Wilson Bame | Episode #50

[00:00:00] Ta-Myia: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today we have the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Wilson. Bain. Say that right? Mm-hmm. . Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Yeah. All right. Wilson is the husband arts activist, administrator, and of course, a dog lover. He is currently the manager of engagement at the Columbia Museum of Art, where he manages events and for public audiences with a strong emphasis on partner programs and best thinking.

He has a Bachelor's of Arts from University of South Carolina and a Master's of Arts from Winthrop Univers. Wilson is very active in the art community and he's also a board member at the first Thursdays in Columbia, South Carolina. You have a great history, great of art events in Columbia. That's, I have to say, that first Thursdays really started me in.

The arts community. Oh, nice. So thank you for being on the board of that. Oh, sure. I'm so happy about first Thursdays. And it brings a lot of people together in the 

[00:00:59] Wilson Bame: community. It does, [00:01:00] it does. It's picking back up now too. Yes. We been kind of got us off track a little bit like it did everyone else, but yeah, starting to pick back up, so it's nice.

That's good. How are 

[00:01:08] Ta-Myia: you doing today, first off? I'm doing good. Good. Thank 

[00:01:11] Wilson Bame: you for being here. Yeah. I'm happy to be here, 

[00:01:13] Ta-Myia: guys. I mean, we see you out in the community, but it's good that you actually. Come together 

[00:01:16] Wilson Bame: and talk to us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a nice day. Come 

[00:01:20] Ta-Myia: on. So we, we actually met a couple times, but can you tell the audience a little bit about yourself and your upbringing?

 What was it like growing up as a creative in a lover of arts? 

[00:01:30] Wilson Bame: Yeah. So I grew up in a small town called Mullins, South Carolina. These guys know about my . Yeah. So that's in between Florence and Myrtle Beach. Okay. So I grew up in the PD region small tobacco town. You know, real country place.

But you know, I loved growing up in Mullins. We had a lot to do until you got about high school and you start getting into trouble a little bit. Yeah. You get bored of it. . But no, yeah, Mullins Mullins was great and it's a great place for family to grow up. And I have two older sisters [00:02:00] Molly and Emily.

 Molly's, a minister up in Clemson. Emily lives down in Beaufort with her family. And then my parents are still in Mullins. Okay. So yeah, I grew up there and you know, was around the arts all my life. My mom's a retired art teacher. Oh, wow. So she was my art teacher. For the, Your whole life?

Basically my whole life, Yeah. . Yeah. So yeah, I was a really good student until she was no longer in my school. Oh, wow. And then, and then I started a back, I'm not telling myself a little bit. Tell Alright. But no, no, I was, I was, I was a. You know, I was a good kid. You know, I good student, but like, yeah, I was a fine student.

I was, I was, I was good there. And and, and, yeah. Yeah. So I grew up in the arts. You know, my dad's a an entrepreneur. He owns a door window business. Okay. And he actually He's working on a patent right now for like a hurricane proof doggie door, you know? Wow. And like things like that. So I, I come from a really creative background.

Yeah. And [00:03:00] so, you know, I kind of get that kind of thing naturally. Yeah. So, you know, I grew up, I grew up, you know, around the arts obviously, because my mom was, you know, constantly, you know, we, we would go to museums and stuff and, and things like that as a young kid. So I've, I've always had a great appreciation for it.

So how 

[00:03:15] Ta-Myia: does it feel being the only boy? 

[00:03:16] Wilson Bame: It was fine. , 

[00:03:18] Ta-Myia: they didn't beat you up? Not, 

[00:03:20] Wilson Bame: not a lie. After a while, you know, I started getting bigger than them at some point. That's something about to 

[00:03:25] DJ And?: say he's shot up. Yeah, right. He shot up so he could defend himself. . 

[00:03:29] Wilson Bame: But yeah, no, I was fine. My, my, my mom always calls me the boy.

You know, but that's how you know you're the only one and that's how you 

[00:03:36] DJ And?: boy Yeah, yeah, 

[00:03:36] Wilson Bame: you're the boy. Yeah. But but yeah, no, so it, it was, yeah, it was fun.

don't, don't believe, I mean, you know, having two older sisters, you know, they. No. Isn't that wrong? You wanting me? I do. I do. I mean, you're gonna have to ask me questions then. 

[00:03:55] Ta-Myia: No, no, no. I'm good. I'm, I don't want them to get mad at you. I don't. Fine[00:04:00] 

[00:04:00] DJ And?: blah, blah. You mean here because of course. Alright. This is, of course we know Wilson, right? We. For years. It's not. So it's funny hearing him talk about it. They're like, Go ahead, elaborate some more . But not we've known him for years. We enjoy going over there and bothering him, his moms and stuff like that.

Like his mother taught my little brother art, so. Oh yeah. Like this year. You've known it for a while. Yeah. But moving on , cause 

[00:04:22] Wilson Bame: I'm a figure about the way I love my sisters, by the way. Loves them. Yeah. We have great, great relationship. Yes. of course man art and importance of art and art spaces in the community.

[00:04:33] DJ And?: I know we just got through with interview, talking about community and importance of it. Not to mention interactions between the folks in the community and artists. And so easiest question in the world, man. How important is art to 

[00:04:46] Wilson Bame: you? To me, personally? Honestly, I got out of the arts for a while.

You know, I got my undergrad in media arts from usc. Yeah. And I did, I had a job right after college that you know, I, [00:05:00] I didn't love and I, so I got outta the arts for a little while. Yeah. And for probably. Probably four or five years I wasn't doing anything art related. Yeah. But I would still kind of sketch at home and do these kind of things.

And the more and more I thought about it, the more I realized that I need to be doing this stuff more often. I, I need to be surrounded about art. This is what I love. This is what I know. Yeah. And as soon as I started kind of. Working towards that goal, like being involved in the arts again, that's really when my professional life started turning around.

Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah. So, you know, I, what I did is I volunteered. I volunteered at a homeless shelter and taught a art class. Oh, really? And I ended up doing that for about five years. Oh wow. And so first year I kind of helped out with it, and then second year they asked me to do it and I said, No. I don't think I can do this.

Yeah. And I talked to some friends, I'm like, You dude, you can do it. It's fine. Just, yeah. Okay. Alright. So I'll give it a shot. Yeah. So ended up being there for a while and helping out and and it really it did a lot for me in terms of perspective. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . But it also, I mean, [00:06:00] to, to go back to the part about community, I mean mm-hmm.

the arts are something. Anyone can enjoy. Yeah. That you know, can be translated across any sort of invisible lines. Mm-hmm. within the community. Good point. Mm-hmm. . Good point. And so, you know, being around people that are less fortunate than the others that I'm maybe around normally mm-hmm. , you know, you end up learning a lot.

What we all have in common. Yeah. And the desires that we all have. Mm-hmm. just as human beings. Mm-hmm. and, and the arts as a catalyst for that is really powerful. Yeah. So that was something that that was something that really kind of got me moving in the right direction. Yeah. And then I met my wife Annie.

