On Sat. Jan. 24, “Say Yes,” a benefit show featuring a variety of local artists and musicians, took over the Goods Gallery (former shipping yard at 200 Long Beach Blvd.). The event required a $10 donation upon entry and was the mastermind of the same dedicated citizens and Art Council members who brought you the wonderful Schooled in Song music extravaganza at last year’s University by the Sea, and the inaugural Schooled in Song Event at the Carpenter Center in 2007 – including U-Sea founder and Smolarcorp head Ryan Smolar, and Schooled in Song co-founder Justin Hectus. Locally renowned and nationally praised poets Derrick Brown, Mindy Nettifee, Beau Sia and Amber Tamblyn (also an actor and star of “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and “Joan of Arcadia”) performed the spoken-word and beat poetry sections of the show. The musical section of the program was handled by DJ Abel; the band Free Moral Agents, featuring the keyboardist Isaiah “Ikey” Owens, most recently from The Mars Volta. The highlight of the show was one of the town’s top singer-songwriter blues enthusiasts and Schooled in Song activist Jay Buchanan.
Buchanan and his band of highly skilled craftsman entertained an attentive audience for over an hour right as the sun was setting over Ocean Blvd. Buchanan certainly set the tone for personal freedom and happiness with new songs such as “Feel Better” and “Internal Dialogue,” singing “There is beauty everywhere… allow yourself the comfort of others.”
It was inspiring and brought the people together with a new sense of pride for their city and each other.
“It was really awesome to see how many different types of artists came out to support such an amazing cause,” Kristina Laney, 22, Long Beach resident said. “All the arts, poets, and musicians were very talented.”
After Buchanan’s set, there was some power trouble and the show was delayed about 30 minutes, giving the patrons a chance to visit the booths of several sponsors, screen-print a custom T-shirt, or browse the homemade art gallery in what looked like a garbage-dump-turned-walkthrough-display consisting of three cargo containers in a U-shape.
Rob Zabreky, one of the Magic Castle’s Trio, performed a magic show and Greg Navarro Pickens and Steve Ellicker gave a presentation on the future of Art Exchange, a multiuse art space planned for the “Broadway Block,” where the Goods Gallery now stands.
According to Justin Hectus, the event grossed nearly $8,000 and brought together over 500 people despite rain warnings. The Goods Gallery will soon be replaced with the Art Exchange and the containers housing local art are for sale on Ebay.
Jenny DuBois is a contributing news reporter and current journalism student at Long Beach City College.