The city of Providence has released a new Life at Night Report that examines the after-hours economy in PVD (see our article from last issue at motifri.com/brettsbillion-dollar-bulletin-the-life-at-night-report). The report was developed over recent years through the Department of Arts, Culture, Tourism (ACT). Joe Wilson Jr, former Trinity Rep actor and director, and current director of ACT took a few moments to talk about the Report and what it means for our capital city. Here are some excerpts.
Mike Ryan (Motif): Did any of the results surprise you?
Joe Wilson Jr.: There is quite a bit that surprised me, actually. Number one, this report is primarily an economic impact assessment: With direct, indirect, and induced spending, it’s almost a billion dollar sector, our life at night sector. It was shocking to me. I think that there are other little tidbits about the report that I found maybe not as surprising, but still made my eyebrows rise. I’ve always known that the power of the city and its narrative is around our immigrant community, our communities of color. One of the main things I’ve taken on as director of this department is making sure that – whether it be this department, or tourism stakeholders – that we’re all telling a more inclusive story about what makes Providence and Rhode Island as dynamic as it is.
MR: You knew the sector was mighty in your heart, but now you know it in your head too?
JWJ: It’s good to know for sure. And I think for our life at night, businesses that so many of our business owners always knew it, as it related to their own businesses, and understood the power of the sector economically. But they never really had those numbers. Now we have a tool that will allow them to advocate for themselves in terms of increased capital, speaking about this sector as something that doesn’t need to be controlled, that doesn’t need to be stigmatized. [This report] treats it as a real sector of folks who have jobs, who operate at night. As an artist, I take that very seriously. I worked at night, and you know, oftentimes the policies of our 5pm-to-9am sector are dictated by folks who work the typical nine-to-five and are not seeing this sector as one that should be celebrated and one that should be supported and stimulated.
MR: There are a few concrete things in here, like transportation. Street lights – very practical, very simple. I know on a city-wide scale, nothing is really simple, but…
JWJ: There are several specific recommendations in the plan. We’re launching some initiatives. For example, there’s a lot of talk of transportation in this study, so we’re working with Spin and Uber to launch two programs. The Spin program will provide a 50% discount to anyone who can prove that they work in the life at night sector. The plan also outlines these hot spots / cultural corridors and nightlife corridors in Providence. Of course, as a department, we also have a very intimate relationship through our city services and permitting process, licensing, for example, also public safety, police, fire, emergency management, DPW, the parks department, all of these departments are involved with us through our permitting process. So, for example, one of the things that we’re doing right now is a deep dive of our special event permitting process, to make sure that it’s equitable, to make sure that it’s userfriendly, because it is a priority of the mayor to continue to work to activate public spaces in this town. It’s important not only for quality of life, but in terms of economic development. Also, when we activate our streets, that helps to create a sense of safety, a sense of positive feelings.
MR: You realize you belong to a greater community.
JWJ: Exactly, right? The way that we interact with cities, the way that businesses interact with cities, the way that people are working, working remotely, and not necessarily coming back to office buildings, that kind of traditional density of occupancy, and the way folks inhabit cities, has all changed. And there’s been a lot of discussion around the nation, around the globe, actually, about third spaces. Looking at cities as places that people want to live in, and places that we want people to feel safe to play in.
MR: I understand there is a perception among a lot of the life at night people that the mayor is not part of the life at night community. It doesn’t feel like he’s much in their corner. Is that a stumbling block to these plans?
JWJ: If the mayor did not believe in this work, we would not have this plan—so let the proof be through his actions as a leader. The mayor is aware of who he is, he is aware of how he presents, he gets it. The mayor’s concern is making sure that we are one of the best run cities in the country [ . . .] that we do everything we can to make sure that we have economic vitality in this city [. . .] and that everyone in Providence and every visitor to the city can see and appreciate a place that for many of us call home. So many of us have come here from other places but call this city home and to me that’s the magic of Providence. The mayor believes in the extraordinary nature of this city, he believes in this Life at Night plan, and he believes in everybody who works in this sector and makes a living in this sector. You know, the mayor can take a joke like the best of them, and he is aware of what is said about him at any given moment in the community. But he has a job to do. Okay, you’re not likely to run into the mayor in a nightclub. When we announced this [plan]. . . he shared that he found himself, as a young person, and he became who he is, because he had nightlife that enabled him to go and explore that part of himself, that he didn’t have an outlet for anywhere else. So I think he is there on a personal level. I think he definitely understands it. Does he present that way to the average person? No. But is it something that he’s unfamiliar with? No, not at all. So, I really believe that that characterization is absolutely unfair and I think that people should judge him based on his actions. Every indication of this man’s priority is that he cares about the people of Providence. He cares about welcoming people from around the globe to experience the beauty of this place, and as long as he has those interests in mind, that jives very much with my values of always being a champion for this city. More importantly, I live in a community where people actually care what artists think and feel, and they invite us to be around the table, and appreciate all the ways that I or someone like me can contribute to community when I couldn’t write a check.
