Not an election party

Liz and Dan get hitched.

There was a room full of voters from both sides of politics. The country visitors were committed National Party conservatives. The interstate visitors were rabid Labor supporters.  And the rest of us? Well, some had been directly involved in politics. Many of us had worked in the alternative arts and cultural areas. The bride and groom were unimpressed with the election date interfering with their carefully laid plans. How dare Kevin Rudd spoil their special day!

Doubly spoilt. Distracted guests and a depressing outcome for most. How to cope?

The groom banned TV monitors in the room. Only partially successful given the advent of  the iPhone.Most of us knew the result was a foregone conclusion and avoided even discussing it.

The best man began his speech. "There are many parties making promises today. Some of them outrageous. some modest; many merely thought bubbles rather than commitments. But here we have the real thing. Two people making real commitments with integrity and honesty........................................"

Ahhhhh. If only political parties were less combatant, less driven by the need to accomodate wacky fringe groups, more forward thinking. The Liz and Dan party was grounded and surrounded by true believers. We believed in Dan and Liz. They were making real, long term promises.

Twice the age and twice the girth of yore.

Outside on the bowling green a group of once young men reconnected over a game of barefoot bowls and grappled with bias and left leaning tendencies. These men had been dancing, naked in a few cases, in an old warehouse in West End many years earlier on the occasion of another election event. The demise of the Bjelke-Petersen government.

Inside, the young brigade ignored the election result and danced. Ironically the limbo was their dance of choice, an invention of their parents era. Great ideas never die. The best games are simple. Music and a stick. The best policies are simple, though complex in their implementation. At least Dan and Liz had some that they want to work on.

Not just a trumpet player  

 Tony Abbott and his team will reap what they have sown as will Liz and Dan. In Liz and Dan's case they have spent the past three years in building relationships and looking positively to the future.

The bride goes under

Visible Ink - young people doing good 10th Anniversary

I was involved as Manager of a fabulous Youth Team serving young people throughout the first decade of this century. This was at the local government level.

The surviving youth resource centre from that era is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week. I can't be there but I wrote down a few snippets from that time. Memories that have stayed with me (among many others)

1. Tee-Pee. I recall the installation of a large Tee-Pee in the centre of King George Square (outside City Hall) as part of an early Visible Ink Festival. It was a hit. It had young people wandering in and out for a chat and musicians turning up unexpectedly for a jam including some backpackers. At night the street kids would gather and tentatively enter the space and settle in for a quiet "blissful" hour or so. Big old lounge chairs, a square of carpet, coffee - it was definitely alternative. Deanna Borland-Sentinella and Liz Capelin were among those who put it together and managed it, often late into the night.

 
2. Bombshell. A drama filled afternoon when the "Youth Team" gathered in the large meeting room to receive the news that the team had been left off the organizational chart by the then manager. The Team was to be split across the city and mixed in with other community development teams. We'd all worked so hard to build a strong team with an innovative approach to our work that we couldn't understand why the organisation would want to dismantle something that was obviously working so well. Three weeks later we received a reprieve when the Branch Manager returned from leave and said "Why would we do that?"

3. Grafitti panic. The LM had issued an edict that grafitti was not flavour of the month and while we had a policy of encouraging young people to work within the law we were unsure of where the line was drawn. I had had a meeting with the LM Policy Advisor and his interpretation of Grafitti was 'anything done with a spray can'. This was a bit odd as Council had commissioned a well known public artist to create some attractive water themed murals for their public pools. Unfortunately one of the photos of these murals in progress showed this artist with a spray can adding the final touches to the entrance mural. This was regarded as grafitti. There was a panic. The LM had been invited to officially open the new temporary Berwick Street space and a major interior wall had been used as an artists canvas for young people using spray cans. The ban on grafitti was aimed clearly at external 'public' walls and spaces so this was not breaking any rules. However we'weren't taking any chances of spoiling this great opportunity to meet the LM and show off what young people could do. The wall was quickly repainted with large squares of Grafitti Art left exposed as if intentionally framed. 

4. Discovery.The Vis Ink coordinator who began work at Constance Street and worked through the move to Berwick Street and is now back to Constance Street again. His job, at the time, was to look at sites that the Council had identified for a temporary home while the Constance Street site was being redeveloped. We were offered two options: A site in fairly good condition a few blocks east of Berwick Street about the same size as Constance Street; and a much larger site much closer to the centre of the Valley and in worse condition. The second one was twice the size of the first place but about the same rent. Decisions are never easy. Was it best to go with small and comfortable or large and scummy? Close to the action or further away? Was Berwick Street too close to the wild heart of the Valley? He and I considered this carefully for a day or two and then said lets be brave and take the risk. "Imagine what might emerge from this awesome (and scummy) warehouse space?" we said to each other. And the rest is history.

5. Comparisons. It's hard to remember the original Constance Street site except in its physical form.The programs and activities and initiatives which began there and exploded at Berwick Street and which have informed the new Green Square space were not even possible to imagine 10 years ago. 

Moral of the story: It's only in taking a risk that new things happen. Visible Ink 10th anniversary

Lucky Diamond Rich

In my early work in community arts as part of Street Arts Community Theatre Company we ran some workshops at the East Brisbane State School (1983) as a part of a Community Circus Festival Project. There we encountered a young fella, Greg, who was a gifted but troubled boy. He was able to ride a unicycle within 10 minutes of getting his hands on that notoriously difficult monster and could juggle 3 balls proficiently in the same short time. I was amazed. Sadly his background indicated that he was headed for a troubled future.

Thirty years later Greg is still alive and earns his living performing his circus tricks throughout the world. He has two special talents - 1. He can swallow a metre long sword on command (no tricks) and 2. He has become obsessed with tattoos, officially becoming the 'most tattooed man on the planet'. He's gone from a young white boy to a green tinged … well see for yourself   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Diamond_Rich    

He has chosen a weird path but occasionally I have contact with him and he attributes his survival and career path to those circus workshops he did with us as a 12 year old.

He has even entered the mainstream. A portrait of him was one of the finalists in this years Archibald Portraiture prize.  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-19/leslie-rice-entry-in-the-2012-archibald-prize/3899412

Ironically Greg has become so completely tattooed that he has now begun to re-tattoo himself with white ink - gradually reappearing from the murky dark and reclaiming that young white boy I knew in the 1980s.

I was reminded of Greg today when I received an invitation to the 10 year anniversary celebration of Brisbane's Visible Ink Youth Space in the Valley; a place which thousands of young people have visited over the years to explore their creativity and seek a direction in life and in some cases been changed forever. I wondered if there was a Greg among them?

Archibald Prize entry by Leslie Rice

Youth Week - Brisbane

Youth Week in Brisbane. There were activities across the week and this was the finale - The Youth Arts Showcase. A day of performance. Over 300 young people descended on the city centre to show the world their stuff.

From the top: The Macbeth hip hop dance crew; 'Circa' training program members; Circa performance.