Mm-hmm. . We were, I was waiting tables at that time. And I, What were waiting tables. We were waiting. We I met her at Harper's. You remember Harpers in, Yeah, yeah. I worked there for like three years, I think. But Annie was working there for the summer and so we met there and we, you know, [00:07:00] her last day of work, we ended up like going out and like, we kind of started dating that out.

[00:07:04] DJ And?: Met my way. Yeah, basically like last day she was saying, I was like, Man, I was not even trying to 

[00:07:09] Skip: bother with her. Oh. So now I was like, Oh, Dad says she's not working here. 

[00:07:14] DJ And?: She's 

[00:07:14] Wilson Bame: just shy. I'm, I'm six and a half years older than Annie. See? You know, And that time she was, Yeah. And I was like, you know, it's probably not a good idea for me to, to take someone that that's younger than me.

But turns out we were. More mature than I was. Exactly. You know, 

[00:07:30] DJ And?: same thing. Yep. Same exactly. You older than Lisa? No, 

[00:07:33] Skip: Y I'm older than Lisa, but I all got their problem though. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:07:36] DJ And?: We gotta do it. We're older than five years. 

[00:07:39] Wilson Bame: Yes. Wow. Yeah. So best thing I ever did was go out that night. So so, yeah.

Yeah. So, but she, she convinced me to she convinced me to go back to school cause I, I was applying for jobs here and, and there and everywhere. Yeah. And I wasn't getting any up anywhere. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, I just need some more knowledge. I know what I wanna [00:08:00] do, kind of I know which direction I wanna go, but I don't know how to get there.

I need some more knowledge. Yeah. So I started looking at grad schools. My mom, you know, being the art teacher that she was. She introduced me to someone who works who worked with the education system, his name Scott Hockman. He's still in the in the community now, and saw Scott yesterday and he was like, Man, you sounds like you really want to be involved in like, You know, arts administration like that Sounds smart.

You sound like an arts administrator. Yeah, I said What, what's that? , you know, break it, 

[00:08:31] Ta-Myia: break it down because I'm very creative and I like the arts, but I, I'm good at a bunch of different things like painting, drawing, but also I like to tell people about events. So break down arts administration 

[00:08:41] Wilson Bame: for people?

Yes, people do. So really it's the the Arts administration, it's really the behind the scenes stuff. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . So everything from, you know, ideation of some sort of program that you want to produce to reaching out to artists. Yeah. Communicating with them you know, working out contracts and all that kind of stuff.

But then there's the, [00:09:00] you know, the grant side of things. All of that. So when, you know, like the arts administration degree that I got from Winthrop they teach you about all that kind of stuff, so. Wow. I mean, you start from management go. Grant writing. Okay. You know, that is 

[00:09:14] DJ And?: one heck of 

[00:09:15] Wilson Bame: skill that mm-hmm.

Yeah. Community engagement. Yeah. Yeah. All these things are things that you focus on in that program and so it really gave me this broad knowledge that I really needed. And as soon as I was in there and we were having conversations with classmates, I was like, Man, this is exactly what I like where you need to be.

[00:09:32] DJ And?: Yeah. Didn't that feel like, feel good to know that things were clicking? Cause I know of course. Podcast is about millennials learning how to adult and learning how to do things proper. Mm-hmm. . And sometimes it takes trial and error. And even like with your story, you were thought you, hey, this is what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna work, I'm gonna go make money. Mm-hmm. , this is what I'm gonna do. And then you have that epiphany where you're like, No, I need to go and continue on in this path of education to get me where I want to. Could you [00:10:00] explain as well to our audience some of the, Cuz you said your, your mother was a factor in that, and of course your wife.

But for yourself, what steps did you take when you figured out, Okay, I want to go back to school. What were some of the practical things that you had to do to go back after being out for a while? Well, I had to apply for a grant. I mean, not a grant Yeah. But a scholarship. That's what I was saying.

[00:10:19] Wilson Bame: Yeah. Which, I'm sorry, not a scholarship. I had to pay for it. I didn't have the money pay for it. Just what I was wondering. It costs money, student loans to say. Yeah. So, you know, I had to apply for student loans and do all that, but basically you know, I looked the different programs that I wanted to go into.

 I had heard about WIN through, but I didn't know a ton about it. Mm-hmm. , but as soon as I started reading about it mm-hmm. . It really felt like the right fit. So I called and talked with someone up there about it. And then I just went through the, the process of, of applying but was really nice about that program is that you could work full-time while you were doing it.

Oh, wow. So it's a part-time program. Yeah. And this is a, a great Advertis No ahead. [00:11:00] So it's a, it's a halftime program. Okay. So you work full-time is a requirement that you're working a certain amount of hours. Oh. In an, in a non-profit, but hopefully an arts non-profit course. And then at that time they've moved mostly to virtual now.

Yeah. But at that time, they had a single. A single weekend per month that you would go have in person classes. Oh, wow. So I would, I would go up there to Rock Hill on on Friday after work. I had big work early at like three 30 and I'd go up, up there and we'd have a class for, you know, like three hours.

Mm-hmm. on Friday night, and then we'd have a class all day Saturday. Mm-hmm. . Oh, okay. And so that gave us an opportunity to kind of be with our peers and to be with our instructors. Yeah. And really, and, and to hear from, you know, individuals that came and spoke in the class and stuff. Oh, excellent. But it was, for me, that was, that was kind of the thing that like made it, that set it apart from everything else.

Cause yeah. That's, that's, that's very cool. Yeah. Very neat. Yeah. I've never heard of a program like that. It was really great. I, you [00:12:00] know, I, I, I'm not sure they're doing it that way anymore, which I was disappointed to hear because that was a huge factor for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, still the, the essence of it's there and they're still meaning virtually with their, with their classmates and things like that.

Yeah. But at the museum mm-hmm. my boss Jackie. And Dana, who's also in our department. Yeah. Jackie has a degree from there. I have a degree from there. And Dana is, Wow. 75% done with her degree, throw up 

[00:12:24] DJ And?: in the house. Nice. 

[00:12:26] Wilson Bame: Yeah. So so yeah. Yeah, that's kind of the, the essence of the program.

Yeah. It took two years. That's not very, It's full, full year. So you work through the summer, through summer? Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Excellent. We've had like trips and stuff we would like go for a weekend and like go to Charleston or go to Winston-Salem. Oh wow. Excellent. 

[00:12:45] Ta-Myia: Being an artist is not easy, so like I commend you for that.

Getting back into the art community and being a creative and finding your niche is. Like kind of the hardest thing. Yeah, 

[00:12:55] Wilson Bame: that was hard. I thought about teaching and then I went into one, like, what, what's the [00:13:00] program called ? That's what you said. I thought about teaching. Yeah. I thought about it for about 10 minutes.

I, I, I've written word thought. Thought. Yeah. Yeah. That, that wasn't for me. But yeah. Teaching teaching's 

[00:13:10] DJ And?: a very admirable profession and it takes a special individual. To be able to do it well. Yeah. I always tell people that everybody ain't made, Look, I want to teach, but everybody cannot do it. Well, so you will not be see me in anybody's classroom

 Nope. Cuz some of these children, they could get in trouble. Yeah. I'm not gonna, trying to go to jail for nobody's children. I actually was presented 

[00:13:32] Ta-Myia: with the opportunity to teach art. Couple this matter of fact two months ago, start in August, keep going. And I was like, No, no, no. Got way too much going on right now to even slow down to even teach kids.

