Streetlight Guild & Scott Woods

Tim Fulton 0:15Ladies 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, I sat down with poet, organizer, and journalist Scott Woods to talk about showcasing Black art in Columbus, organizing for your own art. We talked about him starting his biggest project to date, the Streetlight Guild, the importance of benefactors and fostering those relationships, and we talked about taking ownership over the uniqueness that is Columbus' culture scene and how to define it. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. The Confluence Cast is sponsored this week 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 Scott Woods, author, poet, and artist, also the proprietor, would you say, of the Streetlight Guild?

Scott Woods 1:53Sure, that sounds good.

Tim Fulton 1:54That's fine.

Scott Woods 1:54Yeah.

Tim Fulton 1:54How are you, sir?

Scott Woods 1:56I am feeling great.

Tim Fulton 1:57Good.

Scott Woods 1:57Yeah.

Tim Fulton 1:58Good. Thank you again for sitting down. Uh, Scott and I had the opportunity to sit down for the Confluence Cast before on the occasion of Holler-

Scott Woods 2:07Yeah

Tim Fulton 2:07... uh, which you can hear all about, uh, in the previous episode linked in the show notes. Is Holler gonna happen again, do you think?

Scott Woods 2:14No.

Tim Fulton 2:14Okay. One-time endeavor and that's, that's sort of it.

Scott Woods 2:18Yeah, I mean, there's reasons for that, of course.

Tim Fulton 2:21Okay.

Scott Woods 2:21Good ones, I think.

Tim Fulton 2:22Okay.

Scott Woods 2:23Um, so I'm not doing Holler again because the whole point of Holler was to kind of showcase what Columbus had.

Tim Fulton 2:34Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 2:34And in my mind, uh, the minute that you make that a regular thing, at least for the purposes of Black art here-

Tim Fulton 2:42Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 2:42... then it just kinda becomes Black History Month again.

Tim Fulton 2:45Okay.

Scott Woods 2:45And so people kinda check in on the month that you're doing it, and they check out on your issues the rest of the time.

Tim Fulton 2:51I see.

Scott Woods 2:51And so for me, I thought it would be important to show the city, you know, the plethora of art and culture that we had-

Tim Fulton 3:00Right

Scott Woods 3:01... and then put the onus on the city, you know. If you wanna see this again, you can book these artists. You can hire these people. These people will come to you. They live here.

Tim Fulton 3:10You can go to their shows.

Scott Woods 3:11Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 3:12Right. And so would you say that i- the flip side of that is that it accomplished what it set out to do?

Scott Woods 3:17Absolutely.

Tim Fulton 3:17Great. That's awesome.

Scott Woods 3:19Yeah.

Tim Fulton 3:19For those not familiar, talk sort of about your background and your bio and your time in Columbus.

Scott Woods 3:24So I'm from Columbus, right?

Tim Fulton 3:26Great.

Scott Woods 3:26So raised. And, uh, I have been, um, working in the city for the public library for over 20 years.

Tim Fulton 3:35Okay.

Scott Woods 3:35But while I've been kind of doing all the normal living stuff, I'm a writer.

Tim Fulton 3:40Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 3:41Um, I'm mostly known for poetry, but-

Tim Fulton 3:43Okay

Scott Woods 3:43... that's changed, I'd say, in the last four or five years.

Tim Fulton 3:46Yeah.

Scott Woods 3:47Um, you know, I've had, you know, a number of essays go viral. I've put out an essay book on Prince.

Tim Fulton 3:52Right.

Scott Woods 3:53Um, so, uh, and I, you know, now have what is now a weekly column for Alive.

Tim Fulton 4:00Yeah.

Scott Woods 4:00And so I'm staying pretty busy, and then of course Streetlight Guild.

Tim Fulton 4:03Yeah. And we'll get to Streetlight Guild in a second.

Scott Woods 4:05Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 4:05Talk to me about, you're a performance poet as well.

Scott Woods 4:08Mm, yeah.

Tim Fulton 4:09So you're a writing poet and a performance poet.

Scott Woods 4:11Yeah.

Tim Fulton 4:11How did you get into... Well, I've talked to a couple other performance poets, and I'm just interested how you got into that space 'cause I don't think we really got into it the last time we spoke.

Scott Woods 4:20Sure. So basically, I was writing poetry, and there was no place to do anything with it. I didn't even know that you should do anything with it-

Tim Fulton 4:28Okay

Scott Woods 4:28... other than write it and maybe publish it.

Tim Fulton 4:30Okay.

Scott Woods 4:31Um, and this would've been around '96 or so.

Tim Fulton 4:33And a rough, not to reveal too much-

Scott Woods 4:35Mm

Tim Fulton 4:35... but, like, roughly how old were you at that point?

Scott Woods 4:37So I was about 25-

Tim Fulton 4:39Okay

Scott Woods 4:39... give or take.

Tim Fulton 4:40Okay.

Scott Woods 4:40And, um, and so, you know, like I said, I think Columbus may have had, like, one or two open mics that only the people who went to them knew about.

Tim Fulton 4:49Okay.

Scott Woods 4:50And certainly no one Black. And so around '96, '97 or so, um, Snaps and Taps, uh, was created.

Tim Fulton 5:00Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 5:00It was basically a venue downtown. And, um, a few guys had got together and put it together, and that was kinda where all of the Black artists in the city hung out at that time.

Tim Fulton 5:09Okay.

Scott Woods 5:10Um, but actually even, even about a year or so before that, I had, like, a couple of open mics had popped up-

Tim Fulton 5:16Okay

Scott Woods 5:16... because of the movie Love Jones-

Tim Fulton 5:19Okay

Scott Woods 5:19... which came out, like, '96.

Tim Fulton 5:20Okay.

Scott Woods 5:20Around '97, '98, you know, a couple of little Black open mics popped up in, like, apartments or whatever.

Tim Fulton 5:26Okay.

Scott Woods 5:27And then in what, uh, in the same building that Snaps and Taps would become, uh, was a, a Black theater troupe was in there.

Tim Fulton 5:35Okay.

Scott Woods 5:35Uh, James Chapman had a troupe in there, and they had just had kind of a throwaway little poetry night in there just to kinda keep the place open, you know.

Tim Fulton 5:42Okay.

Scott Woods 5:44And so I actually started in Snaps and Taps before it became Snaps and Taps.

Tim Fulton 5:47Okay.

Scott Woods 5:47And then once it became Snaps and Taps, I became an official part of a show.

Tim Fulton 5:51Okay.

Scott Woods 5:51Right.

Tim Fulton 5:52So were you-

Scott Woods 5:53Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 5:53... like, helping to organize it, or what was, what was your role there?

Scott Woods 5:56So initially I was just a poet, but then when Snaps and Taps opened, they wanted an open mic, and so I signed on to help with that.

Tim Fulton 6:03Okay.

Scott Woods 6:04Um-

Tim Fulton 6:04Had you had any experience sort of facilitating that sort of thing before?

Scott Woods 6:08No.

Tim Fulton 6:08Okay.

Scott Woods 6:09Uh, no. So, um, and it was very cool. Like, well, they had approached Vernell Bristow, and she came to me, and so we kind of worked on that together-

Tim Fulton 6:17Okay

Scott Woods 6:17... basically. And so now, 20 years later, you know, still running the weekly open mic.

Tim Fulton 6:23Yeah.

