The multi-disciplinary performance troupe Sub Atomic Frequency Modulation Overdose, known to Cleveland’s art audience as SAFMOD, has evolved from an avant-garde collective of dancers, musicians and performers into one of Cleveland’s premiere dance and performance companies, appearing everywhere from corporate parties to theatrical presentations to street busking. One of the most widely-recognized groups in the region, their use of outrageous costumes and stilt-walking talents have revealed a photogenic and art-positive group that has managed to find enthusiastic audiences where others have found only blank stares. Instigated by co-artistic directors, drummer Neil Chastain and choreographer Young Park, they eventually were joined by stilt-walker Ezra Houser, who also manages the group and administration, applying for grants and booking the gigs. Since Park and Houser recently announced their intention to retire, the future of the troupe is very much in question.
Neil Chastain (N), Young Park (Y), Ezra Houser (E)
When you started the group, it was very much a collective, with individual members creating their own works within the larger structure. Eventually, SAFMOD began developing large, coherent works. How did that come about, and what did that do to the group?
Neil Chastain: That is accurate, considering how we started in Ann Arbor with dance and music.
Young Park: In the beginning it was a lot of improv...
Neil Chastain: Remember Jeremy with the dance improve with the lamp? The first pieces we did, dance majors would come in with their own piece.
Young Park: We used to have the dancers play instruments, and musicians danced...
Neil Chastain: Some...but there was collaboration going on early as well.
You’ve been very visible and very popular. How hard has it been to raise funding to produce your work with a large group?
Ezra Houser: It’s been a pretty receptive climate from the foundations. Gund was very receptive and gave us our first grant. And if you follow the OACs rules and ask their advice, they are good to their word and will fund you. Kulas was good to us the first time we went to them, they’ve been good for modest requests. Individual donors were another matter; we've never got deep pockets going on. There’s a missing piece to the puzzle when it comes to getting individual donors.
Y: It’s not like the Cleveland Ballet. We’re like the common people’s dance company.
E: We also learned how to develop significant earned revenue.
How much of your budget is earned?
E: 90% is earned.
Y: We just became non-profit 2 years ago.
N: ICARE program with Cleveland public Schools and Young Audiences, we just finished a four year program there. And we just graduated from our program at Case Elementary at East 40th & Superior this past spring.
E: There’s a bunch of little SAFMODians there now.
N: We’ll be in our 3rd year at R.G. Jones Elementary on 150th, south of Puritas.
What are some of the pressures on young artists that you’ve experienced?
E: I think one pressure is the sense that you have to justify what you’re doing as an artist. There’s a two-tiered process: you create the art, then you explain why you’re creating the art so people understand it.
Y: What’s hard about doing art in Cleveland and everywhere else is that you are in your little bubble doing your art, you don’t have a community, so there’s a constant feeding back and you’re doing masturbatory art, and the public is saying, "Why are you jerking off?"
Do you have difficulty getting feedback for your art?
E: It’s a commodity-based society, so art is commodified.
Y: It’s been pulled to two poloar opposites: the commodity art, or the privately funded non-profit-ish art, some of which can get very narcissistic. Then there’s community art, which is good for the community, but bad art.
N: It’s just not professional quality, it’s an attempt to involve more people.
E: It’s condescending to the product.
N: Especially if it’s a performance project, and you have people who have never really danced before, and it's evident. It’s hard to do art that really and truly moves you when you’re a professional freelance performer, a musician or dancer, geared to survival, playing the weddings, playing the gigs. Even while you’re playing some good music through the night, but the good opportunities are few and far between, where you don’t have to pander to someone’s requests as to what they want to hear or see. I put that in the “entertainment” category. We have two levels: one that says, "We’ll do what ever you want if you pay us, which allows us to do the higher levels of the art form we are trying to achievel
E: One challenge we're facing is the policies of the federal government. $4 billion Ohio dollars could have done a lot more than fund the war in Iraq, and that’s just for one year. You look at the Works Progress Administration, which was the real renaissance of American arts, poetry and dance.
