Repressed III @ Gallery 5

Richmond may be full of alienation and frustration, but it makes for damn good art.

With events like I Dream of Richmond and Repressed III, Gallery 5 shows us the best of what community arts can be, providing not just a space, but a communal and aesthetic context for critically engaged art. Gallery 5 asks the Richmond community to reflect upon itself and its direction, allowing us to critique, hope and act.

At the opening of Repressed III, an annual series of works on paper arranged by T.O.W.A.R., First Friday art walkers got a warped tour of their own city, courtesy of the Society of Advanced Psychogeographical Perception Mechanics. Large boxes, covered in black and white paper collages of historic city buildings were placed around the upstairs gallery. Some had miniature gardens on top, while others has slate for chalk messages. From the ceiling hung buildings carried into (or from?) the city by parachute. The buildings, chopped and designed into patterns gave the viewer a sense of disorientation. The viewer was called upon to speak out - at the back of the sculptural display was a podium with a live mic and buildings were topped with slate begging for chalk messages. Like the controversial Free Speech Monument in Charlottesville, these forums captured both the silly and the serious with messages about peace along side juvenile jokes. The images contributing to this visual installation can be seen around Richmond, wheat-pasted in gentrifying areas of the city - a guerilla activist art that tells us "You can't fight alienation with alienated means."

Solid performances were held throughout the evening by Pacific Before Tiger (NC), Amrita K. Dang (Baltimore, MD), Cars Will Burn (Philadelphia, PA), and Caustic Castle + Jason Talbot + Clifford Schwing w/ video by Eric Eaton (Richmond, VA)

The final set of the evening Caustic Castle, Jason Talbot and Clifford Schwing showed the depth and diversity of the Richmond Noise community. Caustic Castle, deftly manipulating feedback through a no-input mixer he built himself, gently processed the thuds, squeals and rich tones of Clifford Schwing's saxophone. Schwing made impressive, measured use of notes and musical phrases, sticking most of the time to long tones that he sustained with circular breathing and then switching up to noisy clatter of pads and air. The set began as a dialogue between Caustic Castle and Schwing, with Jason Talbot on turntable etching his way into the conversation, playing bells and knives on the needle. Within the context of Eric Eaton's short black and white film, the three performers built up intense waves of sound creating an ebb and flow form. As we watched spray paint drip down mannequins and saw the close up grit of spray paint cans, the dialogue between disparate instruments built into a wall of sound that was broken in a perfect moment of silence -- Schwing played a quick lick that drew on his free jazz chops and everyone stopped. In that moment, the chatter of gallery goers became woven into the sounds of the performance, as if responding to the sax. At the end of the set, Caustic Castle cathadically blasted us with white noise and Talbot had his turntable in the air, pressing the needle to the vinyl. When they cut out, Schwing was left underneath cycling a mid-range tone in beautiful contrast with the last spitting and sputtering of Talbot and Caustic Castle.

A clip of this performance:

When Sociologists Come to Richmond

When Sociologists Come to Richmond, for the Southern Sociological Society Meetings in April this year, they are unwittingly conferencing in the midst of urban change. Since the 1970s small cities like Richmond have invested a lot of time and money into cultivating a sense of place. Projects to revitalize the downtown business district, to unite racially segregated neighborhoods, and to draw in consumers and tourists have thrived and failed in turn. Richmond development in this era evidence a struggle between development philosophies that has lead a patchwork of ‘mega-projects’ and locally focused small-scale projects of new urbanism. At the Southern Sociological Society Meetings to be held at the Marriott in April, they will live, work and play in the liminal space between Jackson Ward and Downtown, between New Urbanist designs and mega-projects, between wealth and hardship.

As sociologists, they will be interested in issues of urban change, social inequalities of race, class and gender, and in the local economy. At the same time, as conference goers, they are the target audience for Richmond's projects of place. As a sociologist and consumer, as an analyst of place-making and a lover of authentic locality, I created a guide to Richmond for Sociologists reproduced here:

Richmond Marriott | 500 East Broad Street

The Richmond Marriott, built in 1984 as part of a Broad Street revitalization project, is a mega-project that was designed to draw convention goers to the city of Richmond. At the time, these structures were seen as a way that Richmond, the old Capital of the South, could compete with ex-urban Atlanta, the new Capital of the South by basing much of its inner city development on amenities for convention attendees.