Scott Woods 6:23At, you know, now at Cafe Kerouac, but yeah.

Tim Fulton 6:26Cool.

Scott Woods 6:26Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 6:27And so what, uh, I guess I'm curious to learn sort of if your writing evolved at, from a point when you knew you were gonna be performative about it. I'm also curious what you, how you've ev- uh, evolved as somebody who... Again, we'll get to Streetlight Guild in a second.

Scott Woods 6:44Sure.

Tim Fulton 6:44But how you have, have evolved as someone who is putting together those shows, and, like, what's the curation process like?

Scott Woods 6:52So as a writer, um, yeah, there was evolution, uh, probably both good and bad, right?

Tim Fulton 6:57Okay.

Scott Woods 6:58So, um, once I started performing the work and it was well received, then that was, you know, as, as an early writer, you tend to write towards the thing that's working.

Tim Fulton 7:07And getting a response, right?

Scott Woods 7:08Yeah, yeah. And so, and you know, and that was like a weekly regimen, right? So-

Tim Fulton 7:13Okay

Scott Woods 7:14... you know, I'm, you know, we're cranking out, all of us, we're cranking out, like, two new poems a week to perform-

Tim Fulton 7:19Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 7:19... you know, in front of an audience. You know, at least two poems a week, right?

Tim Fulton 7:23Right.

Scott Woods 7:23Uh, but we know we're gonna perform two poems a week, and so, you know, there's a little bit of a com- competitive edge happening and that whole thing happening. So we were creating this scene.

Tim Fulton 7:34Right.

Scott Woods 7:34You know? There was already poetry here. Let me not, you know, suggest that wasn't the case, but-

Tim Fulton 7:39Okay

Scott Woods 7:40... no one was really doing it for the purpose of performance. It certainly wasn't very diverse. Um, and you know, pretty much all of the poetry that's in the city now that you kinda look at spun out of that initial effort.

Tim Fulton 7:53Yeah.

Scott Woods 7:54Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 7:54And talk to the sort of the booking aspect of it and the, the wrangling of the cats, if you will.

Scott Woods 8:00Yeah. So, you know, at some point if you're running an open mic, at least a poetry open mic-

Tim Fulton 8:07Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 8:07... uh, there is an expectation that somewhere in there you'll have featured readers.

Tim Fulton 8:11Okay.

Scott Woods 8:11Right? And so, um, that's kinda where I got m- you know, kind of cut my teeth, was in booking poets to come perform. And then it, and then I started doing it myself. People would request me at other readings-

Tim Fulton 8:24Okay

Scott Woods 8:25... in and out of the city, and out of the state. And, um, you know, and I, for a little while I had a band with me, and the whole nine.

Tim Fulton 8:33Okay.

Scott Woods 8:33Yeah, and so you learn a lot, you know, just doing that little bit, you know? And, you know, for me, um, I became very involved, um, at the national level, uh, with the nonprofit poetry organization, Poetry Slam-

Tim Fulton 8:48Okay

Scott Woods 8:48... Incorporated, which ran national competitions.

Tim Fulton 8:51Okay.

Scott Woods 8:51And so I got really kind of in, you know, inducted into high-level organizing pretty early on. Um, and so I was only just a poet for maybe a few years, and I-

Tim Fulton 9:02Okay

Scott Woods 9:02... became an organizer almost right out the gate.

Tim Fulton 9:04Great.

Scott Woods 9:05Yeah.

Tim Fulton 9:05Talk about Streetlight Guild, which I, at least in my mind, is sort of your primary right now, right? It's the primary outlet for-

Scott Woods 9:14It is

Tim Fulton 9:14... uh, your work and, and what you're... It's what you're focused on creatively, I guess, is, is the way I'd wanna put it.

Scott Woods 9:20Yeah.

Tim Fulton 9:21Talk about that organization, how you founded it, 'cause it's, it only opened roughly a month ago in its physical form. Talk about how it got started.

Scott Woods 9:31So-

Tim Fulton 9:32And where the name comes from, actually.

Scott Woods 9:33Sure. So that's Holler's fault.

Tim Fulton 9:36Okay.

Scott Woods 9:36Right?

Tim Fulton 9:37Blame Holler.

Scott Woods 9:37Yeah, totally. Um, I knew doing Holler that it wasn't gonna happen again-

Tim Fulton 9:42Okay

Scott Woods 9:42... which enabled me to put all of my effort into it at the time.

Tim Fulton 9:46Right.

Scott Woods 9:47You know, I didn't miss any of those shows for the entire month except for one.

Tim Fulton 9:51Okay.

Scott Woods 9:51And, and that's because I was performing, right?

Tim Fulton 9:53Okay.

Scott Woods 9:54So, um, I knew it wasn't gonna happen again, and it was clear very early on that it was working.

Tim Fulton 10:02Okay.

Scott Woods 10:02That it was creating awareness, that it was changing, uh, perceptions, that it was, um, teaching the artist their value, you know. It was doing all of these things. And I knew that, um, once it was over, a lot of that might dissipate.

Tim Fulton 10:19Okay.

Scott Woods 10:19And so I'm generally inclined to consider, um... I'm generally inclined toward organization, right? And so for me, it was like, "Okay, what can I do with this after this? I've climbed that mountain. What's next?"

Tim Fulton 10:37Right.

Scott Woods 10:38And, uh, one of the questions that came up at the time, um, was from a fan, right? And they were like, "Hey, uh, what would it take for you to do this all the time?" And I was like, "Oh, a venue."

Tim Fulton 10:52Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 10:52Right? And, uh, the fan was a guy named Glenn Kaiser. He had been coming out to the open mic for a while and, and, uh, was a fan. And, uh, I didn't know it when he asked me, but he was asking me 'cause he wanted to help.

Tim Fulton 11:07Okay.

Scott Woods 11:08He wasn't just being curious. And I didn't know at the time that he had a lot of money.

Tim Fulton 11:14Okay.

Scott Woods 11:14And so in his mind, he's like, "Okay, well, I'm just gonna go find Scott a venue."

Tim Fulton 11:18Okay.

Scott Woods 11:19And that's basically what happened. Um-

Tim Fulton 11:20He was the... I mean, not to be funny-

Scott Woods 11:22Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 11:22... but he was a patron that became a patron.

Scott Woods 11:24Absolutely.

Tim Fulton 11:25Right?

Scott Woods 11:25Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 11:25Okay.

Scott Woods 11:26Absolutely. And so, um, he just started looking for buildings, you know, up to my specs, right?

Tim Fulton 11:32Okay.

Scott Woods 11:33And I was like, "Yeah, I need it to do this, this, and this." And, and then a lot of it is like you don't know what you're gonna... At least I don't know what I might do, right? My ideas are, are vast, and they're sometimes wild and new.

Tim Fulton 11:44Right.

Scott Woods 11:44And so I don't know. One day I'll do an art exhibit. The next day it'll be a poetry show. The next day it'll be five bands. I just don't know, and so I need a space that's really mutable, right?

Tim Fulton 11:55Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 11:56Um, then I was like, "Oh, but it also has to have outdoor space, and this and this and that." And so he just started looking for places, and he would send me these emails with these address links, and like, "What do you think? What do you think? What do you think?" And-

Tim Fulton 12:07And so when did you know he was, like, act-

Scott Woods 12:09For real?

Tim Fulton 12:09Was it before that he was, that you... Yeah, that he was for real or serious? Yeah.