Y: How many groups are making political pieces? Except the works at Cleveland Public Theatre, but who’s making pieces about the war?
During Performance Art Festival in the '80s and '90s, there were all kinds of artists doing edgy work about AIDS, women's issues and the body. But you don't see that work now. It seems like there's a lot of self censorship.
Y: I was talking to a Vietnam vet, and he said we have to support our troops, but I don’t agree with our administration. How do you do that? People want to view it one way, that if you're against Bush, you're against the troops.
N: Artists have said that just because I don’t support the war and the ideology behind it, doesn’t mean I don’t support the troops over there. I have a cousin who’s on a Navy vessel and I support him.
E: It's interesting to support the troops to support the arts. How much is lip service and how much is action? They’re both good things. But what’s the tangible support?
How did you earn revenue when you were for-profit?
N: We didn’t earn much revenue until two years before becoming non-profit. Through Young Audiences, a lot of the artists were earning money directly.
Y: SAFMOD was a sole proprietorship under my name.
E: We earned performance fees and educational fees. It’s run like a rock band. You take in $1000 and there’s 10 performers, everyone gets $100...
N: All the oney was going to the artists who did the work. Everyone was living above the Hodge school and paying rent. Then yhey pointed out that all this individual revenue was actually the entire group’s revenue.
Your group came to Cleveland in 1993 from Ann Arbor, and one of your first Cleveland gigs was at our Performance Art Festival. Your work seemed avant-garde, but surprisingly accessible. How do you balance the cutting edge and the mainstream sensibility?
Y: I don’t think that’s our goal. I just think that’s what our multi-interests are. Neil doesn’t just do electronic music, and I also like butoh, modern dance, capoierta, break dancing, and I like pedestrian movements, so I live performance art. You study it and then you puke it back out.
N: It’s not a conscious effort to choose either avant-garde or anything. I think there was a shift in 1995, when I left [the rock band] Craw, which was dark, tortured music, although very sophisticated and intelligent; for myself that was a shift musically. I found that my ears were more interested in more - not pleasing — but more soulful music in general. My interest increased in world music, learning African percussion and playing for African dance, and that crossed over to our performance style. So there were aesthetic styles that changed over the years; we’ve called it attention-grabbing work. The goal was to fully hold audiences' attention and have them riveted to the performance with the combined elements, not just one movement or one sound.
E: I would say that’s what makes it accessible, when performers have to move outside of their comfort zone. The audience knows that this hadn't been polished for years, and the audience can see it all coming together. For a lot of performers, they can’t get in a comfort zone, so they have to be present in the moment, so the audience has to be there. So basically, a lack of polish is good...
Y: The risk of looking like crap...
N: High risk, high yield. This was a common theme that Ed Sarath taught at the University of Michigan School of Music, as leader of the Creative Arts Orchestra, an improvisational big band. He wanted to push the boundaries and have us go for it. You’re not sure you’re going to be able to achieve it, but if you achieve it, or almost achieve it, you’re doing something on a high level...
E: High ambition.
Currently the group is in transition, but throughout your career here, you have been remarkably successful. What would you suggest to other young artists who respect the level of achievement you’ve accomplished.
N: Don’t be afraid to start your own thing.
Y: It depends upon your definition of success. I think if you look at the foundations, they may not think of SAMOD as successful, but you get on stage whether people want you there are not. After a while, The Plain Dealer’s dance critic started saying, "Well, they’re not going away, so maybe I don’t hate them." And it's also about being a more fully developed human being who is curious about the world. You see a lot of artists in the classical music world who spend 8 hours a day sitting in front of a piano, but they are not fully developed human beings.
N: They are craftsmen, they are not reinventing anything, they are not even re-combining styles to create something new. They are sticking with the classical music or classical dance. Young is a classical violist and I’m a classical percussionist. That has had an effect on SAFMOD, understanding the discipline behind the perfornmance has been important. Sometimes the younger creative artists have really interesting ideas, but they don’t understand how important it is to work hard at what you want..
