Community Spotlight: Smithfield Creatives
“We hold meaning because of all the people around us, and in turn, those around you find some meaning in their life because you exist. Art elevates us … We are meant to be more than the means to someone else’s end.”
Hari AKA Thought Brownie
https://theweeklyshuffle.substack.com/p/in-the-beginning?sort=new
Smithfield Creativeshost Musical Showdown in The Wild Duck Temple Bar every Wednesday and an Open Mic Night in Wigwam Abbey Street every Thursday.
On the 21st of May, I visited the Open Mic Night.
Although it usually takes place in the Wigwam basement, this week it was on in the rooftop terrace as evening summer light streamed through the cracks and everyone’s fear of rain slowly frittered away. My hesitancy (as it was my first open mic night) also subsided in no time as I was immediately welcomed by the creator and VibeSmith of Smithfield Creatives himself, Adam Kelly.
Adam told me of its beginnings: bringing instruments, a few mates and a microphone out onto Smithfield square five years ago to share (socially distanced!) long-missed music, words and communal expression together. Ever since, Smithfield Creativeshas been all about getting everyone together to share a bit of creativity for creativity’s sake. Throughout, hosted locations have shifted from spots in Smithfield to other outer city pubs such as the Bernard Shaw until the wandering, pilgrim microphone finally found two homes in both of their lovely inner-city locations mentioned above.
Adam and I chatted more about The Musical Showdown that happens every Wednesday with 132 acts in 8 months, large-scale, tournament style, leading to the epic finale in October. It is essentially a battle of the bands but solo acts are just as welcome! For any musicians reading, applications for the final installment of The Musical Showdown will be live the 1st of June. The event functions as an amazing opportunity to give back to local artists as every five euro ticket bought all goes towards the bands competing and lets the audience vote for their winner with a good old pen and paper. Smithfield Creatives also financially supports artists through the paid feature bands at the end of every Open Mic Night and supports Dubliners by allowing us to perform at and be at these three hour exhibitions of talent for free! The Open Mic lasts from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.; you can sign up for a five minute slot from 6:45 p.m. onwards and can get a ten minute slot if you sign up beforehand.
Before the acts and during the breaks, I wanted to get to know some of the recurring and new performers and gain an insight into what they find to be so special about these Open Mic Nights. At the beginning of the night, I was introduced to Hari (@thethoughtbrownie), a consistent performer and writer for the Smithfield Creatives Weekly Shuffle Newspaper. Thought Brownie thought Open Mic Nights were profoundly important because they are a space to fail and fail and connect with your art more through failing. He reflected on how our digitilised world often only shares the final curated representations of self, music, art; a band won’t post their rehearsals but only their edited, drafted music video, etc. Therefore, this can make creating art and reflecting on our own processes so daunting because we only see the ‘perfect’ finalities of everyone else’s work all of the time. However, Open Mic Nights let you see art in the real world, the process of becoming and practising and changing: performing for others in real time means that the experience is just that: real.
Later, when I asked the recurring singer, dancer and writer, Gabriel (@gabe_has_arrived) how he would characterise the Smithfield Creatives Open Mic Night, he said something like this:
“The vibe is very cosy, I call it a safe space for everyone to show their art. What brought me here was the fact that poets and writers were really accepted as well because usually open mics are framed as mostly for singers and bands and I always felt that to be very intimidating … Here sometimes I sing, sometimes I play the piano, read short stories … It's a safe space for all kinds of creatives … And Adam is such an amazing organiser, the way he welcomes, the way he celebrates you after performing; it’s really the best”.
And I couldn't have agreed more with both of them. It being my first proper open mic night, I was struck by how fast the night went because of how every act was so different, it felt like the night kept beginning and beginning…. Similar to the constancy of the microphone throughout the alternating locations of Smithfield Creative’s journey, I got to sit back and listen as one microphone contained all of these limitless, flitting varieties:
A peaceful guitar harmony which was both Nick Drake and completely new: @luis_magni_
An operatic rendition of a song from the melancholy musical, Waitress: @gabe_has_arrived
A grungy, multi-lingual cover of “Marian” by Sisters of Mercy: @go_kart_sarcophagus_prods
A hopeful ode to egolessness and the beauty in you and you and you: @thethoughtbrownie
A clever, cheeky, linguistically rich couple of new album songs: @adventures_of_roisin_rose
A clarinet and electric guitar create a sound of grief and story together: @gonzomusic__
A true acoustic singer songwriter sit-down with a name as cool as the songs: @rolex.sanchez
A hip, lilty, romantic and catchy song that gave a real summer-youth feeling: @dricco3_
A meup there to read a bit of poetry because the other artists inspired me so to sign up: @ben_lynch__
An immersive classic-rock (The Behan Brothers) that miniaturised a gig: @paulhulmmusic
A poet’s notes on Dublin, hungover trains and how “life brutalised art”: @jan_con
A heartwrenching, guitar-strumming, fontaines-DC performance (Punter Band): @keller_0900
And finally, the night’s headliner: @tristanrenemusic.
When Tristan Rene and his amazing drummer and guitarists all finished, the artist was able to write his name up on the Smithfield Creatives board alongside all of the other featured acts before … and with that the night had come to a close. Tristan’s music blew the already fractured roof off of the place altogether and his electric guitar solos and Thom Yorke high-notes was the pinnacle of a real rock star exhibition. Getting to chat to Tristan, he put it simply: “Open Mic Nights share the love of art, connect with people and allow for the diverse freedom of expression”.
All of the acts that were captured in this one week will never be captured again; even if the same performers return, every act will be different again and that’s the beauty of Open Mic Nights. It was lovely getting to meet Adam and see him running the one man show of – host, DJ, tech man, impromptu drummer, poet, recorder and as earlier stated, vibesmith – and see the community which he helped to create.
To find out more about @smithfieldscreatives, such as other festivals, battle of the bands, newsletters and words, art and people, check them out and their Patreon and all of the profiles tagged in this article for more!
Written By: Ben Lynch
Edited By: Kirsten Baldwin