MR: I know some people who run music clubs who have said it would be great if there was a street, for example, like a Bourbon Street or one street that had all the clubs. People could walk from one show to another, and it would create a tide that would lift all boats. Has there been any talk about that?
JWJ: There’s been a lot of attention to downtown, whether it be the uncovering of the river, very downtown-centric approaches to how we celebrate Providence, and what we continue to uplift about the city, but we also know there are cultural corridors throughout this city that also deserve to be treated with that level of respect and attention and support.
MR: What are some of these corridors?
JWJ: Rather than thinking about creating a new corridor, I think that we’re more interested in looking at the existing stock of cultural capital in our neighborhoods. Whether it be Broad Street, up on the hill, Thayer Street… North Main is one of those sort of budding areas – Blackstone Valley artist district. How can we think about all these other cultural corridors, and find ways to celebrate them, to advocate for them. That vibrancy of night life was really [achieved] through a centering of communities that were a feature of life at night, whether it’s about the LGBTQ plus community or another minority, life at night really provided an opportunity for people to find their people in these communities. The density of college kids who live in this city – there was a time in the ‘80s and ‘90s when our licensing laws allowed for 18+ clubs. Kids would drive from all over the region to come here and be a part of our nightlife activity. So there is a legacy of Providence being a place that welcomed folks. You can’t speak about any of that without talking about our creative sector. You had artists who were occupying Fort Thunder, the mill that eventually became Eagle Square. It’s like folks are traveling from all over the region, all over the country, to come hear a rock band in a dilapidated warehouse, and so all of that was a part of the culture as well. Artists are not only occupying space to make things, but they’re occupying space to find each other. They’re occupying space to find kindred spirits socially, politically, economically, and so all of that, all of that continues to contribute to not only a vibrant, creative culture, but also a vibrant life at night culture.
MR: Where do you think the colleges fit in now?
JWJ: This goes to the bigger goal of celebrating the sector as a way to lure tourists, as a way to encourage folks to come to live in our city. When I was young, we went out to get drunk and hear a band or go to a gay bar and feel like a part of a bigger community. But we’re also finding now that kids don’t want to just go out and do that. They’re kids who are not drinking these days – they go out to have an experience. To go out and craft, or play video games at FreePlay, or go to Level 99. They’re looking to have these kinds of experiences that don’t involve alcohol, and that is a valid and important part of a life at night economy moving forward as well. Thinking about this life at night economy is integrally tied to our creative arts sector. It’s easy to silo arts and culture as a thing, and then we support arts and culture because it’s a feel good story, versus thinking about arts and culture as a part of a larger creative living-life economy. We always think, as artists, we’re occupying space as though it were borrowed time, or that someone was doing us a favor, or that we were asking for a handout, rather than saying, “If this were an oil and gas industry, nobody would think twice about providing subsidies for it.” But because it’s arts and culture, we have an issue with that. How many busboys, how many cooks, how many people who clean restaurants, hotel rooms – how many of those people think that they’re a part of a broader arts, cultural, creative economy? We want them to know that they are part of a larger ecosystem. You are artists, you are creatives. The more that we can think broadly about who we are as a sector, the more we create opportunity for advocacy, for economic development and investment. We take arts and culture, creativity and design from this space of being, “Oh, it’s nice to support it.” No, no, no, it’s not. It’s not nice to support it – it’s like, can you afford not to? We’re trying to flip the script here, right? I think that’s what economic assessments like this [report] do for our creatives, for our sector at large. It gives us the tools to be able to insist that policy makers, investors, take seriously creatives, take seriously artists and take seriously the broader creative economy.
MR: You’re talking about a very subjective thing. So affixing data to it in any way is tricky, JWJ: that’s right, but now we have, we have the power of the life at night sector. We have data now about wellness and art-making in communities. I’ve been in the arts for 30 years, We ask for more resources, and they say, “Well, show me the data. Show me the data.” Well, we’ve gotten a hell of a lot better at amassing that data. We worked very hard on the economic impact data assessment. Those numbers are in the hundreds of millions of dollars for the amount of spending that is generated by people going to arts events. So we have the numbers, and now we’re using our voices to advocate with a stronger and larger voice. •