And then I know like how my, how I feel about the kids. You know, like if you talk back to 

[00:13:52] Wilson Bame: me and I'm, you know, it's the one role. Don't talk crap about the kids now. . Yeah. That, But it's like, that's so, I don't, this is new generation. We, [00:14:00] How do, do you, we wanna to break. You know, cause we're owners, so it's like Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? 

[00:14:04] DJ And?: Do you know how to do that five 

[00:14:06] Wilson Bame: year old? Yeah. You know, the younger, they're, I can be silly all day, but, Right. 

[00:14:11] DJ And?: But you know 

[00:14:11] Skip: what's so funny about that? Remember like at one point we were all kids. I Right. And it's especially funny, especially US three. Yeah. Cause we were all kids at the same time, same time.

And we knew each other at the same time. Mm-hmm. . And it's weird thinking about that, like, you know, I can't really, you know, I'm a struggle. I struggle talking with kids and I used to be a kid and nobody really thinks about that. Right. We don't 

[00:14:30] DJ And?: think about that We need to 

[00:14:31] Ta-Myia: do on the podcast. 

[00:14:32] DJ And?: Yeah. We need to, need, have somebody, you know, seriously.

Psychologist, therapist, something talking about, especially this age already like it, it said like that 12. To 19 years old. Oh. But like after and before that I'm cool. Yeah. Like, I mean, give me the, the young children. Mm-hmm. , I can deal with them. Yeah. Anybody over the age of 19? No older ones cool.

Because I, you know, I used to work at the university system with a a program at a Department of Education, so it's fine. I can speak them all day. It's that weird seven year [00:15:00] timeframe. But when they're just becoming a teenager and when they're about leave that teenage experie. Those are different.

Them, them children are different at that age. It's a different communication technique. 

[00:15:09] Skip: It's, it's different cuz even like with my nine to five it, it took me some time to get adjusted to it, but I always had a passion for working with like teenagers. He does for 

[00:15:17] DJ And?: young adults. Mm-hmm. . And 

[00:15:19] Skip: my biggest thing has always been I don't want these kids to go out here and be successful and to make a song about me being a 

[00:15:26] DJ And?: hair

[00:15:28] Wilson Bame: What? 

[00:15:29] Ta-Myia: What do they call you? Her song Dust. Just in case I hear you. Don't call you Dusty. What do they call you, 

[00:15:33] DJ And?: Mr. No, they call me Mr. Staggers. Mr. 

[00:15:37] Skip: It's cool. You know, I used to really get really big, I used to have like really get really upset about, Oh, that's my dad. That's my dad. Yeah. Don't call me that.

Don't call me that. No. But that was my, that's like my whole thing. I. I'm not gonna let these jokers sit up here, write a song. Mm-hmm. , and then talk about how I was 

[00:15:51] DJ And?: somebody that was hating me. He was hating on me growing up, or I couldn't 

[00:15:55] Skip: hold, or I held them back, or I said they couldn't do it. You're not gonna put me in no rap lyrics.

Mm-hmm. You're [00:16:00] not. And that's really it. That's really the 

[00:16:01] DJ And?: basis off of fully supportive at all. Yeah. Fully supportive all the time. Like, whatever you wanna do, homie. That's it. So you ain't gonna say 

[00:16:07] Wilson Bame: that even if I don't understand it. 

[00:16:08] DJ And?: Like you do that, that's even the, the most important time is when you don't understand mm-hmm.

to give them support. Yeah's. And that's, I know, I've learned that. I've learned that a lot, especially working again, like work with Upward Bound programs and et cetera, and you're, you're watching these kids come in and they have ideas, aspirations, just getting support speaking, which is funny cause it connects 'em to the rest of this question.

There was one student we had in our upper bound program, and he didn't want to go to college, but he was in upper bound, so they were trying to him on a college train. Oh, yeah. And Kevin, you know this guy? This is my man kid hd. Yeah. Elliot a Wiz, who actually does, he shoots videos now, music videos. He is wildly successful.

Wow. He, he, he said, You know what? I'm not going to college. I'm going, I'm gonna end up taking this route. Like he, he tried to find some other education. He went to SC. Ended up going to scad, got his degree in film, film, photography, and [00:17:00] film production. And from there went out to the west coast, started doing music videos and stuff like that.

And then from there, now he's going back and forth, East coast, West Coast, just dealing with different, and he's wildly successful. Man, no. That's somebody we might need to bring on. Yeah. To speak to him because he was one of those folks at very non-traditional upbringing and then trying to figure out if college was, what was for him, you know, his sister and stuff.

They did the college thing. He was like, I couldn't do it, but it made sense. Cause all he needed was support. And the coolest thing was that support structure there. They told him, Hey, We know you're in the college preparatory programs and they want you to go to college. I don't care what our numbers are.

I e because you're supposed to get certain amount of mm-hmm. , you know, the students have to matriculate. Yeah. They said, do what actually makes sense for you. And so they supported him in going that route. Yeah. And man, I'm like, man, it makes so much sense. And it leads into his question of do you believe having spaces to create art in the community is necess.

Because that's how he was able to get onto a path was being involved in community art programs and stuff like that. Son said, You know what, this is what I want to [00:18:00] do. I don't want to be an accountant. I want to get behind this camera. 

[00:18:03] Wilson Bame: Mm-hmm. . I mean, first of all well, yes. Mm-hmm. long. Yeah. Short answer is yes.

 But in the schools, I mean obviously my mom was an art teacher and I saw the importance of art schools. Yep. But I mean, to give kids that option and that that creative outlet is the first thing you need to do. Mm-hmm. . But then as, as those kids turn into adults and. How they wanna be creative.

So they're even exploring the idea of being a creative Yeah. They need somewhere to do that. Yes. In a place, an actual place. Yeah. And I, I love it that places like Richland Library are giving free opportunity Yeah. With that. But then, you know, I worked at TA SART Center for a long time and we had studio space there.

Yes. And we and we worked a lot with artists. To basically put on events for free. Yeah. And, you know, our whole goal was to, was to, you know, give them the opportunity to maybe even make a little bit of money and to be that kind of creative entrepreneur. And [00:19:00] then, you know, so I, and. Well, it kind of sucks that taps, you know, isn't around anymore.

You know, I think there's still room in our community for more of that. And it's happening, It kind of happens organically. You have, you know, stakeholders in the community that decide like, Hey, you know, we still need this around, so let's make it happen. Yeah. So that's happening now. And so having, having access to those types of places, you know, it, it did cost money for artists to, to rent spaces.

That's what Yeah. Yeah. You know, but if you're, if you, if you know, if you. The means and the way to do it. You know, whether it's you're saving up from your nine to five job and you're just using the evenings to, to create your stuff and, and then, then, you know, it's, it's an, it's an excellent thing to, to have and that's 

[00:19:43] DJ And?: the real art story.

