Homecoming For Artists: “This Sweet, Magical Thing”
In Conversation with Jackie Beck on the DIY Show at Rubulad
by calli ferguson
📸 Photos by Alex Wolf
Homecoming at Rubulad by Alex Wolf
Homecoming at Rubulad by Alex Wolf
Homecoming at Rubulad by Alex Wolf
"What does home mean to me? How do I show up and create home for myself, but also create home for my friends?" Jackie Beck posed the questions earnestly, her words with a weight about them. That idea—of belonging, of building something in creative communion—sat at the heart of the event she lovingly pieced together, “Homecoming for Artists”.
Homecoming was— in a sense— a concert, but in another, a party that extended beyond music or any one medium, really- pulling from the spirit of cross-disciplinary artistic hubs of the past. And on the early March Saturday night of Homecoming, Jackie and a community of artists including Laura Gulbranson, Katie Huttenmeyer, Alex Wolf, Parker Otto, Max Ordoñez, Caroline Foster, Martin Maraccino, and Jack Kontanaris built a home for that spirit to come to life in downtown Bushwick.
Rubulad made a fitting and fun space for the evening’s events— the venue is something of a rabbit hole fall into a glorious love-shacky, art-drenched, junkyard, fever dream of a space. Every inch is something to be looked at– whether it begs to be giggled or engaged with is anyone's guess and at times indistinguishable. It’s strange. But not in a hypercurated kind of way. And not in way that’s selling you some fabricated version of an “experience”. No, Rubulad is refreshingly and authentically strange.
Homecoming at Rubulad by Alex Wolf
For the sake of painting a picture, though, the outdoor space, a “magical garden”, is home to tents dripping with string lights, cheetah print furniture, a spin-the-bottle wheel, tiki bar, wild sculptures, mannequins, vintage posters, antique-y thingamabobs, and whatever doodles or spray-painted thoughts happened to land on any given surface. A true “whose-it and whats-it galore”— if you will.
Homecoming at Rubulad by Alex Wolf
The lineup for the evening featured four rock (or rock-adjacent) acts: Batterhead, Jackie and The Legs, Fawn Ridge, and Birthday Girl DC. After opening with poetry that slid deliciously into Batterhead’s set, the evening took us through various sounds. But energy remained high throughout, with common presence and attention toward both the show and the collective that had gathered around it.
by Alex Wolf
by Alex Wolf
"It's a community of artists and musicians and writers and photographers and videographers… everyone is a creative, and we've been trying to create a community space where everybody has something to offer—everybody has a skill set, and it doesn't look the same." Jackie Beck, the host of the evening and frontperson of The Legs, told me during our chat in the week leading up to the event. She reiterated this converging and exchanging of creative energy.
Homecoming for Artists follows in the footsteps of ‘Prom for Artists,’ put on by the same team this past January. The idea, essentially, was to build a party or a ‘Prom’ just for artists- some of whom had lost such coming-of-age celebrations to the pandemic.
But the party’s sequel, ‘Homecoming,’ carries a different weight— in its language, naturally offering up questions: What are we coming home to? And how is home built?
Jackie & The Legs by Alex Wolf
That very New York City fantasy of an artist ‘hub’ is not just some elusive thing. In getting to know the intentions and inspirations behind Prom and Homecoming for Artists, Jackie and I spoke about the magnetic energy of emblematic creative homes like the legendary Chelsea Hotel, and stories of such times through works like Pattie Smith’s Just Kids. Beyond those spaces themselves, Jackie holds an interest in (and a connection to) the kinds of ecosystems where everyone has a job toward a common project, in service of one another and a healthy collective. That ethos clicked for her while working with musician Luke Andrew Kelly, managing him and working within the local collective, ‘Human Tradition.’ What started as music shows evolved into conversations about the workings of a record label—musicians, promoters, producers, videographers, photographers- all with a job in building a project. In a time where artists can be left to their own devices, working together seemed like a clear answer "…it just felt important right now—with everything going on in the world and in this country. It felt like we need community."
