A year of placemaking, site activation and hope

Of all the years for me to have joined the local arts and culture media circuit, I feel as though 2019 was the perfect fit. Since writing my first article for City Pulse in April, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting locals who are investing in the city’s future with a goal for inclusivity and progress. This year, there were many moments when I felt inspired by the city’s work. Here are a handful of moments that will stick with me for years to come.

Ozay Moore and Dustin Hunt have a string of identifiers attached to their names — musician, painter, entrepreneur and break dancer among them — but Lansing will always remember when this duo teamed up to launch Below the Stacks, the city’s inaugural mural festival.

For a week in September, residents witnessed blasts of color being restored to Lansing’s fading corridors. The festival resulted in eight activated sites reimagined by internationally revered talent. Now, the north side of the Centennial Building, located at one of the most overlooked corners of downtown Lansing, bears a Sanskrit message in electric orange and cobalt blue, written by Imagine, a Nepali muralist.

Peeping over a vacant building formerly occupied by Rum Runners in the Stadium District is an ethereal portrait of a smiling woman painted by Royyal Dogg, who has been dubbed Korea’s most famous graffiti artist by totallycoolpix.com and threads on Reddit. My personal favorite installation rests along Oakland Avenue and depicts a roaring pink lion conceptualized by Mexican-born artist W3rc, which I interpreted as an homage to his ancestors and their resilience.

Lansing’s arts community celebrated a lot of firsts this year, but we also mourned the loss of the Three Stacks Music Festival. Hosted by Fusion Shows, the all-day spectacle in REO Town had to bow out this year following a successful inaugural run. Fortunately, Lansing had a summer bustling with sonic entertainment thanks to Lansing 5:01’s Dam Jam and Common Ground, which pulled off Vegas-based EDM trailblazer Zedd as a headliner.

In May, Ixion Theatre Ensemble closed their 2019 season with “Hope,” a collection of vignettes featuring eight original plays. The performance marked the directorial debut of Rose Cooper, 56, who is well-known in Lansing for riding her majestic Harley-Davidson through town while belting out Prince and gospel tunes. The production was infused with an authenticity befitting Cooper’s multifaceted work as actress, poet and, now, director. Allie Costa, an LA-based playwright, debuted her script “Low Light” as part of the collection, which chronicled a conversation between two veterans on military service, racism and immigration. In an interview with the City Pulse, Cooper said directing the production made her think back on her personal growth, from a suicidal 16-year-old girl to a local figure of positivity, as “the epitome of hope.”

Nine years ago, spectators might have scoffed at the idea of a film festival in Lansing taking root. Since then, co-directors Jason Gabriel and Dom Cochran have grown the Capital City Film Festival into the largest music and film festival in the state, according to Cochran. This year, the festival extended over two weeks and featured over 150 film screenings and 100 musical acts at 11 different participating venues. The music side of the festival was developed through a new partnership with Stoopfest, a house show music festival that takes over Lansing’s eastside neighborhood during the last full week of April. The collaboration led to a merging of generations and interests, and undoubtedly inspired residents to watch the Lansing art scene more closely. Other great collaborations made by the festival was a schedule of films curated by the Women of Color Initiatives of Michigan State University and a pop-up exhibit designed by Crystal Gause, a former resident of Lansing’s east side. Gause invited several Detroit and Columbus artists, including BLVK ICE, for a pop-up art-music showcase called “House of More” at the Robin Theatre.

Strokes of genius brushed MSU's art galleries many times this year, but my favorite lectures came from visiting artists Qais Assali and Jackie Sumell. Assali is a Palestinian-born documentarian and graphic designer, while Sumell is a conceptual artist and radical gardener who works with prisoners to replenish impoverished areas across the United States. As part of Assali’s U.S. tour, he spent time in New Palestine, Ohio, and Dearborn. Both cities served as sites for exploration of Western civilization’s fears and desire toward Arabic culture which culminated in an exhibit at the MSU Union Gallery. Sumell’s presentation at the Broad Art Museum included letters written between her and Herman Wallace of the Angola 3, who served 41 years in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Sumell also promoted a fundraiser for her latest project called, “The Prisoner’s Apothecary,” which included a national network of neighborhood gardens for residents to pick from and turn into tinctures, salves and soaps.

Reflecting on the year, the biggest buzzwords to come out of the Arts Council of Greater Lansing and Mayor Andy Schor’s Arts and Culture Commission were “place making,” “public art” and “accessibility,” which were exemplified in exhibits such as the Lansing Art Gallery and Education Center’s ARTpath and the inception of Rotary Park. However, in early December a beacon of hope for Lansing’s art scene came from the mayor’s arts commission when it accepted a national consultant’s report on the benefits and feasibility of building a $45 million performing arts center downtown. The plan calls for a 1,400-seat music hall, and a 200-seat performing lab, studio and classroom. While this conservative budget will not allot for high-rise cathedral ceilings decked out in chandeliers, it could disrupt a pattern of big-time talent passing up the capital city.