That's the real artist story. Yeah. You'll have a job here so you can do what you want on the other side and you have to be able to balance those two things off. Yeah. And I think a lot of young and up and coming. , that's one of the issues that they have and, and I know I've seen it [00:20:00] just right there, right in the front of everything.

Just watch people deal with this stuff, but saying, Hey, I want to be an artist. This is what I want to do, but I hate working. And I'm like, Okay. 

[00:20:11] Wilson Bame: Oh, well you're gonna have a hard doing. 

[00:20:14] DJ And?: How are we gonna fund, How are we gonna fund your, your livelihood and what you wanna do and your goals Cause Yeah. You know, one thing that always blew my mind, I always told people is the art costs money.

Yeah. And people are like, What do you mean? I'm like, Supplies. Supplies, Yeah. Get some supplies, like mm-hmm. , get the tools you need. Find the time and the space that you need to actually create your vision and you'll see what I mean. It costs money. And that's one of the things that people think that art is a free.

Commodity and it isn't, and I always, that's one reason why I always think it's really important to explain that to community so that the community understands the importance of supporting it. Mm-hmm. so that when you do throw these cool events, just like first Thursday, et cetera, or other events that we had, that you have at the at the Columbia Museum of Art.

Like [00:21:00] you, we really do want people to come out and, and, and support it and mingle and, and get to see the artists and, and accelerate and get to know the personalities so that you have some kind of buy-in to what's going on. Because at the end of the day, the economy especially with artists, it doesn't.

It can't support itself on its own. It can't just support itself from the vision of the artist. You need buy-in. Right. And I wanna know, is that something that you have to deal with every, and I know you have to, but how do you deal with it and how do you try to figure out how to get buy-in from the community to come out to the events and and spread 

[00:21:36] Wilson Bame: Word?

I definitely can speak on that from my experience at tap, cuz that's really where the challenge was. It's a very low funded organization. Yeah, yeah. Had a large space to fill out and. You know, we really did need buy-in from the community and a lot of the times it wasn't there. We had a lot of support from artists in the artist community, but that's not always the people that have the money.

That's the point. Mm-hmm. , so your point. Yeah. So The's a huge challenge. [00:22:00] You know, at a place like the museum, it's a well established institution in the state and you got funding and we, we have, we have funding that's was there before I ever stepped foot in the door. Exactly. Yeah. And so, I mean, I definitely count my blessings there because we're able to create things and, and are able to host artists and do all these things.

Yeah. Because we have that amazing support and, and you know, I mean, they, we gotta continue to work. I mean, have a department just for, you know, funding. Yeah. And they're, they're, I mean, They're hitting the grindstone every single day. Hard hard. And it's, and it's, it's a tough job. I can never do that cause Right.

I'm, I am not, I am not a salesman. You know, my dad's a great salesman, but I, You want this? No. Okay, that's fine. You know, I'm terrible at that. So so I'm glad that we have people to do that at our, at our at the museum. People don't 

[00:22:53] DJ And?: think that there's salesmen at a, at a museum either. People don't think about that.

Yeah. 

[00:22:56] Wilson Bame: But yeah, they do. Yeah. You gotta sell it and, you know, and, and I can sell an [00:23:00] idea, you know, all day. Mm-hmm. you know, and that's kind of what my job is in a lot of ways, is to, to sell this this, this idea or this program or this. This artist, like, Hey, this is why I wanna bring this artist in.

Mm-hmm. . And, and we hope that, you know, if we, if we do enough work in the front end, then whatever we produce is gonna sell itself. Exactly. Can you 

[00:23:20] Ta-Myia: talk about how the impact of Taps closing, how it affected the 

community 

[00:23:25] Wilson Bame: and Well, it definitely impacted Main Street. Yeah. You can't, I mean, you look at first Thursdays now, which is, is, you know, building.

We've you know, Taps, Art centers are longer there, greats and calories gone. Anastasia and Friends is gone. Mm-hmm. . And, and you know, those were kinda on the same block. They were all on the same, you know, two blocks of, of Main Street. It, and that is, that was, that gave the, the program the diversity that it needed mm-hmm.

to be able to move around and, and, and really, You know, in the museum we've got amazing artwork right now we've got a bottle of chili in the galleries. Yeah. And you know, And that's Italian [00:24:00] renaissance type stuff. Yeah, exactly. And that's amazing. Yeah. But you, you know, when we finally have a couple places like Soundbites Gallery Yeah.

And Soundbites, a restaurant. They have like many galleries in there by Jasper Project now. Oh, awesome. Yeah. So they're opening up first Thursdays and that gives us an opportunity to. Local artists. Mm-hmm. . Cause you know, you're not, you know, I mean we have a small gallery that we use for local Yeah.

Local, local art partnerships and exhibitions. Yeah, of course. But outside of that, and outside of popup stuff that's happening, you know, there's not really anywhere else to see the art on Main Street. Mm-hmm. , you know, it definitely impacted Main Street a lot. They were able to move down to Five Points and we still have the, some of the studios there.

Mm-hmm. but we had 30 studios on Main Street. 

[00:24:41] Ta-Myia: Wow. I would've never known that. Shouldn't even tell. Right. We had 30 studios even going to firsts. I would've never known it. Mm-hmm. 30 

[00:24:47] Wilson Bame: studios like Yeah. Yeah. We had 30 studios there, so, you know, we went from having 30 to six or whatever it is now. Yeah. You know, under 10 galleries.

And so you think about the, the, you [00:25:00] know, now all of a sudden these artists are looking for spaces and where, where do they look? So, yeah, I mean it definitely was a, a had a, had a negative impact on the community in that way. So yeah, 

[00:25:11] DJ And?: man. Wow, cuz like, because especially once, once I came back here from Charleston, that's one of the things that I noticed and I I was talking Kevin about it.

 When I left, what it looked like as opposed to what it looks like now here in the town are in those spaces that we had. . Those are one of the things I used to always tell to people about Columbia. I was like, Hey, you know what, Columbia, it may not have like this crazy Charleston vibe, but they have spaces.

Mm-hmm. . That was my big thing back then. I was like, there are spaces. Yeah. So when those spaces close, you really get to see their value to the community and why they're so nec necessary. And you were speaking on this ear with that point, and we'll move this into this next question. Inclusion, equity and equal opportunity.

And I know you're talking about diversity within the art scene and the reason why those [00:26:00] spaces are so important. So you can give people access to local artists and exhibitions so they can see what the people near them and their community are doing. Mm-hmm. within the arts community though, do you believe that equal opportunities are being provided to all artists in Columbia?

If. How could we move into a more equitable community for artists? Yeah. 

[00:26:20] Wilson Bame: You know, I think it depends on who you ask. think that's true. Yeah. Something different. You know, for me, from my perspective you know, I think from my position, I try really hard to make sure that it's possibility. Right.

You really do do the work. Yeah. Appreciate it. And, you know, it's a, it's a big goal of mine to, for. To be a reality in our community. You know, but you, you can't speak for every space in the community. I think every community probably struggles with this. And it, I think it all comes back to education and, and communication.

