Holler

Tim Fulton 0:08Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week we are talking about Black art in Columbus, why you don't see more of it, and why you're about to. I sat down with local event organizer and author Scott Woods. He has put together an entire month of events called Holler, 30 Days of Columbus Black Art. It's occurring at venues around the city in the month of March. Scott and I sat down to talk about the series of events and the impetus for it. We also got into the Columbus art scene, the organizations within it, and the importance of venues in Columbus. An editorial note here, as you'll learn from the episode, this episode is decidedly not about Black History Month, even though it is falling in the month of February. While the occasion of Black History Month is an important moment to reflect, I hope that everyone can agree it's not meant to be a shoebox to fit everything about the impact of African Americans into. And one housekeeping note this week, the Confluence Cast is now on Patreon. You can find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or go straight to patreon.com/confluence. Also, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. The Confluence Cast is sponsored by Art Makes Columbus, Columbus Makes Art, featuring stories about our city's incredible artists, stories full of inspiration, challenge, passion, and success. For videos, articles, an up-to-the-minute calendar of events, and an artist directory, visit columbusmakesart.com, the resource for all things arts and culture in the capital city. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with author and organizer Scott Woods, the organizer of the upcoming Holler 30, which is a month-long series of performances and artistic works by Black artists, Black Columbus artists.

Scott Woods 2:23Exactly.

Tim Fulton 2:24Tell us more about the event and what people can anticipate.

Scott Woods 2:28So basically, I'm slating, uh, an event each night, a presentation by a different Columbus-based Black artist. Uh, some will be musicians, some are poets, uh, some are nonfiction writers, uh, some dramatic readings, couple of dance, uh, performances. A little bit of everything.

Tim Fulton 2:45Okay.

Scott Woods 2:45Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 2:46Is there any visual art component to it?

Scott Woods 2:48Yeah. Actually, the goal is to have two visual dates set up, and so there'll be something like four or five artists at each of those as well.

Tim Fulton 2:57Okay.

Scott Woods 2:58Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 2:58Okay. And talk about the inspiration for it. Why, why does Holler exist?

Scott Woods 3:03There's a lot of reasons why Holler exist. Um, you know, Columbus is really, it's, it has an amazing amount of art. It has an amazing amount of Black artists. You know, Columbus as a city is fairly diverse, you know? Um, it's about roughly 40% non-white-

Tim Fulton 3:24Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 3:24... as a city. But you wouldn't know that just kind of walking around it, living in it, being in it, interacting with its institutions and its culture. You don't really get the impression that it's-

Tim Fulton 3:35It doesn't feel diverse.

Scott Woods 3:36It doesn't, no.

Tim Fulton 3:37Okay.

Scott Woods 3:37Not really. It seems open-minded, but not extremely diverse.

Tim Fulton 3:41Okay.

Scott Woods 3:41And so the goal for Holler, anyway, was to call to the fore an aspect of that and just say, you know, if, if part of the, if, if part of the reason why that's true is education, let me educate you.

Tim Fulton 3:54Okay.

Scott Woods 3:54If part of the reason that is access, then let me provide you on-ramps into this culture. So I just really wanted to strip away as many excuses as possible for interacting, uh, with, uh, our culture, our art, which is in part your culture, your art.

Tim Fulton 4:09Okay. And why do you believe... First of all, why do you believe that it doesn't feel as diverse as it is? Is it, does it have to do with segmentation in, in where people live, or what is it?

Scott Woods 4:21Well, that's certainly a part of it.

Tim Fulton 4:23Okay.

Scott Woods 4:23I think if it... I don't think anybody would argue that Columbus is developing, uh, rapidly. It has been for some time.

Tim Fulton 4:32Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 4:32Um, a lot of gentrification in Columbus. We've got really great models of that, you know. Um, we've, we're at a point now where certain areas of town have turned over culturally three and four times in the last 50 years.

Tim Fulton 4:45Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 4:46So a lot of the, uh, community that, uh, that I'm dealing with, the Black community that I'm part of, you know, we're, we're not where we were 20, 30, 40 years ago physically.

Tim Fulton 4:58Okay.

Scott Woods 4:59And so, you know, we're not where things are happening. We're not where, uh, resources are. We're not hip to institutions and things like that, and so... And they're not hip to us.

Tim Fulton 5:10Right.

Scott Woods 5:11Right? Um, but Columbus is so large, it has such, you know, it's, it has such a large population and it has so much stuff going on, you know, that the, that the mega level of culture seems to be okay with that. Well, I'm not okay with that.

Tim Fulton 5:25Okay.

Scott Woods 5:26Yeah.

Tim Fulton 5:26And what I hear you saying, and not, and don't let me put words into your mouth.

Scott Woods 5:31Sure.

Tim Fulton 5:31What I hear you saying is that the Holler, the purpose of it is, one, to expose that, well, to expose that white audience to Black art, but also expose those Black artists to a white audience and that it's not... Because it's not so much, "Hey, we're just celebrating Blackness." It's, "Hey, this is here. This already exists, and you just don't see it."

