Timeless on Chelmsford Street
Posted by PaulM on 23 Jul 2009 at 09:20 pm | Tagged as: History, Lowell, Lowell-2009, Poetry, Technology
Tonight the Lowell Poetry Network put on one of its monthly readings at 119 Gallery on Chelmsford Street. Rain washed the street outside, turning it to a mirror for the red taillights rushing toward the Lord Overpass. Fifteen people showed up to hear nationally published poet Sarah Getty of Bedford, Mass., and Al “The Fogg” Bouchard of Lowell and Pepperell, Mass., read in the featured spots. Al’s book is so-named because the first section has poems written in response to artworks in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. Other poems explore existential questions, puzzle over relations between men and women, and chart the landscape of dreams. Gallery host Walter Wright has given the Network a home for its reading series. A generous table of refreshments was laid out for everyone’s enjoyment. The two featured poets had their books for sale. Al offered a sneak preview of his new book, his first book, The Fogg, published by my small company, Loom Press (full disclosure here). He will have a big book launch at the Whistler House Museum of Art on Saturday, September 26. Check here for details.
After Sarah and Al gave their 20-minute readings, the mike was opened up for Network members — Billy, Ed, Stephen, Paula, and Patrick each took a turn. (Billy videotapes all readings and has an invaluable record of recent literary activity — imagine if we had tape of Dickens, Poe, Emerson, Larcom, Thoreau, and other writers who spoke in 19th century Lowell. Poe wasn’t POE when he visited. Some of today’s names encountered in the city may grow in reputation.) The readers shared their work amid a display of vigorous illustrations, drawings, and paintings generated by some of the Gallery regulars. A few pieces were created at the recent Armory Park art happening. Intense color and energetic lines and slashes of paint made the walls pop, a juicy background for the poets and their timeless compositions. Al is 73 and publishing his first poems. I joked that he is like the movie character played by Brad Pitt — Benjamin Button — born full grown in a literary sense. I’m hoping his book gets the attention it deserves. The work is cerebral and emotional at the same time, a fact that hits home when you hear him read. His voice infuses the crisp, thoughtful poems with humanity. The “voice” in the poems is so sophisticated that it is humble, knowing what it does not know and scratching to get at some understanding of what the heck this is all about down here on Earth.
Behind a door on Chelmsford Street, the local culture was perking and bubbling and spitting steam while the business of the city went on from precinct to block to neighborhood, while the tens of thousands at home did what they had to do and got ready for tomorrow. That kind of writing — Getty’s, Bouchard’s — has no freshness date. The Gallery doubled as an incubator tonight. Their work is going to stick around through many election cycles.
Paul Marion,
Your words are spot on–
“Behind a door on Chelmsford St……”
Lowell Poetry Network has found their “home.” Walter Wright’s 119 Gallery on Chelmsford St.is energy bursting inside one simple door.
Thursday, 7/23/09 was no exception. The excitment was Sarah Getty and Al Bouchard. What a wonderful, summer night to share, drawings, paintings and a night of poety.
Come open 119 Gallery’s door and meet Lowell Poetry Network’s poets on Thursday, 9/24/09.
See you in September. Enjoy your Summer!
Janet Stevenson
“The Gallery doubled as an incubator tonight.” Paul you are right on. The 119 Gallery is a space that is all about innovation and creating opportunities for all sorts of creativity to flow. Just like the information economy needed R&D spaces like Xerox Park and Bell Labs, the creative economy needs places like the 119 Gallery. So glad to hear that another creative community has joined so many others at the 119.
[Disclaimer: I am a 119 Gallery Board member]
Imagine if Lowell and the Merrimack Valley had cultural production centers on the scale of MACom across the street from 119 Gallery or Raytheon in Andover? Creative economy “plants” with the kind of secure, stable jobs that Bob Forrant keeps telling us we need to be generating in Lowell and the region. Innovation/imagination, technology/talent, creativity/culture — put these elements together with the raw and refined resources available in our river valley, and we might get credit for launching another “revolution” on the scale of the American and Industrial radical changes. Jerry Beck talked about the “creative revolution” a couple of years ago. Look at what is happening in Lowell this weekend? Could that happen every month, every week, every day — on this scale? Music, food, dance, art, architecture, public history, crafts, more food, more music, live literature, outdoor sculpture, funky transportation in trolleys and canal boats, sidewalk recycling/green engineering, sound recording, lighting design, local TV and radio broadcasting, beer and wine and coffee, street parades, kids stuff, ethnic and racial diversity, National Park, American History….