Scott Woods 12:13No, that was pretty much it.

Tim Fulton 12:15Okay.

Scott Woods 12:15Um, I mean, like I said, I'd known him for about a year at that point. And he was just-

Tim Fulton 12:19Okay

Scott Woods 12:20... a really cool older white guy coming out to the show. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 12:22Okay.

Scott Woods 12:23And, um, and you know, and I had, you know, met his family, and I was like, "Oh, they're cool. That's nice." And-

Tim Fulton 12:29Yeah

Scott Woods 12:30... you know, but I didn't really have any perception about, you know, or what he possessed-

Tim Fulton 12:37Right

Scott Woods 12:37... what he was capable of and what he was willing to do.

Tim Fulton 12:40Yeah.

Scott Woods 12:40Which is the most important thing, right? Is like what are you, what are you willing to do?

Tim Fulton 12:43Right.

Scott Woods 12:43And he was willing to buy a building.

Tim Fulton 12:47Okay.

Scott Woods 12:48You know? And so I-

Tim Fulton 12:49But Streetlight Guild existed before the-

Scott Woods 12:52Yeah, I was doing programming

Tim Fulton 12:53... you bought it, right? Okay.

Scott Woods 12:53Yeah, I was doing programming the whole time.

Tim Fulton 12:55Okay.

Scott Woods 12:56Um, and I just started rolling it under this banner of Streetlight Guild.

Tim Fulton 13:00Okay.

Scott Woods 13:01So, you know, for the, in the year that Holler happened, so 2017-

Tim Fulton 13:04Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 13:05... you know, after Holler, I was kinda like taking stock for a few months. But then that, right, you know, not too long after that I was right back on the organizing horse.

Tim Fulton 13:14Okay.

Scott Woods 13:14I think at the end of that year, I had come up with the name and the branding and thinking about what it was gonna do, and I had done like three art shows just to kick it right out the gate.

Tim Fulton 13:23At different venues, I assume?

Scott Woods 13:26Yeah, uh, Art of Republic-

Tim Fulton 13:27Okay

Scott Woods 13:28... is one of those shows. Oh, no, n- not only. Second Sight-

Tim Fulton 13:30Okay

Scott Woods 13:31... was another one in Franklinton. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 13:32And so what's the... If, is there a mission statement? Is there... And like what's the structure of the-

Scott Woods 13:37Sure

Tim Fulton 13:37... organization? Give me the, the nuts and bolts of it.

Scott Woods 13:39Mm-hmm. So the whole point of Streetlight Guild is to create and refine a Columbus-based original culture with an emphasis on underrepresented voices.

Tim Fulton 13:51Okay.

Scott Woods 13:52So it's not absolutely anything, but, um, I'm looking to create events, curate events-

Tim Fulton 13:59Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 14:00... um, host events by other people even, um, that are aimed at a Columbus-based artist, um, and original work-

Tim Fulton 14:11Okay

Scott Woods 14:11... um, in an effort to kind of answer certain questions or even preferably to make certain questions go away.

Tim Fulton 14:19Okay.

Scott Woods 14:20So for instance-

Tim Fulton 14:21Yeah, please

Scott Woods 14:21... I'm tired of having certain discussions about culture in Columbus.

Tim Fulton 14:26Okay.

Scott Woods 14:26And so the first question that I wanted to remove from the table was, i- is there culture in Columbus, right?

Tim Fulton 14:32Right.

Scott Woods 14:33And you know, when you're kind of here and you're bouncing around to stuff, it seems pretty obvious, right? Uh, but for some reason the question persisted and-

Tim Fulton 14:43Even among residents.

Scott Woods 14:44Yeah.

Tim Fulton 14:44Yeah.

Scott Woods 14:44And particularly, right? Like my entire life. And so for me, um, I figured we were probably either not asking the right question or we're not answering it right.

Tim Fulton 14:55Right.

Scott Woods 14:55And I thought, well, that's a pretty easy question, so let's not try to change the question. Let's see if the question has an answer. And so once you start unpacking what culture is, then the answer is kinda like, well, yes, it has a culture, but not one that we like or not one that we support or not one that we feel defines us as a city very much or very-

Tim Fulton 15:16Okay

Scott Woods 15:16... or very well. It's not Columbus specific, right?

Tim Fulton 15:20Okay.

Scott Woods 15:21There's nothing about the culture that exists here that seem particularly unique.

Tim Fulton 15:26Okay.

Scott Woods 15:27Right? If I go to New Orleans, I know what that is. If I go to Chicago, I know what that is. If I go to New York, I know what that is. If I go to the Bay Area, I know what that is or-

Tim Fulton 15:35Right

Scott Woods 15:35... what it used to be. So, um, and, and then that's the other part of it too. Like, it's like so Columbus is changing so fast and all over the place now. How are we defining that moving into the future? That's really important, right? That-

Tim Fulton 15:53And do you seek-

Scott Woods 15:53Yeah

Tim Fulton 15:53... to sort of guide it or do you seek to expose it?

Scott Woods 15:58Both.

Tim Fulton 15:59Okay.

Scott Woods 16:00I'm s-

Tim Fulton 16:01I was super interes-

Scott Woods 16:02Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 16:02... the reason I ask is I'm super interested that you didn't say exhibit or show.

Scott Woods 16:07Yeah.

Tim Fulton 16:07You said create and refine.

Scott Woods 16:09Absolutely. Um, for me, uh, because the question is so... It can be so fluid, um, I think when you, when you're faced with a really fluid question like that, there are a number of ways that you can kind of navigate it, and I feel like most people who live in Columbus traditionally navigate that question in a way that is not productive.

Tim Fulton 16:33Okay.

Scott Woods 16:34We kind of get the question and we go, "Nah," but then we don't really do anything about it.

Tim Fulton 16:38Okay.

Scott Woods 16:39Or we get the question about culture and we go, "Well, kinda," but, but but then we don't support it. And you know, a lot of that, again, for me with my impression-

Tim Fulton 16:49Well, isn't that... And not to challenge-

Scott Woods 16:49No, please.

Tim Fulton 16:50Well, I am gonna challenge you.

Scott Woods 16:51Please.

Tim Fulton 16:51Isn't that a capacity issue, right? Is like folks who... Most consumers of, I would like to think, most consumers of the art, or excuse me, the culture that you're presenting aren't, uh, producers of it themselves.

Scott Woods 17:07And that's fine.

Tim Fulton 17:08Right.

Scott Woods 17:08Right? That's not a prerequisite.

Tim Fulton 17:10Well, but y- I guess what I heard you say is we don't... If we say, "Nah, there isn't then anything-"

Scott Woods 17:16Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 17:16... then we don't do anything about it. What capacity, I guess, do-

Scott Woods 17:19I see what you're saying

Tim Fulton 17:19... those folks h- have to do something about it?

Scott Woods 17:21Yeah, no. So to me, there's at least two prongs there.

Tim Fulton 17:25Okay.

Scott Woods 17:25Right? One is the creator and one is the audience.

Tim Fulton 17:28Yeah.

Scott Woods 17:28You know, everybody doesn't have to be an owner, but you should have ownership.

Tim Fulton 17:33Okay.

Scott Woods 17:33Right?

Tim Fulton 17:34Yeah.