Scott Woods 5:56Yeah, that's pretty close. That's certainly one goal.

Tim Fulton 5:59Okay.

Scott Woods 6:00You know, of probably a good handful of primary goals, that's probably one. But yeah, I, you know, I think awareness is key. Um, you know, there's a big kind of unspoken education element to it. Originally, I was gonna have this all in one venue-

Tim Fulton 6:14Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 6:14... for the whole month. That fell through, um, so I ha- I had to break it up into, you know, numerous venues, which actually has been really positive for the event. It's-

Tim Fulton 6:25Yeah

Scott Woods 6:25... it's brought in a lot of resources and attention from corners that I think by the time the event starts, they would've become aware of, but now they're a part of.

Tim Fulton 6:33Okay.

Scott Woods 6:34You know, so the Columbus Museum of Art is a part of that. You know, other venues, um, Black-owned venues, white-owned venues are a part of that.

Tim Fulton 6:42Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 6:43You know, that wouldn't have happened before.

Tim Fulton 6:44Okay. Talk about your background and sort of, you're a writer, two published works.

Scott Woods 6:49Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 6:49You're a slam poetry artist and a poet as well.

Scott Woods 6:52Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 6:53Um, give us sort of the rundown. Where are you from?

Scott Woods 6:55I am from here.

Tim Fulton 6:56Okay.

Scott Woods 6:57I've been here all my life.

Tim Fulton 6:58High school?

Scott Woods 6:59W- I graduated from Worley.

Tim Fulton 7:01Okay.

Scott Woods 7:01Which is gone now.

Tim Fulton 7:02W- okay.

Scott Woods 7:03Yeah, yeah. It was on the south side on Parsons.

Tim Fulton 7:06All right.

Scott Woods 7:06Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 7:07Okay.

Scott Woods 7:07The firemen are burning buildings on our old football field now.

Tim Fulton 7:10Okay.

Scott Woods 7:11But, um, no, I graduated from there and, um, went to OSU for about two quarters, back when they were doing quarters.

Tim Fulton 7:17Okay.

Scott Woods 7:18And, uh, got kicked out. Went to Columbus State, dropped out.

Tim Fulton 7:21Uh-huh.

Scott Woods 7:21And so that's the educational element, period.

Tim Fulton 7:25Okay.

Scott Woods 7:25Artistically, though, you know, um, that's kinda picked up once all of that started to kind of happen. Um, I've always kind of done something creative. It was either art or music or writing or whatever.

Tim Fulton 7:35Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 7:35But writing is what really took.

Tim Fulton 7:37Okay.

Scott Woods 7:38Um, it's the thing that I could wrap all of my interest into cheaply, efficiently, and apparently successfully. So, um, 18 years ago, a friend and I started doing, um, an open mic show every week, every Wednesday.

Tim Fulton 7:51Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 7:51Writer's Block Poetry Night. Vernell Bristol and I started that, and that's been running pretty much every Wednesday for the last, like, 18 years.

Tim Fulton 7:58Where is that held?

Scott Woods 7:59That's currently at Cafe Kerouac. It's been there for about seven years, I think.

Tim Fulton 8:03Since they've been there?

Scott Woods 8:04Yeah, pretty much.

Tim Fulton 8:05Yeah.

Scott Woods 8:06Yeah.

Tim Fulton 8:06Okay.

Scott Woods 8:06Yeah, they've been there 10. We've been there for most of that.

Tim Fulton 8:08Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 8:09But we'd been in other venues before that as well. As you mentioned, you know, I put out the two books in the last few years. Those were poetry books.

Tim Fulton 8:15Okay.

Scott Woods 8:16Got another book coming out this year. That'll be a collection of essays.

Tim Fulton 8:19Okay.

Scott Woods 8:19Since I have a, a blog, Scott Woods Makes Lists, that- that's got a lot of heat on that, too, so that's kinda cool.

Tim Fulton 8:26Okay.

Scott Woods 8:26So yeah. But I really have a passion for organizing events and kind of raising everybody's boat.

Tim Fulton 8:32Okay.

Scott Woods 8:33And so Holler was an opportunity for me to kind of throw everything that I had learned, that I had done with events, uh, locally, regionally, and nationally, into one thing, for one goal, you know, to really just to kind of give the city a shot in the arm, so to speak.

Tim Fulton 8:50Okay.

Scott Woods 8:50Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 8:51Talk a little bit, 'cause you've been featured in the press as sort of representing minority artists.

Scott Woods 8:55Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 8:56Can you talk a little bit more about why that shot in the arm is needed?

Scott Woods 9:00Well, that's a good question. Like, we're here.

Tim Fulton 9:03Okay.

Scott Woods 9:03Okay? Black people are here. People of color are here in great numbers. We work here. We live here. We buy things here. But in the thing that, that Columbus really touts, um, that it, it, or at least that it frequently wants to tout, is its culture. You know, that really is a selling point, you know, for p- particularly for people who are not of retirement age, right?

