St Marks Church Cancelation Explained.
So, tonight was supposed to be our second St Marks Church event with A-Ron (“The Downtown Don,” formerly of-and-presently in court with his own brand, aNYthing… and now of his new brand Off Bowery) and Ethan Swan. The last one we threw was on July 3rd, and it was pretty much intended as a straight fundraiser for the historic church/art sanctuary (you know, where Patty Smith played her first show, and Andy Warhol screened his first film, Sam Shepard staged his first two plays, the Beat Poets were at home, etc…) and we raised $13,000, which paid for the Church’s front to be repaired and repainted. It was incredibly fun for the 2500+ people that came through during the events 9 or so hour duration, and it was pretty incredible how many people said that they had never been to anything like it in the time that they had lived in NY.
This event tonight was set up around the CMJ Music Festival, which is happening this week in New York, in which thousands of bands and music journalists and college radio djs and nerds and really anyone who can spend a few hundred dollars for a badge descend upon the city and go to any number of the literally hundredsof label showcase events that happen within a few days. The whole event relies on hype and stress, and the idea that there are a few “must see bands” who just became huge or are about to. Of course it is great to get to see so many great bands, but dealing with actually getting into the shows, for which you must either be a badge holder or one of the very few non-badge-holders that is allowed to purchase a very expensive ticket to the show can really be a nightmare. So we had this idea to pool together as many of our friends bands who were this years “big cmj draws” and some that should have been together and throw another party at the church. And have it only cost $5. And be all ages (a lot of the CMJ stuff is not all ages). And have really amazing vegan dosas for sale. And really cheap booze. And have it last for 12 hours… with a rave filling out the last 5 hours.
Our connection at the church, Father Frank, was really psyched. We were psyched. The bands were psyched, and we can only assume that the three thousand+ people that we were expecting were psyched… but two very important factions were not psyched.
There is a poetry society that has used a small-ish back room at the church for readings every Wednesday for the last 30 years. They hate outside sound and they hate other people being anywhere near the church when they are there. Apparently they even hate the church making lots of thousand of dollars. To be completely fair, we had planned to stop the live sound for the duration of their reading tonight and have a completely live music-less intermission from 8 to 10 pm while they read… but this was not good enough… and so it was that they contacted the church’s planner, who they in turn insured was very not-psyched on our event and who called me very late the night before last to tell me that our event, which we had been planning for months, which was in fact in the schedule, which was in fact going to raise several thousand more dollars for the church, was now CANCELED. Officially canceled.
A few hours were spent hoping and pleading, but in the end the poetry people shut us down.
On behalf on ANPQuarterly, A-Ron, and Ethan Swan, I would like to offer a huge heartfelt apology to anyone that went to the Church today, only to see a sign like the one below.
This event was going to be giant and exciting and inclusive and hopefully a lot of other great things… but… anyways…
This event tonight was set up around the CMJ Music Festival, which is happening this week in New York, in which thousands of bands and music journalists and college radio djs and nerds and really anyone who can spend a few hundred dollars for a badge descend upon the city and go to any number of the literally hundredsof label showcase events that happen within a few days. The whole event relies on hype and stress, and the idea that there are a few “must see bands” who just became huge or are about to. Of course it is great to get to see so many great bands, but dealing with actually getting into the shows, for which you must either be a badge holder or one of the very few non-badge-holders that is allowed to purchase a very expensive ticket to the show can really be a nightmare. So we had this idea to pool together as many of our friends bands who were this years “big cmj draws” and some that should have been together and throw another party at the church. And have it only cost $5. And be all ages (a lot of the CMJ stuff is not all ages). And have really amazing vegan dosas for sale. And really cheap booze. And have it last for 12 hours… with a rave filling out the last 5 hours.
Our connection at the church, Father Frank, was really psyched. We were psyched. The bands were psyched, and we can only assume that the three thousand+ people that we were expecting were psyched… but two very important factions were not psyched.
There is a poetry society that has used a small-ish back room at the church for readings every Wednesday for the last 30 years. They hate outside sound and they hate other people being anywhere near the church when they are there. Apparently they even hate the church making lots of thousand of dollars. To be completely fair, we had planned to stop the live sound for the duration of their reading tonight and have a completely live music-less intermission from 8 to 10 pm while they read… but this was not good enough… and so it was that they contacted the church’s planner, who they in turn insured was very not-psyched on our event and who called me very late the night before last to tell me that our event, which we had been planning for months, which was in fact in the schedule, which was in fact going to raise several thousand more dollars for the church, was now CANCELED. Officially canceled.
A few hours were spent hoping and pleading, but in the end the poetry people shut us down.
On behalf on ANPQuarterly, A-Ron, and Ethan Swan, I would like to offer a huge heartfelt apology to anyone that went to the Church today, only to see a sign like the one below.
This event was going to be giant and exciting and inclusive and hopefully a lot of other great things… but… anyways…
posted by Brendan Fowler at 11:27 PM
2 Comments:
What a bunch of mean spirited assholes! They should have been allowed to cancel your event only if theirs raised as much money. I hope you waited for them outside and said mean things to them through the medium of poetry.
Poetry sucks.
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