who is also the press and public affairs attaché for Boston's French Consulate General—is not a musician; he says he just wanted to get people to slow down, to "get out of their plans," as he puts it.

Although he concedes that Cambridge is "a place where people are quite open-minded," he says Americans don't characteristically "take your time and enjoy the time you take." So he worried the street festival concept might not fly on this side of the Atlantic. But, he says with a smile, "People actually stopped."

Make Music Cambridge is Boston's first street music festival, modeled on France's annual Fête de la Musique. France's event has grown into a global phenomenon since its modest start on the sidewalks of Paris in 1982; this year, Cambridge joined more than 300 participating cities in over 100 countries.

Berthier says putting on the festival was more work than expected. "In Europe, you just get down on the street, put your stuff on the street corner," he explains. "Here, it's much more structured. You need permits, you need agreements ...We had a big learning curve."

But musicians, festival-goers and local business owners alike were enthusiastic, and Berthier is committed to making the festival an annual affair.

"Maybe I'm just idealistic," he says. "I just like the idea of sharing the thing."

[makemusiccambridge.com]

When Adam Gaffin, co-founder of Universal Hub, bought an exercise bike, he had to make sure it had a shelf for him to put his laptop on. He works on weekends, on his lunch break and on holidays. That's how dedicated he is to running UniversalHub.com.

Even while on vacation with his wife, Nancy Reynolds, and daughter, Greta, in New Hampshire, he's posting to the site constantly.

"What else am I supposed to do while they're still asleep?" he jokes. "I have no life."

Universal Hub began when Gaffin started compiling a list of Boston blogs. Gaffin and his partner, local videoblogger Steve Garfield, realized there was a better way to combine what Boston's bloggers were saying in one place.

"It's something that was needed," he says. "All these people saying all these interesting things—wouldn't it be cool to have a central place to find out what people are talking about that day. There's value in the wisdoms of the crowds."

While most Good Bostonians are doing things to improve your neighborhoods, Gaffin is strengthening a different sort of community: online.

Gaffin posts most items on the site himself, but all registered users can post directly to the main page. He gets a good amount of people sending in tips and photos, especially when there's a crash on the T.

Universal Hub concentrates mostly on news, but above all, it's concerned with Bostonians' daily lives, so virtually anything that affects them ends up on the site in some form.

"What the daily papers can't do very well is cover daily stuff in the neighborhoods," Gaffin says. "I hope that what I can do is show people stuff that they're not going to read in the daily papers."

Gaffin claims the time he spends with Universal Hub is unquantifiable; his day job is the executive online editor of Network World, and he insists Universal Hub is just a hobby, something he does in lieu of collecting stamps or drinking whiskey.

He is also the author of the online "Wicked Good Guide to Boston English," an Urban Dictionary-type guide to talking like a Bostonian.

Garfield holds his partner in high regard: "Over on Universal Hub, Adam provides a platform for all the lurkers on the web ... Adam finds the good stuff for you. [He] adds his editorial spin to the interesting, newsworthy and quirky blog posts he finds on the web. Adam is like Boston's John Stewart."

[universalhub.com]

Kathleen Bitetti can't understand why someone would call her a "fairy godmother." But as the executive director of the nonprofit Artists Foundation, she's done more for local artists than most people know.

Through the Artists Foundation, a national organization based in Boston, she's pushed legislation to help artists get paid on time, followed health care reform to ensure they are protected and has supported the local arts scene with every modest bone in her body.

"There are a lot of artist advocates out there," she said. "I count myself among people who do the work."

But Bitetti feels advocacy isn't just for organizations like the Artists Foundation. Artists should know that policymakers are anxious and willing to advocate for them.

"Everyone's been really nice outside of 'Art Land.' Once more artists understand that, they won't feel so intimidated," she said. "How can we be at the table when they're making legislation? Clearly they're making room for us. Half the battle is showing up."

Bitetti helped organize Artists Under the Dome, an annual meeting of local artists and state government officials. The group's first public event in 2007 drew over 40 artists to the Statehouse.