Tim Fulton 9:25Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 9:26They wanna be in a place that's cool, that has things happening, that has growth, that they can be surprised by on occasion. That's all cultural. That's all largely artistic.

Tim Fulton 9:35Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 9:35You know, artistic has a lot to d- arts have a lot to do with that. And so to my mind, the options for people, if they're not tied into the normalized aspect of the community, then they're not getting any of that.

Tim Fulton 9:47Okay.

Scott Woods 9:48You know, they're not getting the galleries. They're not getting, you know, the festivals. They're not getting... You know, we're just, we're not getting the stuff that makes a city cool, you know?

Tim Fulton 9:57Okay.

Scott Woods 9:58And so a lot of, there are these large pockets of the community, you know, that just go to work, come home, go to work, come home.

Tim Fulton 10:04Right.

Scott Woods 10:04And, and we want to do other things. We are capable of doing other things. Many of the artists, all of the artists that I picked, have been doing whatever their respective art is for years.

Tim Fulton 10:14Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 10:15So it's... I mean, I love Columbus. You know, I don't hate Columbus. I don't dislike Columbus.

Tim Fulton 10:20Right.

Scott Woods 10:21I can move. I like it here, you know? And I wanna contribute. I wanna do my part, but I want it to recognize those contributions as well.

Tim Fulton 10:29Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 10:29I want it to honor those contributions because, you know, much like Holler raises all of the boats of the Black artists involved, collectively the, the event raises the cultural boat of the city.

Tim Fulton 10:40Mm-hmm. Talk about the slate of what you have coming up in the month of March.

Scott Woods 10:45Sure. So as I mentioned, it's multidisciplinary, so it's gonna start with music, um, it's gonna end with poetry. It's gonna run the gamut of venue types, and it's kinda cool. It'll, it'll have jazz, it'll have hip hop, it'll have dance. Uh, the poetry will range widely. You know, it won't all s- and none of it will sound the same.

Tim Fulton 11:07Okay.

Scott Woods 11:07You know, and I know personally most of the artists that, that were involved with this event. I handpicked much of this slate.

Tim Fulton 11:15Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 11:15Technically all of it, but, you know, during the course of putting it together, I did leave some room for s- people to submit that I may not know.

Tim Fulton 11:22Right.

Scott Woods 11:22That kind of thing. I met some artists that I hadn't met before. That was awesome.

Tim Fulton 11:26Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 11:26You know, people who were doing incredible things. And so, you know, there was a lot of learning in it for me as well, and I've been organizing events for a long time, you know, going on two decades.

Tim Fulton 11:36Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 11:36And so for me to be surprised by this community was an enormous treat, you know? And so I'm, I'm excited to unleash all of that creativity onto the city. And, you know, look, it's... Who's, who's booking 30 days of events, you know?

Tim Fulton 11:52Right.

Scott Woods 11:52A lo- you know, by themselves?

Tim Fulton 11:54Right.

Scott Woods 11:54Who's doing that? You know, nobody's doing that. So I like to think of it as a festival that's happening one day at a time.

Tim Fulton 11:59Okay.

Scott Woods 12:00At, at a time, you know, kind of thing

Tim Fulton 12:02Well, and logistically you can't do... If it's ju- you're just one person, you can't do a whole lot more than that.

Scott Woods 12:07Uh, you know, people tell me that. And-

Tim Fulton 12:09Do you have a support group? I mean, is it literally just you?

Scott Woods 12:12I... No. Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm the person who's booking the stuff-

Tim Fulton 12:15Okay

Scott Woods 12:15... who's making it happen. I do have some support, of course. I got like, you know, a physical sponsor that's kinda making sure that money goes where money's supposed to go and that-

Tim Fulton 12:23Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 12:23... kind of thing.

Tim Fulton 12:23'Cause you're not a nonprofit-

Scott Woods 12:25I am not a nonprofit

Tim Fulton 12:26... in and, in and of yourself.

Scott Woods 12:27No. I'm working with the Kate Schulte Foundation to-

Tim Fulton 12:29Okay

Scott Woods 12:29... make that happen.

Tim Fulton 12:30And that's how you were able to secure funding through, like, GCAC and-

Scott Woods 12:33Exactly.

Tim Fulton 12:34Okay.

Scott Woods 12:34Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 12:35Okay.

Scott Woods 12:35Exactly.

Tim Fulton 12:36And we should note, most of the events are free.

Scott Woods 12:38Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 12:38Uh, if they are not free, that's a very moderate price of admission. I imagine those are the music shows.

Scott Woods 12:43Correct. Well, and it, it kinda depends too on the venue.

Tim Fulton 12:46Okay.

Scott Woods 12:46So in the... You know, some of the venues came on board at reduced or free cost-

Tim Fulton 12:51Uh-huh

Scott Woods 12:51... which was great.

Tim Fulton 12:52Well, and some places have to pay their sound guy.

Scott Woods 12:54Yeah.

