Muse Arts Warehouse was where I said farewell to 2016.
Tonight, we were all saying farewell to Muse.
I have had this date marked since the news broke in November.
The building is to be demolished and replaced with SCAD student apartments.
Fortunately, new cultural oases which have sprung up in the past few years have opened their doors as the new locales for the wealth of theatre troupes, improv comedy groups, and film screeners which have called this site home, with more than 1500 performances, for seven years.
That's all thanks to the dream of this woman, JinHi Soucy Rand, to provide a low-cost space for artists of all ilks to share their dreams with the public.
Many of those artists were present for this farewell party.
Odd Lot fellows, current and past.
Abeni dancers, old and young.
Members, past and present, of the Collective Face Ensemble.
Savannah Shakes thespians.
Cinema Savannah fans and devotees of the Psychotronic Film Society of Savannah.
Spitfire poets, present and past (including myself, one distant Saturday night).
24-Hour Playwrights and directors and actors from the last six years.
Doc Ock, spinning tunes to chase away blues.
There was even a former SCAD art student who had her senior project showcased at Muse as the first official event, back when the space had been known as Indigo Arts Warehouse.
Carly had traveled from her current home in California to be in Savannah for this farewell to the place that had opened its doors to her.
How did I know?
She and I were talking, in front of the framed photo she had taken of Mumbai on a visit so many years ago, the photo with the squalor of a colorful tent city splashed in front of a monotone skyscraper cityscape. We began talking about various experiences we had enjoyed at Muse. I explained to her the meaning behind my "I AM SUAFY" T-shirt, in memory of the now-defunct Savannah Urban Arts Festival (at this venue originally named the Indigo Arts Center), complete with learning to do graffiti in the parking lot.
I then told her that one of the first things I attended at Muse was the senior show of a SCAD student that featured photos of birds and even had a waterfall in the display! I had really been fascinated with the fashions based on the birds, too. It had been a truly unique experience for me.
She stopped staring at me and tears filled her eyes.
Those had been her designs, her photos, her display theme.
No one had mentioned those to her for years.
The artwork was still at her mom's house, here in Savannah, of course.
Wow.
We were both misty-eyed, her touched that I had remembered anything at all about her senior project, me touched that she and I had even had this conversation about parents and their faith in their children's visions.
JinHi had wanted a Final Bow photo to be taken of all who were there.
That was scheduled for 8:00 PM sharp, so me and the other two of las tres amigas had raced over immediately at the ending of "Queen of Katwe" with JavaFlix Savannah. (I had voted to show this true tale of the chess-playing teen, so I felt obliged to be present for the screening. So worth it!)
We three made it to the site just in time!
Then, afterward, this photo of folks waving farewell (while paraphrasing the song "Goodbye to You" with a near-rhyme) was snapped.
See the colorful woman in the blue dress with the yellow coat and red hair?
I'm behind her right arm, with my mouth open and eyes shut.
(smile)
i thank You, God, for the blessings bestowed by this space, and upon me and this city I love.
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