Was Pecha Kucha a milestone?

There's a line that runs like this: Bad economic times beget creative periods, the formative lull when energy that has receded from the marketplace pools and mingles and becomes the beginning of the next cycle. I'm not sure that I believe that, by the way, but there it is.

And here we are, heading into a recession, with more than a million jobs already lost this year, and here in Charleston -- where artists and writers and geeks have been saying for decades that this backward-looking city will never step up to the next level -- everyone seems to be talking harmonic convergence.

Tonight's evidence: Pecha Kucha Charleston, which had its maiden voyage tonight at Memminger Auditorium, packing the rear performance space with writers and artists and designers and architects and chefs and creative directors. If you want the details (and they're cool), follow the link, but suffice it to say that Pecha Kucha's goals are ambitious: The awakening and connecting of the city's cultural creatives.

Not only is this a noble goal, it's essential for the future of the city and -- to be really blunt about it -- an economic necessity for people like me.

I could give you a book report on the nine presentations, but I don't think that really tells the story of what just happened. There was great stuff and weak stuff, stuff that sang and sputtered, with plenty of free-radical noise bouncing around the venue.

But you don't approach an event like this as you would a performance, because the real event isn't happening on stage. The stage-show is the draw that creates the critical mass of people that produces the chain reaction of connection and recognition, and you look for signs that the result is producing more energy than it consumes.

Did Pecha Kucha Charleston No. 1 reach that threshold? I suspect it did, in a modest way. I left it with a slightly altered identity and a more expansive list of possibilities.There's another one in the works for January, and the comparison between the two should be telling.

We've had some experience with 21st century community builiding, at least on a smaller scale. From April 2006 to June 2008, Lowcountry Blogs helped the local blogging scene become self-aware and -- ultimately -- self-directed. You don't benefit from it directly, but if you're lucky the thing grows independent of you and the result makes the city a better place to live.

Charleston's blogger community has a higher geek-to-artist ratio and much more of a DIY-Let's Put On A Show Behind the Barn! vibe than Pecha Kucha No. 1 did. With institutional sponsors and free beer and chefs from the Charleston Culinary Institute presenting high-end nouvelle nosh, the scene didn't look much like one of our blognics -- and that's OK. Blogging isn't about money for most of us, but Pecha Kucha represents a nascent community's mutual need for commercial critical mass. If it's a little slicker, good. We should make room for both styles in the coming years.

Personally? I need this to work. I gave up a 20-year career as a newspaper journalist this year because everything I'd learned told me the world was moving rapidly in another direction. Are there jobs for people like me? Sure -- and at the moment, they're in other cities. If Charleston isn't able to generate a broader and more sustainable economy for its cultural creatives in 2009-2010, then it's entirely likely that I'll have to move elsewhere. I know dozens of Charlestonians who will be facing similar dilemmas.

The South Carolina Council on Competitiveness apparently gets the connection. Why fund a show-and-tell happy hour for a bunch of artsy types? Because in the 21st century, in a city like ours, the people in that room represent an underutilized resource. We can't get by on tourism alone, but we can't add a bunch of smokestack industries, either. We need economic development that emphasizes the arts, communications, our creative culture, the sciences, technology, etc.

So here, we are, on the brink of a recession, in a country hungry for change, in a city where the cynics say nothing ever changes. Wouldn't it be nice, just this once, to shut them up?

Comments

[Bran Mydwynter]

I somehow missed hearing about it until a few hours before, when a few of the lowcountry bloggers started tweeting about who was going. I'm kinda cranky about it; as someone who is trying to build an art/dance career here, it sounds like an event I really should have attended.
Ah, well. I'm on the contact list for the next one. And I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

[Heather]

I really wanted to go, but the stars did not align and the childcare fairy was apparently busy with another family.

I too am excited by what feels like an undercurrent in the region. I am wondering if we will remain a series of random eddies and whorls or if we'll find a way to come together.

[Daniel]

I've been around long enough and close enough to have dipped my toe in several of those random whorls, and my gut feeling is that the cynicism comes from the sense that there's not enough success available to go around. Makes people competitive rather than inclusive.

IMHO, Charleston will be more successful once people feel confident enough to open up and cooperate with a sense of mutual advantage. That seemed to be more in the spirit of last night, and that's very encouraging.

[Peg]

(Where were the females?)It's good to see PK has made its way there.

[Robert]

Dan and others...thanks for the great perspective and comments. I was part of the group that helped organize the event, and we need your collective input and support to keep moving upward and onward. I too left with an altered identity...after seeing the connections being made and talent in this town. I've heard the same thing from last night's presenters.

Peg...agreed on your comment about the need for more female speakers. We were honored to have Whitney share her ideas and work, and we had several other female presenters on our wish list. It just turned out that schedule conflicts prevented them from joining the line up. But....it's looking like the next PKN session will skew the other way (more female). Our real goal is just to keep things as diverse as possible.

Again, thanks to all.

[Ken Hawkins]

Smart insight. Linked to on our story page.