Scott Woods 17:34That's really key. So to me, um, if I say, "Here's a thing," and I am saying this thing represents a cultural part of Columbus-

Tim Fulton 17:44Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 17:45... um, Columbus has to accept that, right? It can kind of exist academically, physically in a space and die.

Tim Fulton 17:54Right.

Scott Woods 17:54Right? And you can say, "Well, 50 years ago we used to have this thing," you know. Um, but for me, that's not good enough, right?

Tim Fulton 18:02Right.

Scott Woods 18:02That's not how I wanna operate. That's not what I wanna leave behind. Um, but, but you have to get ownership from people. They have to feel invested in the culture.

Tim Fulton 18:14Yeah.

Scott Woods 18:14Um, and you know, it doesn't take much to me for that to happen, but you do have to let them know that that's what they're participating in, you know. Um, and I think that- While there's lots of ways to do that, um, many of the ways that Columbus traditionally does that don't stick.

Tim Fulton 18:33Okay.

Scott Woods 18:34They don't seem original to us. They seem like things we borrow, they seem like things we buy.

Tim Fulton 18:38Or things forced upon us.

Scott Woods 18:40Yeah.

Tim Fulton 18:40Right.

Scott Woods 18:40You know, or, or we're, or we're being sold something that's supposed to be cultural that doesn't relate to the values of what a Columbus resident possesses.

Tim Fulton 18:51Okay. And I just-

Scott Woods 18:51Which is part of it

Tim Fulton 18:52... I, I would ask you for examples, but off the top of my head, it, like, things like, um, you know, a touring Broadway show coming through. Like, that's not necessarily representative of Columbus culture.

Scott Woods 19:04Correct.

Tim Fulton 19:04Or c- what other examples can you think of, of like, where it's like this doesn't feel authentically Columbus?

Scott Woods 19:11Mm. So, oh man, you're gonna get me in trouble here.

Tim Fulton 19:16Well, and I

Scott Woods 19:17I'll give you an example that's gonna get me in trouble.

Tim Fulton 19:19Okay.

Scott Woods 19:20Okay? So the Harlem Renaissance initiative that Columbus participated in over the last year, look at your face right now.

Tim Fulton 19:28I am so... I, I, I think it's good what it was. It felt there were some aspects of it that, yeah.

Scott Woods 19:35It was a missed opportunity.

Tim Fulton 19:37Okay.

Scott Woods 19:37That's my biggest beef with it.

Tim Fulton 19:39Okay.

Scott Woods 19:39I love the Harlem Renaissance. I do a Harlem Renaissance show.

Tim Fulton 19:42Yeah.

Scott Woods 19:42That's not my problem.

Tim Fulton 19:44Okay.

Scott Woods 19:44Um, I, you know, look, we should teach it in schools. That's not my issue. My issue is if we as a city, right, this is like a, this was a citywide initiative.

Tim Fulton 19:55Yeah. It was trumpeted. It was-

Scott Woods 19:57Huge

Tim Fulton 19:57... rep- you know, uh, uh, acknowledged at city council. It was, yes, it was a big-

Scott Woods 20:02Yeah

Tim Fulton 20:03... big thing.

Scott Woods 20:03Every, all the, all the cultural nodes were participating.

Tim Fulton 20:07Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 20:07Right? Um, and, um, the Black creative community was being tapped hard for that campaign, rightfully so.

Tim Fulton 20:19Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 20:20And yet it was all, you know, under the onus of something that had absolutely, really absolutely nothing to do with Columbus.

Tim Fulton 20:30Yeah.

Scott Woods 20:30It was a missed opportunity. Um, and it's, it's even sharper because we had just revealed through Holler, through the things that came out of Holler-

Tim Fulton 20:44Yeah

Scott Woods 20:44... that we had the talent, we had the level of talent, we had the quantity of talent, um, to carry a campaign like that.

Tim Fulton 20:52Yeah.

Scott Woods 20:53And yet seemingly I booked more people for Holler than they did in an entire year for that campaign.

Tim Fulton 21:04Okay.

Scott Woods 21:05In terms of, like, just nameable acts, right?

Tim Fulton 21:07Right. Well, and it, yours wasn't under the, just to put a finer note on it for those that aren't familiar, but I think you can get it from its title, it's under the auspices of the centennial of a different city.

Scott Woods 21:22Absolutely.

Tim Fulton 21:23Yeah.

Scott Woods 21:23Absolutely.

Tim Fulton 21:24Which we don't really have, unless I'm unfamiliar, have any, um-

Scott Woods 21:30The c-

Tim Fulton 21:30... pr- proper connection to.

Scott Woods 21:31The connection is tenuous at best.

Tim Fulton 21:34Yeah.

Scott Woods 21:35That was an opportunity where we could've stood up and said, "Look, if we wanna celebrate the Black artists that live here, we have them."

Tim Fulton 21:43Yeah.

Scott Woods 21:43Like, ignorance-

Tim Fulton 21:43I, well, and you could-

Scott Woods 21:44... is no longer an excuse.

Tim Fulton 21:45What's funny to me is you are the guy who could stand in the room and raise your hand and say, "I did this," or, "I did that. Let's ke- " you know.

Scott Woods 21:54Well, I mean, look, and I'm no secret, right?

Tim Fulton 21:58Right.

Scott Woods 21:58They know I exist. They gave me an award for Holler.

Tim Fulton 22:02Yeah.

Scott Woods 22:02So-

Tim Fulton 22:02Well, and they financially supported Holler-

Scott Woods 22:04Mm

Tim Fulton 22:04... if I cor- remember correctly.

Scott Woods 22:05Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 22:06Yeah.

Scott Woods 22:06Yeah. So, you know, to my mind, they put on the thing that they intended to put on for whatever reason they intended to put it on. But it wasn't to showcase Columbus culture or to create it.

Tim Fulton 22:18Mm-hmm. Ta- so the flip side of that coin, talk about the programming and specifically, like, what types of things people can see at Streetlight Guild.

Scott Woods 22:28Sure. So, um, again, this is gonna be, you know, largely, uh, original work. So I'm going to artist, uh, many of whom may not have opportunities in their normal careers, um, to express themselves very specifically, say, "This is the thing that is yours," right? Um, show me, um, understanding what the mission of my venue is, show me the work that you would create under the onus of that mission.

Tim Fulton 22:57Okay.

Scott Woods 22:57Right? I'm looking for something that is, you know, original, something that is Columbus, something that is you. Um, and so I'm not really doing cover bands.

Tim Fulton 23:08Right.

Scott Woods 23:08Right? Um, and the work that is showing up there, you know, the artwork, the music, um, you know, the, the poetry that's showing up there-

Tim Fulton 23:21Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 23:22... um, that's all, um, an ef- in an aid to capture and refine what it is that the artists here are doing.

Tim Fulton 23:31Okay.

Scott Woods 23:32It's a really big deal for some bands to be able to go somewhere, and the expectation is that we will hear your music.

Tim Fulton 23:39Right.

Scott Woods 23:40Right? For the night, the whole night, you know? And that people will pay to hear it, you know, in a nice place, not in, you know, a hovel, right?

Tim Fulton 23:49Right.

Scott Woods 23:50So, um, and that that will be advertised, that that will be the, the benefit of coming to the show would be to hear something that we are not familiar with. And so now not only am I helping the artist, but I'm creating this expectation in the audience that this is a place, this is an institution, hopefully eventually-

Tim Fulton 24:08Right

Scott Woods 24:08... um, where you can still be surprised.

