A rallying call from Stan’s Cafe

An interesting an impassioned polemic from James Yarker of Stan’s Cafe appeared on The Birmingham Post’s site the other day, and includes this paragraph:

Let’s get to those rooms above pubs, street corners, concert halls, village halls, school halls, libraries, fields and theatres, where real live people are performing for real live audiences and sharing a moment in time together, participating in a social exchange that celebrates an act of creativity engaged for its own sake, prompted by values outside basic commerce. Let’s go and be with other people, sharing a communal moment of beauty and provocation, which will dissolve as soon as it is done and remain precious for that very reason.

The rest of the piece richly deserves your attention.

And it begs the question, what was the last artistic performance you took a risk on?  For me it was Society of Futopia which, although it bemused and bored me in equal measure, I was very glad to have seen.

4 Comments

  1. One of the last risks I took was actually Stan’s Cafe – The Cleansing of Constance Brown and it was bloody amazing, one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time that really left me thinking.

  2. Surely everything someone goes to is a risk… I went to see Gogol Bordello recently and it was great, but it could have been awful, they might not have been in the mood. The last thing I went to that I was unsure about was part of Birmingham Book Festival that happened in the old Ikon Eastside – it wasn’t life changing, it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen, it wasn’t a risk though. I went because I wanted to go… even if it had been terrible you can’t change the fact that you wanted to go initially.

    Now I don’t want to go and see caberet at Legs 11… that would be a risk, but at the same time I’m quite sure I’m not going to go to it, so won’t be taking that risk.

    I’m rambling… is it home time yet?

  3. Ok, so ‘risk’ is the wrong word. I mean presumably you knew you liked Eugene’s gypsy-punk ways. I guess I just mean trying something new.

    The other thing about James’ article is that he seems to be saying art deserves an audience just for being there and people should seek it out. There’s been a fair amount of ‘taking art to the people’ recently with Fierce & the Int Dance Festival. Hmm, think that’s edging towards another discussion altogether.

    Yeah, home time now.

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