In The Media: BRUSH

Cultural Rebirth
New Near East Side social event adopts hip urban attitude
Saturday, April 4, 2009 3:02 AM
By Kevin Joy
| THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

On an unseasonably warm night in early March, a smiling Donna Marbury stood outside the Urban-Spirit Coffee Shop on the Near East Side as well-dressed professionals strolled along the block and jazz music wafted from an upstairs window.

To the 27-year-old, the scene seemed almost nostalgic.

"Back in the day, it was jumpin' on Long Street," said Marbury, a North Side resident who owns a public-relations company.

"It's a revival. I'm excited to see it."

The catalyst for her enthusiasm: a budding event called the BRUSH Experience (Black Renaissance Urban Sophisticated Hip), whose social palette blends art, music, cocktails and conversation.

Seeking an art-focused nighttime alternative, graphic designer Marshall Shorts founded the monthly BRUSH in February.

"I wanted somewhere I could be laid-back, be myself and have fun," said Shorts, a 2006 graduate of the Columbus College of Art & Design.

Yet his efforts, inspired by a similar event he discovered in Atlanta, reach deeper than simply providing a good time.

"In the black community, art is kind of a dying culture," said Shorts, 25, of the East Side. "It's my motive to help revive that."

For $10 on the first Saturday of the month, patrons can sip a beer or glass of white wine, or sample live tunes or a disc jockey's stylings. Perhaps most appealing, they can create art with their peers (small canvases, brushes and paint are distributed to guests).

Hanging on a wall is a large mural, sketched in a paint-by-numbers style, to which patrons can contribute (last month, the mural was adapted from the cover of the 1957 John Coltrane album Blue Train).

Keeping with the theme, the quartet Liquid Crystal Project played "jazz-hop" interpretations of Coltrane tunes.

With a turnout of about 100 people, the upstairs room above Urban-Spirit -- in the King-Lincoln Bronzeville neighborhood -- was bustling.

Yet it is only a small fraction of the people who patronize the Gallery Hop, the long-running Short North event on the same night each month. (The Gallery Hop, which will turn 25 in October, attracts up to 10,000 visitors in a single evening.)

The scheduling, Shorts said, was no accident.

"A lot of people I know aren't familiar with Gallery Hop -- parts of the inner city and urban community," he said. "This is something that is needed."

He hopes that those who attend BRUSH are inspired to check out the Short North offerings before or after his event (and, on the flip side, to prompt High Street dwellers to visit the monthly gathering on the Near East Side).

The King-Lincoln neighborhood -- bounded roughly by Atcheson Street, N. 20th Street, E. Long Street and I-71 -- was once a hot spot for black architects, entertainers and entrepreneurs, particularly in the 1930s and '40s. But later, as black families migrated to the suburbs and new highways severed pedestrian connections with Downtown, the area fell into disrepair.

Recently, though, the area's outlook has been brightened by the arrival of condominiums, several new black-owned businesses and the $13.5 million ongoing renovation of the Lincoln Theatre, a historic venue on Long Street in which Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway performed.

"It's a neighborhood that I believe is on the upswing," said Charity Martin-Via, a Columbus native who opened Urban-Spirit in February and rents her second-floor space to Shorts and other groups.

"I really want to be a part of anything that has to do with renewing the area."

Jodi Chandler, a 36-year-old Gahanna hairstylist, had been to a similar art-and-cocktails event in Washington and was impressed by the setup.

"It's still night life, but it's artistic," said Chandler, painting a self-portrait. "This is a safe environment."

Seated nearby was her friend, Paisha Thomas, a state worker who also paints and writes poetry.

"I'd rather hang out here than in a club," said Thomas, 34, of Gahanna.

"I like the chance to express myself and listen to music, maybe network. Just being around a crowd -- that's my style."

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2009/04/04/1_BRUSH.ART_ART_04-04-09_D1_6FDDNPS.html