Sixth Street Marketplace | 550 East Marshall Street

The intersection of 6th and Broad Streets was historically an open-air marketplace. The Sixth Street Marketplace, a covered mall that housed local businesses, was a built in 1985 as the commercial component to the convention area and as a well-touted catalyst of downtown renewal and racial reconciliation. With its financing and construction, the marketplace was the first public-private partnership to dot the downtown landscape. There is much local debate about its demise – whether it was the fault of city bureaucracy or private mismanagement. The marketplace was demolished in 2003 and just this year the remaining food court was closed.

Nanci Raygun (Formerly) | 929 West Grace Street

This building, currently under renovation to become a bagel shop, has historically been the center of Richmond’s homegrown punk and hardcore scene. Originally opened as a convenience store that made its own whiskey in the 1970s, it later became a record store, restaurant and finally full-fledged club. Most recently, going by the name of Nanci Raygun, it hosted all-ages hardcore shows, hip-hop producer battles, and metal shows. The music scene lives on in nearby house shows and makeshift venues (in warehouses, vintage shops and sushi restaurants) as well as in the Shockoe Bottom neighborhood at Alley Katz and Toad’s Place.

Hyperlink Café | 814 West Grace Street

The music scene also lives on down the street at Hyperlink Café, a business interested in fostering creativity and community through smart entrepreneurship. This business is part of a growing movement to foster the cultural economy of the city, acting as café, Internet hub, upscale bar, and gritty music venue. The vibe is postmodern cosmopolitanism, as the café merges indie rock, hip-hop, hardcore, and world music in one venue. It comes complete with an oxygen bar -- unlike other venues in this tobacco-friendly town, there is no smoking here.

Ipanema Café | 917 West Grace Street

This basement café exudes warmth through the scratchy sounds of records that play over small speakers and the cozy bohemian scene of art students, punks, and hipsters. One of several vegan and vegetarian restaurants in the area (Harrison Street Café and Panda Veg are two others), it is also host to an emerging indie, folk-punk scene of edgy acoustic guitarists.

Gallery 5| 200 West Marshall Street

Gallery 5 is an experiment in community arts and arts entrepreneurship. Loosely partnered with RVa Magazine, Gallery 5 hosts art shows, books musical events and promotes them on-line and through print media. They create multi-media events with art, music and performance that complement each other. Gallery 5 is not only hooked in across the arts scene, they are also firmly rooted in local history, as they are the stewards of the Police and Fire Museum, the building in which they reside.

Richmond Center Stage| 600 East Grace Street

Richmond Center Stage is a private foundation, working in partnership with the city of Richmond to develop the downtown around the performing arts. Under construction are three venues and an education center. One of the three venues, the Carpenter Center was originally built as a movie house in a cultural boom that brought several theatres and opera houses to Richmond in the 1920s.

Ghostprint Gallery | 220 West Broad Street

This new gallery opened in November of 2007, combining an art gallery with a tattoo parlor in an effort to redefine the boundaries of high art. The April show is entitled Everything Has a Deeper Meaning – a show of Anna Kaarina Nenonen that ‘represents female sexuality in an ironic and provocative manner.’

The Black History and Culture Museum | 00 Clay Street

Purchased in 1922 by bank CEO Maggie Walker, the museum building was previously the Black branch of the Richmond City Library. According to its website, the museum currently aims toward becoming the state resource for Black history in Virginia. Its exhibits tell the story of Jackson Ward and in doing so tell the story of African-American history in Richmond and in the nation. Its exhibits document the insurance companies, banks, and other business supported through community organizations as well as the cultural life of Two Street – an important Southern tour stop on the Jazz and vaudeville circuit. In April, it will exhibit the research of James E. Wright Jr. on The Gift of Black Inventors.