 You know, you guys are doing a great job of connecting people and communicating with the people that you know. Yeah. And [00:27:00] to get people you know, just, you know, to let people know like these opportunities are out there. Yeah. And, and, you know, hey, I can, you're like connecting dots and Yeah.

Bringing people together and that's, that's the best way to do it. And I think that's the best way to create equity is to to bring people together and let people have convers. 

[00:27:19] DJ And?: In the grassroots way, not from top 

[00:27:20] Wilson Bame: down. Right, right, right. And the grassroots way is, is, is better, is beautiful. It's a beautiful way to do that.

I think that top down is, is also necessary too though, you know, But for more so, 

[00:27:30] DJ And?: like foundational things, right? That's how I always try to think about that. Like like it's easier for a community to get together and say, like, say grassroots, All right, you all, we're gonna get together. We have this space.

We want you to come in, enjoy this space, use the space, et cetera. 

[00:27:43] Wilson Bame: You run into that problem again that we were talking about a little 

[00:27:45] DJ And?: while ago. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And that's where the top comes in, Uhhuh. We're like right from the top. Do y'all have some funding? , Uhhuh? Can you have some, some some, some computers in this space.

We need lights. There needs to be water. Those little things that Utilities. Yeah. Yeah. You need those as well. And so [00:28:00] sometimes you have to have, that's where the top comes in. But like you said, the idea. Communicating and connecting everybody together, that does have to be a grassroots thing. So people buy in.

Mm-hmm. . Yeah. 

[00:28:09] Wilson Bame: Yeah. And, and just to add to that too, is that I think institutions like, you know, the CU Museum of Art and, and other, you know, places that have that funding, I think it's important for them. I think they have a certain responsibility to give access good words to give access to artists that might not have a space or might not have might not have the network.

To really get their, 

[00:28:31] Ta-Myia: their work out. Can you name a couple of those places? You know, like 7 0 1 Waley? 

[00:28:35] Wilson Bame: Yeah, well I think 7 0 1 cca. CCA be Great. Is gonna be with Caitlin coming on board now. I think it's gonna be excellent. McKayla's been doing an awesome job, Mikayla. I love McKayla. And I think, you know, I was thinking about this this morning about how the arts, I think for visual arts especially I think we're probably gonna have a really excellent increase in, in, in availability and, and, [00:29:00] I don't know.

I sense that it's gonna be a little bit better. I'm optimistic about it. I'm very optimistic. I'm, yeah. With McKayla. Mm-hmm. FFR Gallery, This is Mike Brown. Mm-hmm. Gallery now. Caly over at 7 0 1. We've got stuff going on at the cma. Mm-hmm. . And then we have some artist from Taps that are starting a new studio space.

Oh 

[00:29:21] Ta-Myia: yeah. Yeah. Just heard about that Gemini space that they're trying to do behind 'em. Yeah. By the alternate roots or something. I mean, it's a Gemini space that they're trying to, I think it's 

[00:29:29] Wilson Bame: over by the by Rosewood the airport. Yeah, the airport. Yeah. Yeah. Owensville. Yeah. And, you know, with them working on their space, we've got a lot of entrepreneurial creatives in town that are mm-hmm.

making it making it possible for, for everyone else to really kind of grow in the community and stuff. So, you know, I'm very optimistic about it. Hey, yeah. 

[00:29:50] DJ And?: The neat 

[00:29:51] Skip: thing about what you just said too is over the past couple months, of course, you know, we've been working with different creatives, of course with our podcast, more or less [00:30:00] creatives of color.

Yep. But one of the things that I'm starting to realize is, There are a lot of individuals in our community that aren't even aware about the resources, opportunities downtown. Yeah. Because it's really, it's like, and I've talked, and this is a kind of something I've like, kind of a theory that I developed over the past couple years and I've talked with several other individuals about this.

As a matter of fact, I was talking with preach about this couple about last month aa, well earlier this month. And it's like when it comes to the urban community in Colomb, especially when it comes to anything creative, . It's like you have two different cultures. You have your downtown culture mm-hmm.

and then you have like your, I don't even wanna say it's like your outer rim. Mm-hmm. . So usually everybody who is associated with downtown, they're, they pretty much all know each other. Mm-hmm. . So like, we all, like, we all go to the same events we're all at Yeah. Seven or waley. We're all at first Thursday, you know.

Mm-hmm. , we're, we're all familiar with each. But [00:31:00] there's a whole nother group of creatives on the outside that they do events in the community, but they might be out in the northeast, 

[00:31:09] Wilson Bame: West Columbia, 

[00:31:10] DJ And?: West Columbia. 

[00:31:11] Skip: And different stuff like that. And they don't even realize the opportunities that are now afforded in the city.

In the city. And like we've had conversations like amazing individuals. Matter of fact, we had one on just recently Jay, Yeah, 

[00:31:24] DJ And?: yeah. Jayanna Carter. 

[00:31:25] Ta-Myia: She's a photographer. 

[00:31:27] DJ And?: And 

[00:31:27] Skip: we were talking because you know, a lot of stuff she does is very similar to what we do uhhuh our content wise. And I always had a conversation with her and she didn't know anything.

Any of the projects, even any events that were going on with the museum. And that's why 

[00:31:40] Ta-Myia: I like working with one Columbia because they're like the hub of all artists and I didn't even know about that. Someone put me on delvin with ISS of art, put me on one Columbia, and once I found out what they do, I was like, Oh my gosh, like.

I need to be on your newsletter. I need to hear, you know, all 

[00:31:57] Wilson Bame: information. If I'm not mistaken. City. One [00:32:00] Columbia is still a city program. Okay. I mean, that's still run by the city. It, I believe it was started by the mayor's office. Mm-hmm. . Oh, yeah. When Steve Benjamin was mm-hmm. was mayor Right.

Like, I think early, early on when he, when he came on board and so with government funding, I mean, I think it's really important for that stuff to continue and it's a great resource and it's really important for folks like that to, to exist. And it's, cuz it, it's, it's hard to do it on your own, you know?

Yeah. You guys can tell people. We can tell people, Yeah. Need help. But yeah. Yeah. So I think those Creating those connections, people that can create those connections is really important. Yeah, Yeah. Did it, so did I get to, I don't think I got to the point you were making that Oh no. 

[00:32:40] DJ And?: It's just 

[00:32:40] Skip: so pretty much what it is, is how do we find ways to, like I said, those that are on the outside who don't know, like what are some of the ways we can kind of help serve as a bridge to connecting them with just, with opportunities and even resources, even just even supporting what it is that you guys are doing.

All at museum. And that's not even museum, but even other things [00:33:00] that are located 

[00:33:00] DJ And?: more centrally in general, to attract them closer, to bring the hub, bring them to the city, bring from the periphery. Cause they're, they're out there in the periphery. Mm-hmm. doing this stuff by themselves. And it's interesting, I know Kevin tells me stuff, we talk about this, it's like they great, excellent ideas on what they want to do, but they don't use all of the available resources.

And sometimes it's not out of, I. It's the, it's there. I guess it's a feeling of, am I supposed to be there? And I'm like, Yeah, you're supposed to be here. 