Tim Fulton 12:54Yeah.

Scott Woods 12:54Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, and you can see that on the website. There's like, you know, a sponsors list. Well, those people kinda... You know, the museum came in at no cost. You know, the museum.

Tim Fulton 13:03That's awesome.

Scott Woods 13:04That's amazing.

Tim Fulton 13:04'Cause I know what they charge for a wedding.

Scott Woods 13:06Right. Yeah. It's been really great.

Tim Fulton 13:10What are the other venues that you have? Cafe Kerouac, obviously.

Scott Woods 13:14Obviously. Those, I mean, Mike Heslop, the owner there-

Tim Fulton 13:17Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 13:18... I was just kinda looking at their calendar, and I was like, "Hey, wow, I don't think they've booked this month up that far out, so let me, let me shoot Mike a ma- email."

Tim Fulton 13:27Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 13:27And he got right back to me and I was like, "Yo, do you really have all of these days free that month?" And he was like, "Mm, yeah."

Tim Fulton 13:33It's March, yeah.

Scott Woods 13:35And then it was funny because, like, I sent him, like I sent him a message and I'm like, "Well, I think I'm gonna need all of your Fridays and all of your Mondays." And, uh, I mean, and they're a happening venue. They're always putting stuff on and stuff.

Tim Fulton 13:46Yeah.

Scott Woods 13:47And, and I already have every Wednesday there, you know? So it's like I'm just taking like a month. And so he was like, "So what are you doing?" And I was trying to describe it to him before he approved it.

Tim Fulton 13:57Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 13:57And then he was, he was... In his mind, he had already approved it. He just wanted to know what to put on the website.

Tim Fulton 14:01Right.

Scott Woods 14:02So, which was awesome. New Harvest Cafe, which is up in the Linden area.

Tim Fulton 14:06Okay.

Scott Woods 14:06Um, a Black-owned venue. Uh, Quojo runs that. That's gonna have a lot of the music acts there. Gonna be at the Columbus Performing Arts Center.

Tim Fulton 14:16Franklin Avenue?

Scott Woods 14:17Couple times. Right. Correct.

Tim Fulton 14:18Okay.

Scott Woods 14:18Yeah. There'll be a-

Tim Fulton 14:19Formerly the Davis Discovery Center.

Scott Woods 14:21Right. Right. Uh, there'll be a dance production there, uh, on the 18th-

Tim Fulton 14:25Okay

Scott Woods 14:25... which will be awesome. Onyx Productions will be there.

Tim Fulton 14:26The city helping out with that, in terms of cost?

Scott Woods 14:29Mm-mm.

Tim Fulton 14:29Okay.

Scott Woods 14:30No, that one I just kinda went straight in for. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 14:32Okay. So you're paying for it.

Scott Woods 14:34Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 14:34Okay.

Scott Woods 14:34Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 14:35All right.

Scott Woods 14:35Yeah. Art of Republic, right in the Short North, right on Fifth Avenue.

Tim Fulton 14:39Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 14:39Using the main library once or twice.

Tim Fulton 14:41Okay.

Scott Woods 14:42Uh, yeah. So it's kinda bouncing around. Transit Arts is doing a thing at Central Community House, so.

Tim Fulton 14:47Cool.

Scott Woods 14:47Yeah, yeah. It's, it's kinda spread all over.

Tim Fulton 14:49When did you start working on this?

Scott Woods 14:51So the idea... Okay, so here's what happened. So...

Tim Fulton 14:55Do I tell the real story or...?

Scott Woods 14:56Yeah, yeah. So, like, a year ago, not to the day, but close, last February-

Tim Fulton 15:02Okay

Scott Woods 15:02... I was giving a speech. I was asked to come give a speech at, like, St. Charles High School for an evening event that they were doing. A, a really brilliant young man there, Charles Wallace, he asked me to come in and speak to-

Tim Fulton 15:14He was a student?

Scott Woods 15:14He's a student, yeah.

Tim Fulton 15:15Okay.

Scott Woods 15:15He's amazing. And, um, he was like, "Well, could you come speak on Columbus Black art at the event?" And I was like, "Sure, whatever."

Tim Fulton 15:21At St. Charles?

Scott Woods 15:22At St. Charles. Right, right.

Tim Fulton 15:24Right.

Scott Woods 15:24Right, right, right.

Tim Fulton 15:25For those that aren't aware- ... it's a pretty not Black school.

Scott Woods 15:29Yeah, yeah. So, you know, it was February, you know? So they were reaching out.

Tim Fulton 15:32Oh, I see.

Scott Woods 15:33Yeah.

Tim Fulton 15:33I see.

Scott Woods 15:33Right, right.

Tim Fulton 15:34Well, we'll get to February here in a second.

Scott Woods 15:36It was that month. It was that month. So I'm doing the speech, and I decided that I wasn't gonna do, like, a historical listing or anything. I, I just really wanted to talk about Black art's place in Columbus.

Tim Fulton 15:45Okay.