Tim Fulton 24:12Yeah.

Scott Woods 24:13Right? That's the goal for me.

Tim Fulton 24:14Okay.

Scott Woods 24:15Like, I wanna go somewhere and be surprised.

Tim Fulton 24:18And even in the, I almost say long-term, but what I hope it is, is medium term, that folks can look at maybe a lineup of what's coming up and not know what it is, but know based on what they've seen there on the, in the past that it's worthwhile.

Scott Woods 24:33Exactly.

Tim Fulton 24:34Um, so in addition to the, the- ... things that you've mentioned, there's, you know, you guys do writing workshops, right?

Scott Woods 24:41Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 24:41I think I've seen some performance art pieces, which I would consider performance art, sort of interacting with the audience in, in a more, uh, experiential way than a traditional poetry reading, stuff like that. I've really, I'm, you know, obviously I follow you on social media and so I see that sort of stuff. Um, talk about the, the stru- is it a nonprofit? Is it, what's the structure of the organization?

Scott Woods 25:05It is a nonprofit.

Tim Fulton 25:06Okay.

Scott Woods 25:06Yeah.

Tim Fulton 25:07And so you've, you've got a board, you've, you're I imagine m- possibly still pursuing the, you know, nonprofit status and all that stuff. How's that, the, how's the structural stuff going?

Scott Woods 25:19So we've had the status for a year.

Tim Fulton 25:21Okay, great.

Scott Woods 25:22Yeah. So, um, actually longer than a year.

Tim Fulton 25:25Okay.

Scott Woods 25:26So we had that going into the building, right?

Tim Fulton 25:28Got it.

Scott Woods 25:29Um, and, you know, mostly I'm just kinda like, "Okay, I guess that's what you're supposed to do-

Tim Fulton 25:33Yeah

Scott Woods 25:33... when you do this kind of thing," you know? Um, it's, it affords me certain opportunities to be a nonprofit, I suppose.

Tim Fulton 25:39Yeah.

Scott Woods 25:40Um, but you know, look, traditionally, I'm, I'm a hustler, man. I'm a street guy, and so I like to give people what they pay for. And so generally speaking, you know, that's how we make our bones. You know, you walk in the door, you pay, I give. That's how that works.

Tim Fulton 25:55Okay.

Scott Woods 25:55So I don't spend a lot of time chasing down grants and stuff like that.

Tim Fulton 25:58There's not a big capital campaign coming.

Scott Woods 26:00Mm, I don't think so.

Tim Fulton 26:01Thankfully you had a benefactor, right? You know?

Scott Woods 26:03Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, it still has to make a monthly nut, right?

Tim Fulton 26:06Okay.

Scott Woods 26:07You know, so let's not forget that, but-

Tim Fulton 26:10It's not free

Scott Woods 26:10... it is not. So I got keys, but I still got bills.

Tim Fulton 26:15Right.

Scott Woods 26:16Right.

Tim Fulton 26:17Well, and you're still working for the library system, right?

Scott Woods 26:19But I went down to part-time.

Tim Fulton 26:20Congratulations.

Scott Woods 26:21Yeah, so that's-

Tim Fulton 26:22That's great

Scott Woods 26:22... how good I'm doing.

Tim Fulton 26:26That's good.

Scott Woods 26:27Yeah.

Tim Fulton 26:27And I assume you're the only employee?

Scott Woods 26:31I mean-

Tim Fulton 26:31You've got some volunteers.

Scott Woods 26:32Yeah. I'm, I am-

Tim Fulton 26:33Okay

Scott Woods 26:33... the only everything.

Tim Fulton 26:34Okay.

Scott Woods 26:34Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 26:35All right.

Scott Woods 26:36So th- if there's ever anything happening there right now, I'm there.

Tim Fulton 26:39Okay.

Scott Woods 26:39Right? So when I gotta clean it up and I gotta, you know, make sure the grass is cut, all that stuff.

Tim Fulton 26:46That's great.

Scott Woods 26:46All that, all that awesome owning a business stuff.

Tim Fulton 26:49Right. And so that, I mean, that's how you view it, though. Like, that's why-

Scott Woods 26:53Oh, absolutely

Tim Fulton 26:54... I, you know, it's a nonprofit, but like, you view it as like, "I'm running this business," and this is how you gotta do budgets, you gotta figure out like, how, you know, what programming do you need to line up in order to fulfill that.

Scott Woods 27:06Yeah.

Tim Fulton 27:07And to be, it's not a large venue. Like, what's your-

Scott Woods 27:09No

Tim Fulton 27:09... what's your seated capacity?

Scott Woods 27:11So on the first floor, which is the performance space, you know, we're looking at, like, 50 people.

Tim Fulton 27:15Okay.

Scott Woods 27:15Right? Um, and in the second floor art gallery, I've put on some workshops in there, you know, capacity's like 15, 20.

Tim Fulton 27:23Okay.

Scott Woods 27:24Um, that's all phase one stuff.

Tim Fulton 27:26All right.

Scott Woods 27:26There are a couple of phases happening.

Tim Fulton 27:28Can you reveal the-

Scott Woods 27:29Sure. Sure.

Tim Fulton 27:29Yeah, tell me.

Scott Woods 27:30So phase two, and this is why I needed a certain kind of space, um, is to develop the outside, right? And so there's like a back space that will be developed and fenced in, and it'll have a proper stage-

Tim Fulton 27:43Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 27:43... for things that are larger. So that, you know, can do anywhere between, like, 100, 200 people maybe.

Tim Fulton 27:49And where exactly is this space?

Scott Woods 27:50This is on East Main Street.

Tim Fulton 27:52Okay.

Scott Woods 27:521367 East Main Street.

Tim Fulton 27:53So-

Scott Woods 27:54So it's between Miller Kalten.

Tim Fulton 27:55Okay.

Scott Woods 27:56Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 27:56And what did it used to be?

Scott Woods 27:57Hmm. So it used to be a really, really big house.

Tim Fulton 28:01Okay.

Scott Woods 28:01And the building itself is over 100 years old.

Tim Fulton 28:05Okay.

Scott Woods 28:06Uh, the last thing that it was, 'cause it's been a lot of things in that century-

Tim Fulton 28:10Okay

Scott Woods 28:10... um, was a set of hair salons.

Tim Fulton 28:13Okay.

Scott Woods 28:14Right? And so it's, um, and on the two floors, and they just had set up shop in there for a long time.

Tim Fulton 28:19Okay.

Scott Woods 28:20Um, but you know, the building was old. Uh, there was a lot of work that had to happen to it. We spent over a year getting that building together.

Tim Fulton 28:30Oh, wow. Okay.

Scott Woods 28:31And, um, and everything had to come out, right? We had to change... Anything that's not a brick, we had to replace.

Tim Fulton 28:37Got it.

Scott Woods 28:38Yeah.

Tim Fulton 28:39That's a lot.

Scott Woods 28:39That's everything.

Tim Fulton 28:41Talk about your evolution of, 'cause ob- you've done sort of cultural criticism. I'm thinking specifically about the Book of Prince essays.

Scott Woods 28:50Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 28:50I know you've done some work surrounding, uh, Stephen King, which you can get in- to, uh, I'm super curious about this.

Scott Woods 28:58Yeah.