[00:33:28] Ta-Myia: And that's exactly why I would think that. Um, Well when Columbia, we did the arts initiative, I was a artist facilitator and we went to different places and asked them, Why don't you come to stuff downtown?

It's because of parking. Yeah. Is it because you don't know about it? Why do you feel excluded from certain things in the city? Yeah. 

[00:33:44] Wilson Bame: Yeah. You know, for me, like sometimes I, I, I just have to, I have to accept that I don't know the answer to stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. and I gotta start talking to people and I have to talk to people more often.

Mm-hmm. . And I think it's important for, for places that have the [00:34:00] access to speak with members of the community. Yeah. And the more we can do that, the, I think the closer we're gonna get to those answers. Mm-hmm. . 

[00:34:08] DJ And?: Okay. And I have a, this is a weird thing to say since you said that. You know how you like to stay in the in the creative aspect, but is this like a boring, like chamber of commerce type?

Community talk like that. You have to have to make sure that you do. You know what I mean? And that's a good talk. I don't mind like a four. Yeah, I like those regular ones. Those are safe. I was . Then you just bring those. Yeah. You know what I mean? Cause you just bring to go. You're just bringing people in to say, Okay, so.

tell me what, like, do you need to have parking here? Do we need to, would we like events on a, on a on a Friday evening or a Saturday morning? Yeah. Like how could we coincide this to make it work best? Yeah. To bring everybody together. Like is it 

[00:34:48] Wilson Bame: transportation? Yeah. What is it when you 

[00:34:50] DJ And?: send buses to you, like, what do we need to go, what do we need to do?

Mm-hmm. Because they, the people exist, the the want for it. And it's funny cuz when you bring the people [00:35:00] out and they actually go to the events mm-hmm. , they love them, they have a good time and they enjoy themselves. And that's when you know, okay, it's not that they don't want to come here, we gotta, we gotta figure out what's stopping them from getting 

[00:35:11] Wilson Bame: mm-hmm.

Yeah. Do you know what I mean? And then once you find out where that information is, you gotta actually do that thing. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And not just have it. For the sake of having the conversation. That's it. 

[00:35:20] DJ And?: That's why I said this is one of those boring chamber commerce talks, right? Where you gotta bring those people in and say, Okay, so how much money is there cost to do this?

Uhhuh? Okay, we're gonna try to set this up for y'all. We're gonna stand around a petition. Whoever wants to do it, y'all sign it. Because now you cool thing is you can do those things electronically now. You don't wanna have to go walk door to door. So there has to be a way to do it. And especially with somebody like Tay.

Cause that's crazy. I was like, Wow. How do you. You're you. That's how I thought when I 

[00:35:43] Ta-Myia: was here. You really gonna be out here? You gotta really be out here on the ground. Like, like I said, I started at first Thursdays and then I signed up for a ton of newsletters. Mm-hmm. . And then I just get stuff to my email.

Then I started going to like 7 0 1 Koger Center, just started going to Noma, Noma Warehouse. It's just a [00:36:00] bunch of different places that, that Columbia has a lot going on with people don't know about it. It's true. Yeah. And I'm like, How do you not know about this stuff? Like, Well, you know, I 

[00:36:08] Wilson Bame: think that's the thing too, is like when I.

Part of the art community. I didn't know anything that was happening. C that's what I was gonna say. You know, like, I didn't know, You know, And like, you've gotta, if you really want to be involved, sometimes you, you gotta take the extra step to, to do your own research. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . And, but it's up to us to, to put that information out there too, you can dive in there and, and to build the type of programs that, you know, aren't completely monolithic and Yeah.

 Good point. Repetitive. Good point. Yeah. Good point. You know, people. People wanna, people want variety. But people also wanna see themselves, you know? Yeah. That's hard to do that part. That's hard to do. Yeah. 

[00:36:44] Ta-Myia: I see people that look like me, that, you know, that I've 

[00:36:48] Wilson Bame: seen people 

[00:36:48] DJ And?: from my region. Yeah. I wanna see people that like type of food, music, et cetera.

Mm-hmm. and not even like, And, and sometimes it's not even like it has to be an exact but a spec, like an [00:37:00] exact copy or, or or repetitive thing of what you like in your culture, but something that can give you something, you can, some, there has to be something in it that you can attach yourself to.

Mm-hmm. or log on, like link yourself to Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you can dive into the rest of me. Yeah. Like I was teasing, like if you know about how you say like certain what's about, what's name that little, that rock and Kevin, they made cult person. What's the name of the band? Cult of Personality.

I forget the name of the who's, Everybody knows the name of other girl, Alexis? No. Who is that? Something color, something. Watch this, y'all. We gotta do this , you do this online, Watch this. He's like, I gotta find out how to use the G word. Mm-hmm. in, 

[00:37:40] Wilson Bame: Oh, living color? Yes. Yeah. Oh 

[00:37:42] DJ And?: right. Cause it's a black rock band that won a grant.

Like people don't realize this. One thing that was really cool about them at the time when they came out was that everybody got, could link on 'em, cuz it didn't matter if you were black, white, Hispanic, or. If you looking at and say, first of all, it's rap music. I like rap music, so I'm gonna listen to it.

Yeah. And if you're black person, you're like, Oh, it's black people. They're singing rap music. Let we go listen to them. And then you listen [00:38:00] to, Oh, it's a cool song. And then all the wrestlers now, Cause of course it's these are main these, they use this song over and over again and everything. Cause it's that popular.

Yeah. And you realize, okay, so what do they do? They hit on a cultural nexus. They found everybody and got him together and all these different points, and that's how they became so popular. Because if you think about it, you don't hear people talk about 'em right now anymore, but at the time when they came out they were eight.

It was a big thing because they were like, Wait, how did they bring all these people together? Cause their shows used to be wild. And everybody would be out to show. It'd be a big melting pot look like Brazil, right? 

[00:38:31] Wilson Bame: because a 

[00:38:33] DJ And?: cultural nexus. So now my thing is 

[00:38:35] Skip: this, and I'm not trying, I don't wanna dumb down what you're saying, the conversation.

So essentially it's sort of like a little NAS X type of phenomenon. 

[00:38:41] DJ And?: Yes. He's cultural. Yeah. Yeah. He's a cultural maxus. And so like I know we have something like that in Columbia that we could use that could poop. Take everybody, catch 'em and bring 'em into, You know what, I have something that's related to that I do too.

I have a a, a, a dog in that fight. Let me go and join it because [00:39:00] again, I'll, I'll harp on this again, coming from Charles. Columbia has space. Mm-hmm. , I've never, I like space. I forgot about how nice it was. It has space, you know what I mean? Uhhuh, everything doesn't have to just go up and everything's not crunched in and you're like up on somebody.

You can let like literally go to a venue or, or a space and actually go in there and enjoy yourself and relax. Mm-hmm. And that's so nice cuz I know my wife and I will go out certain places. And I'll just be happy to be in the place. Say, Why you not having, I like, Man, this is nice. You got space. 

[00:39:27] Ta-Myia: I can move around.