Scott Woods 15:46And so it was, it was kind of a... It was a tough speech. It was, like, some tough love in that speech, so to speak.

Tim Fulton 15:52Okay. So was it a lot of talk about, like, Amina Robinson or-

Scott Woods 15:55Absolutely not.

Tim Fulton 15:56Okay.

Scott Woods 15:57Because, again, everybody knows-

Tim Fulton 16:00So-

Scott Woods 16:00... Amina Robinson.

Tim Fulton 16:01Okay

Scott Woods 16:01You know, at that point-

Tim Fulton 16:02They go to the main library, they see her work.

Scott Woods 16:04Everywhere.

Tim Fulton 16:04Right.

Scott Woods 16:05Everywhere. So to me, it was, it was kind of about... The whole speech was basically about the stuff that you don't see, and I talk about the things that we're not doing enough of.

Tim Fulton 16:15Okay.

Scott Woods 16:15Um, resources that we're not utilizing enough of.

Tim Fulton 16:19Can I, can I check you a little bit and just-

Scott Woods 16:20Please

Tim Fulton 16:20... like, i- do high school, do high school students at St. Charles know who Amina Robinson was?

Scott Woods 16:25Well, this, the audience wasn't high school students.

Tim Fulton 16:27Oh, okay.

Scott Woods 16:28It was, like, an after school event.

Tim Fulton 16:29I see.

Scott Woods 16:30Yeah.

Tim Fulton 16:30Okay. Makes sense.

Scott Woods 16:31So there were some there-

Tim Fulton 16:32Right

Scott Woods 16:32... but there were local people, artists in attendance.

Tim Fulton 16:34But the culturally aware community, it was a huge story in The Dispatch when she died. Like, it's a-

Scott Woods 16:38Oh, yeah

Tim Fulton 16:39... she is-

Scott Woods 16:39Yeah

Tim Fulton 16:39... a big deal.

Scott Woods 16:40Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 16:41So.

Scott Woods 16:41Yeah.

Tim Fulton 16:42So talk me through that speech. Like what-

Scott Woods 16:44So in, in the speech, um, I mentioned some things, you know, that Columbus could be doing better-

Tim Fulton 16:49Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 16:49... at in terms of a- incorporating Black art.

Tim Fulton 16:52Okay.

Scott Woods 16:52I mentioned the Long Street Bridge wall that h- at that point was pretty new.

Tim Fulton 16:56Right.

Scott Woods 16:56And I like the wall, don't get me wrong, but I was presenting the question as to whether or not the wall was indicative of the past or the future.

Tim Fulton 17:06Okay.

Scott Woods 17:06And to me, uh, at least in that moment, the way I was analyzing the presence and the purpose of the wall, it seemed more like a reminder of something than, than a harbinger of things to come.

Tim Fulton 17:18Right.

Scott Woods 17:18Which, which-

Tim Fulton 17:19Well, I mean, it is-

Scott Woods 17:19... as an artist-

Tim Fulton 17:20... historical Black figures

Scott Woods 17:21... it is. It is. And that's important.

Tim Fulton 17:23Right.

Scott Woods 17:24But, like, but, you know, that wall was comprised of, like, a lot of people who are no longer here or-

Tim Fulton 17:29Right

Scott Woods 17:29... no longer active.

Tim Fulton 17:30Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 17:31And so that, that concerned me. I was like, who is this wall for?

Tim Fulton 17:33Right.

Scott Woods 17:34You know? What is this wall... When you come down the street, where is this wall taking you?

Tim Fulton 17:39Right.

Scott Woods 17:40You know, the implication is that this is a gateway into something, and one block away from the wall is nothing. So a lot of questions there.

Tim Fulton 17:50Yeah.

Scott Woods 17:50Right? What's the King Arts Complex doing? I should've been able to do this whole event at the King Arts Complex. That didn't happen.

Tim Fulton 17:56Okay.

Scott Woods 17:57So the speech kinda deconstructed a little, but the-

Tim Fulton 17:59Is that what the original venue was for-

Scott Woods 18:01No.

Tim Fulton 18:01Okay.

Scott Woods 18:02No, no, uh-uh. But during the speech, and this is where Hollr kinda took root, I mention that you could put o- one Black artist of note that's really good at what they do-

Tim Fulton 18:14Mm-hmm, a professional artist

Scott Woods 18:15... yeah, yeah, on a stage or in a room performing every night for a month- Never repeat the artists. All of it be good. You could do that with your eyes closed. You could do 30 days straight of that. You could probably do two months of that. You could probably do blah, blah, blah.

Tim Fulton 18:30And so somewhere in the back of your head there was a little voice-

Scott Woods 18:33Yeah, that stuck. That stuck

Tim Fulton 18:34... that said-

Scott Woods 18:34Yeah

Tim Fulton 18:35... "Well, if it's so easy, do it."

Scott Woods 18:36Yeah, well, so about six months later I said, "Okay, I'm gonna do this."

Tim Fulton 18:41Okay.

