Photo by Mark Anthony

I knew I had a unique perspective on the panel as a younger lady, but the more interesting contrast came from my experience as a nonprofit professional. There were a few questions about setting personal boundaries in the online arena. In the nonprofit world, people tend relate to their work more intimately which can make it easier to share things of genuine interest. Still some asked about a nonprofit “secret to success.” The panel agreed that by-and-large the social media strategies that work for nonprofits are the same as they are for individuals and businesses.

Aside from all the minutia and specifics, I was surprised at the number of people in the audience who were still struggling to “get their heads in the game.” To these kind people, Chris had the following to say:

Unlike Chris I tend to baby people and reassure them that they will get the hang of things eventually. Chris’s approach is much better. People need to quit making a science out of it and roll up their sleeves and start posting!  Another lesson that hit home was the importance  and power of video. The Spovangelist currently has an empty YouTube page. You can expect that to start filling up with film clips very soon.

“Check out my turnips! I grew these!”

The last take home message for me was being more fearless about the frivolous. Everyone has had to ask themselves “To post, or not to post?” Most people don’t want to hear about what you ate for dinner that night. So when it came to my prize turnips I was definitely leaning towards keeping these beauties to myself. Thanks to Chris for popping my turnip!

Make of it what you will.

Spokane’s P-Jammers at the last MLK Jr. Day march.

The P-Jammers (or PJAMRS, standing for the Peace and Justice Activist Musical Rascals of Spokane) are a rag tag bunch of folks that love to get out and be the life of any social or economic justice party. They often accompany events organized by the Peace and Justice Action League, and can also be heard at a smattering of other relevant political gatherings.

In no small part due to our vigorous sports culture and our position as  a hub to hundreds of small rural towns, marching bands are actually still a pretty big deal around Spokane. But they tend to be of a stiflingly traditional nature that emphasizes militaristic uniformity to the detriment of personal creativity and expression. Not so with the P-Jammers! This funky bunch fashions itself after the Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band, and members often make their own uniforms by hand out of reused materials.

While I might cringe a bit at some of the comments made by the crazier bards in this video, you’ve got to hand it to them for entertainment value. When people talk about a city being “vibrant,” for me this is the pinnacle of good old fashioned public fun.

Apparently these Honk! Fests aren’t unique to Seattle, they take place in a small number of cities all around the country. Not to wax nostalgic about Portland or anything, but in the brief time I lived there I encountered several Honk! style groups. There was the No War Drum Corps, a percussion booster band that often plays for the Rose City Rollers, and the unforgettably talented March Fourth, to name a few.

If we ever made a cultural asset map in Spokane and came up with indicators to measure our local creative health, I think the number and vitality of Honk! bands could be used as one of the canaries in our culture mine. They require a high degree of coordination dedication and guts, and thus would do well in reflecting our creative surplus. So cheers to the day when our people can go to Seattle to represent without the inevitable comment, “I didn’t know you had [insert cultural/social whatever it is] in Spokane!”

• Apologies for not mentioning the recent Musical Freedom Rally in Riverfront Park. Apparently it was a big success.

When Naaman and Jillian of Black Rabbit Magic first unveiled MONTH in partnership with the Kolva-Sullivan gallery, I was automatically on board. Spend 24 hours doing whatever the heck I want in an interactive art exhibit? Yes please!

The basic premise of MONTH is that creative people from all over Spokane will each reside in the gallery for 24 hours, doing whatever it is they do from 5pm until 5pm the next day. This live exhibit will run from March 5th through March 26th, and will end with a blow-out closing party. Considering that around 200 were there for the opening, I’ve got a feeling that this one will be a zinger.

We will install a bed (should you need to rest), a few art supplies (but you are welcome to bring your own), and some kind of nourishment (likely campbell’s soup). You are only asked to artistically contribute to the space (however you see appropriate considering your area of expertise) and to respect the building and its tenants.

Remember the Spokane Blog Bible? Come and get yours during Mariah @ MONTH! (There are only about 50 left, available while supplies last.)

What would you do with 24 uninterrupted expressive art hours? I plan to:

1. Compost the food waste that other artists have been saving for me.
2. Build a number of worm composting chambers, for sale, of course!
3. Do some kind of collage installation with leftover outreach materials from various campaigns and projects I’ve worked on.
4. Compose a blog post live from the gallery!
5. Dink around with making some Spokane themed miniatures out of polymer clay. Marmots, milk bottles, lilac bunches, Expo icons, bull dogs and crosses come to mind…
6. Have my xylophone on hand to play. Not that I ever get to practice it, mind you, but since I own it I should share it!

So come on down and be a part of my performance. We can talk about “the community” we can talk local politics. Whatever. I hope to see you there!

• RSVP to pay me a visit on Facebook here.

It’s been great to watch all the pedestrian double takes out in front of the gallery where I lock and unlock my bike. On any other given month people have a hard time acknowledging that the gallery is even there. Not only do I get to mention the interesting and relevant concepts behind the current show, I’m able to invite them to participate in the exhibit’s next event. This is how you build a buzz machine, beehives not included.

A recent review completely failed to address the participatory elements of this exhibit. Thankfully, Spokane Arts provided people with some heads up on the exciting events that were held in the gallery. Did you know that the now open Main Market Co-op hosted Curt Ellis (co-producer of King Corn) to speak about his new follow-up documentary? This and other attractions helped draw a whole new audience to the gallery: the gardening set, an otherwise mixed bag and beyond. Let’s admit it, the catchy conflation between the gallery co-op model and the novelty of the show in this article subtitle didn’t read well at all.

Is it art? As long as it is relevant, fun to look at and interesting, who gives a crap? The reviewer says “Chickens, food, fertilizer. Recycling. Rethinking. OK, we get it.” But do we? My take home message from this exhibit was that if you truly get it, you’ll be doing it. In San Francisco the city requires compost separation to achieve their goal of zero wast by 2020. In Spokane, we can’t even embrace a framework to help set goals for the future. Hopefully that will have changed with the local elections, but I digress…

Last time we talked about what is next for golden boy Gabe, but what about Mr. Rimas? In the long term we will be loosing him to the lack of fine art grad school programs in the area (Eastern, we’re looking at you!) but in the interim he is on to an interesting, albeit less participatory, group show at SOIL in Seattle.

Through lenses of industrialization, environmentalism, consumerism, and scientific advancement, the artists in Fertilizing Utopias examine the ideals of Western culture with a playful and critical eye. Dark realities are placed in counterpoint to utopian goals as these artists inspect the possible futures our civilization is cultivating.

In the end I hope you’ll be able to come to the gallery for the closing reception of Chicken Sh@#: Exploring Urban Ecosystems! Especially if you haven’t been in yet. Tomorrow between 6-10pm at 25 W. Main.

• RSVP to Chicken Sh@#: The Party! on Facebook

“Cities post the same kinds of problems as the life sciences. Like the sciences, they consist of many variables that are interrelated into an organic whole.”

“Planners and architects are apt to think in an orderly way, of stores as a straightforward matter of supplies and services. But stores in city neighborhoods are much more complicated creatures. Although they are mere holes in the wall, they help make an urban neighborhood a community.”

“The essence of these enterprises is that they have a place indisputably their own. Unless and until some solution for them can be found, the least we can do is to respect – in the deepest sense – strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order.”

In Post-World War II America the Federal Housing Act was passed to implement a sweeping program of “urban renewal” that resulted in razing entire city streets under the banner of slum eradication. Which neighborhoods received the “slum” designation, however, was highly politicized and driven by private real estate owner’s interest in getting Title I money to develop land they had been able to purchase at below market rates after the slum designation had been made. The term “land grab” applies here, and in the end the Act’s urban redevelopment programs actually destroyed more housing units than they built, artificially driving suburban migration. (Pun not intended.)

“[Kirk] was showing me a different way of looking at the city! The social aspect. It opened my eyes. I can remember the people in East Harlem hating a patch of green grass. I couldn’t understand why until one of them told me that their tobacco store had been torn down, the corner newsstand was gone, but someone had decided the people needed a patch of green grass and put it there.”

“Almost without exception the projects have one standard solution for every need: commerce, medicine, culture, government – whatever the activity, they take a part of the city’s life, abstract it from the hustle and bustle of downtown, and set it, like a self-sufficient island, in majestic isolation. The end result is to banish the street, the very life force of the city.”

Yes, that is a Spovangelist worm!

Now the purpose of hauling one’s work across state lines is not simply to add more notches to the artist’s exhibit belt, it is also to reach out to new audiences, encounter new perspectives, and discover opportunities for collaboration, inspiration and partnership. Gabriel’s next foray outside Eastern Washington will be to participate in PSU’s Open Engagement conference in Portland this May.

The artists involved in Open Engagement challenge our traditional ideas of what art is and does. These artist’s projects mediate the contemporary frameworks of art as service, as social space, as activism, as interactions, and as relationships, and tackle subject matter ranging from urban planning, alternative pedagogy, play, fiction, sustainability, political conflict and the social role of the artist.

This free conference will include “A variety of transportation that draws on Portland’s bike culture and takes advantage of its excellent public transportation. Contributors will be housed in Portland homes, paired with a host based on common interests. Several meals during the conference will be provided that emphasize slow food, community cooking and underground cafes. Other meals will highlight Portland’s food cart culture. Nightlife and social activities will be integrated into local businesses, using local pubs and cafes as conference hubs.”

As if that weren’t enough, the conference will also feature presentations by three internationally renowned artists: Mark Dion, Amy Franceschini and Nils Norman.

Despite all of our technology and money, when we destroy a natural system it’s virtually impossible to get it back. In a sense we’re building a failure. -Mark Dion

First, imagine if the arts community in Spokane had the social infrastructure to pull something like this off. Second, imagine the impression that would be made if a couple dozen Spokane artists stormed the conference to represent the 509. People would be scratching their heads saying “I had no idea Spokane has such a dynamic art scene. I’ve got to go over there and check it out!”

As with many things, however, leaving Spokane is not a prerequisite for finding what creative people seek. Gabriel stumbled across Rimas Simaitis, his upcoming show partner, while bringing vegetables to the Youth Sustainability Council’s PARK(ing) Day display. Remis was busy making grass cut outs and web-like cradles in front of the Saranac Art Projects gallery on Main.

So come on down to the Saranac next Thursday to feed the chickens (yes, there will be live chickens in the gallery) and plant a seed in a bottle that you can take home. This will be worth braving the elements to learn a thing or two about urban farming, and to think about the ways in which our consumption impacts the ecosystems around us.

Police/Youth Department adjacent to a Public Market (see below).

Collage Urbanism:
A New Model for Encouraging Political Discourse

According to a recent survey, the residents of Spokane lack engagement with their municipal government. At the national level, the internet has played a significant role in engaging the public in political discourse, however it has not facilitated the equivalent for local municipalities. Spokane’s City Hall is an insular, isolated entity that restricts public participation. By relating entertainment, social networking, and retail activities to the political spectrum, the internet emulates the notion of collage on a metaphysical level.

To engage citizens with local government the notion of collage as understood through the internet is embraced, transforming the way in which we experience the political milieu of Spokane. Three Spokane specific urban morphologies: shopping, automobile dependence, and nature become the means in which Spokane residents not only experience public life but also Spokane’s political spectrum.

Council Chambers (red) in AMC, City Hall as deconstructed green atrium.

Making political discourse more accessible to the public, the creation of ‘situations’ as discussed by Guy Debord and the Situationist International reveal unseen connections, unexpected juxtapositions, and new possible arrangements of City Hall with the adjacent context. By means of the Dérive (a construct of Debord), shopping, the automobile, and nature are identified as unique to the experience of Spokane’s public life and used to create collage like compositions or ‘situations’ within five major nodes of the site to juxtapose, overlap, and challenge preconceived notions with how an individual can participate with local government and their representatives.

Winter/Summer in/out of River Park Square entry.

Portrait by Austinspace

We’ve issued an appeal to round out the local blogosphere before, but we’ve learned if you really want something done you’d better be prepared to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself.

Consider: There is a world-renowned street fashion blog called the Sartorialist. It was one of the first in its genre  many years ago and helped to set the stage for the dizzying number of street fashion blogs that are around today. The basic format is a regular digest of full-length portraits taken of interesting-looking people on the street, commentary optional. The appeal? You get to gawk and opine all from the comfort of your own computer. People watching at its anonymous best.

Now some might scoff at the prospect of true fashion in Spokane. To those (you know who you are) I say “get over it!” Fashion is not about striving to look like a Nordstrom’s catalog, it is about self-expression and people relating to the social and cultural context to which they belong. People who don’t have the luxury of being chronically self-conscious are some of the most beautiful and interesting looking around.