She's currently gathering signatures for a "stand up and be counted" survey, signed by artists, as an advocacy tool when speaking to policymakers, who are asking for data so they can better understand the artists' plight. Artists can complete it on the Artists Foundation site, and Bitetti aims to make the data available by November.

When not directing the Artists Foundation, serving on the board of Massachusetts Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, holding the "artist in residence" title for the city of Quincy or working as director of the Lillian Immig Gallery at Emmanuel College, Bitetti finds time to work on her own art; she keeps a studio in her South Boston home, and tries to spend as much time there as possible.

Since the early '90s, her art has explored sociopolitical issues like domestic violence, gender roles and the American dream. In 2000, she extended these themes into ThePrincessProject.com, a long-term, conceptual art project. She recently completed a one-woman show in New York City called Containment, as part of ThePrincessProject.

As she celebrates her 40th birthday this month, she can be sure she won't be celebrating alone. So many artists around the country have benefited from her hard work and advocacy—and she's not stopping anytime soon.

[Artists Foundation, 516 East Second St., #49, Boston. 617.464.3559. artistsfoundation.org, theprincessproject.com]

It seems to me that almost every installment of the Union Square Main Streets email newsletter spawns never-ending items of a new quirky boutique, a restaurant renovation or a so-crazy-it-might-work art event. Who's back there pulling the strings so that businesses thrive in previously vacant industrial spaces, or so anyone can sell their produce at the "grown in Somerville" booth at the successful weekly farmers market?

Turns out it's Mimi Graney, executive director ("It's a fancy way of saying I'm the only one who works in the office") of three-and-a-half years (since its inception) at Union Square Main Streets (USMS). As the sole full-time staff member, Graney coordinates the four branches of the Main Streets model: design (development of the streetscape), organization (funding and management), promotion (ongoing events) and economic restructuring (fostering local businesses).

"I'm a real Somerville kind of gal," confesses bespectacled Graney, sporting her "What the Fluff?" (the 'mallow crème was invented here in 1917) shirt and bright-red bob, having lived in the neighborhood around 20 years. A Wellesley graduate, she was "doing homeless work for a long time"; in the late '80s, she co-published Street Magazine, a homeless-empowerment publication, which later evolved to what we know now as Spare Change newspaper, for which Graney did grant writing. Her next social initiatives included fighting domestic violence at Transition House in Cambridge, and producing about "every kind of show" on Somerville Community Access Television (SCAT)—from a "Soul Train for 10 year olds" to word-on-the-street philosophical interviews. Graney, seemingly ever restless, got her Master of Theological Studies degree at Weston Jesuit School of Theology, where she "loved understanding the common language of faith; how people commonly relate to God and the world."

In addition to current USMS promotions, like the weekly Saturday farmers market ("half a million dollars of economic impact," according to Graney), various events using "arts as an economic engine to revitalize the neighborhood" in conjunction with the Somerville Arts Council and the third annual What the Fluff Festival, slated for September 27th, the metamorphosis of Somerville's commerce is nothing less than significant. "Part of what makes this city exciting is that things are constantly evolving," says Graney. "Places coming and going—that's what makes it alive and growing."

Momentum is truly infectious, with local individuals following suit to constantly redefine the community. "There's a sense of participation," Graney says encouragingly. "'Put on a demo! Sell your vegetables! Coordinate your own market!' When you get people actively involved, we're all co-creators in making the neighborhood."

[Union Square Main Streets, P.O. Box 1, Somerville. 617.623.1392 x119. unionsquaremain.org]

Founded in 1991, The Food Project is the first organization of its kind (and still the largest) in the nation, combining youth development, food and social justice. Margaret Williams, who came onboard seven months ago as executive director, neatly sums it up as "working to help develop youth leaders to grow and provide and advocate for healthy food for all Bostonians." With teens coaxing suburban soil and urban micro-farms—up to two acres of vacant lots that have been reclaimed for farmland—The Food Project grows "enough food to feed over 2,000 people a year, and 40 percent of what is grown is given away to food relief, pantries and shelters." The mission richly benefits not only individual bellies, but entire communities.