Scott Woods 18:42Yeah. And then so I started kinda putting some feelers out, like, "What do you think? Do you think this is..." You know.

Tim Fulton 18:48Right. How much is this gonna cost? Where am I gonna get the money?

Scott Woods 18:51Yeah. And I didn't really worry about the money, you know?

Tim Fulton 18:53Okay.

Scott Woods 18:53'Cause I figured if I get one venue on board, whatever that relationship looks like, that'll work itself out. All I gotta do is pay the artist. I'm very big on that.

Tim Fulton 19:02Okay. And thankfully we have an arts council that agrees with you.

Scott Woods 19:06Yeah, yeah. That was awesome. They really came through. And so I think probably around October of last year, I started to reach out and put it together and say, "Okay..." You know, I asked a couple people who were kinda doing stuff in the community. I said, "Look, I need a venue. I need a venue for th- 30 days."

Tim Fulton 19:22Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 19:22March is what I'm looking at. And I had a couple of bites, uh, but you know, I really needed a venue to do certain things, and so finally I settled on one that, again, as, as I mentioned, it kinda fell through. It's, it was getting rebuilt. It's still getting rebuilt, so it wasn't gonna be done-

Tim Fulton 19:37Okay

Scott Woods 19:37... in time, basically is what happened. But I didn't find that out until this mon- you know, till s- until January.

Tim Fulton 19:43Okay. And so then you had to be like, "Okay, I've gotta put-"

Scott Woods 19:46Yeah, yeah. So then, yeah, I had to put that cap back on my head.

Tim Fulton 19:48Yeah, with two months notice, that's not-

Scott Woods 19:50Yeah

Tim Fulton 19:50... normally enough time.

Scott Woods 19:52No, no. But I got, I got lucky. Columbus is pretty thirsty.

Tim Fulton 19:56Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 19:56You know, the artists are hungry. The venues are always looking for good stuff.

Tim Fulton 20:00Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 20:01And, you know, this collectively as an event is a pretty bold statement.

Tim Fulton 20:06Yeah.

Scott Woods 20:07You know, not just because it's all Black, but not just because it's all 30 days. All of that together kinda just, it just, it, it just rallied people out for it. So I'm, I'm real excited about that. So that's how that all happened.

Tim Fulton 20:19Gotcha.

Scott Woods 20:19Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 20:20And take this question how you will.

Scott Woods 20:21Sure.

Tim Fulton 20:22It is not meant to be snarky, it is just meant to note-

Scott Woods 20:25Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 20:26... that why not do this in February during Black History Month?

Scott Woods 20:31Because... No, that's, that was, like, the first question.

Tim Fulton 20:34Okay.

Scott Woods 20:35Right? So-

Tim Fulton 20:36When you went to people and they were like, "Yeah, but why not February?"

Scott Woods 20:39Well, actually no, everybody kinda... I think most of the people I know kinda get it.

Tim Fulton 20:42Okay.

Scott Woods 20:43Basically it's not February because I assume you're already gonna give us gigs in February.

Tim Fulton 20:49Okay.

Scott Woods 20:50I need to prove that we have more than February.

Tim Fulton 20:53Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 20:53That we're capable of more than February.

Tim Fulton 20:55Absolutely.

Scott Woods 20:56You know? I need that to happen on people's radars when it's not February.

Tim Fulton 21:00Yeah.

Scott Woods 21:01So yeah.

Tim Fulton 21:02Okay.

Scott Woods 21:02Yeah. If that answers the question.

Tim Fulton 21:04It does. Can you talk about the Columbus art community as a whole and sort of what you're seeing? Having worked here for, you know, coming up on two decades, what is the scene like now, and how is it different from how it was 18 years ago?

Scott Woods 21:18So a lot of my energy has been spent with, uh, the poetry scene, obviously.

Tim Fulton 21:25Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 21:25Which, you know, 18, 20 years ago consisted of, like, two readings on or near campus.

Tim Fulton 21:31Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 21:32And that was pretty much it.

Tim Fulton 21:33Okay.

Scott Woods 21:34After that, you know, a venue opened up, Snaps and Taps, at that time. It was like the only other-

Tim Fulton 21:39Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 21:39... place to go do poetry, and so a lot of-

Tim Fulton 21:41Where is that?

Scott Woods 21:41It was-

Tim Fulton 21:42Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 21:42... on Washington Avenue.

Tim Fulton 21:43Okay.

Scott Woods 21:44It's now a parking lot.

Tim Fulton 21:45Okay.

Scott Woods 21:46But, um, right across from the Motorist building.

Tim Fulton 21:48Got it, yeah.

Scott Woods 21:49And so it was, it was a, a really cool venue in the perfect spot at the perfect time, and I think a lot of the art that you see now, particularly the art by people of color, comes out of that experience, out of that one spot.

Tim Fulton 22:04Okay.

Scott Woods 22:04You know, everybody just kinda branched out and started to do their own thing. Musicians, a lot of musicians kinda launched out of there, jazz musicians mostly.

