[smygo] Art, Life, & Activism
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Carolinian
Arts & Entertainment
Issue: 10/4/05
Art, Life, and Activism
By Travis Diehl
"Art, life, and activism -- those distinctions are
artificial ones. Art is inescapable." So speaks Liz Seymour,
mother of two, member of the Greensboro Community Arts
Collective. Seymour has lived in her house on Mendenhall for
fifteen years. Three years ago, Seymour found herself
puzzled and restless. She began a conversation. She opened
her doors. Slowly, the collective took shape.
Since 2002, some half-dozen people have rented the spare
rooms of her Mendenhall home. Payment is minimal and
includes utilities and basic food, leaving tenants free from
the confines of a 9-to-5. Although all residents are members
of the collective, this is not the headquarters. There is no
recruitment or application process; members are
self-declared. The organization is completely volunteer and
entirely profitless. Members work odd jobs, contributing
what they can as individual projects arise. The collective
eludes definite structure, financial or otherwise. There is
no ready statistic for the number of people involved, or for
the number of affiliated sub-collectives like the Food Not
Bombs project and Cakalak Thunder, Greensboro's radical drum
corps. The GCAC sees no need for arbitrary distinction.
"The most puzzling thing about it is that it works really
well," says Seymour.
The GCAC members consider themselves an anarchist group. For
them, this traditionally seditious designation is neither
militant nor political. Instead, anarchy serves as an
organizing philosophy based on the literal Greek root of the
word: "no leader." Seymour, despite her relative seniority,
is quick to avoid being cast as the group's spokesperson.
Everyone's ability to lead has precedent. Plus, as they
point out, the anarchist philosophy adds a layer of
accountability. With no leader to hide behind, questions of
social progress become directed at the individual.
The former Rose Spa, a two-story white brick building on
Fulton St. off of Lee, was once the impetus for the group's
creation. Where others saw a grungy abandoned brothel, GCAC
members envisioned a progressive community center, a locus
for arts and activism. They began raising funds to purchase
the property. Plans called for cheap living space for local
artists, studio space and a workshop, practice rooms for
local bands, a drug- and alcohol-free music venue, a bike
repair shop, and a community garden.
Then, last July 4th, the GCAC organized Fire Flies, a free
weeklong festival of music, art, crafts, and spectacle. But
because there was not yet a Fulton St. complex, the
collective was forced from its comfort zone and into the
community. The small downtown festival headquarters could
not contain the wide range of events planned, and dozens of
Greensboro groups and businesses chipped in. A more
decentralized approach suddenly seemed to fit. A dedicated
complex, members realized, could be dangerously insular, and
work against their inclusive, unbounded philosophy. The
collective has since redirected its energy. Still, the
property remains for sale, and the GCAC has not abandoned
the project's possibility.
Meanwhile, many of the group's original goals are being
realized. A community screen-printing facility will soon
occupy the basement of a large house on the corner of
Guilford and Cedar. A bike fix-up and giveaway is also in
the works. Last summer, member Jodi Staley was among a
handful of mothers who organized a free childcare
collective. The parents took turns watching each other's
kids, while volunteers from the community shared their
"passions" -- their time and talent, from painting to gardening.
In mid-September, the GCAC addressed the need to raise funds
for Katrina relief. As the group points out, a disaster
situation can polarize and oversimplify an issue. Donating
money to the unfortunate "other" is easy, but the difficulty
is solving the same problems here, at home, in our own
communities. Says Mark Dixon, "We still have poverty, still
have racism, and a city well-divided along those lines."
Beyond the immediate question of humanitarian aid, the GCAC
fundraiser dealt with the difficult issues of race and
social stratification. "Having long hair is a personal
decision," says Daniel Bayer, writer for the Carolina
Peacemaker and member of the GCAC. But when the government
decides to isolate groups based on their hairstyles, Bayer
explains, the issue becomes political. The same holds true
for race, gender, sexual orientation, social standing, and
any number of what the GCAC considers arbitrary political
distinctions. In response, the GCAC is a model of inclusive
human interaction where bias is forgotten, and communities
grow from the ground up.
Visual art takes a backseat to performance. The closest
thing to GCAC gallery space in recent months was the
Mobilivre bookmobile, a traveling Airstream trailer
dedicated to the book as object d'art. The collective
arranged for parking for the bookmobile during its two-day
visit. A more direct example is Cakalak Thunder, the
GCAC-affiliated salsa drum corps. The group performs
frequently in the Triad, and recently returned from lending
their energy to the peace rally in Washington, DC. As with
all GCAC organizations, Cakalak Thunder welcomes the curious
and the courageous. Open practices are held weekly on Sunday
afternoons.
Like most radical groups, the GCAC treads in dangerously
idealistic territory. But its members will not be dissuaded.
"We're idealistic as fuck, and trying to move towards our
goals." Mark Dixon is emphatic. Drummer Jon Henderson
seconds his sentiment. "It's hard to ignore the reality of
these events," the Food Not Bombs, the Fire Flies festival,
the tangible change already taking place. True, their issues
of choice are mammoth, but the members of the GCAC see no
alternative. Says Seymour, "The world is going to change.
It's not a question of whether or not it changes. It's a
question of how."
In the living room of her Mendenhall home, Seymour points to
a simple wooden chair shoved under the computer desk.
Dangling underneath the seat slats is a gradient row of
xylophone pipes. Cakalak Thunder drummer Mark Dixon spins it
around, retrieves two green yarn mallets from the mantle,
and plunks out a few notes. "It's an intervention into the
chair," he says.
Dixon continues, "If you're exhibiting in a gallery, you
can't pretend that you're not." The members of the GCAC are
conscious that they work in a restrictive system. The
economy of the art world is driven by the exhibition and
sale of an artist's output. Operating outside the commercial
galleries, GCAC members are not limited by profit. And, like
all good artists, they are aware of their audience. The
people the collective tries to reach are not at home with
the clean white concrete walls and bare track lighting of
your typical leisure-class showroom. "If you want to talk to
people who want a free meal every Thursday," says Dixon,
"you may not want to put work in a gallery."
Up a dozen cracking stairs and through two open doorways is
a small kitchen, hot and fragrant with baking food. Those
crowded in to cook have come, some for the first time, to
prepare a meal of leftovers. Ingredients are scrounged from
the community-potatoes from Outback Steakhouse, day-old
bread from Panera, donations from Deep Roots. The menu, from
week to week, is as uncertain as the volunteer staff.
Tonight there is a lot of eggplant, and enough apples for a pie.
Food Not Bombs serves a free vegan meal at St. Mary's House
on Walker two nights a week. Tuesdays and Thursdays,
preparations begin at 4:30; the meal is served at 6. The
group also serves a meal in the Davie St. park downtown on
Mondays. Anyone is welcome to both prepare and eat. Food Not
Bombs is an anti-poverty, anti-war movement with chapters
nationwide. Three weekly meals, as the Greensboro group
provides, is more than most larger cities can boast.
By 5:30 the couches of St. Mary's are already filling with
tired, hungry-looking men. They sit rubbing their faces,
looking around, smelling the simple food, taking in the
warmness of the kitchen and of the volunteers now setting up
two folding tables before the church's crucifix. This is,
after all, a kind of gallery. The art and passion of a
dedicated few are on display.
For more information, visit http://www.gcaconline.org , or
call 274-1814.
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
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As the Government of the United States of America is not, in
any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in
itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or
tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never
entered into any war, or act of hostility against any
Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no
pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce
an interruption of the harmony existing between the two
countries.
-- The Treaty of Tripoli, entered into by the USA under
George Washington
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