Nelson George & Arthur Baker Talk Creative Communities
with a little help from a surprise 'guest'

Sitting front row and engaging in eye contact it felt like the legendary hip-hop film maker and writer was talking directly to me. As it was there were a few others in attendance for a Keynote talk at this Liverpool Sound City 2012 event back in May.

We had all come to listen to Nelson George and his long time friend Arthur Baker discuss the Creative Communities phenomenon and what drives certain areas in the world to become centres for an explosion of creativity that effect other parts of the globe.

Nelson suggested that geography / location, the economy and 'a catalyst' can all be reasons for a specific area to flourish. With his recent film 'Brooklyn Boheme' he explores his theory by looking at his own experiences in Fort Greene, Brooklyn during the 80s & 90s. Highlighting how a kid named Shelton Lee, who's father was a Jazz musician, had started to make a name for himself making movies in college. The bike riding 'Spike' was a fixture of the community that lead him to meeting amongst others Chuck D & Favor Flav, which in turn lead to the hip-hop legends featuring on the soundtrack for Lee's classic Brooklyn movie Do The Right Thing. The film also featured another 'neighbour', Rosie Perez.

Other names that were around the Fort Greene area included Chris Rock (Nelson & Chris would write rap parody CB4 together), Talib Kweli & Saul Williams. The latter being part of the spoken word movement based out of the Brookyn Moon Cafe that attracted young poets that would become recording artists themselves, Erykah Badu, Mos Def & Common.

Fort Greene itself had been vacated during the 1970s, where 'white flight', crime and budget cuts damaged the area, creating cheap rent in beautiful Brownstones for the creatives to take advantage of. Nelson recalled "I had a 2 floor apartment for $600 a month!".

In conclusion geography, economics and a catalyst (Spike Lee) all played a part in the creative community of Fort Greene.

Nelson and Arthur are currently seeing how this idea translates to a 'little town' in Southwest Ohio called Dayton. During the 70s this small city gave rise to a funk scene like no other. populated by migrating workers from the Southern States grew a community in Dayton that gave us The Ohio Players, Slave, Heatwave and many, many more. A documentary will be made with their findings.

The cherry on the cake for this fascinating day was the 'appearance' of Sire Records legend Seymour Stein (The Ramones, Talking Heads, Madonna) who added to the discussion with his insight into the various Jazz communities of the US and the punk/new wave scene of the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

A great thanks must go to the Liverpool Sound City organisers for bringing these legends to our city. The year before we were able to listen to Afrika Bambaata and Ernie Paniccoli. I am already looking forward to who we see next year...

@PitchKitsch
@nelsongeorge
www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk