Do-it-yourself culture makes our community stronger

Public Spaces

Do-it-yourself culture makes our community stronger

by Dan Reed • February 3, 2012 10:37 am

Great communities come from the shared local culture of its residents. But as the City Paper notes this week in an article on local rock schools, we don't always make it easy for kids to participate.

The School of Rock in downtown Silver Spring. Photo by the author.

In the story, a teenage band from Bethesda called The Black Sparks are thwarted in their attempt to organize a concert series in a local community center:

Erickson helped Ray set up the series Bethesda Youth Shows, but from a distance; the project is almost entirely Ray's baby. However, the series—set to premiere last week at the Bethesda Chevy Chase Regional Services Center—quickly ran into municipal resistance. Montgomery County officials wanted Ray to do an online presale, and not sell tickets at the door. Maybe that wouldn't be a big deal to adults, but for Ray's purposes it sucked: "You have to be 19 to have a PayPal account."

Whether because of its lefty residents or proximity to the District, Montgomery County has long had a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) culture, from Silver Spring's past as a skating mecca to our small punk scene. These things set our community apart, give us a common identity, and overall make this a much cooler place to live.

But no matter where you are in Montgomery County, kids can't do or make anything when they don't have places for to go and community leaders who are either disinterested or openly hostile towards their needs. The difficulty that the underage Black Sparks had in securing a venue for their shows is just one part of a bigger problem.

I was particularly drawn to quotes from Kevin Erickson, director of the All Ages Movement Project, a nationwide organization that encourages the creation of spaces where young people can make music. He certainly gets the connection between giving kids something to do and having a more interesting community:

"If a city is interested in making their community more livable and interesting and creatively vibrant for young people," says Erickson. "One thing they can do is get out of the way and eliminate some of the regulatory barriers that can hinder young people from participating in culture or running a space . . . Once we start to recognize young people's creative contributions, it can be a step toward treating them as humans in the rest of civic life."

None of this says that Montgomery County is such a terrible place to be as a young artist. We've got organizations like the Gandhi Brigade that teaches young people to make films and other media, along with places like Bach to Rock and the School of Rock, which are discussed in the City Paper article. And next door in the District there are groups like Positive Force that push for youth empowerment and expression through events like the yearly Positive Youth Fest.

The Corpse Fortress, a punk house in downtown Silver Spring that was condemned last summer.

That said, we could do more to promote DIY culture. The best place to start is by providing venues where kids can hang out, from organized events like Councilmember Nancy Navarro's "youth cafés," to unprogrammed spaces like Veterans' Plaza in downtown Silver Spring. We could also make it easier to reserve space in public buildings for concerts and other events, particularly the Fillmore, which is supposed to be available for community use.

And it would've helped if the county hadn't just condemned the Corpse Fortress, a Silver Spring punk house that's existed under various names over the past decade, and instead given its residents a chance to bring the building up to code first.

Kids making music they're passionate about isn't just good for them. It makes our community a better and more unique place, and we should encourage it whenever possible.

16 comments

Tags: culture, Maryland, Montgomery, public spaces, youth

MoCo makes "public-private partnership" with skaters in Kensington (Mar 20, 2009)
More and varied nightlife can make Silver Spring safer (Jul 26, 2011)
Wheaton town square should belong to the public (Mar 7, 2011)
Teens need things to do, not a curfew (Jul 13, 2011)
The quotable Rollin Stanley (Jun 10, 2010)

A planner and architect by training, Dan Reed is interested in suburban retrofits. Dan works for the Friends of White Flint, writes his own blog, Just Up the Pike, and serves as the Land Use Chair for the Action Committee for Transit. Dan lives in Silver Spring.

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Your piece raises the larger issue of how difficult it is for people to become involved in their communities. Too often, government red tape stands in the way. There should be easier paths for citizes, especially young people, to contribute to their communities.

Sidenote: on what planet is do-it-yourself culture associate with lefty politics? I thought that was the right-wingers, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" folks!

by MJ on Feb 3, 2012 11:23 am • link • report

Do it yourself culture might be a nice tagline, but it in no way describes the montgomery county that I lived in for 18 years and live adjacent to now.

Montgomery County is the "centrally planned" archetype, from the 20 year growth plans, the blue laws that would make a 18th century puritan proud, the overly restrictive zoning, and the everyone-gets-a-say-except-the-owner HOA rules. It's cultural and it's agreed upon, but you can't choose to be a barn animal and say you've got an untamed heart.

by ahk on Feb 3, 2012 11:25 am • link • report

@y'all

When I say "do-it-yourself" culture, I'm referring to music, art and to some extent skateboarding, not the structure of the county government.

by dan reed! on Feb 3, 2012 11:30 am • link • report

Maybe I'm just old, but diy sounds more like make magazine than black gay punk skateboarders

by Charlie on Feb 3, 2012 11:32 am • link • report

Nothing worse than a juristiction that has a plan on how it will grow in the next 20 years. /sarcasm

by Cassidy on Feb 3, 2012 11:37 am • link • report

Depends on who you ask, when I say DIY I first think of independent punk bands, DIY in that context means putting out your own records and shows in places that don't necessarily have to make a profit. It's gotten harder for DIY shows here in both DC and the region proper. Most people who want to be involved in the punk scene have to move to baltimore or richmond both of which have great scenes because bands can afford the cost of living/have places to play. DIY music can trace a lot of its roots to DC and still benefits from it a lot. The church that Positive force is the perfect size between the black cat and 930 and it would be awesome to see more performances there since there is always a social component to it like a food drive or benefit.

The Corpse fortress was nice because it was surrounded by industry/motor yards so noise wasn't an issue.

by Canaan on Feb 3, 2012 11:54 am • link • report

Also the book "dance of days" by Mark Anderson and Mark Jenkins is a good intro. to what DIY means in the context of performance art and music and how DC helped foment a lot of how independent music operates today.

by Canaan on Feb 3, 2012 11:57 am • link • report

We were pleased to host the Black Sparks at the BCC Center. Bethesda has no venue for young people other than the corners outside Barnes & Noble and Chipotle, so when the Black Sparks came to me I was happy to open the Center to them. Everyone involved in making this happen wanted this concert to be safe and successful. The last thing anyone wanted was for young people to be dropped off by their parents and then turned away at the door. The most sensible thing to do was to require RSVPs ahead of time. Advance payment was initially required, but later became optional. Payment was accepted by the parents managing the event at the door. I'm sorry some see these simple rules as a hassle, but they were well advertised, and designed to create a safe environment for young people and a manageble event for the parents who organized it.

by Ken Hartman on Feb 3, 2012 3:39 pm • link • report

I'm sure you could create the safest event ever if no one shows up.

I'm being facetious but there you have the basic divide. I understand that as a gov't employee (I used to work at a community center too so I've been on both sides) you have liabilities and such which is why a lot of DIY events end up in marginal spaces. But I'd reccomend contacting someone like Mark Anderson who runs positive force dc to see how he puts on a show that is all ages and safe, where I see parents pull up and drop off their kids because they aren't worried about them getting into trouble.

by Canaan on Feb 3, 2012 4:07 pm • link • report

Dan, this is something to do a thesis on (if one is required in your program), extending the ideas that you probably discussed with EO (since I connected him with you), what I think of partly as self-help and civil society initiatives, but also providing for noncommoditized spaces or "flexible spaces" and spaces for community in the context of a planning regime dominated by the market and private developers.

Places like you describe, the Electric Maid space in Takoma, Bloombars in Columbia Heights, etc. are very important.

I never talked to him about it (we have a mutual colleague) but Ian MacKaye did a talk about community halls (usually church spaces) being key to the ability of kid bands like Minor Threat being able to develop.

- http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2011/04/community-cleanups-and-other-activities.html

- http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2011/06/ground-up-guerrilla-art-2-community.html

Of course, your first piece on skateparks/the green/skatermom probably stoked my thinking about this long before EO...

by Richard Layman on Feb 3, 2012 4:10 pm • link • report

Did anyone actually get from Dan's post and the City Paper article that the Black Spark's concert actually took place?

by Ken Hartman on Feb 3, 2012 4:25 pm • link • report

Hey Ken,

Check out this book, "In Every Town" it has a pretty systematic approach to successful and unsuccessful non-profit community-based performance events across cities big and small.

http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3365/

by Canaan on Feb 3, 2012 7:56 pm • link • report

@Ken

The City Paper didn't make it too clear whether the Black Sparks played, but it sounded pretty recent, so I assumed it was still in the works. That said, I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to have a safe and successful show, but making kids register in advance for a rock concert at a community center seems silly. When MCPS rents school cafeterias to church groups, do they ask the parishioners to RSVP? I don't think so.