Williams has been a force of social change in Boston since 1987. In 1995, she helped launch "ReadBoston," a youth literacy campaign. Williams was also involved in legalizing gay marriage, as interim executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in 2004. "I became interested in sustainable agriculture because that is the next wave of social justice issues," Williams explains. "It's important now in this country. Food prices are going up like crazy, and it's becoming unequal distribution between the haves and have-nots."

Some of the more recent initiatives Williams has spearheaded include promoting food stamp transactions at farmers markets, advocating for a bill to establish the Massachusetts Food Policy Council and pioneering a pilot program (which other cities are modeling) subsidizing farmers on a local level and offering affordable fresh food to low-income market-goers.

The Food Project also works directly with its urban neighbors, establishing residential kitchen gardens ("It's a way of self-empowering people to grow their own food") and delivering farm produce directly to low-income elderly housing developments. Williams recalls fondly one woman who, after buying collard greens, promptly cooked them with sausage (like she did on the Cape Verdean islands) and brought the dish downstairs to share it with the delivery crew. "She brought it right down in her slippers," Williams says, laughing.

"I'm working with teens on something that is real work for real people, and we can see the results of what we do every day," says Williams on her gratifying work. "I move from T-shirt to silk every day, depending where I am and what I'm doing—either helping weed a garden or raising money for the foundation." She adds, fittingly so, "It's like being a food superhero."

[The Food Project, 555 Dudley St., Dorchester. 617.442.1322. 10 Lewis St., Lincoln. 781.259.8621. 120 Munroe St., Lynn. 781.346.6726. thefoodproject.org]

Tanaka spent much of college volunteering, maintaining his sense of reality while stuck in the Harvard bubble. He tutored at a juvenile prison and interned with American Friends Service Committee, advocating for prisoners in solitary confinement, who comprise most of Massachusetts' prisoner suicides. He and City Councilor Chuck Turner were arrested during a 2003 sit-in at the Statehouse protesting budget cuts to social services.

When the Stride Right Foundation gave Tanaka a $25,000 public service fellowship, he consulted Turner's advisory council, which recommended addressing unemployment. "No organization was viewing it as a collective issue, rather, as an individual deficiency," he says. Tanaka staged "speakouts" across Roxbury, and some people kept attending those listening sessions. The result was the Boston Workers' Alliance (BWA), a grassroots nonprofit for the chronically underemployed.

While spearheading a campaign to reform Massachusetts' Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) system (80 percent of BWA members say their records hinder employment opportunities), the BWA also launched economic development projects, including a CORI-friendly temp agency, and worker-owned green job co-ops.

"There's a big difference between income and wealth," Tanaka says. "If you're trying to create wealth in a community, you need to have ownership over institutions."

Four months ago, BWA began a pilot program converting vegetable oil to biodiesel. Three people collect 100 gallons a week from restaurants in Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester. "It's nice to show people that you can hustle and get oil that people don't want, and that'll turn into a little income for you," Tanaka says. BWA also plans to start a worker-owned home weatherization service.

"We want make sure the green revolution is an inclusive one," he says. "A lot of the environmental movement has been viewed as a predominantly middle-class white movement, mostly based in natural conservation stuff and boutiquey consumer goods that are eco-friendly, so we're trying to expand ... one of our members says we're trying to create a 'darker shade of green.'"

Tanaka is the only BWA staff member. He's responsible for community organizing, fundraising and legislative lobbying. Soon he'll hire a member to take over as organizer, so he can focus on administrative duties.

Tanaka's ultimate goal is to leave the BWA. "I'm an Asian person mostly working in a black community ... I think someone black should be running the organization," he says. "It is all about transitioning my position to people in the community."

[Boston Workers' Alliance, 51 Roxbury St., Roxbury. 617.427.8108. bostonworkersalliance.org]

Art in Boston can be a dismal survey, with galleries continually closing, the MFA in a constant state of confusion and public art seen as more of a nuisance than an urban delight. But look to the youth , and things get brighter. And we're not talking about the thousands of artists being trained at our universities—we're talking about the teenagers.

