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Billings Art Walk last night, from the first stop to the last, there were so many artists, writers, performers all meeting one another, doing their things, talking, that for a brief time we forgot about the internet. I think there is something great happening in Billings, MT. Hopefully it’s also happening in many other places across the country as well. I don’t know any actual metrics, but it seems that many retail businesses have moved to the West End where it is much more car centric. It has allowed space in downtown for more creative people, their studios, their book stores, their performance spaces to congregate into a concentrated area that can actually be walked.
Last night there was the 10th Anniversary celebration of This House of Books. A local cooperative bookstore that had a street fair within the Billings Art Walk, and it was just a great celebration. My friend Matt Lopez, Matt Poet 1, I’m Matt Poet 2 and then there’s Matt Poet 3, gave a great reading of his poems and then Molly Ouellette read. There was so much more. The Yellowstone Repertory Theater did intros to their upcoming plays and there was a reading of Beowulf with Dave Cassario and [I will get their name]. Today with the High Plains Book awards, there’s more literary wonderfulness happening.
List of artists/performers I ran into last night, that I remember and spoke to:
Jennifer Baretta
Cecil Pegram
Sally Coffin
John Lodge
Jane Waggoner Deschner
Ben Pease
Linda Pease
Cactus
Bently Spang
Will Crain
Mana Lesman
Matt Lopez
Molly Ouellette
Elias
Max
Shirley Marin
There were many more that I saw and didn’t get a chance to say hello to or there are many more that I don’t know and hopefully will meet in the future. For me some of the magical things happening in “The Magic City”, there will be some eye rolls at this moniker since bail bond agents also exist here in a high concentration for a reason, is the great presence of Indians as a vital part of the cultural life of this city, and the vibrancy of the cultural life. Indians were here long before the current culture that’s put itself in charge. One can see that clearly at Pictograph State Park. I’m new, want to be respectful, listen, and watch. There are real stakes in the artistic expressions that are being seen, heard, painted, and performed.
Mental Health is basic to our lives and yet, still to this day unable to be addressed for most people. In Billings there is a growing culture of people supporting mental health, providing mental health services, telling peoples stories, creativity and art as important personal tools for recovery and growth. I go to a 1 Million Cups meeting here in billings; a non-profit group dedicated to helping entrepreneurs. I’m surprised by the high ratio of people who are doing work to help mental health, support people’s personal stories, recovery, etc. I think that is a very welcome shift from what the ratio would have been 20 or 30 years ago. We are all still struggling with the tools that technology and the mutated tech-Bros have given us, but I am beginning to have hope that there is a greater spirit from people connecting, listening, and telling our stories.
The arts are very much alive in Billings, Montana!