thou art summoned

OR: what i thought about in june 2025

What am I writing about today?
Experiments in community connection. The practice of cultural activation.

All of this has to do with the fast-approaching Backyard Concert Series - a project funded by the MN State Arts Board Creative Individuals Grant. HEAR THAT MA & PA YOUR CHILD IS A CREATIVE INDIVIDUAL.

The “why” follows. The “what” is with the show flyers. Strap in, take that 5 min coffee break, and read on.

As a grant writer- and a neurodivergent one at that- I am dysregularly confused/agitated that people widely use community to mean population. “What community do you serve?” is 100% followed by definitions of race, sexual preference, gender identity, disability, economic status, geography, blah blah blah.

But, these are populations. Groups within groups that represent numbers, segmentations, demographics. Data. Very useful for tracking humans. Or, upholding the Matrix conspiracy theory that we are all binary code pre-programmed to serve some ultra-fatherboard mega-computer.

Wait- we ARE pre-programmed binary code and the overlord is [insert politician, mogul, and/or corporation here]

BUT! There is no connection between in this definition between the individual and the whole- besides fractals of course, but nothing… human. So, what is community?

Community is a group of people (population) who are connected by two important aspects: Resources and conflict. Sound familiar 10% of subscribers who read these things?

Does conflict not sit right with you? Consider, then, the promise of resolution within that word. Here:

Community is a population who use shared resources to resolve conflict. Yeah, resolution could mean drone strikes, but we’re not all world leaders, are we? Typically, community (resolution) looks like mutual aid, volunteering, advocacy, a true smile, shovelling the whooole sidewalk, or, simply, breaking off the relationship. In other words: it’s achieved most simply by mutual understanding. True community removes the threat of “those people” by trusting those people to contribute, take, and replenish.

This is why populations routinely targeted (abandoned) by the government (populis- you and me) tend to form communities within themselves- to account for withheld resources and to best determine the resolution for conflict. And these resources diversify as groups identify unique needs (conflict). The larger the population, the more splinter-communities arise. And the more splinters, the more the whole is whittled down until intersections become barriers- and now we’re looking at the world.

However, if you look between the cracks there is a singularly shared resource: art (music, in this case).

So now we arrive at culture: the way one does something. That’s right! Culture does not inherently mean race! It is simply a way of doing. You have a culture of grooming. Of eating. Of spending. Of of of.

It is my observation that the default culture of concert-going, -organizing,
-making is homogenous. BECAUSE WE KEEP HOARDING A(n?) UNIVERSAL RESOURCE TO SERVE NICHE POPULATIONS. I’m looking at you both equally classical and noise.

The typical concert-going experience removes conflict from our lives- reducing the very communal effect we seek from gathering together to witness creation. (oh, is that not what you attend concerts for?) This is because concerts tend to isolate curiousity into pre-ordained expectations. We go certain places to witness certain things, and deem it “…interesting” if those assumptions are challenged. It puts us in a place of assuming who the other people in the room are and why they are even there.

Hot take: A community is only as safe as one’s ability to disrupt and remain cared for.

Are you supplying that community? Am I? Who is? Spend time there. Spend money there. Spend emotion there. I’m here to prove that uncertainty leads to friendship. Unkown leads to known. That the surface begs to be broken.

My approach? To invite you to Backyard Concert Series (and others of the like) as a way to experience variety how I do. To welcome you to explore your own alt-community. Your own sub-culture. Your own summer (Shuv it x3)

Conflicts I promise:

• Hyper-eclectic, multi-genre concerts.

• Collective music-making

• The challenge of paying more so other can pay less

• 90 minutes of sound bath (sometimes with beatz)

• Alternative venues (you can drink L8R, straight-edge 4 lyfe)

Thanks for humoring me. Now heed my rant. Get tix, make plans for thyself. It will fill you more than a work happy hour.

See you at a show! Share it all wide and far.
And bring 3 friends to anything you go to.

Love you all,

Justin (Anthony Spenner, Baritone)