the gar spot

fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station

Menu
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • SIN AGAINST THE RACE, a novel
Menu
the gar spot fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station

Ghost Ship’s Legacy: Protect Artists and the Arts

Posted on December 11, 2016December 11, 2016 by gar

I once knew a space like the Ghost Ship. It may still be around, I don’t know. I visited it once when a friend had an art exhibition there. It wound around, corridor after corridor of sectioned off studios. The ceiling seemed impossibly high. It had a primitive feel to it, the quintessence of two-by-four technology, held together with nails, spit, glue, and dogged determination.

Safety broached my mind. Even before I became a facilities dude for a living, such things occupied my mental space. I remember hoping that the denizens of the space took proper precautions to protect themselves and the unique space they created. It had a lot of wood. That’s what concerned me most. Wood burns without pity.

My sister frequented spaces like Ghost Ship in her youth, alternative, self-made spaces where folks of like spirits could mingle and get their dance on. I thought of her when I heard about Ghost Ship. I was thankful that she never encountered such danger in what should always be a safe space.

Seeing their faces, those who fell to the fire, fills me with great depression. So young, so vital, so full of the energy this world needs, now gone. It simply shouldn’t have happened.

As a facilities dude, I think about what could have been done to make that space safe, to make similar spaces safe. Artists suffer for their art, an old cliche. But suffering should not include putting one’s life at risk. Suffering should not mean living in substandard conditions, prey to the negligence of unscrupulous landlords and property owners. Unfortunately, Oakland and other cities have decided that cracking down on artists warehouse spaces is the best way to deal with the issue. It isn’t.

We can work together to make these spaces safe for habitation. Install smoke detectors and fire sprinklers or at least a comprehensive series of fire extinguishers. Ensure that spaces have adequate escape routes and stairwells for quick exit. Develop low cost programs to check and improve electrical systems. Train citizens in basic fire safety. Perhaps a brigade of contractors who themselves are artists could volunteer their services to this work. Instead of investing to punish and point fingers, invest in these spaces so that they serve their artistic populations safely.

We do not and should not crackdown on artists trying to live and create. In a few week’s time, we’ll have a federal government all too willing to do the same. Nothing has come up in the news about future plans for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Public Radio, and our other trusts committed to encouraging and promoting the nation’s cultural life. But make no mistake, the arts will come under attack by the new Congress and Administration.

I remember very well Republican-led attacks on the NEA in light of the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition in the early 1990s. And Republicans continue to fight to defund CPB. In the past, folks fought those efforts with the rallying cry “Don’t Fire Big Bird.” Well, Sesame Street, astoundingly, jumped from PBS to HBO. This frees them from worry about fickle funding from the government, but it leaves its old home more vulnerable to attack. We don’t fund the arts nearly enough in this country as it is. In our warped view of the arts, we declare that they should make lots of money and if they don’t, then they’re worthless.

The arts form the basis of human existence, because humans communicate. We tell stories. Artists are storytellers. To defund them, marginalize them out of existence is to shut off that voice, those stories, and leave a void.

We lost 36 storytellers in the Ghost Ship fire last week. Let their legacy be that spaces like Ghost Ship get saved by activism and caring.

Here are some places to donate in support of the victims of the Ghost Ship fire.

© 2016, gar. All rights reserved.

1 thought on “Ghost Ship’s Legacy: Protect Artists and the Arts”

  1. Tania says:
    December 11, 2016 at 7:47 pm

    Your sister is still subject to go to gatherings like that. Although I will say there is one space here in LA that I went to a party ONCE and I immediately felt unsafe and decided not to go back to parties there. Lots of semi-safe spaces are still used all the time so I’m hoping promoters and others in my community will take care. Super sad :(

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

SIN AGAINST THE RACE, a novel–Click image for info

Sin Against the Race

Contact

  • email gar

Twitter

Follow @the_gar_spot

Instagram

Follow on Instagram

Facebook

Subscribe by email:

Archives

Blogroll

  • Life During Wartime – The Trump Years
  • Patricia Dunn – Author
  • Philip Robinson, poet
  • The Outspoken – You're Welcome
  • Uppity Negro Network

Interests

  • Cassini Probe @ Saturn
  • Daily Kos
  • Doctor Who
  • KCSM – Jazz 91
  • Makeup to Go!
  • The Root

Tags

99% african-american AIDS Bay Area bigotry Billy Strayhorn black Black Lives Matter climate change Duke Ellington dystopia dystopian fiction gay growing up gay healthcare history homophobia jazz LGBT LGBTQ literature marriage equality music North Korea novel Oakland police brutality politics queer queerlit queer lit racism rant reading Religion Republicans Romney SATR science fiction Sin Against the Race Trayvon Martin Trump women in jazz writing

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
©2023 the gar spot | Theme by SuperbThemes