Y: Or just to do it...it stops at the idea.
N: They realize how hard it is to belive in yourself. The more activities you can involve yourself in, the better. I know that to be involved in Interlochen was very important to me, to give me confidence. So advice for young people is to...
Y: Just do it...
N: Study some traditional dance or traditional music, and have a language to pull from.
A vocabulary?
N: You don’t pull a vocabulary from thin air. Interestingly enough, there are people who learn discipline from other areas; Ezra is like that, he has that discipline from other fields.
What fields?
E: Soccer, writing, stilting.
Y: There are so many ways to learn, you have to be curious.
E: You can’t be lazy, you have to commit to your art. Being an artist should become your identity, whether you’re watching a movie or working on a draft, those are all parts of the complete whole.
N: You’ve got to come first and ask yourself, do you have the drive, are you really determined?
E: Do you have the right, or is it that you have the privilege to do art?
N: You have to want it so bad, that there’s nothing else in your life. I’m my own agent, I’m my own accountant. It’s an around the clock business.
You’ve worked all angles in Cleveland - corporate parties, outdoor festivals, staged concerts. Comment on this region as a place to create and present work, as well as a place to raise money and live your life.
E: I defer to my elders...(laughs). Well, it’s clearly viable. You have to be able to make a lot of compromises to go full-time, and you have to reach out to people on their own terms. Yeah, we recognized that we had a need for paying clients, so corporate clients didn’t know they had a need that we could fill. Just pay us and we’ll take care of you. Any region has enough going on that if you’re ambitious, you can uncover opportunities. The audiences have shown me how thirsty this region is for creative performance; people crave it, people are so happy after we do our work. It’s kind of sad, 'cause it’s not that hard, you just keep at it long enough and doors will start opening for you.
N: First you have to have a foundation, a skill set, and you have to develop it. While I think it’s very noble to stick to original music, I think it’s important to work on other work that your band did not write. Being a performer is like being a well oiled machine, and your regular performances are like that oil that keeps you lose and limber, ready to go. It keeps you in shape. As far as running the gamut of various types of performances, that’s been something that’s taken us years to develop...and having someone like Ezra to convey the artists’ message to the festival coordinators.
E: And having confidence in our vision so that we can talk with people and bend and go with the flow. But people respect you more if stick to your identity, and they will pay you if you stick to who you are.
N: Many artists view playing standards as sucking up, but you can do a lot of that on your own terms without selling yourself out. You’re selling yourself, and you’re selling what you do, but you’re not selling out.
E: Some artists actually feel guilty to charge anything. But if people have a $2000 entertainment budget, there’s a certain savvy that it’s OK to do it for the money.
N: I certainly don’t have a lot to compare Cleveland to, but I did a lot of touring with Craw. Cleveland can be a wonderful place to create, travel and perform, and you can do a tremendous amount of work in this region.
For example, our band plays as much as we want to in this region.
N: Travel 3, 4, or 5 hours from here, and you’re in another city where you can perform. SAFMOD has tapped into that, performing not only in Cleveland, but also the Greater Cleveland area.
E: I think there has to be some growth regionally; there’s about 20 dance companies in Cleveland. There's Dance Works at Cleveland Public Theatre, there were 7 companies that put on full productions. SAFMOD has a local following, but can audiences grow beyond wanting to see just groups from their own city? Go to Columbus, go to Cincinnati. Touring is the big beast, everyone’s scared because you lose money. I think venues could collaborate and share expenses, then people would check out the other companies.
We did a tour with Performance Art Festival in 1990 and lost money.
E: For quality of life, you have to look at schools, as much as the turmoil that's there, I’ve found that being an arts educator right now is the right time. There’s a fair amount of resouces being put into arts education right now, but funding could dry up. But for now, the movement to revigorate is important.
What would make Cleveland a place that is more amenable to young arts groups like yours?
