Saturday, July 26, 2008
Ingenuity Fest 2008
I came for the Pecka Kucha Night and stayed because the city seemed alive. It isn't very often that the city manages to celebrate the spaces and niches it creates in the corners. Most often the street festivals block off the street, push people to the sides to become spectators and remove the sense of exploration, wonder and control that allow for urban discoveries to be made.
The alleys, the corners, the empty storefronts became spaces, used and celebrated. Full of life and color, all around the citizens mulled, watching and waiting. A sensible hum of white noise, a cacophony of sound and images and the slow shuffle of a herd wanting to take it all in, knowing that in a few short days the experience will be gone and these spaces will again be lost to see, to witness, to touch and claim as our proper heritage.
When a city is alive, when it is truly for the people to experience, then these spaces are used and thought of. They are given a purpose and a meaning and a chance to be related to. How much of our city is hidden behind boarded up windows and locked doors? How much seems dark and unsafe and dirty? Was it really that difficult to make those places programmed? To give them life?
As we stumble with the notion that we can celebrate our population withdrawal perhaps this is our opportunity to take over the niches and pockets to give them personality, to celebrate their shortcuts, their hiddeness, their access to grand spaces and cloisters which becomes more realistic as denizens become more accountable and take ownership of their area.
I don't believe we have to wait though. If anything, Ingenuity showed us that there is a creative culture here, one willing to take control with a firm hand and shake loose the ugliness of the city, or, if the intent so makes it, celebrate the ugliness.
Cleveland felt alive last night and made me a little proud to be part of it.
It was nice to see.
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I attended all three days. It was thrilling to be in a busy three-way intersection.
ReplyDeleteIn a post at realneo a while back (google realneo rough rider), I wrote about James Levin and his long-term efforts at community revitalization. We just got to experience another taste of that.
Overshadowed by the news of the FBI descending on county offices the day after, this event warrants more recognition.
Pecha Kucha was a hit. Liz Maugans and Maurice Small were standouts for me, but others also shone with their smart ideas for living in a place where many have long since thrown in the towel. It was, as you say Dru, a celebration of our heritage. Hey, we know how to throw an awesome party in an alley!
Still... we need better way finding, and a better, more in depth guide to highlights. Vendors overwhelmed me and I found it difficult to identify building addresses in all the hoopla.
Placing the Crooked River - "listen carefully to the river" project right across from a soundstage (all the soundstages were way too loud IMHO) was unfortunate.
I wondered about the efficacy of an Ingenuity Series instead of a fest.
Many of you young ones will blink in wonder to hear that back in the late 80s we had a month long Performance Art Festival originally held (you guessed it) at CPT. It was the world's largest gathering of performance artists. We slept little in those days - each weekend we spent at CPT early evenings to the wee hours. The fest was held in March and by April we were exhausted but invigorated. We came together again and again weekend after weekend to see the likes of Rachel Rosenthal, Annie Sprinkle and Benoit Maubrey among artists from Cleveland and lesser knowns from around the world. They stayed in our homes and burned the sides of buildings, dropped in at raves and after-hours clubs in the Flats. People traveled here from Detroit, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cincinnati to see the artists.
The PAF died a somber death. Let's hope Ingenuity does not...