You can move around network, you can, 

[00:39:29] DJ And?: yeah, you can talk to people. And it, it's not like that in other places in South Carolina. So that's one of the things I think that Columbia still has on a Greenville or Spartanburg or Charleston or the spaces that you have, where they're located and the size.

And you can take advantage of that. Cuz one thing that blew my mind, I keep this, is that when Jay-Z and Beyonce came here to for their tour, They put 60,000 people in Williams Price and I forgot that Williams Bryce can hold up to 

[00:39:58] Wilson Bame: 80,000. I was there [00:40:00] that concert. I was, I 

[00:40:02] Ta-Myia: was in the.

Let me just, that Beyonce, like, I just wanna, Can you, can you look at this way? That's, that's 

[00:40:09] Wilson Bame: how close 

[00:40:09] DJ And?: I was. That's how I know we can do it. We can do it. We, we have the, and I was explaining this to my wife cuz she was like, Wow, let's about this football game. I said this USC game. Mm-hmm. watch many people get in here, said nex.

It exactly doesn't matter. Your race, heritage, et cetera. I wanna go see the game Cox play. Mm-hmm. , I'm going. And it, you can imagine in this area, if we can draw up to close to a hundred thousand people in one space. Don't even talk about the state fair. You see what I'm saying? Like you can bring all that in.

That's how you know, okay, there is a possibility for this. There is opportunity for success. 

[00:40:41] Wilson Bame: Hopefully you can cut that out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you think we 

[00:40:44] Ta-Myia: have a, an art event like that? Besides like the hip hop? Thing, the festival, Nickelodeon, 

[00:40:50] Wilson Bame: you know, I think we got a lot of opportunities to do that for sure.

I mean, I can speak on my own type, type of program. So like Arts and Drafts is great. Yes. Great. I think that's a really great example where we have an opportunity [00:41:00] to kind of have a Nexus event. So, you know, with this one I have coming up, you wanna pull up? Yeah. For it is a good segue. Yeah. So for arts and drafts that's kind of my goal and my challenge every time.

Mm-hmm. is to, you know, bring in artists and bring in community partners. Yeah. That get, give us this this I'm thinking visually here. give, I, I really like the word nexus actually of different cultural backgrounds and perspectives. and all this kind of bring it all together and to where you have certain touch points.

Yeah. Turn access points for everybody in the community. Exactly. It was fun. I It was so much fun. Was fun. It was so much fun. It, so much fun. And so that's, that's, I mean, arson draft is a, Huge like fun event. Yep. I mean mm-hmm. , first of all, you got food and drink. Mm-hmm. , which will bring event there. But then we have the art, and then when you start talking about bringing in artists and tour guides and things like that.

Yep. There's speakers. Yeah. You know how dope that is. [00:42:00] When especially, and this is what I'm talking about, like within X, you don't have to be an art. Head to get there and, and understand what's going. You can have somebody explain it to you and, and break it down for you on a easier, on a, on a, on a simple level.

[00:42:13] DJ And?: You can sit there and ask questions and there's somebody to answer the questions. You have so much engagement at that event. Yeah, it's a 

[00:42:19] Ta-Myia: lot going on from the DJs and then stuff outside. I remember my first arts and Johnson event was like, I went to about four years. and my, one of my friends from Africa came to visit and I took her to that event.

She was like, Oh my gosh, this is so much fun. I was like, That's awesome. Yeah. That's my first time coming. I'm coming back. . 

[00:42:36] Wilson Bame: You saw It's fun, man. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what we wanna create is just this opportunity for everyone in the community to come together mm-hmm. At one time and be able to enjoy.

What they came to see, but in be introduced to something completely different that they didn't expect. Yeah. Especially 

[00:42:50] Ta-Myia: hands on stuff. The hands on activities you guys have. I love 

[00:42:52] Wilson Bame: it. Oh, that was fun. 

[00:42:53] DJ And?: Yeah. Yeah. You don't even know how much fun it is to take torn up pieces and cut up pieces of magazines and make [00:43:00] art with it.

And then you get to take something home from the event that you created, man. Yeah. 

[00:43:06] Wilson Bame: You get shirts 

[00:43:06] DJ And?: there fresh on the 

[00:43:07] Wilson Bame: spot. Oh yeah. What texture? We're doing that. Yeah, we're doing we're gonna, you're gonna be able to make your own shirt this time. Oh yeah. You can make your own shirt. Yeah, we're doing, we're still figuring it out, but Well, it'll be ready by November 11th.

Yeah. Say 

[00:43:21] DJ And?: again? Go ahead and drop. Go ahead, drop that. Matter of fact I mean this is time for, for Shameless promotion. Mm-hmm. you have any events upcoming that 

[00:43:28] Wilson Bame: Yeah. Season. This is program called Arts and Draft. Yeah. Friday, November 11th. It's from seven to. But it's just kind of our, our art party that we have twice a year.

Yeah. We're gonna have three bands playing out on the plaza. We've got Auto Correct, which is the local band. We've got Leon in The Ascension, which is an awesome soul band there out of Rock Hill. And then Monsoon is out of Athens. They're awesome. Two piece. Oh, that's Coolie Van. Yeah. And then Preach.

Jacobs will be there. He's preach. He's he's there. He's gonna [00:44:00] be. DJ in for us. Okay. He's actually putting some some playlist together for us too. Some mixes that'll play in between the sets too. Wow. That'll be cool. We've got our Unique Perspectives Tour this time is from Bullets and Band-Aids.

We got board of course. Nice. And it's it's Own Veterans Day. So what's from Band Days, but we're also hearing from some of our the staff at the CMA that are veterans. Oh wow. And they're gonna go around. They're actually from our security. So they're around the art all the time. So we'll get to hear some of their perspectives on, on the art team.

The Tour Tour. Yeah, the tour. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll have two separate tours. We'll have a Bullets and Band AIDS one, and then we'll have a, a CMA staff one. Okay. And then we've got a live comedy. We've dope Tofa Riddle, Jen Snyder and Christian Williams all doing comedy. Wow. At one point during the night.

 Annis is a really cool dance performance that's happening up in the. And it's with Moving Body Dance Company and they're really awesome dance company in town. I know, and this is an interactive thing, so you can actually join [00:45:00] there. What was a, It was like a PlayStation or Xbox. Things that had like the little ball in the end of the room you get the PlayStation.

Yeah. Remember what that's called? The motion thing? It was a motion. Anyway, they used that in their dance interactive. Oh. And so you can actually. You can actually create messing me up right now. Visuals on your own. Oh wow. So yeah, they're gonna be upstairs and kind of instructing and dancing, all that kind of stuff.

We'll have our art activities, which includes, you know, printing Yeah. Your own t-shirts. We'll have some other individual ones kind of inspired by the art s galleries. Yeah. We do a scavenger hunt every time. Oh, there for the scavenger know. I know. Yeah. That's awesome. I like, Yeah, we put together scavenger hunt each time for arts and drafts, and then we'll have some community partners there too.

