Sowebo Festival 2005 - Our Adventure in Charm City w/photos

[Doreen Peri]

See photos here....
>Click here for Sowebo festival photo album<
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Yesterday was the Baltimore Arts Festival called Sowebo, an annual event in Baltimore. Sowebo stands for South West Bohemian, I think. We've been meaning to go enjoy the festivities for several years and this year we finally made it because we were scheduled to perform our poetry and music at the festival, plus we were finally going to meet The Bee Charmer, our friend who posts at Arcanum Cafe!

I woke up at 9AM after staying awake until 4AM rehearsing my material because the house was hectic and noisy all day the day before and I didn't have time until it quieted down. I am notorious for selecting my material for a show either the night before or 10 minutes before I go on stage! This time, though, I had a piano piece I was going to perform plus, I was going to accompany myself on the piano while reciting, which was new for me. Add to that the fact that I planned on singing solo in public for the first time in many years and I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of a crowd of people, but especially in front of my friend The Bee Charmer. So, I stayed up too late making sure I was ready to make a complete fool of myself, then got up and got ready for the trip to Baltimore.

My partner in life and crime, Lightning Rod, disagreed with me about whether to bring the setup for our piano keyboard. He didn't want to lug it around to set it up and who could blame him? But I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a suitable way to set up the keyboard outside in the Black Cherry Puppet Theater garden, where we were scheduled to perform. So, we had an argument, of course, which started the day out with just the kind of stress level necessary to achieve a dynamic poetry performance! If only I had assembled some angst poetry rather than love poetry, I thought! Ahhhh, but I would fit some angst in to my performance using the effective technique of spontaneous rap, I figured, so I was all set to go!

The day was pristine! Absolutely beautiful! The sky was a clear azure blue scattered with cumulous clouds and it was 75 degrees! Couldn't ask, for a more perfect day for a festival! While we drove to Baltimore, we listened to Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion which was inspirational, as always. I was headed to meet The Bee Charmer, see Mark "Wireman" Coburn once again and perform my work in a city complete with a built-in audience roaming the streets. I knew the buzz around town must have been, "Doreen Peri's coming!" and people would be hanging out in the theater garden on the edge of their chairs in anticipation of my performance! LOL!

We followed mapquest directions, which were pretty good. I didn't get lost this time, which I usually do when I venture into Baltimore. The Sowebo neighborhood is not anything like Baltimore's Inner Harbor with upscale shops and restaurants. It is the Arts District with row houses which are probably several hundred years old where artists, musicians and inner city families live as neighbors. Baltimore is dubbed "Charm City" and the Sowebo neighborhood represents part of its eclectic charm. Several streets were blocked off for the festival. Eventually I found a parking spot, after running into Mark Coburn (the Wireman), who directed me to possible available places to park. We passed the corner liquor store with liquor ads pasted all over it, buildings with boarded up windows and metal bars on their windows, trash bags in on curbs, and multi-cultural residents barbecuing on street grills. We parked and headed up Hollins Street in search of the Black Cherry Puppet Theater.

We were bombarded with color, scents and sounds! The street was a sea of people, many in carnival garb, pierced and painted, or decadent and bold street garb. There were also families; babies in strollers, wide-eyed kids with a sense of wonder. The people were a show! There was a platform stage on every corner, with musicians playing rock, reggae and jazz. Children were everywhere, getting their faces painted, writing their names with colored chalk on an old car, painting everything in sight, watching a balloon man make animals and hats, juggle and joke. Every ten feet, it was a different experience of sight, sound and scents. Craftsmen had booths set up to display their colorful wares – fabrics, glass, paintings, ceramics, every kind of craft imaginable. Food vendors sold hot dogs, sandwiches, and ribs. The line to the $3 styrofoam cups of beer was at least 1,000 feet long. Thirsty people wait during festivals like this, I guess.

As I approached the Black Cherry Puppet Theater, I heard a voice.... "Doreen? Is that you?" and there was my internet friend who I had never met, The Bee Charmer, tapping me on the shoulder! It was great to see her! I gave her a big hug! She was with her niece, Brianna, who was watching the balloon man juggle and joke, obviously enthralled! Bee introduced my daughter Alicia and I to Brianna, who had her hair beautifully platted. What a gorgeous smile Bri has!

Lightning Rod had already found his way to the Puppet Theater garden where our performance was supposed to take place and after my daughter and I greeted Bee, we made our way there, too. It was a very cool garden space but unfortunately, no chairs were set up and there were no poetry performers there at all! According to their schedule, there were supposed to be poetry performers all day long so I was a little confused. We were approached by Julie of poetryinbaltimore.com. Julie introduced herself and let us know that some of the poets hadn't showed up. She had a lovely smile and welcomed us. Plus she tried to help us figure out where we could set up the piano keyboard.

I had to say to Lightning Rod, "I told you so!" (of course, I'm a woman and women do that, right)? There was no place to set up a piano – no boxes or crates, nothing. I discovered a grill sitting by the wall and decided to use that. We pulled it up on the hill and opened it up to put the piano keyboard on top of the grill grates. But when I sat down on the chair, the piano was too high to play. I decided to close the lid and put the keyboard on the top of it and play standing up.

All this setup became totally moot, eventually, when we realized there was only one electric outlet, which the PA was plugged into. There was no additional outlet to power the piano. Half of my set was going to include piano. I was beginning to see that the show was going to be a bust.