N: Being willing and having an arts staff or members of your arts organization who are willing to get involved in arts outreach and arts education. If you’re like SAFMOD and you have members who are involved in music, dance and visual arts, it’s sustainable revenue for your company and it’s good income for your artists.
Y: And it keeps artist from going into their bubble...
N: It keeps you honest.
Y: The public transportation sucks. If you look at the really lovely cities and the economics of it, it's that people have to interact with people. But in Cleveland, you can stay in your little bubble with your TV and your web sites and the magazines that you decide to read, rather than running into someone from a totally different culture, then you have to open your mind.
N: And decrease your comfort zone, it's not just 10 feet or fifteen feet. It’s a shame because people are very friendly here, it’s an asset of the city that people here are so friendly. The issue is the exodus to the suburbs; there’s certainly not enough retail downtown, and it’s hard to compete with Legacy Village...
E: Lunacy Village...
N: And now the suburbs are developing these little areas that are attracting people.
E: What was the question? Make it more amenable to young people? Decriminalize pot.
N: Sparx in the City is a positive thing, getting artists out on the street interacting with people. I worked with a steeldrum band from Trinidad, and it’s a great way to put it right in people’s faces. We have assets in our performers that are professional. I’m encouraged by the amount of outdoor performances there are here. But we’re just scraping the top, we could do more.
E:' The Convention center, we should have an arts convention and say, "Let’s be an arts town."
Y: What do you think about these 20 dance companies in Cleveland?
N: Isn’t it a great thing, it shows how vital this city is
E: We don’t have all the information; maybe Pittsburgh has 60.
Y: That should be a political and social force in a way that it’s not at all.
N: They have to be more unified. And that takes more meetings with a solid agenda. This Dance Coalition needs to get organized.
Y: I don’t think we need more meetings.
E: There’s always second guessing, in that they don’t want to trust the dance companies to just give them the money and let them do the work. Instead, they should say, "All right companies, by 2006 you’re all on stage; we’re going to blow it up and brand Cleveland as the dance city for the coming decade."
We have these raw materials here: great spaces at low rents, lots of philanthropy, two strong foundations, a sophisticated audience for the arts...
Y: That's why we moved here, we have the space and there are many young people here. And our young people aren’t crazy-busy like in New York.
N: We saw all this warehouse space...
Y: We meet these people from CIA and lots of crazy people...
N: I’d like to see SAFMOD engage young people to stay in Cleveland. Those 20 dance companies attract young performers to Cleveland, or people who are in college in Cleveland and end up staying here afterwards. There’s the brain drain, and then there’s the cultural drain as well.
Let’s ask the question differently. One of the subtexts of this region is the issue of brain drain, and Cleveland isn’t doing enough to attract young creatives to the region. First, do you agree that Cleveland has a greater problem than other areas (most kids, after all, need to leave home when they grow up), and if so, what would you suggest Cleveland could do to address this?
Y: First you have your initial creative process when you want to explore. But then you need a sifu, or in Classical music you have that mentor that you study with for 10 years.
Do we have this with Cleveland Orchestra, who all teach, and professional dances here, who seve as mentors?
E: Well, that just re-inforces the classical institutions. Part of the brain drain comes from the fatigue from the fact that Cleveland as a whole is painted with this (for lack of a better term) blue collar brush. When will Cleveland as a whole embrace the arts and culture as a whole? That’s part of the reason we’re leaving.
Y: I want to see more Asian faces down the street for one thing; cultural diversity in public. You know there’s a problem when a theatre calls me to be in a play, and I’ve never been in a play and I can’t memorize lines, and they say, "We’ll help you."
N: Maybe this work we’re doing with the kids will pay off in a few years. Arts and culture is part and parcel to changing the Cleveland culture. For example, the Blues are big here, and Rock and Roll is big here.