Tim Fulton 28:58And I know, uh, that I'm not going to talk about it correctly.

Scott Woods 29:03Do you read Stephen King?

Tim Fulton 29:04I have read some Stephen King. Uh, talk about sort of what specifically you focused on with Stephen King.

Scott Woods 29:11So I do a lecture.

Tim Fulton 29:12Okay.

Scott Woods 29:13An, an ever-evolving lecture called Stephen King's Magical Negroes.

Tim Fulton 29:19Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 29:20And I basically originally set out to just focus on how Stephen King used the magical Negro trope in his stories. But in doing that research, it turns out I needed to cover how he treated all Black characters in his stories.

Tim Fulton 29:36Okay.

Scott Woods 29:37And whether they were magical or not, right?

Tim Fulton 29:40And this is not h- and forgive my ignorance on the issue.

Scott Woods 29:43Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 29:43This is not his trope, though, right? This is just one that he-

Scott Woods 29:46No, he didn't create it, no

Tim Fulton 29:47... right, where-

Scott Woods 29:47Correct.

Tim Fulton 29:47Okay.

Scott Woods 29:48Yeah, no. It's a, it's a pretty timeless trope, right?

Tim Fulton 29:50Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 29:51But, um, you know, plenty of examples in history of that.

Tim Fulton 29:55Yeah.

Scott Woods 29:56But, uh, he is a factory of magical Negroes, man. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 30:03And is that, and, uh, so I use criticism interchangeably, right?

Scott Woods 30:07Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 30:08Of someone being, uh, uh, critical of something, and then someone critiquing something.

Scott Woods 30:13Sure.

Tim Fulton 30:14Uh, do you feel like that lecture is you being critical of utilizing that trope? That's my perception of it, in sort of this funny way almost, right?

Scott Woods 30:24Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 30:24Okay.

Scott Woods 30:25And it's, and it is a lot of fun to do. Again, there are parts that are tough to hear.

Tim Fulton 30:29Yeah.

Scott Woods 30:30You know? And-

Tim Fulton 30:30Or challenging.

Scott Woods 30:31No, they're tough.

Tim Fulton 30:32Okay.

Scott Woods 30:33They're downright tough. When I read certain passages-

Tim Fulton 30:36Okay

Scott Woods 30:36... from his books, it's like, "Oh." You know? Um, no, they're definitely critical, but I don't think, at least for me- I can't spend that much time and energy on something, even critically, that on some level I don't love.

Tim Fulton 30:54Okay.

Scott Woods 30:55And that's kind of how it all started, right? I love Stephen King. I grew up on Stephen King.

Tim Fulton 31:00Okay.

Scott Woods 31:01I didn't get hip to the problems until much later on.

Tim Fulton 31:04Okay.

Scott Woods 31:04You know?

Tim Fulton 31:04Do you think that you just overlooked them?

Scott Woods 31:07I didn't know.

Tim Fulton 31:08Okay.

Scott Woods 31:08You just don't know to look for them.

Tim Fulton 31:10Okay.

Scott Woods 31:10You know?

Tim Fulton 31:11Well-

Scott Woods 31:11At least in my background, you, I didn't know.

Tim Fulton 31:13Right. And I'm, I apologize, I'm sure I covered this in the other episode.

Scott Woods 31:17Please.

Tim Fulton 31:17What's your educational background?

Scott Woods 31:19So I graduated high school-

Tim Fulton 31:21Okay

Scott Woods 31:21... from Worley, which is no longer there. Um, and I went to-

Tim Fulton 31:25Was that Columbus Public?

Scott Woods 31:26Well, no, it was a Catholic school.

Tim Fulton 31:28Oh, okay.

Scott Woods 31:28But it was in Columbus, yeah.

Tim Fulton 31:29Got it.

Scott Woods 31:29South end, but it's, like, the fire department burns down buildings on it now or something.

Tim Fulton 31:34Okay.

Scott Woods 31:34But, um, then I went to Ohio State for two quarters, when they were still using quarters at the time.

Tim Fulton 31:39Yeah.

Scott Woods 31:39And then they kicked me out.

Tim Fulton 31:41Okay.

Scott Woods 31:42And then I went to Columbus State for about a year and a half, and then I dropped out.

Tim Fulton 31:45Okay.

Scott Woods 31:45That's it. And the rest of it is just me and a library card.

Tim Fulton 31:48That's awesome.

Scott Woods 31:49Yeah.

Tim Fulton 31:49Well, and a library career then-

Scott Woods 31:51Yeah

Tim Fulton 31:51... after that.

Scott Woods 31:52Yeah. It's not like they teach you anything on the job, you know what I'm saying?

Tim Fulton 31:57I mean, there's a little bit of training.

Scott Woods 31:58There's plenty of librarians who don't read.

Tim Fulton 32:01Okay. That's fair. And then the, the now newly weekly column that you're doing for Columbus Alive-

Scott Woods 32:09Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 32:10... is that the first time that you've sort of done basically civic criticism, is how I think of it?

Scott Woods 32:18In an official capacity, yeah.

Tim Fulton 32:19Okay.

Scott Woods 32:19Like, I blogged about that kind of thing-

Tim Fulton 32:21Okay

Scott Woods 32:22... you know, over the years off and on, whatever. But, um-

Tim Fulton 32:26But now you gotta turn it out.

Scott Woods 32:27Yeah, now I'm a journalist apparently, which is new.

Tim Fulton 32:30Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 32:31I wasn't looking to add that to the resume.

Tim Fulton 32:33Do you view it as... And I, again, I don't mean to challenge you here.

Scott Woods 32:38Please.

Tim Fulton 32:39Do you view it as journalism or that you're a columnist?

Scott Woods 32:42I didn't view it that way, but I've been told by journalists that's what it is, so.

Tim Fulton 32:46Okay.

Scott Woods 32:47Yeah.

Tim Fulton 32:48That's awesome.

Scott Woods 32:49I mean, yeah.

Tim Fulton 32:50So what, and talk, for those that aren't familiar with it, talk about some of the subject matters that you... 'Cause you are given, uh, some leeway.

Scott Woods 32:58Carte blanche.

Tim Fulton 32:59Okay. You're-

Scott Woods 32:59The only thing they tell me to do is get it under a certain word count, but after that they don't tell me what to write at all.

Tim Fulton 33:05Okay.

Scott Woods 33:05Yeah.

Tim Fulton 33:06So what have you been interested in? What are, what's the subject matter that you're covering?

Scott Woods 33:10So I thought it was gonna be kind of a city expose kind of thing. I would go to cool places, and I would go, "Ah, here's a cool new thing."

Tim Fulton 33:20Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 33:21And then maybe run it through the lens of something cultural or something civic or something-

Tim Fulton 33:25Okay

Scott Woods 33:25... political, you know. But, um, as it turns out, you know, I only get 450 words.

Tim Fulton 33:31Okay.

Scott Woods 33:32They don't mind if I go a little over that, but I like the challenge of trying to write short, 'cause I usually don't.

Tim Fulton 33:37Right.

Scott Woods 33:38And so, um, as it turns out, it's hard to do that kind of thing in 450 words.

Tim Fulton 33:43Yeah.

Scott Woods 33:43Right? To expose people to the-

Tim Fulton 33:46Well, to properly do it, right?

Scott Woods 33:47Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 33:47Yeah.

Scott Woods 33:48To do it well-

Tim Fulton 33:48Yeah

Scott Woods 33:48... you know.

