Dreyfest Poetry Jam: Montana performers join in word and song

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Poets and musicians from across Montana are bringing spoken word and live music to downtown Billings Friday, August 11th at 7pm for the Dreyfest Poetry Jam. In a first for Craft Local, Billings’ newest art gallery and performance venue, local musicians join seasoned performance poets for a lively evening of collaboration, expression, and good tunes. The event is part of the 5th Annual Richard Dreyfest, Billings’ premier all-ages DIY music and arts festival.

“Imagine the excitement and energy of a poetry slam with an added rhythm and melody,” Pete Tolton, event organizer, said. “There’s a great interplay of sound, texture, and voice unlike anything else.” Tolton and co-organizers, James Hickman and Anna Paige, have produced and performed spoken word events around Billings since 2011.

Longtime collaborators Dave Caserio and Parker Brown headline the event, Caserio delivering his potent, animated verse and Brown accompanying with equal vigor on guitar and bass. “I'm really interested in how sound moves through poetry,” Caserio said. “A poem can't literally get up and dance, yet it has something of a dance and music in it.”

Additional duo performances include Anna Paige with Matt Taggart, Nate Petterson with Josh Carter, and Pete Tolton with Carolyn Tolton. The event will also feature solo performances by Molly Ouellette, Cooper Malin, Kelly Mullins, John Christenson, and Jawney Love.

Richard Dreyfest spans the weekend of August 11th and 12th with more than sixty musical acts, comedians, poets, and visual artists descending upon eight all-ages venues throughout downtown Billings, presented by Waste Division and the Beatnik City Council. For lineup info, artist interviews, and tickets, visit waste-division.org/richarddreyfest/v

 Craft Local is located at 2413 Montana Ave., the original home of the Yellowstone Hotel. The nonprofit art gallery and performance venue features Montana-made beer and wine, twenty visual artists’ work, and excellent air conditioning. More info at craftlocal.org or (406) 702-1458.

For interviews and media inquiries regarding the Poetry Jam, please contact:

Peter Tolton

petertolton@gmail.com

(406) 672-0396

For interviews and media inquiries regarding Dreyfest, please contact:

Phil Griffin

richarddreyfest@gmail.com

(406) 860-5487

Beatnik City Council

Beatnik City Council is a group formed by Ty Herman, Brie Ripley, and myself, three twenty-somethings determined to bring an all-ages venue to a midwestern city whose leaders would rather pursue interests of industry and commerce. (The mayor, a real estate tycoon, once said in response to a question about youth leaving the city, "If millennials want to move because Billings is boring, I'll sell their home for them.") While parking lots and strip malls have sprung up like dandelions in west Billings, downtown has been left to largely fend for itself.

The three musketeers: Phil, Brie, and Ty. Photo by Hannah Potes.

After the closure of the treasured Mule Skinner, the last remaining independent and all-ages venue in Billings, we decided that the best way for us to encourage the city's artistic and cultural development would be to open a venue ourselves. Drawing from our experience in house shows, garage shows, all-ages spaces, and other DIY venues, BCC is organizing to foster a robust culture of the same to Billings, giving all people but especially youth a place to perform and practice.

You can follow us here on Waste Division as we work toward a legitimate  venue, starting with "pop-up" events to raise funds and public awareness of our goal. BCC will do our best to provide details of the trials and tribulations we find in the process of opening this venue, aiming to inspire folks who might want to do something similar in their own cities and towns. See below for our first installment!

See deets on the first pop-up event here.

For other updates:

Our Process Thus Far

We started by simply meeting once a week, talking and writing to refine our goals and boil them down into the following mission statement:

 MISSION STATEMENT

to provide a communal space in which all people, especially youth, can express themselves through art, whether that be in the form of a music concert, art exhibit, or other medium.

to provide a space that encourages individual growth and expression, as well as that of the larger community of which the individual is a part.

to provide a safe and sober space, especially for youth, in which members of the community can learn creative and practical skills ranging from sound engineering and meditation to reading and fermentation.

to provide the space and the tools necessary for people to express themselves through any art form they’d like. This includes the provision of practice spaces for bands, learning spaces for workshops, or simply a space to discuss ideas and plans.

to provide passionate youth an outlet and space to hone their craft, bringing fresh blood into the Billings art community. We see a lack of these spaces in the Billings area, and think that the health of the larger artistic community hinges on the willingness of individuals, particularly youth, to stay in Billings and feel invested in a project they care about.

to create an artistic community in which artists can challenge and improve themselves and their craft alongside their peers.

GETTING HELP

But we soon realized that we needed more than ideas. We needed to do stuff. But we didn't have the social, political, or financial resources to really get going. We used our meeting time to brainstorm who in our community might be interested in helping us by serving on an advisory board, particularly older adults with connections who could help us further organize and promote our vision. Many of them we already knew from our involvement in the creative scene, so we'd just email them, telling our story and presenting the mission statement.

SERENDIPITY

One of the people we met with, Anna Paige, a local writer and teacher, was working on getting an Artspace established in Billings and agreed to meet with us to see about our common goals. Artspace is a national group that helps communities build affordable work-live spaces for artists. Prospects did not look great for Artspace; their project had been trying to get funding from the city for almost ten years.

Ty and I testified in favor of funding the project in front of city council as a gesture of solidarity with the Artspace folks--and also because I was tired of hearing old people grumble about young people "not being involved." I wanted to make an appearance as a member of the creative class and remind the council that we still exist. I also hoped it would be good to get into the public eye a bit.

Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, Artspace did not receive approval for the $500,000 they had requested. Shortly after the city council meeting, a newpaper article came out detailing the evening's discussion, giving the council some flack for being backwards in their priorities and for one council member's remarks about "beatniks" on social media after the meeting. I was not surprised by the reaction of the council: many of the members are old white men--people with the time for a four hour meeting on a Tuesday night and little patience for something as impractical as art.

But the article helped us get in touch with a professor in town, Aaron Rosen, who asked to meet with us and talk about our plans, as he had plans of his own for an industrial sculpture garden or warehouse space. We decided to collaborate on a "pop-up" event as a way to garner attention and support (and some $$$) for future events, with the larger goal of opening our own venue ASAP.

Phil and Ty with London artist G. Roland Biermann and Dr. Aaron Rosen for Beatnik City Council's first "pop-up" event. Photo by Casey Page.

These events will hopefully serve as solid grist for grant-writing, demonstrating to a potential benefactor that youth in Billings are hungry for spaces where they can comfortably express their autonomy through art.

RESOURCES

We only recently got what seems to be a must-have book for anyone looking to organize like this, In Every Town: an All-Ages Music Manualfesto. Shannon Stewart recounts her own experience founding Seattle youth space VERA, but also includes oodles of others' accounts in doing similar work around the country. This book is out of print, so a little rare and expensive--about $65 bucks. But we got a cheap one that popped up on Amazon for $20. Either way, the book is well worth the money, especially if you can pitch in with some friends.

Stay tuned for photos and more!

-Phil

*Cover photo from Richard Dreyfest, a community festival organized in Billings, MT the last four years. Captured by David Jacoby.