Such teamwork was certainly integrated into bringing Homecoming For Artists to life, too. The whole team brought something to the table. Katie Huttenmeyer is a visual artist who took on the role of art director here. Alex Wolf, a musician/photographer (/music photographer) committed her evening to creating the beautiful photos you see in this story. Parker, a musician, poet and film buff, acted as Homecoming’s spirited host, successfully keeping the good vibes going through the night. The members of Batterhead were a piece of bringing the night to life beyond their electric kick-off to the music portion of the night. And while they’re all working toward some exciting solo projects— Laura is writing a novel, Alex and Caroline are gearing up to play Midsommer this summer, for example— the effect of working with other artists on something is a foolproof path toward creative fuel. Shared creative energy has this exponential thing about it that way. Patti Smith herself is quoted saying, “Make your interactions with people transformational, not just transactional.” And the network of this space was intended for transformation.
There’s something to that: With community, the obstacle of solitude in the independent creative process dissipates to reveal this DIY ethos that feels deeply freeing—especially in a time where so much of art is in conflict with monetization and atomization. That combination of a DIY attitude and collective effort was certainly one of the most striking things about the energy of the Homecoming for Artists show as a whole. And to that point, Jackie clarifies this project is… "about love. It's about being artists, and protecting each other." The statement was posed in opposition to a project with the primary purpose of profit. And while we all live as artists in a system where money cannot be obsolete, in some way, I have to believe that the love-forward approach is why this event works…
“Everybody’s in this singular mindset, in solitude… Why don’t we do this together? Create, support each other, and uplift each other as a community?... going into history, I know collective spaces naturally happen.”
Still, cultivating this collective was not solely about creative inspiration, but also a medicine to an all-too-common emotional ailment: loneliness. I asked Jackie what had been particularly rewarding about hosting an event like this, and through the wavelengths of a deeply struck chord, the artist spoke to her own past experiences of loneliness and its way of intertwining with mental health struggles. "We need each other. We need to connect,” She reflected, “That night at the show, there was this moment where I was on stage, my band was performing… and I just looked out, and you just could see everybody was so engaged. There was so much love. There was this insane buzz. And it was like… Holy fuck. They're happy and they're connected, and they love each other, and they're laughing, and they're dancing, and some people are falling in love, and some people are like, ‘Oh my God, tell me more about this project that you're doing.’ It was just like, Holy fuck."
“It’s really important to me that I’m not the face of it. I’m just a manic woman who’s an artist and is like, ‘Let’s all get together.’”
And while that was clearly a rewarding moment to come out of an event she built, more than anything, Jackie sees herself as simply a catalyst of what happens in those spaces. The magic comes from the people who show up and co-create it. Sometimes, all that’s needed is to open the door and let the spark catch.
It’s a reminder, too, that just by showing up—by engaging with art, by participating in culture—we become a part of it.
It even sounded true of both the creation and promotion of the event. "I did very little curating, in the sense that these are just the people that were around,” Jackie said of the process, “We show up for the things that we feel connected to."
While I was at Homecoming, I was reminded of that intention of “healing”, mentioned repeatedly in my conversation with Jackie. Because in so many ways Homecoming was fun. The night was full of dancing, sometimes to loud and heavy music. The space was endlessly intriguing. You have art there and cool upcycled fashion pieces and poetry and there’s something silly and intoxicating and friendly and the vibes are light and THAT, all that… is healing.
"Find love and heal together," Jackie emphasized. "And it's fun. It’s a lot of fun. There’s an innocence… we’re dancing around. It's really sweet. I hope that it continues to be this healing thing—this space where people can come together. It'll last as long as it's supposed to last. I just want it to be of service to the community."
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the homecoming for artists team: Jackie Beck - the Host featured here and the jackie of jackie and the legs; Laura Gulbranson - working on her book and multiple writing projects while also working as a full time teacher; Katie Huttenmeyer- an artist and is taking on responsibility of the art director role with the show guiding the other visual artists; Alex wolf- a musician and songwriter and photographer she is currently building a band and will perform in the summertime at Midsommar; Caroline foster - a musician working on her solo projects while the guitarist and singer in other bands and working at the MET. She will be performing in her band at the Midsommar show which she coined this summer also; Max Ordoñez - the guitarist and singer and creator of BATTERHEAD; Parker otto- a musician and poet and film buff and our Host for the show; Martin Maraccino- currently playing guitar in BATTERHEAD and is a local DJ.