Yes Paul it can happen! It requires some start=up investment which a lot of the original arts overlay district accomplished and certainly the Western Ave studios and 119 have added too. We now need the Lowell Plan and the LDFC and our two institutions of higher education to help bankroll some sort of a ‘cultural production center’ where lots of this ‘production’ can take place and we can reduce the overhead expenses even further for starting out artists, esp. those from the programs at UMass Lowell and Middlesex CC and Lowell High. Young people could stick around here instead of heading to Brooklyn or Austin, Texas. Sound recording, film production, writers’ worshops in fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Why couldn’t we have a summer writer’s colony here in Lowell with all sorts of guest lectures, public readings on a summer night down along the river, evening walks around the places where writers lived and worked here in Lowell and in neighboring communities? A monthly writers’ pub crawl works! The Tsongas Industrial History Center does a great job bringing social studies teachers from all over the country to Lowell for one-week stays to study the industrial revolution. It does not seem far fetched that something along the same lines could be done on the cultural production side. Anyone interested in talking about how to get this started??? Council candidates what say you to a public commitment to support the city’s many, many creative economy efforts and building upon them?
Western Avenue would be the first of these large-scale creative economy “plants,” if we think about it that way. More than 100 artist studios—closing in on 200. Each one of the artists is a small business, an independent contractor who can be drawing buyers and “exporting” creative work produced here that will bring dollars into the city. The Brush Gallery and Studios was an experiment in 1982—and it has never been closed since. Prior to “The Brush,” we had the Art Alive! coop on Merrimack Street, in a building that used to stand near today’s Enterprise Bank/Old City Hall. Those two efforts helped show the way to Western Ave. Now a recording studio is being built at Western Ave. Could it be the next Apple Studios if rare talent walks through the door to record? Bob’s right about the potential for programs that bring people in from around the region, country, and world. Look at this weekend. People are voting with their feet for Lowell’s cultural offerings.
Just to clarify from Janet’s post, the 119 Gallery is not Walter Wright’s gallery, rather the space belongs to those who use it. The Gallery encourages people to not just experience art but to engage in the creative process, to claim ownership of their work and the space.
A couple of thoughts from the posts by Bob and Paul – one of the things Richard Florida spoke of when he coined the term “creative economy” was the the creation of a whole set of intangible “goods” that came out of creative and knowledge-driven activities and environments that attract the “creative class.” Things like diverse cityscapes, open and inclusive social structures, communications and transportation infrastructure, and opportunities to connect up and meet others who can fuel ideas, creativity and innovation — these are the critical platforms necessary for a creative economy to thrive. While the “production” of creative “goods” (i.e. artwork, festivals, etc) is one way to look at Lowell’s role in the creative economy, it seems to me that it is the creation of these more “intangible” goods that are critical to a thriving center of a creatively driven economy.
While the example of the Beatles and Apple Records is a good one — Lowell might be more like Liverpool where the Beatles developed their ‘chops’ in local clubs and venues. One thing the 119 offers is the ability for local artists to experiment, and try out new form of expression. Young artists are encouraged to engage in the creative process and are invited to experience other regional and national artists who are exploring similar forms of expression. This is the kind of “intangible” goods that need to be created in even more spaces throughout the city.
Also, while Western Avenue and the Brush are wonderful assets to the community and to Lowell culture, they are not necessarily incubators of new ideas (the small business analogy seems more appropriate) … a young artist recently graduated from UMass Lowell’s Art or Music Departments can’t afford studio space at either Western Ave nor the Brush. The physical infrastructure of both spaces make it diffcult for potentially disruptive activities (i.e. loud music or aggressive performances). We need to create and open up spaces within the community where creativity can grow and mature …. A more apt parallel would be the Wannalancit Industry incubator for new emerging manufacturers & services providers and … the idea of an incubator for creativity and the arts … the creative incubator needs the equivalent of venture capital in order to buy the time and space to realize new ideas and forms of expression …
So some questions our community leaders should be asking are: Are we open to new ideas? Do we create opportunities for newcomers (i.e. youth, immigrants, “blow-ins”) to express themselves, “own” and lead? Are there enough open and flexible spaces where diverse skills, opinions, and visions can converge, interact, create and innovate? Do we fund risk appropriately or take chances on those “out-there” ideas that may or may not work? Will we recognize the next amazing thing, given our inclination to “re-create” what has come before?
[NOTE: Walter Wright has engaged actively with me in discussing these ideas and I want to recognize his contributions to the thinking here]