Before I became a burlesque performer, I was an organizer; an activist that organized at a grassroots level. I still consider myself to be an organizer, and this burlesque thing is about as grassroots as it gets.
It’s a daunting task, to build a scene. You have to educate people, convince them that what you’re doing is worth taking a look at, worth spending their precious time and money to come see. You have to somehow transpose your passion onto them, let your internal love affair seep from your pores, enough to be infectious, but not so much as to be crazy.
And you have to enlist the help of people that love you. Or the people that love what you do. Or the people that are just adventurous enough to take a chance on you.
Like Scott Jennings and Ginny Skalski, both of whom covered The Carolina Heartbreakers on their blogs right at the moment of our birth. And Sean Baker, who volunteered his insane design skills to make us this gorgeous flyer for the show this weekend. He cranked it out one late night, and I’m so in love with it that I have a copy ready to be mounted for the wall in my apartment.
It’s these kindnesses that make it easier to do something that hasn’t really been done before. In New York City, things take off so quickly. Audiences have such a short attention span that the problem isn’t getting them, it’s keeping them. Durham is teaching me about building, laying on bricks and gradually becoming a part of something that I’ve helped to create. It feels more organic, and I’m learning the value of patience…and flyering. I’m definitely re-learning how to flyer.
With that said, come out this Saturday night to celebrate The Carolina Heartbreakers’ Durham debut! Not only do we have the genius of the J’Cougarz on hand, an all-vinyl, all-female DJ troupe for the dance party afterward, but it’s also my birthday!
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