Potluck of Destiny

Underground arts venues around town are caught in a vicious cycle. Lacking the financial backing and reputations to procure venues as legitimate as the Culch or the Firehall, they re-purpose industrial and marginalized spaces (becoming an early link in the gentrification chain). And if they’re fortunate, they become so popular that city inspectors are compelled to put the kibosh on the proceedings because of zoning infractions, fire regulations and noise violations.

This definition of success is a bittersweet flavour, and artists who loathe its acrid tang are interested in a conversation with each other and the city. They want to discuss strategies for art spaces to avoid breaking down after breaking out and to omit the tiresome pratfall every time they’re on the verge of standing on their own two feet.

A loose federation known as the Underground Network of Artist-Run Culture (UNARC and formerly ICAN) speaks with the collective experience of a punch-drunk brawler, addled and outclassed by its opponents but re-entering the fray over and over – each time with a bit more experience and a few less teeth.

Its members have participated in the rise and fall of many of No Fun City’s most fondly remembered exceptions, and they’ve learned a thing or two about staying alive just beneath the threshold of official censure.

But this knowledge – more sour grapes than fine wine – is of limited value if it’s sat on. Even they know their collected wisdom of best practices should be refreshed by updates from the field – blow by blow accounts of the battles as they’re being fought out in the trenches of Granville and Cambie.

Toward this end, and ultimately, a stab at legitimate longevity, they host a monthly potluck social, precariously entitled “the Tipping Point”. (After all, why should the Western Front get all the fun?)

Breaking bread among the like-minded, hungry voices are heard and juicy notions are ruminated upon. And this month, a real mouthful is on the table: the City of Vancouver’s Creative City. Half-baked? Needs salt?

Bring an appetite and your best hummus and judge for yourself. Could you be the hundredth hungry monkey to push Vancouver’s underground culture past the tipping point?

This month’s potluck is at 7 p.m. on June 28 at the Memelab, #202 - 1814 Pandora St. (For further details, please contact memelab@telus.net)