Tim Fulton 33:49'Cause otherwise you're just sort of regurgitating, "I did this thing, and this is what it's like."

Scott Woods 33:53Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 33:54Right?

Scott Woods 33:54Yeah. And so, um, so I realized right away that, you know, to kinda do that right consistently, I wasn't gonna be able to a- accomplish that, you know. I was gonna find some cool person doing some cool thing, and then I would get four paragraphs to talk about them, and then on to the next thing.

Tim Fulton 34:14Yeah.

Scott Woods 34:15And I didn't feel comfortable with that. And so I do some of that a little bit, kinda sorta, right?

Tim Fulton 34:20Okay.

Scott Woods 34:21Uh, but, um, but more I find that I'm really kind of into the columns that kind of unpack all of these questions that we, um, are either asking as a city or we don't know to ask.

Tim Fulton 34:39Okay.

Scott Woods 34:39I'm more interested in the questions we don't know to ask.

Tim Fulton 34:42Okay.

Scott Woods 34:42Right? Um, because everybody has an opinion, and we all think they're right about what Columbus is, where it's going, what it's doing right, what it's doing wrong. But it's, interestingly enough, you know, the, the spectrum of those opinions is pretty vast, right?

Tim Fulton 34:59Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 34:59It's like on one end it's like, "Save the Crew is an amazing political movement." And on the other end, it's like, "My house has... You know, I've been evicted from my house."

Tim Fulton 35:12Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 35:12You know, "And I am poor and gentrified," you know?

Tim Fulton 35:15Yeah.

Scott Woods 35:16And so somewhere in the middle is Columbus, the, the actual Columbus.

Tim Fulton 35:23Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 35:23The critical mass Columbus.

Tim Fulton 35:27Yeah.

Scott Woods 35:27That's what I'm kind of interested in. We can do the fringes all day, and I, and there are times when I do.

Tim Fulton 35:32Yeah.

Scott Woods 35:32There are ti- But I'm usually winging in the fringes to make a critical mass point.

Tim Fulton 35:37Okay.

Scott Woods 35:38You know, or to, or to raise a critical mass question.

Tim Fulton 35:41Yeah.

Scott Woods 35:41You know, I'm very interested... And it, and it, and it all kind of comes down to va- to culture, right? Um, you know, when I write about what are the values of Columbus, I'm not... I mean, I don't know what those values are.

Tim Fulton 35:54Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 35:55I don't know that we've settled on a set of values. But I do know that we can look at what Columbus does as a city, not on the fringe.

Tim Fulton 36:04Right.

Scott Woods 36:04Right? What do we generally tend to do? That is our value. And whatever our values are is where our culture comes from.

Tim Fulton 36:13Right. Well, and I... And the critique that you make there is that, are those the values that we should have?

Scott Woods 36:21Yeah. I mean, look, it's wholly possible that, um, you know, our values are breweries, you know, that that is our culture. That could very well be the answer. But until we interrogate that, I'm not satisfied with it.

Tim Fulton 36:37Good.

Scott Woods 36:37So, you know, with Streetlight Guild, with the column-

Tim Fulton 36:41Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 36:41... with everything that I do, I'm interrogating that question, you know.

Tim Fulton 36:45And-

Scott Woods 36:45Is this the answer?

Tim Fulton 36:47And the thing that I like about your work is that you can tell that it's not It's certainly not dismissive, 'cause you wouldn't be doing it, um, either the column or Streetlight Guild. That you have a passion for Columbus, and it's... I think it's actually inappropriate to try and use any metaphor here. You want it to do better.

Scott Woods 37:10Oh, absolutely.

Tim Fulton 37:11Yeah.

Scott Woods 37:12And I... But mostly because I don't think that it's too late.

Tim Fulton 37:16Okay.

Scott Woods 37:16If I thought it was too late, I'd stop right now.

Tim Fulton 37:18Okay.

Scott Woods 37:19Right? I'd, I'd sell that building, I'd stop that column, and I'd move.

Tim Fulton 37:25Okay.

Scott Woods 37:26If I thought it was too late.

Tim Fulton 37:27What are the things outside of your purvie- This is the, the cue for you, 'cause I think I gave it to you before, that we're sort of, like, coming to an end, sadly. And I imagine, I hope, two years from now you're gonna come back and we'll talk about another set of things, or how Streetlight Guild has evolved.

Scott Woods 37:45Mm.

Tim Fulton 37:46Um, talk about the things, s- they can be within your purview, but preferably outside, that you think Columbus is doing well. And I am gonna follow that up with, what are the things outside your purview that you think Columbus could do better?

Scott Woods 38:07Columbus is really great at higher education. Columbus is really great at business. Columbus is really great at selling.

Tim Fulton 38:23What are the things it can do better?

Scott Woods 38:26Well, it could start-

Tim Fulton 38:27And maybe I shouldn't have added the outside your purview to this.

Scott Woods 38:29No, that's fine.

Tim Fulton 38:30Okay.

Scott Woods 38:31That's fine. No, um, because Lord knows I can't be everywhere at once. Um, contrary to rumor. A good place to start would be schools.

Tim Fulton 38:42Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 38:42Our schools are abysmal. Um, our political, um, machine is completely broken.

Tim Fulton 38:50Okay.

Scott Woods 38:51Um, I wouldn't mind, you know, a safer police system.

Tim Fulton 38:57Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 38:57Right? Um, I think easing up on the development to think about and to better aim it at, you know, um, developing the city that is here and the residents that are here as opposed to the residents that will come-

Tim Fulton 39:16Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 39:17... um, would be a good place to start, you know. Those are, you know, those are all fairly lofty, but pretty necessary to me-

Tim Fulton 39:26Yeah

Scott Woods 39:26... if you want to improve.

Tim Fulton 39:29What are things that you think folks should be checking out in addition to the Streetlight Guild?

Scott Woods 39:36In aid of?

Tim Fulton 39:38Uh, no, just things that you... Again, Holler was th- for the purpose of exposing an audience to a culture that existed but wasn't getting an audience.

Scott Woods 39:50Mm, mm.

Tim Fulton 39:50Right? What are the other things that we should be encouraging and holding up with our dollars and our patronage to make sure that they stick around?

Scott Woods 40:02Mm. So I'm gonna answer that-

Tim Fulton 40:04Who, who's doing good work, is the, is the short, shorter version of that.

Scott Woods 40:07Well, here, I'm gonna answer that question a little differently than I think people might.

Tim Fulton 40:12Okay.

Scott Woods 40:13And you can tell me if this isn't what you're looking for, and I'll try again.

Tim Fulton 40:17Okay.

Scott Woods 40:19I'm really into the idea of shoring up what we have.

Tim Fulton 40:24Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 40:25Um, mostly because the institutions and organizations that we have, um, while they may be not on the mark or a little tone deaf here and there or, um, you know, maybe not doing everything that we think that they should be doing as institutions, as cultural organizations, th- they s- are finally more aware of those deficiencies, and they at least seem receptive-

Tim Fulton 40:54Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 40:55... to improvement. And so for instance, um, the art museum, right?

Tim Fulton 41:02Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 41:02Um, there was a time when it was just the art museum and it had art, and you either went once a year or you didn't, or you went on a school trip or you didn't. And they've taken, uh, great pains in the last few years-

Tim Fulton 41:16Mm-hmm

Scott Woods 41:16... right, recently, um, to be more than that. And some of that is external. Like, some of that is external to the field, right? That's kind of what the museum industry is dealing with everywhere.