E: When I was doing my Sparx gig downtown in my spandex, when I was stilting, I was getting the distinct vibe from a lot of blue collar males who were definitely not into me doing my thing in tights and on stilts, walking around Downtown Cleveland. They were very vocal.
Young and Ezra, what are some of the reasons you decided to withdraw from SAFMOD, and what are your plans?
Y: A lot if it is personal, my mother has died this past year, and it felt like it was time to go. I can also say that George Bush has forced me to move to Canada.
Seriously?
Y: Half-seriously. I saw Fahrenheit 9/11, and now I feel like I have to stay to get him out of office.
How about you, Ezra?
E: I’m with her. The writing is on the wall for anyone who chooses the life as a professional artist: arts educator, arts administarator, etc. It’s stressful and it’s demanding, and here it is not sustainable...
Y: The way the system is.
N: It’s hard to save up money. I play five to six gigs a week and combined, it’s not bad, but you can't save money that way...
Y: And we don’t have health insurance...
N: And you’re not involved in investments; you can't build up and let your money work for you...
Y: Or obtain a pension plan...
E: I don’t see that the company was being supported or sustained in the way that I could ease off, and I want to shift to support a family life. So is SAFMOD going to be my family, or am I going to go the other way?
All of a sudden the whole dynamic changes with kids and having a family.
E: There was not any kind of padding being generated so the company can provide as an employer for the artists, but maybe that's right around the corner and will happen soon. But anyone in this life style must know that they’re in it tooth and nail. That’s why we are making the move now. I think that you can pour three more years into it, but you may be right back where you started.
Neil, this group has always exhibited the tension between your earthy percussion and Young’s experimental choreography. How do you see the group moving forward without her influence?
N: That’s an interesting comment. That’s probably part of what has always fueled the collaboration. Although we’ve had such different concepts, we’ve been able to put it together. We’re entering a new phase, and I won’t know till our next concert, which probably won’t be for 8 months. They're splitting Dance Works into two segments, one in the winter, and one in the Spring. To prepare for that concert, we’ll plan another concert somewhere to continue the momentum so we can have one one large concert a year.
E: We called it the SUMMUM BONUM, translated from Plato it means the highest ideal: our highest good.
N: We’ll be working with a number of guest choreographers; we’re talking with some people who will set some work on the company. As we search for a new permanent artistic director, we’ll work with other choreographers. I see it as a challenging phase for the company, but it'll be good to work with a variety of choreographers.
Did you have anything to do with the decision to go separate ways?
N: No, I only had something to do with the decision to keep going with SAFMOD. Two very vocal and influential individuals came forward to encourage me to continue the work. Hope Schultz, who’s been in the company and has done some choreography; she’s interested in stepping up to run rehearsals, teaching dance classes and doing some choreography and helping as a movement director. And Melanie Fioritto has offered to help us work on our infrastructure during the transition. We have to work on our board development and complete that. Our goal: by September 1st we’ll have a board in place that can be more active to assist the company in a variety of ways: accounting, marketing, legal help and IT assistance.
So, a working board?
N: Yes. It's people who know the group and have a passion for the group. Young and Ezra decided on their own that it was time to leave Cleveland. It was a pretty big shock to me; I was at pretty big odds in terms of knowing what to do. But more and more, people came forward to see that the company continued on. In our interim phase, we'll have a lot to work on. Some of it we discussed with Deena Epstein, about whether or not we want to be a non-profit company. We were not a non-profit, and we could continue to do our outreach and educational efforts without being a non-profit. But we also have to work on our staff, 'cause we’re losing our key people. We need help with big things like choreography and grant writing, as well as little things like mopping the studio floor; the day-to-day work still has to be done. I must mention Aaron Bonk, a performer who has worked with us, is also interested in helping out within the management category. I will become the educational outreach coordinator and the interim director, as I see the company needs a central person to monitor everything, and I'll do some delegating to see that everything gets done. I’d love to ask your advice on SAFMOD's future, and we’ll save that for another time. Things are starting to formulate; I continue to have people approach me almost randomly, and you can include in the article that we’re still seeking qualified individuals, whether they are performers, or have great business sensibility, or are good board members.