The Hippodrome | 530 North Second Street

This theatre, hosting musical performance, theatre and film, was the centerpiece of the music scene of Two Street during the World War II era. It hosted musicians Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and James Brown among others. It thrived until a fire forced its closure in 1945, and then reopened as a movie theatre. It is currently closed, though many plans have been laid to reopen the venue for music.

The Leigh Street Armory | 122 West Leigh Street

This Armory, soon to be converted into apartments under historic restoration standards, is the oldest armory in Virginia. It served African-American troops from the Spanish-American War through World War II and has also served as a building for several African-American schools in the years prior to Brown v. Board of Education. The building, in serious disrepair, has been threatened by the wrecking ball, but in recent years local citizens gained federal support to maintain the building.

Ambient Pancakes
January 26th, 2008
(letterpress flyer created by John Bylander @ Virginia Art of the Book Center)

Ambient Pancakes was an all night sleep over of ambient music and noise that culminated in vegan pancakes. It was the closing event of Audio January, a month long series of performances, workshops and installations at the Bridge Performing Arts Initiative in Charlottesville, VA.

The night included performances by Monolith Zero (8pm RVA), Marty McCavitt (9pm RVA), Zach Mason (10pm MD), Myo (10pm BLT) aka Dang (11pm BLT ), Caustic Castle and Eric Eaton (12am RVA ), Jonathan Zorn (2am CVL ), SARS (3am RVA), Pinko Communoids (4am CVL), Kevin Parks and Jonathan Zorn (5am CVL), (6am Tokyo/Oakland) Cutest Puppy in the World (7am DC)

The audience included fellow performers and the curious bundled cozily in sleeping bags and coats in the simple building with concrete floors that used to house a convenience store. The sonic landscape began with waves of sound punctuated by outbursts of harsher noise created by Monolith Zero. McCavitt gave a brilliant and jubilant performance on prepared keyboard that included a rattling, crackling version of Old McDonald Had A Farm. Zach Mason was perhaps the first performance of the night to settle us down into ambient sounds as he transformed subtle landscapes of sound into an ethereal organ-like chorale. aka Dang offered densely textured loops of sitar sounds through a broken pickup and layered her voice over top of it as the sounds grew. Caustic Castle and Eric Eaton followed with a duet that combined rumbling low frequency sounds with samples of film dialogue.

The night unfolded. Bars let out and more curious folks stumbled in, some staying a while and others moving quickly on. At dawn, revelers from deeplyrooted gathering, an ongoing neo-rave party, joined the event at the encouragement of the party organizers - this was to be the "chill out room." While some were too tired or in too distant a world to stay, others broke out sleeping bags, and dug in to the pancakes and coffee and other breakfast items contributed by deeplyrooted gathering and Hz Collective.

Cutest Puppy in the world, a duo with drums, keyboards and guitars provided an appropriate wake up call with ambient sounds punctured by low frequencies, drums and guitars.

This event, which gathered experimental musicians from the east coast and beyond as well as the musically curious in Charlottesville, was the result of collaboration between several grassroots organizations that are community-minded, focusing on their local community as a basis for solid connections with other localities. The event was organized by Kenneth Yates of Richmond and Hz Collective, an organization that seeks to build support for experimental, improvised music and noise between Charlottesville and Richmond. Space and publicity was provided by the Bridge PAI and its team of event organizers. Food and publicity was provided by Hz Collective and deeplyrooted gathering.

Richmond Neighborhoods, Creative Centers and Gentrification

This past summer, I taught a course in the Sociology of Culture at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). In this class we discussed issues of urban space, development and consumption from the perspective of cultural sociology. After reading Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class and Sharon Zukin's chapter on North Adams in the Cultures of Cities, I asked my class to consider urban change and consumption in local neighborhoods of Richmond, Virginia.