Up from the crowd came a gal in a top hat and corset, a carnival mistress, asking for poetry. "Let's just sit here on the grass and read if there's no show, OK?" she said. Smart girl. Lightning Rod turned the mic on which was hooked to the PA and that's exactly what we did. Mark Coburn (Wireman) read one, Julie read one, LR read one, I read one, and then the unexpected top hat poet read one of hers. And around we went, reading. From the crowd came another poet who introduced himself as Tom Swiss. He joined the circle of poets as we sat on the grass, standing up one at a time to read our pieces.

I had planned on singing LR's "Too Far" song and even though we didn't have a piano (he was going to accompany me on piano), I decided to sing it anyway. And so, I stood up, introduced the tune and sang it a capella, changing keys inadvertently at least 2 times, filling in between the stanzas with spontaneous talk about how sometimes things just goes too far and ya gotta move on to a new lover when the time comes. Because, you all know that's true, right? When the truth is full of lies, it just ain't right. It's time to move on. I told them all that and by then, there was a bit of a gathering, a small group of listeners who nodded in agreement. We all need and deserve love. No time to waste when things have gone too far. I embarrassed myself quite thoroughly, but I had a great time doing it!

Around the poetry circle again.... Mark's recitations were excellent, Tom appeared to be an experienced performer and his material was intriguing, Julie's pieces were engaging and full of emotion, and the top hat gal with a corset expressed herself in a delightful poetic form. LR did his "Verbose Encounters of the Blurred Mind" piece about how the concept of aliens gives us hope and had the audience and other poets calling out... "calling... calling ... calling all aliens" in unison.

I had planned to read a piece by judih, but they were setting up the puppet theater right behind us and the chairs for their puppet show audience right in front of us and before I knew it, they were saying it was time for the puppet show. The Bee Charmer, our two girls, plus LR and I watched the puppet show which was accompanied by eastern music where instruments sounded like voices. The seats were filled with kids and parents. One of the little girls kept getting up and dancing to the puppet show music. She was absolutely adorable!

After the show, we talked with Bee for a while. I felt like I'd known her for years! We talked about many things, including how much we enjoy posting on communities like AC and how it would be cool if more of us could get together. She had to head back to Richmond, so we said our good-byes and made our way home.

I was honored that The Bee Charmer drove 2-1/2 hours each way to come to meet us! It was unfortunate that the show did not materialize, but we had an awesome time meeting each other and enjoying the festival. It was excellent to see Wireman once again and read some poetry with him. Plus, earlier in the day, we had the opportunity to stop by his house and see his wife, CJ's, artwork display!

All in all, it was a great time! Wish you all could have been there!

[Zlatko Waterman]

A delightful record, Doreen. I enjoyed both the prose and the pictures.

Thank you.


--Z

[judih]

the festival sounds like a festival.
poetry reading and singing on the spot - now that's a true minstrel situation.

glad you thought of me just as the puppets came on stage (suits me to a tee).

And loved your descriptions. Now, off to look!

j

(p.s. all that thought will be put into practise at cabaradio, no doubt)

[judih]

marionettes?
love the photo of 'paint'

didn't see mark and c.j. will they have more pictures, do you think?
you are growing out your bangs, doreen! Mazal Tov!

and l-rod looks serious with his words. Mais oui.

thanks for everything. great shots.

j

[judih]

me again.

just read piph's comment over at AC about the slide show being interrupted. Sure enough! there's that Wireman face, more than once and with L=r.

hope he wasn't in the sun too much - he needs a hat - L-r's got it right.

great pictures - the puppet wall is beautiful.

[Doreen Peri]

Thank you, Zlatko, for looking and reading and for your kind comments! Glad you enjoyed it!

judih - I *did* bring you along with me.... Did you have fun? We didn't get to do what we had planned but it was fun being spontaneous! Thanks for your kind comments.... I'm confused, though, 'cause I thought I fixed the error in the file name which was screwing up the slide show and it works fine on both of our computers.... is there still a problem I need to fix? If so, could you tell me what problem you're encountering? The puppets were too cool... it was all cool...

Mark has several photos in there... CJ wasn't with us... she was back at her house showing her artwork....

[panta rhei]

hi doreen,

what a wonderful report!
the festival sounds like a true event, full of unexpected stumble stones and surprises, colour, chaos and excitement.

the pictures are great. alicia is some beautiful girl, and i love the photo of you. and those pics of clay and mark are excellent!

(the slide show shows an error after puppetshow_audience.jpg and doesn't lead you further anymore, btw. i then clicked on 'home' and started the show again with the following wallart pic, and from there, everything continues without any further problems).

thanks for taking us there with you, dor - i enjoyed the trip!

-a

[Arcadia]

great that you have a good time!
the tiger-puppet ! I like it!

[Doreen Peri]

panta
Thanks for looking, glad you enjoyed the report... color, chaos and stumbling stones! Sounds like a poem title! Also, thanks for your input about the slide show problem.... I hope I fixed it now! Your input was very helpful!

Arcadia -
Yeah, that's a great puppet... I love puppets and that one is very special! Grrrrrrrrr...... I ain't lion!

[hester_prynne]

Gee sounds and looks like a great day.
Pictures are great to see, make me wish I could have been there.
Thanks so much for the telling and the photos Doreen...

H