The Oleander Street Collective
Years ago I lived in downtown Bakersfield. It was the place to be in the mid-1990s if you were a funky writer, I thought. I moved into a slumlord's apartment, the single story building behind the two-story blue house on the corner of 21st and F Street. I wrote a good amount of literature there: the first half of The Citrus Girl, and several short stories, one titled Upoluposis, and another titled Some Heatwaves in August. It was a wild time of downtown music, downtown people and college years.
Now I am one of many artists that live in the Oleander area. I had a good meeting with Kenny Mount about past punk days and he's probably been the artist in the area the longest (don't really know); since then I have had meetings with other artists who live in the area. A brief rundown of this Oleander Street Collective so far includes: the guys from Broken Record Gospel, Leslie Reyes, Kenny Mount, myself, Willis Design Studio, a Chicano artist (I can't remember her name some friend of artist Joel Arvallo - haven't talked to him in a few years) and The Empty Space Theater itself and how many artists are affiliated with that??
Who else lives in the Oleander area that is an artist? and what is the draw? The quaintness of an older neighborhood? Houses with personalities? These aren't your run-of-the-mill shoddy standardized home lots, these have character from yesteryear and make for a unique place to live.
Like Leslie told me the other day. It's time for a barbecue. Let's get a whole lot of artists together and co-mingle and see to what level we can take this town... so what if we're dreamers! my longstanding vision? 5 years down the road, 20 years down the road perhaps? A great downtown performing arts center... A literary arts center... A nexus for art that the likes of the Southern Valley has ever seen!
I better sell a lot of books if I'm ever going to help realize such a vision. Peace from Las Vegas!
Now I am one of many artists that live in the Oleander area. I had a good meeting with Kenny Mount about past punk days and he's probably been the artist in the area the longest (don't really know); since then I have had meetings with other artists who live in the area. A brief rundown of this Oleander Street Collective so far includes: the guys from Broken Record Gospel, Leslie Reyes, Kenny Mount, myself, Willis Design Studio, a Chicano artist (I can't remember her name some friend of artist Joel Arvallo - haven't talked to him in a few years) and The Empty Space Theater itself and how many artists are affiliated with that??
Who else lives in the Oleander area that is an artist? and what is the draw? The quaintness of an older neighborhood? Houses with personalities? These aren't your run-of-the-mill shoddy standardized home lots, these have character from yesteryear and make for a unique place to live.
Like Leslie told me the other day. It's time for a barbecue. Let's get a whole lot of artists together and co-mingle and see to what level we can take this town... so what if we're dreamers! my longstanding vision? 5 years down the road, 20 years down the road perhaps? A great downtown performing arts center... A literary arts center... A nexus for art that the likes of the Southern Valley has ever seen!
I better sell a lot of books if I'm ever going to help realize such a vision. Peace from Las Vegas!
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Sunday, March 13, 2005.
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The Chicano artist's name is Laura Alexander or 'Alex' for short.
I also live in the Oleander area... an aspiring writer to join your Oleander group.
Oh crap--I forgot about you!! hahahahahaha... sorry... I'm here at this trade show, and it's hard to think, and... ok, no excuses, I'm a schlephead.
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