A number of students felt local to Richmond, having lived in the city and attended VCUs urban-style campus. Many told me they learned more about Richmond and its neighborhoods in the process of their research. They were assigned to choose a neighborhood and design it as a center of arts and culture. They needed to consider existing resources and existing residents in their plans and they also needed to consider where additional resources and sustainable change would come from. Each group ended up choosing a different neighborhood. Below I've tried to capture their thoughts and our discussion.

Manchester

This neighborhood, just across the James River, has begun developing old warehouses into art studios, galleries, condos and office space. One of the presenters has just moved into the neighborhood because rents are affordable for students. He notices there is a lot of space in which this neighborhood could grow. He shows us a satellite view from google maps - there are more empty lots than lots with buildings and viewing it from the ground, one can see that many of the buildings are boarded up and abandoned. The group tells us that there are a number of amenities needed in this area before it can grow and redevelop. For instance, there is no supermarket nearby and there are few places to eat other than fast food chains. They have just read Richard Lloyd's Neo-Bohemia, Art and Commerce in the Post Industrial City and are taken with the idea of designing a neighborhood like Chicago's Wicker Park. They envision a neighborhood of galleries and design studios populated by students and young professionals. They note that it is difficult to design such a project from the top down and that doing so often hurts existing residents. However, they stand behind the choice of Manchester, because there are few existing residents relative to other neighborhoods they might have chosen.

In our ensuing discussion, we considered the neighborhood's history and the communities nearby. The area is quite empty and it is just down Hull St. from an economically depressed area. This area is empty not only because it is full of out-of-use warehouses, but also because it was the site of some of the most run down and dangerous public housing projects in the city. When the projects were demolished in the 1990s, the way was paved for redevelopment around the arts and the creative economy. Further down Hull St., boarded up buildings line the streets. Apart from a BP gas station and a RiteAid, the only businesses that survive here are churches, whose placards announce that God is the only hope and Jesus the savior from the miseries of this earth. When I ask students about this area, they do not have the sense of it being dangerous or off limits because they are not aware of its existence.

Jackson Ward

This neighborhood is one that until recently, was seen as dangerous and off limits for college students. Now, this group tells us, adventurous college students are moving in to show that they do not fear the people who live there (known to be black and presumed to be impoverished) and that such fears are based on prejudice. They envision a community that is held together through participation in collective events and even in a collective economy. They see student-heavy punk and biker subcultures as setting the stage for communal efforts to use the creative, artistic and manual skills of residents to create a neighborhood economy.

In researching the history of the neighborhood, this groups discovers that Jackson Ward is rich in Black History, as 95% of the city's African American population lived there during American Apartheid. It was the site of Black Wall Street and was referred to as the Harlem of the South for its rich cultural life. Upon discovering that there were important theaters and music halls in the neighborhood, the student wanted to revive them. They imagined a new cultural component to their plan, which they believed would speak to the history and present situation of the neighborhood. They envisioned, building upon the efforts of Gallery 5, performance spaces that would host genre-crossing events that would engender racial crossing and community. Community and racial harmony can be achieved through participating in cultural consumption together.

We discussed whether North Jackson Ward, separated from Jackson Ward by highway construction and urban renewal in the 1960s, could be a part of this new plan. It is spatially and socially segregated, isolating people in severe poverty and need from the rest of the city. One student had heard that soon these projects were going to be torn down as part of a mixed-income housing trend that attempts to break up the concentrations of poverty and wealth in the city, but in turn also breaks up communities who may only have each other.

Shockoe Bottom

This group looked to a neighborhood that is already teeming with nightlife. This is the club district, which is just next door to Shockoe Slip, a cobble-stone drive of upscale restaurants and boutiques. The students choose this area because they feel sure that they will not create gentrification or displacement here. Instead, they argue what this neighborhood needs is less nightlife and more day life. it needs to be altered from a single-use consumption space to a multi-use living, working and leisure space. There are two infrastructure issues that need to be addressed. First is parking, because there is none, a concern business owners have had for a long time. The other is flooding. The Bottom is named for its position vis a vis the powerful James River and businesses and residents are still recovering from a 2004 flood caused by Hurricane Gaston. The city is the entity that they would look to for addressing these problems and for rezoning of the space.