Y: Do you want to give them your contact info?
N: People can contact me at 254-6512 or at pureplex@yahoo.com.
Explain your decision to move to Toronto and give up art?
E: It’s not giving up art, it’s gaining perspective by taking a step out of the trenches. It’s regretfully not succeeding in getting an infrastructure in place. We’re institutionalizing because we belive in the model; we’re good, and we’re viable. I’ve had success in translating SAFMOD's programs into a budget with programming and funding. We took a lot of strides in distilling reason out of the chaos, but it’s kind of a Syssifian task, you never get up the hill.
We call it pushing the meatball up the hill
N: It’s survival, that's what it is...
E: It’s shifting gears. SAFMOD is a schizoid institution, where you have this infrastructure that raises money, and it’s like an exoskeleton that protects the artists in the studio, so they don’t have to have their heads in that work. So for now, I have to remove myself on a daily basis. I hope to be able to go into the academy; there’s a lot of great universities in Toronto to do the research, to understand what we’ve been trying to do, and what we have been doing. I feel I need to be out of the intense performing arts to get that perspective; I’m looking for the silver lining. But I recognize that I’m going to make strides while in the process of understanding.
N: We realized that Young and Ezra were doing too much work for two people, and we hope to spread it over a few people, and you need more administrative overview. Some of the benefits were that they could do things rapidly and make spur of the moment decisions.
It's like Founder's Syndrome, where the organization falters when the original founders leave.
E: There’s two other factors. Young and I have had to respond to the dynamic and we’ve had to make decisions, not so much to steer the ship, so much as bailing the water out of the bottom. We’re witnessing the end of the model as we knew it. Young had a profound committment to all facets of SAFMOD. I could go to funders knowing that she could back up any claim that I made. So a lot of the decision making was being made by her and also by me. Now it’s not going to be like that, instead, it's going to return to a more collaborative model. Even in the transition, we realize that any advice we might give them may not be salient, since they are not reproducing our model.
N: We have a lot to learn in our process of transition. Maybe now is the time to reinvent the paradigm and implement a new model. We’re hoping that a good solid board will emerge and be influential in that model. I think that the group continuing on communicates that there’s a sense of duty. We’ve contributed so much to the cultural environment in Cleveland, so we should give it a good shot as a non-profit. Or as a for-profit.
Have you gotten good feedback from funders?
E: Their reasoning has been similar to what Neil said. You go around and see the success that SAFMOD had, and it’s cool that there’s been so many people from Young Audiences, Cleveland Public Theatre, Playhouse Square, and still I’m even leaving out dozens who say, "Hey we love you guys, and we want to help you." The transititon team can keep a lot of this activity going. The real test is, will there be a new SUMMA BONNUM that comes out of this? And it might be hard to get to that level right away.
Are you planning to start a family?
E: Yes, that’s just the plan. My brother has a family in Toronto, and I lived in Toronto before Cleveland. There’s a different support network there for me. When I say we’re leaving the arts, I’ll believe that when it happens.
Well, you have to have something else to do.
E: That’s why I’m going to New York to talk with Young’s brother about an import business, and that could branch out.
Artists who have to do gigs for the money find out that doing those gigs ends up changing them in ways they didn't expect. If you have money, you don't have to do certain gigs, and so you don't change as much.
N: It has a positive influence and a negative influence. These artists who have trust funds, they pick and choose their gigs. Arts education became an important part of my livelihood, and I found that I'm good at it.
E: Toronto has a progressive social outlook and universal health care, and a de-emphasized military. We’re making a choice to step into the void and reclaim our identy as Young and Ezra. It’s a challenge to devote yourself to the arts; for us to become work partners and life partners is quite extraordinary. We have a lot of stamina, but we’re hoping to get old someday, and this is our moment to step back.
N: It’s the work that keeps you young.