Tim Fulton 41:26Okay.

Scott Woods 41:26You know, are we diverse enough? Are we doing the right things? So on and so forth. Um, but our museum specifically, um, you know, the crew that's in there right now is very receptive, very open, very hardworking. They're trying to create a museum that is reflective of the city.

Tim Fulton 41:48Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 41:48And they are very aware of how they're not doing that-

Tim Fulton 41:52Okay

Scott Woods 41:52... traditionally, right? I've been in there multiple times talking to them, you know. Uh, they read my column, right?

Tim Fulton 41:58Yeah.

Scott Woods 41:59You know, so they are hip, but they need to know what to do with the hip. And so I'm really impressing on p- upon people like, "Yo, what I'm doing is great and you should definitely come to my place all the time."

Tim Fulton 42:11Right.

Scott Woods 42:11"But, um, I understand that, you know, one cannot live on bread alone, and so you should definitely be checking out these places that are trying."

Tim Fulton 42:20And supporting that work specifically.

Scott Woods 42:22Absolutely, because we ca- again, you know, arguably, I shouldn't had had to create Streetlight Guild.

Tim Fulton 42:33Okay.

Scott Woods 42:34In theory, I should've been able to go to an existing institution and do everything I wanted to do there and accomplish it there. They should have received me. They should have wanted to receive me. They should've lined that all up, and it just didn't work out that way, you know? That just didn't exist.

Tim Fulton 42:51Okay.

Scott Woods 42:52Um, and that's because those institutions and those organizations need to be also be trained-

Tim Fulton 42:58Right

Scott Woods 42:58... and taught and made accountable.

Tim Fulton 43:01Well, and I think if you- Let's say you were trying to do something 10 years ago.

Scott Woods 43:06Sure.

Tim Fulton 43:06And you went to the museum-

Scott Woods 43:07Yeah

Tim Fulton 43:07... or the Wexner Center or, you know, if you went to the museum, the Wexner Center or CAPA, like, that on, off the top of my head.

Scott Woods 43:15Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 43:15All of them would say something like, "We don't do that."

Scott Woods 43:19Yeah.

Tim Fulton 43:19Like, "That's not the work we present." Um, I think, you know, Counterfeit Madison winning the, the Wexner Residency Award is a fantastic example of that organization.

Scott Woods 43:29Definitely.

Tim Fulton 43:29Full, full disclosure, I used to work there.

Scott Woods 43:31Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 43:31And so it warmed my heart that, like, they did that. Um, but yeah, I think you're absolutely right that that evolution is happening.

Scott Woods 43:39I mean, and, and just to point that example out with the Wex, that's another one where they're, they are, they've become aware of the deficiencies.

Tim Fulton 43:47Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 43:47They understand that there's kind of a cultural war happening here-

Tim Fulton 43:51Yeah

Scott Woods 43:51... in the city, right? That's how I literally define that.

Tim Fulton 43:54Okay.

Scott Woods 43:54And they're-

Tim Fulton 43:55And you mean cultural as a larger word there. Like, you're not talking about the art specifically.

Scott Woods 44:00Correct.

Tim Fulton 44:00Okay.

Scott Woods 44:01Absolutely. And so, you know, and they've taken steps to begin to address, uh, those deficiencies and, and kind of fall on the right side of history in that war, so to speak.

Tim Fulton 44:13Right.

Scott Woods 44:14You know, when they brought in Lomax, uh, last year-

Tim Fulton 44:16Yeah

Scott Woods 44:16... they weren't just bringing in a drummer-

Tim Fulton 44:18Yeah

Scott Woods 44:18... and a composer, right? He, he in turn-

Tim Fulton 44:20They were bringing in a Columbus.

Scott Woods 44:22Yeah.

Tim Fulton 44:22Right.

Scott Woods 44:22And he in turn, you know, you know, gave agency to other artists who create whole nights of programming, you know? I did three shows with Crate Digger there, you know, and that was like a multidisciplinary event.

Tim Fulton 44:34Yeah.

Scott Woods 44:35And, you know, there were a few shows like that that kinda got shepherded in, you know, when you do the right things, you know?

Tim Fulton 44:41Yeah. Well, and what's interesting to me is, like, you don't... So the Wexner Center, you know, at its core it's a world-class multidisciplinary arts institution, right?

Scott Woods 44:50Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 44:51And I think that just by virtue of sort of when you add wor- when you say world-class, you say, "Oh, well, we can't do stuff from Columbus."

Scott Woods 45:01Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 45:01"We need to be looking outside and bringing it in."

Scott Woods 45:04Yeah.

Tim Fulton 45:04And you don't have to. You can be world-class and be, you said it better than I will, a, a representative of the city in which you are functioning.

Scott Woods 45:17Sure. Now, at the same time though-

Tim Fulton 45:20Okay

Scott Woods 45:20... we have to be very honest all the way through that process.

Tim Fulton 45:26Okay.

Scott Woods 45:27So we need to be honest. Okay, yes, we have world-class talent here, but do we have enough?

Tim Fulton 45:32Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 45:32You know, w- at what point does that... What is the magic number, if there is such a thing, of, of world-class X that makes us a world-class city? Now, we're not there yet.

Tim Fulton 45:47Okay.

Scott Woods 45:47I don't know what that number is, but I know that we're not there yet.

Tim Fulton 45:50I mean, is there a metric... I'm the guy who's always asking about-

Scott Woods 45:53Sure, sure

Tim Fulton 45:54... like, KPIs and metrics.

Scott Woods 45:55Please.

Tim Fulton 45:55Is, do you, you say you don't know what that number-

Scott Woods 45:57I don't know.

Tim Fulton 45:58Okay. What, what do you think, what, what is-

Scott Woods 46:05It's like an is, there-

Tim Fulton 46:06Is there... Right. But is there a, do you envision a future where there's a moment that you can be like, "Look what we did."

Scott Woods 46:11I, I envision a possible future.

Tim Fulton 46:14Okay.

Scott Woods 46:15Right? Again, I, I don't think it's too late. I do think that we're not there yet.

Tim Fulton 46:21Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 46:21And I do think we are still fully capable of blowing it.

Tim Fulton 46:24Right.

Scott Woods 46:25Right? If you, um... For instance, if you call in creatives or artists or organizers who are original, if you call them in to do things and then you don't let them do what they do, then you've effectively not done that thing.

Tim Fulton 46:43Right.

Scott Woods 46:44Right? And if you do that in all the key places and then you do that enough, they're not gonna participate in the process, right?

Tim Fulton 46:53Right.

Scott Woods 46:54Um, or they can't-

Tim Fulton 46:55You have to continue to give an artist agency f- in their work.

Scott Woods 46:58I mean, if that's what you're about, yeah.

Tim Fulton 47:00Yeah.

Scott Woods 47:00I mean, it's, you're certainly capable and allowed to do whatever you want with your venue and your institution.

Tim Fulton 47:06Mm-hmm.

Scott Woods 47:06But if you claim certain things, there are certain things that you should be doing.

Tim Fulton 47:10Got it. Scott, thank you so much for your time.

Scott Woods 47:13Thank you. It's always a pleasure.

Tim Fulton 47:24Thank you for listening to 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 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. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.