"I feel most rewarded," writes Rosanna Flouty in an email, "when I see that a teen who has been shy for a few weeks, and is suddenly excited about the work they are making, or the things they are seeing." Flouty is the associate director of education at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art and oversees the Teen Arts Council. As a result, she comes in constant contact with our youth and is pleased to report: It's all good.

"They are no longer striving to be apathetic hipsters like the generation that came before them," she writes. "They can DIY just about anything."

In addition to overseeing a multitude of after-school programs and artist residencies, Flouty puts on a regular "Teen Night," where the youth of Boston can dance, enjoy the museum and be themselves. "The experience of looking at, talking about and reacting to contemporary art helps teens see that there are new boundaries to be pushed, and gives them authority to speak their own voices," she writes. "If there is anything I want them to take away from here, it's to know that the ICA is a safe place for them to go."

Local DJs participate in teen night. "Rosanna's work has made young people a driving force within the ICA," says Kevin Driscoll, aka DJ Lone Wolf. "She respects the interests, experiences and capabilities of young people and holds them to high standards."

Seventeen-year-old Cory Tomascoff, one of her students, says, "Her work has only improved the teen programs in this city. They clearly offer an exciting and different outlet for some teens who maybe never thought of spending their free time making films ... or learning how to use Photoshop."

"I look at people who are my age and older ... I'm 22," says local DJ Ariana Paoletti (aka Volvox), "and I think that they are just fucked. But I look at people who are younger than me, like at Teen Night, and I feel like something huge is about to explode in Boston."

[Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave., Boston. 617.478.3100. icaboston.org]

Assistant Majority Whip Byron Rushing's political career stretches back further than his 26 years as state representative for the South End, Fenway and Lower Roxbury. In high school, he supported the 1958 Southern sit-ins with boycotts. He continued his civil rights work while at Harvard. Then he became a community organizer.

"While I was doing that, I was trying to answer larger systemic questions around race, especially power, and power for black people," Rushing says. "I was trying to figure out how a city that had been so active 100 years before with abolition had gotten to a place where black people were in such bad shape in Boston, politically."

He helped establish the Museum of African American History in 1972, and wound up being its director for a decade. "I call that my first midlife crisis," says Rushing, a youthful 66, despite his frothy white beard.

In 1982, Rep. Mel King gave up his seat to focus on his mayoral campaign. Rushing met with his South End neighbors to discuss King's successor. "I was sitting around in this meeting, talking about different people, and then someone suggested I run," he says. "And the whole room starts to change. All of a sudden, someone takes out his checkbook and starts writing a check for this committee that doesn't exist. Then I realized I was set up ... So I had my second midlife crisis and ran for office. But, for some reason, the next one hasn't come yet."

Rushing legislates human rights. "It's easy for us to define rights as free speech and religion, things that you can opt into," he says. "But it's not enough. We should also be talking about tangible things, like the rights to food and housing."

That's often an uphill battle. It took seven years to pass gay civil rights bill, and six years to convince the Legislature that ending homelessness was possible. He's tried to criminalize height and weight discrimination since 1991.

Rushing doesn't abandon his bills. "Every time that I've gotten so discouraged I give up on something, it's always been a mistake," he says.

As this session winds down, Rushing's determined to reform the criminal record system. Next session, he'll work to end health care disparities and re-file legislation to research the state's economic ties to the slave trade.

After that, who knows? Twenty-six more years? Rushing shrugs. He hasn't had his next midlife crisis yet.

[Room 481, Statehouse, Boston. 617.722.2881. mass.gov/legis/member/b_r1.htm]

Gabriel Payan, 29, became a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) after deserting the Army last year, though he'd been following the organization's work before he decided to go AWOL. "I wanted to meet people like me," he says.

Payan joined the Army his senior year of high school because he thought military service might teach him some job skills, and perhaps pay for a future education. In 2000, he was deployed to Bosnia. "I did my job really well," Payan beams. "I got the highest honor, the Order of Saint Barbara." He became a staff sergeant with 60 men under his command.

But by 2007, Payan had deserted and was living with his family in California, seeing a psychiatrist for his PTSD. "The Army had changed dramatically since 2001," he says. "You had to be beating the war drum along with the Bush administration."