Who might be caught in the lens of the Spotorialist? The answer is anyone. Everyone. It could be the punked-out tween by the Bloomsday runners that actually manages to pull it all off. It could be the stately grandmother in an over-sized pea coat inching her way back to the car after a show at the Fox. It would be that girl with the red glasses who works at CUES, and the painfully pretty barristas at Madeline’s just down the street.

The bus station is also ripe for the shooting. Just this morning we saw a bombshell blond of a basketball player. She was wearing Ugg boots (a fashion faux pas seemingly everywhere except for Spokane – OK, maybe even here too) with these awkwardly cut-off gray sweat shorts.  The look was topped with a bulky white cable knit sweater and a slouchy black purse. To describe it sounds appallingly generic, but I swear, there was something intimidatingly sexy and slightly off about this girl. It would take a picture to believe it.

Half a block later I rode right past this crazy skinny androgynous looking kid in a trench coat and nothing else, save some black heavy-soled boots and a pair of bright blue sun glasses. His hair was slicked back on his skull. Some people in this town know exactly who they are and they don’t give two cents about contradicting the omnipresent mainstream. They aren’t different for the sake of being different like the masses of hipsters in Portland, all scrambling to differentiate at once. No. They are simply raw and unedited versions of their adult selves.  Sometimes the gamers hanging around Merlyn’s are the most creatively dressed dudes in town.

Another thing the Spotorialist would do is help dispel the ridiculous notion that there isn’t *any* ethnic diversity in Spokane. The attractive young black man riding his chopper bike on the sidewalk around the smoke shop would get captured. The ultra-preppy Saudi students that have taken up residence at Starbucks would be in there too. Mukogawa women in Riverfront Park, the traditionally clad Indian girl getting into a minivan outside Bollywood Video – these are the fascinating, sometimes striking faces of Spokane.

They deserve to be documented, iconized. Through such self-reflective photojournalism a community can uncover it own unique style. We have something special to offer here. It is just a matter of seeking it out and appreciating what is often staring you in the face.

]]> http://spovangelist.com/the-spotorialist/feed/ 15 http://spovangelist.com/trick-or-vote-haunts-spokane/ http://spovangelist.com/trick-or-vote-haunts-spokane/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:05:33 +0000 The Spovangelist http://spovangelist.com/?p=867 This year Trick or Vote went down in Spokane and enjoyed a respectable showing for such an unconventional first time event.

Despite the descriptive title,  most people’s first reaction is “Trick or what?” The idea of adding political engagement into a holiday festivity is just not intuitive for most. Once people grasp the novelty and purpose of this approach, they tend to warm up to the idea. “Well that could be fun…” is a common second response.

Some would-be volunteers expressed concern about this activity being taken as a little too “tricky.” On the west side such worries don’t seem to crop up. Could this be a side-effect (no pun intended) of the visibility and spin lent by their media partners? Or does it say something deeper about Spokane’s ideological and social culture? The ever-astute Inlander was keen enough to comment:

“[Trick or Voters] will dress up in their most blood-curdling outfits and try to win people over by making them think they’re harmless trick-or-treaters. After the initial shock, most people will be relieved to find out that the adult-sized Batman standing on their stoop doesn’t want candy, just political chat.”

*Gasp!* To some Spokanites it seems that nothing could be more petrifying than “political chat.” We pride ourselves on having a “tight-knit community” where people deeply value their social and professional relationships, but sometimes this “tightness” becomes a bit strangling when people feel dread at the prospect of engagement for fear of ruffling a relationship – even one with a perfect stranger.

We’ve heard it said by several state-spanning political folks that Spokanites are less likely to divulge the direction of their vote when asked over the phone or in person than people on the west side. While we don’t have any hard evidence to substantiate this claim, there is a documented difference in views about the need to retain domestic partnerships between Washington’s western and eastern voters. According to the Washington Poll, while people in Puget sound are approving Referendum 71 by 25%, we in Eastern Washington are rejecting it by 3%. This is a difference we are not proud to boast.

Despite the attitude disparity, for every ten Trick or Voters in Seattle this year there was one brave volunteer right here in Spokane beating the pavement for Yes on 71 and No on 1033. Thanks to all the college students, parents and everyone else who turned up to turn out the vote!