Tim Fulton 22:12Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 22:13So cats who are really active now, you know, probably did a few dates there-

Tim Fulton 22:17Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 22:17... in the three years that it was open.

Tim Fulton 22:19Okay.

Scott Woods 22:20But that's, like, kind of, like, I guess that underbelly art scene that we're kinda talking about.

Tim Fulton 22:23Okay.

Scott Woods 22:24Which I think is cool. Like, the differences between then and now is, are vast, right? So just, like, poetry has exploded. Like, there's a poetry reading every night of the week right now.

Tim Fulton 22:34Right.

Scott Woods 22:35Yeah. But even in other areas, um, visual arts is... You can't even count all the artists that are painting or sculpting or-

Tim Fulton 22:42Right

Scott Woods 22:42... And the, and the variations of their art is ama- you know, the skateboard art, the graffiti, all of that stuff is just amazing and expansive. Music, of course, kinda goes without saying. The interesting thing about the music, though, like, I'm not young anymore, so I still kinda remember when you could go to, like, a lot of venues and see live music.

Tim Fulton 23:01Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 23:01And that's really clearly not the case now.

Tim Fulton 23:04Okay.

Scott Woods 23:05The, uh-

Tim Fulton 23:05You just think there's not as many venues or is it-

Scott Woods 23:07Absolutely not.

Tim Fulton 23:08Okay.

Scott Woods 23:08Nah, absolutely not. And it's funny, like, I, I'm always, like, drawing these correlations between, like, Austin and Columbus when it comes to venues-

Tim Fulton 23:17Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 23:17... and art. Uh, because if you go to Aus- and you know, and Columbus does this all the... They're al- we're always, the infrastructure's always comparing itself to Austin too, so I don't feel so bad.

Tim Fulton 23:25Right.

Scott Woods 23:26But it's interesting. Like, if you're in Austin, every venue you go in, every thing you go into is a venue.

Tim Fulton 23:32Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 23:33Everybody has a stage, a back room, a basement room, a s- everybody has a performance space.

Tim Fulton 23:38It's almost like a bathroom. Like, you gotta have it.

Scott Woods 23:40Yeah.

Tim Fulton 23:40Right.

Scott Woods 23:41Yeah. And it was amazing to me.

Tim Fulton 23:43Yeah.

Scott Woods 23:44I mean, every... The banks, the airport.

Tim Fulton 23:46Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 23:46The barbecue joints. Every place had a performance space. Columbus obviously has never been like that, but it was certainly more like that-

Tim Fulton 23:54Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 23:54... in certain pockets. Campus used to have lots of venues. Short North used to have some venues. East Side used to have some venues.

Tim Fulton 24:02Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 24:02Mount Vernon used to have some venues. There just used to be venues. You know, it's, it's tough to make your art happen, uh, in a place where y- It doesn't have a place to happen.

Tim Fulton 24:12Right.

Scott Woods 24:12So I think something too though that's, that's really cool about the art scene in general is that artists have gotten mad creative, you know, in terms of where they're gonna do stuff, how they're gonna do stuff.

Tim Fulton 24:22Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 24:23So that's all very exciting.

Tim Fulton 24:24Yeah.

Scott Woods 24:25I, I think it's a great time to be an artist in Columbus if you got a couple of resources in hand.

Tim Fulton 24:31Uh-huh.

Scott Woods 24:31You know, if you find a community that you can kinda latch onto, they're out there. They're not hard to find. You know, they're, they are art communities, so you know, you gotta watch out for the weirdos. But aside from that- ... you know, it's, it's cool. It's, it's real easy to get involved here, you know?

Tim Fulton 24:46Any other resources that you would point to for either a young artist or somebody who's interested in being just exposed to the scene more?

Scott Woods 24:54Sure. So two things, I guess, really, and they don't happen as frequently as they should. Uh, the first one is find an art community that isn't your art.

Tim Fulton 25:03Okay.

Scott Woods 25:04It's really important to cross-pollinate. See if you're, you know, if you're a musician, see what the poets are doing. If you're a poet, see what the visual artists are doing, not just in terms of their work, which is also kind of cool.

Tim Fulton 25:15Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 25:16Uh, but in terms of what venues are they using, what kind of relationships are they building, which-

Tim Fulton 25:20Well, and how are they working?

Scott Woods 25:22Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 25:22Yeah.

Scott Woods 25:22Right.

Tim Fulton 25:23'Cause I mean, everybody needs, I think other than a writer, you kinda need a space.

Scott Woods 25:28Yeah.

Tim Fulton 25:28You know?

Scott Woods 25:29Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 25:29And I would also say that there aren't as many of those spaces anymore, at least cheap.

Scott Woods 25:34Right, right.

Tim Fulton 25:34So 400 West Rich is a great resource.

Scott Woods 25:37Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 25:38And it's fairly inexpensive.

Scott Woods 25:40Yeah.

Tim Fulton 25:40But it is also a for-profit entity.