Payan served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, gathering intelligence, leading patrols and negotiating with various local factions. "I did my job well, but I wasn't happy about it," he says. "It was a political witch hunt. It angered me. I was risking my life ... They try to make you feel better about it by going out one or two times a week and handing out pencils to schoolchildren."

Payan didn't agree with the prevalent war-hawk mentality and wasn't shy about expressing his doubts about the decision to invade Iraq, which made him unpopular with his superiors. He turned himself in after eight months AWOL, was other than honorably discharged, and decided to join IVAW.

Now he tries to educate young Bostonians about the injustices he's seen, giving speeches at a prep school in Danvers, a local rabbinical school and at Project HIP-HOP, a Roxbury-based, youth-led organization. "I'm in this movement to reach out to young people ... my biggest message is to do something, to become active," he says.

Payan keeps pretty busy: IVAW will table at the Warped Tour and the Crosby, Stills and Nash concert later this month. There's also an IVAW fundraiser on July 29th at Johnny D's in Somerville.

Payan believes speaking out locally is just his stake in a national responsibility. "It's supposed to be a democracy. Nobody's really outraged," he says, gesturing emphatically and raising his voice. "The best way to end the war is not in the halls of Congress. It's going to be a social movement, brought about by the people in America and the soldiers."

[Iraq Veterans Against the War, Boston Chapter 17, 33 Harrison Ave., 5th Flr., Boston. ivaw.org/chapter/boston]

We sat down and generated an enormous list of good-doers in a warm and fuzzy editorial meeting, where we realized, there are a lot of people who make this city amazing. That was the first hour. Then we spent some time whittling down the list, imagining super villains for our Good Bostonians to battle. It was a productive meeting.

So here you go. Nine extraordinary human beings who make this city a better place. These activists, environmentalists, truth-seekers and fun-lovers are jovial, hopeful and ridiculously hard to condense into 400 words ... but we did it anyway. They are leaders in their fields, innovators who draw connections between different issues and institutions, like youth programming and the arts, education and the peace movement, unemployment and environmentalism. They're already working actively to change the communities they live in, and they still have huge potential to completely change this city!

Yeah, we're excited about the work they're doing. You should be, too.

[goodbostonian08]

Politician-activist

Byron Rushing

Assistant Majority Whip Byron Rushing's political career stretches back further than his 26 years as state representative for the South End, Fenway and Lower Roxbury.

[goodbostonian08]

Make Music Cambridge Co-founder

Alexis Berthier

Sipping a drink at a chic Newbury Street café, sporting pinstripes, rimless glasses and square-toed shoes, Alexis Berthier, co-founder of the Make Music Cambridge festival, might come off a bit serious.

[goodbostonian08]

ICA Associate Director of Education

Rosanna Flouty

Art in Boston can be a dismal survey, with galleries continually closing, the MFA in a constant state of confusion and public art seen as more of a nuisance than an urban delight. But look to the youth

[goodbostonian08]

Boston Workers' Alliance Organizer

Aaron Tanaka

Tanaka spent much of college volunteering, maintaining his sense of reality while stuck in the Harvard bubble. He tutored at a juvenile prison and interned with American Friends Service Committee

[goodbostonian08]

Iraq Veteran Against the War

Gabriel Payan

Gabriel Payan, 29, became a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) after deserting the Army last year, though he'd been following the organization's work before he decided to go AWOL.

[goodbostonian08]

The Food Project Executive Director

Margaret Williams

Founded in 1991, The Food Project is the first organization of its kind (and still the largest) in the nation, combining youth development, food and social justice.

[goodbostonian08]

Union Square Main Streets Executive Director

Mimi Graney

It seems to me that almost every installment of the Union Square Main Streets email newsletter spawns never-ending items of a new quirky boutique, a restaurant renovation or a so-crazy-it-might-work art event.

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Keep 1913 law

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Based on an industry source in Copenhagen, in 2007 the average household in Denmark paid an annual cost of 3,575 Danish krone for electricity.

We were in the big civic center in Cape Town, South Africa at the 1999 Parliament of the World's Religions when Nelson Mandela was introduced.