So the Women's Empowerment Network. Yeah. I, I worked with Women's Rights Empowerment Network. Mm-hmm. and then Bullets and Bandaids and we're hoping one other one will join us too. And then we'll have lots of food. The wig, It's actually the wigs last Arts and drafts, cuz you know, the wigs closing.

No, I didn't know that. I know that. So they're, they're closing at the end of the [00:46:00] year, Close to the end of the year. So this will be their last arts and drafts. Wow. So it'll be a party. We'll be celebrating. It'll be a big one. One, Well, the wit's been part of Arts and Draft since the beginning of our That's crazy.

[00:46:09] Ta-Myia: Like a sponsor. Yeah. So yeah. A partner. Yeah. Can you also talk about first Thursdays and how about the people coming 

[00:46:15] Wilson Bame: Tuesday? Yeah. Thursday. I'm, I don't know who's coming up at in the next couple months, but we're working on, on live music out on the plaza. But then, you know, the big thing about arts and Dr.

I mean, excuse me, about first Thursday. Is that it's up and down the block. I mean, you have everything from, everything from the 1200 block to 1700 block mm-hmm. and you know, we encourage all of our, our our neighbors on Main Street. Yeah. To put together their own thing. So, you know, bourbon has been putting together bourbon.

Yeah. They've, they've got like the outdoor space. They've been kinda making an outdoor gallery, pop gallery sound bites on the 1400 block, been doing stuff. You may see some stuff in the you may see some stuff in the Arcade Mall at some point. Okay. We're starting to work with individual [00:47:00] visual artists to do popups up and down the street, and then all the way up to like in front of Lula Drake and all that.

They always have live music and dancing and stuff. I wanna see someone paint live, 

[00:47:08] Ta-Myia: so Yeah. Yeah, 

[00:47:10] Wilson Bame: we're working on that. Yeah. Is my paint life that be cool? Actually, that'd be, is our president right now, and she works with the library and she's been doing popup gallery stuff throughout around town. And so she's, she started bringing that into first Thursday.

And, and we've got a little bit of extra funding this year that rolled over from last year. So we're gonna try to disperse it to artists to paint kinda up and down the log. Yeah, that'd be nice. And then uh, one thing I really do wanna plug is this program that we've been working on at the cma this is the second year of, it's called More Than Rhythm of Black Music Series.

Yeah. Hosted by Dr. Projeta Johnson. Okay, cool. So Dr. Beita Johnson is, is my partner in this program. We I brought this to her a couple years ago and we started working on it. We've secured funding and we received a grant from the Central Carolina Community Foundation last year to make all the, every single program free.

So me, y'all. I'm there. [00:48:00] I'm best. So we just had our first, one of the, the, the final season. I'm doing air quotes right now. The final season, we, it was supposed to be a two, two season program. Okay. Two year program. We just had a program with Adida Adi of Victoria. A few, gosh, I guess it was a couple months ago now.

 And then our next one is in December. I think it's December 15. If you're looking on the website Yep. , Nicole Coley December 15th, I'm sure, I'm pretty sure is the date. And that's with Nicole Neely. She's a classical a classical musician. And so she's put together an ensemble that she's calling the, I can't remember the name of it right now.

I'm sorry. But more than Rhythm featuring Nicole Neely is, is taking place in December. We've got another program happening in February with Mahogany who is out of Beaufort. She's like a neo soul singer. Okay, good. And then pairing that with a listening party the night before, during first Thursday.

Be Soul Party. That would be, Yeah. We're having a whole [00:49:00] month of, of kind of celebrating soul. So I'll have more than rhythm listening party on February 2nd, which is that first Thursday with DJ Lady Marauder. Oh, lady dj. Yeah. I'm definitely gonna to go. Yeah, that's gonna be fun. And then Mahogany the Mahogany experience is the next night.

Okay. And they were watching two films. So there's a film called Soda Soul which is I believe in Ghana. So a like opera. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like Wilson Picket and Santana and The Staple Sisters, all these artists, Oh, stop it, it Ghana. Yeah. And they, they performed a, a, a concert in Ghana. There's No Right After Freedom.

Yes. And so we're watching that film that month. And then we were also watching the film called, Which was put together by Isaac Hayes. The, the soundtrack was put together by Isaac Hayes and performed by performed by a popular group at that. Oh yeah. Claude, Oh, excuse me. Curtis Mayfield. Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight and the Pips Sing everything.

Yeah. Claudine's a classic. Yeah. [00:50:00] So we're showing all, that's kind of the month of February, and then we're finishing with Dom Flemings, who was part of Carolina Chocolate Drops. Mm-hmm. which is, I don't know if y'all know Rihanna Gins, mm-hmm. . She's, she's become really popular over the last few years.

Dom started the Carolina chocolate drops with with her. Okay. And so he's this amazing music historian and. You know, banjo and, and the gord in like all these like crazy instruments. Mm-hmm. sounds great. And so we're finishing off with off the series with him. Mm-hmm. . So more than a black music series hosted by Dr.

Petita Johnson is awesome. It's, we're even we have some podcast episodes too. Part of the Binder podcast at cma. Yeah. I love the binder. Yeah. Yeah. So that's all my plug, . Hey man, with plug. You 

[00:50:46] Ta-Myia: forgot about your social. You gotta drop social. 

[00:50:49] Wilson Bame: I was, you know, I didn't share my social with you earlier.

Yep. I, you know, I, I got this thing about telling people, or, or, Like if I I keep my, my social stuff private too. Do I? If I met you in person, [00:51:00] then I'm not accepting your friends. Nope, I agree. That's good. So, but yeah, right now I, I know I kind of wanna change it, but we're gonna sit, stick with it for now.

My, Yeah. Instagram handle is beche belly. Bam. Yes. Yes. And it's better than it used to be. Y'all. I can't even say it though. It used be, but but he's cleaned it up. Yeah, I cleaned it up a little bit. It went from one to professional name ba and then I changed it from a chili belly. But but then, you know, and then of course Wilson Bemo Facebook and and all that, but.

Yeah, I, I, I love that you guys invited me on. I've had a really awesome time. I mean, I'm sure we can sit here and talk for another hour if you right. Oh, good. But yeah, but

[00:51:39] DJ And?: I dunno. It's all right. So we went a little over, but we gotta wrap it up, man. DJ and what? Skip. Yep. Miss Tamaya. Thank you Wilson for joining us. Childhood friend. Man. Always good guy. He's never done anything long. We ain't talk about those soccer stuff. We didn't even talk about. Next time we used play soccer together.

There you go. World Cups coming in. I mean, so yeah's with it. But we'll catch that [00:52:00] up next time cause I know we'll have another sit down with you and talk about some more things going on with the Columbia Museum of Art. So for everybody listening, just make sure you go to columbia museum.org. Just so you can check out all the events that they have up there.

See if you wanna buy tickets in. For some upcoming events, especially for November 11, we wanna make sure we have you at Arts and Drafts so you can enjoy yourself. Have a good time downtown, and see what is going on in your city. Again, this is the Hilltop Globe Podcast, signing off on this beautiful Saturday.

Everybody go out, love your people. Tell me you love 'em, and be good. Bye. Peace.