Scott Woods 25:42Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 25:42And if you don't wanna, you know, truck your stuff across town to Franklinton, you know, you gotta have a room, you gotta have a place where you can play drums if you're-

Scott Woods 25:50Yeah

Tim Fulton 25:50... a musician.

Scott Woods 25:50Yeah.

Tim Fulton 25:51There's not a whole lot there.

Scott Woods 25:53No, and I bemoan that, you know, Wild Goose is, like, the one place that everybody knows.

Tim Fulton 25:59Right.

Scott Woods 25:59You know? And it's like, nah, we should have like five of those places, man. We should have like 10 of those places.

Tim Fulton 26:03Right.

Scott Woods 26:04Just these multipurpose general brick wall rooms where anything could be happening. That should be, that, I mean, that should be like a go-to type venue here.

Tim Fulton 26:12Do you think that the community would support it?

Scott Woods 26:15I mean, I wanna believe that, yeah. I have to believe that.

Tim Fulton 26:18R- right.

Scott Woods 26:18Just, I mean, I, I think Columbus is really hungry for that kind of art, that kind of culture. I just, you know, I think there was a time when that wasn't true, and so there was this contraction-

Tim Fulton 26:29Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 26:30... of, of the venues, not of the artists, but of the venues and such.

Tim Fulton 26:32Right.

Scott Woods 26:33And that makes sense, but I don't, I think now's the time to kind of push back out on that, maybe in some different ways, you know? Uh, Wild Goose has a pretty, pretty resilient model-

Tim Fulton 26:43Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 26:44... helped by the fact that they're one of the few that are kind of that blueprint wide open kinda space.

Tim Fulton 26:50Right. Oh, and so they're taking in people saying, "Hey, I wanna do X, Y, Z. Hey, I wanna do this."

Scott Woods 26:55Yeah.

Tim Fulton 26:55And they're able to then pick and choose and say, "Okay, what's gonna get enough people in the door that we can pay rent?"

Scott Woods 27:00Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 27:01So.

Scott Woods 27:02Yeah. And they're reasonable, which also helps, right? So the other thing, though, that I think, you know, artists should kinda be tapping into obviously are the institutional resources, and this was a big one.

Tim Fulton 27:13Okay.

Scott Woods 27:13Um, you know, GCAC, Ohio Arts Council, they... A- and I was not, and I gotta be honest with you, I was not aware of this until about a year ago.

Tim Fulton 27:21Okay.

Scott Woods 27:22Like, directly. I was aware that they existed.

Tim Fulton 27:25Right.

Scott Woods 27:25I had no relationships with them. But after I did that speech, you know, I got a call, so to speak, and they wanted to talk, and, "Hey, could you come down to our office and let's just talk?" And so-

Tim Fulton 27:34Right

Scott Woods 27:34... "Sure, let's, let's talk about Black art in Columbus," you know? And that was a great couple of meetings, you know?

Tim Fulton 27:39Yeah.

Scott Woods 27:39And, you know, the institutions here, the foundations, grant providing opportunities, those institutions are looking for good art to support.

Tim Fulton 27:49Right.

Scott Woods 27:49They're looking for, they need-

Tim Fulton 27:50They have money, right?

Scott Woods 27:51Yeah. They need diversity.

Tim Fulton 27:53Right.

Scott Woods 27:53And, and they sorely want it. I don't know if they have all of the outreach ability that they would like.

Tim Fulton 27:59Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 28:00Um, so I think that there's a, a little gap there, you know, an educational gap, an awareness gap.

Tim Fulton 28:06Right.

Scott Woods 28:06They're not sure who to reach out to, and we're not sure who to reach up to.

Tim Fulton 28:10Right. Well, and I will point out, and I would encourage anybody to, if you have an idea, these organizations are there to listen.

Scott Woods 28:18Sure.

Tim Fulton 28:18They, it does not take a whole lot to get a meeting-

Scott Woods 28:22No

Tim Fulton 28:22... to go and say, and even if you don't have a fully formed idea, even if it's just, "Hey, I'm thinking about doing a month of Black art," or-

Scott Woods 28:30Yeah

Tim Fulton 28:30... "Hey, I'm thinking about doing a speaker series." And they will, they will say, "This is what we've seen work in the past. This is how we can provide you money." They pointed out to you obviously that you needed a fiscal sponsor to make sure that the money went where it was supposed to go. They are good organizations. I, you know, sit on the Mayor's Commission for Young Professionals. We give out grant dollars every year and need people to apply. Like, a big part of that is always, like you said, figuring out who to reach out to-

Scott Woods 29:03Sure

Tim Fulton 29:03... and figuring out who is trying to put cool shit together.

Scott Woods 29:07Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 29:07So.

Scott Woods 29:08Yeah.

Tim Fulton 29:08Yeah. Great. Scott Woods, thank you so much for your time. You can get more information in the show notes for this episode on Holler. And Scott, again, thank you.

Scott Woods 29:18Thank you so much.

Tim Fulton 29:27Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite event organizer. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.