E: Fundamentally, it's an experiment that we’ve come to grips with. As determined as we’ve been, at some point you can say this experiment has run its course with my involvement. It’s not proof that everything’s been futile, just that that phase of the experiment has run its course.
It is a very mature thing to understand how time passes, and brave to take a step off the cliff and not know what is next.
E: The other thing was, going around town and seeing the people in this city who are holding on, even though they are burned out; that’s hard to deal with. People feel guilty walking away from that. But when you stay on out of obligation, rather than opportunity, you’ve stayed too long. If we’d stuck it out for SAFMOD when our hearts are crying out to move on, we’d be doing a disservice to the company. I’d like to think that it’s a responsible decision.
N: You can draw many parallels between SAFMOD and what Ezra’s saying. Because SAFMOD is also stepping off the cliff, and they have talked about getting SAFMOD to the point of sustainability. I would like to see that process completed, so that if I ever decide to move on, I’d love to see SAFMOD continue to be a crative outlet, especially for young performers who may only be here a short time. SAFMOD is still in Cleveland to provide that opportunity to young people.
E: And to siphon money out of the system and put it in artist's pockets.
You’ve been active residents of the Hodge School, a creative live/work building converted from a school on the East Side off East 72nd near St. Clair. What is it like living and working there?
E: It’s kind of like a dorm for adults; a lot of people are reclusive and do things in their studios. The rapid turnover makes it hard to meet people.
N: I remember when it was young, there were bands and openings and parties...
Y: The gallery openings are still going on. The school is beautiful, with a big yard in the back, large studio spaces, and very little interruptions from the outside world.
E: But you have to possess a rogue streak to live there, it takes a lot of energy, because the momentum is swinging the other way.
Y: The neighborhood kids are fun...
E: I got a kid to write a story today, and I think it’s criminal that it’s not more underwritten by the city...
Y: Fanny Lewis needs to step up.
E: They need to subsidize artists who want to live there. Maybe take over a vacant space and turn it into a resource center, some of the artists could staff it, make a little workshare thing, try to do something through the infrastructure that is already there.
N: It’s underutilized...
E: Two major dance companies that were there talked about leaving, so maybe it’s worth 10 grand a year to keep the energy going.
N: There was a meeting yesterday, and the Neighborhood Development Corporation felt that the Hodge School wasn’t doing enough for the community, but I'd like to know, what are they doing for the Hodge School?
What other artists have you come into contact with at Hodge?
Y: Ron Sims, AKA Tace Specific, who does graffiti and graphic. And [poet, freelance writer] R.A Washington was there for a while. Ed Caner the violinist is there, as well as Aaron Bonk, the juggler.
There have been reports lately that some people have become disenchanted with crime and harassment at Hodge, and some artists, such as Michael Medcalf’s Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theatre, will be moving out. What has your experience been?
Y: Consistent vandalism.
Y: Unfortunately, Michael Medcalf has had the worst of it. He caught some kids spray painting, and they pulled a gun on him. Some kid came into his class, sat down and acted like he was in the class, then picked up someone's keys and stole their car.
Y: We’ve had three car windows broken, and all of Michael's windows, four car windows were all broken four nights in a row.
E: That explains the turnover, just buying new glass every week.
N: I almost got robbed last night leaving the Hodge School. Two dudes pulled guns on me, by my car. I just took off, and the one guy hit my car, fortunately it was locked. At 76th & St. Clair.'''
Y: Always take 74th just because Tops is there...
E: 76th can be a gauntlet...
N:' The cops told me to lock my doors, keep rolling and not stop. And I’ve never had that much adrenaline pumping through me. I was excited about keeping the space, but after last night, I think we need to talk more about continuing the search for another space. I’d hate to think about someone coming to a class and pulling a gun or stealing keys to cars.
If you guys were staying in Cleveland, would you stay at Hodge School?
Y: No, because we have already talked to Jim Levin about his [Orthodox] church space...
Interview and photos by Thomas Mulready (:divend:)