We need to lower the barriers to community spaces in MoCo, not just for youth groups but for anyone. (For instance, Fenton Street Market, which the county almost legislated out of existence.) And if a kid gets turned away because the room is full . . . well, that just means the Black Sparks did a really good job, and it won't be the last time a kid encounters a sold-out show. I'm not sure we need to make this a matter of public policy.

by dan reed! on Feb 3, 2012 8:48 pm • link • report

Keeping with the topic of punks in MoCo, check out this video for "The Red Line" by It's Casual (thanks, Streetsblog!) Though they're talking about the Red Line in LA, of course. It still fits.

by dan reed! on Feb 3, 2012 9:42 pm • link • report

I want to nominate Ken Hartman and Karen Thon from the BCC Regional Services Center for Montgomery County Employees of the Year.

They opened up their perfectly located space to a 13 year old with a dream (Ray Brown). He approached them in November for an idea to hold the Bethesda Youth Shows and they listened. How incredible is that in this day and age??? Maybe it shouldn't be so incredible but it is. Bethesda does not have a space for kids between the ages of 11 and 21 to hang out besides the commercial establishments that cater mostly to adults. When Ray called Barnes & Noble to see if they could support the Bethesda Youth Shows they said they would try because the kids on the weekends were "a problem" and they want them to go elsewhere. They said the kids run up and down the escalators and tear pages out of books. They are now counting the number of kids on the weekends because they want to know how many there are that hang out.

The first Bethesda Youth Show took place last Saturday, January 28. It was an incredible success because it was a learning experience and the kids had a great time. There were at least 75 kids and another 30 kids that didn't RSVP who were turned away at the door. Many of the parents dropped their kids off and went to take advantage of the Bethesda Restaurant Week specials. The kids who were turned away learned the lesson that when they are told to RSVP, they need to do it.

Ray respected the rules that were agreed upon at the first meeting. It was hard to agree to sell tickets in advance but he did it and only 10 tickets were sold (via PayPal) in the first 4 weeks. He asked if we could sell tickets at the door if the attendees RSVP'd and Montgomery County agreed. He learned that kids don't RSVP (or RSVP 15 minutes before the show) and then show up. We need to be flexible (within fire marshal limits, of course).

I think we all agree that Bethesda needs a space for the youth to congregate. The Bethesda Youth Shows mission is: "Teens providing other teens with a safe community and artistic opportunities".

Let's find a space for them to call their own on a consistent schedule and that they can manage and share.

PS. Chipotle came through with a very generous coupon for the attendees.

by Carol Ramirez on Feb 3, 2012 11:31 pm • link • report

Thanks, Dan for writing about these issues!

Something that I mentioned in the interview that didn't make it into the article is that in my work with AMP, I've seen dozens of start up organizations try and get off the ground across the country, and I've seen local government attitudes ranging from very supportive to completely hostile. On that continuum, it seems (from a slight distance) that the Montgomery County folks are really making a commendable effort to be supportive of this effort; that sets everyone up for continued success down the road. Working through issues about ticket sale procedures, security policies, etc are a very normal part of the learning curve. All-ages shows have their own long-standing culture that is sometimes structurally out of sync with the usual workings of local government, and so making these kinds of projects work frequently involves a two-way process of developing cultural literacy between DIY organizers and government officials. That's part of why AMP exists--to aid in that translation and share strategies that have worked in other communities.

I was lucky enough to attend the show, and it was a really amazing reminder of why I do this work. Young folks running the sound board, staffing the merch table, helping with security. Awesome diverse music, and very positive vibes. Everyone who helped make it possible should be proud.

by Kevin Erickson, AMP on Feb 4, 2012 10:03 pm • link • report