Piccolo Spoleto Changes Lives

 

 2024 Poster by Tate Nation

                My life changed in 1979 as I stood on the empty lot that would become Charleston Place Hotel and hollered over my shoulder, “OK parade, follow me!” A cheer went up and hundreds of colorful characters snaked behind me down King Street.  I actually don’t know how it happened.  Seems like divine providence because I wasn’t even part of the arts community in those days.  I was an elementary school teacher.  Most likely I was not the first person that the Office of Cultural Affairs had asked to organize the Piccolo Spoleto parade, just the first one that said yes.  I recruited my eccentric friend Jules Garvin who lived in a jam-packed costume shop on the corner of King and Calhoun Streets.  Volunteers raided his racks and became an instant circus troupe; art teachers made two-story tall puppets and a high school band showed up.  The jolt of excitement I felt when the parade started marching super changed me into the rest of my creative life. 

The Top Notes Piano Ensemble

                When I moved to Charleston from Ann Arbor I was shocked by the relative lack of cultural activities.  But Spoleto and Piccolo changed everything.  In my subsequent career as the founder and director of the art center Creative Spark, we had several roles with Piccolo Spoleto.  For many years, we produced the children’s festival in Marion Square where multiple stages of local talent delighted crowds of families.  In partnership with the Charleston Housing Authority we ran Storefront School for the Arts in several locations.  Kids painted, danced, wrote and sang under the guidance of local teaching artists.  This year I will perform again with my 8-hand piano ensemble The Top Notes at the noontime concert series at Circular Church. (May 29 at noon, free.)  We look forward to this show all year.  And for several years I’ve written about the festivals for local newspapers.   I’ve also attended countless performances and heard many people tell of how it’s affected them.

The Jewish Choral Society

                Madeline Hershenson talks about her 19 years directing the Jewish Choral Society as being about more than the music.  The choir was comprised of people from various religions and musical experiences.  The diverse repertoire ranged from sacred hymns to show tunes by Jewish composers.  They sang exotic songs in Hebrew, English, Aramaic and Ladino. “What is Jewish music anyway?” she asked.  The singers became a close knit group and their joy and enthusiasm radiated to the audiences.  Friendships formed across age differences and backgrounds. “Peace was created,” Madeline said.

                Greg Tavares credits Piccolo Spoleto with changing his life’s trajectory.  “I would never have moved to Charleston in 1995 if I had not spent the few summers before working at Store Front School for the Arts.  I was 24 years old when I first came to town.  I knew right away that I had to move here.  I credit Piccolo Spoleto with why I live and work here today.”  Along with Brandy Sullivan and Timmy Finch, Greg founded Theatre 99 in 2000 which presents imrov comedy all year, five days a week.  His own troupe The Have Nots is frequently on stage.   In 2001 they began producing Piccolo Fringe, a comedy series for the festival. “Local groups like Mary Kay Has a Posse play on the same stage as the national acts we bring in,” Greg describes to emphasize the valuable opportunities for local talent.  Now, Theatre 99 is one of our city’s cultural mainstays.

The Have Nots

            Tate Nation, Piccolo’s only 3-time poster artist, appreciates the advantage that having his paintings in marketing and on merchandise has had.   He says, “My involvement with Piccolo Spoleto has had, and continues to have, a tremendous impact on my life and career as an artist. This year’s festival will mark my 25th year as an exhibitor in the Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Exhibition. Much of my focus throughout the entire year is aimed towards creating new paintings in preparation for my exhibit. I’ve met and become good friends with many of the region’s most incredible and prominent creatives, and a large part of my business throughout the entire year results from customers and clients who I’ve met while exhibiting there.”

Tate Nation's "Back Doors"

                The festivals run concurrently but unlike Spoleto, all of Piccolo performances are either free or low cost and the talent is drawn from the Southeastern region.  It’s also much bigger with over 700 performances in 17 days.  Like Spoleto though, it’s highly curated and spans the literary, visual and performing arts.  As our city fills with the vibrancy of the festivals, it’s worth taking a moment to consider how they’ve enriched our cultural landscape.  They’ve brought entertainment, broadened our horizons and provided opportunities for creativity to flourish.

If You Go:

Piccolo Spoleto will be May 23 to June 8, 2025.  For a complete schedule, please see https://www.piccolospoleto.com/

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Cooking in Colorful Oaxaca

 

                                                                                               

                Oaxaca is the kind of place where people celebrate every occasion with a parade.  You might come upon several in a day:  brides and grooms sashaying out of churches surrounded by marching bands, twirling dancers in colorful skirts and giant puppets.  There are vibrant murals of playful skeletons painted on houses, streets strung with cut paper banners and thriving artisan traditions that stretch back centuries. 

                Oaxaca, Mexico is also famous for its cuisine which has roots in pre-Hispanic Zapotec culture.  Fascinated by the flavors and unfamiliar ingredients, Mark and I booked a day to cook with Chef Miguel Alvarez at Quinta Brava. He’d returned to his home town to start this cooking school after working in several restaurants around the world. “I decided to go back home and continue learning about my heritage and about proper Oaxacan cooking cuisine like in my grandmother’s cooking.  I traveled around the state of Oaxaca to learn about techniques, flavors, and procedures to try to go back to the roots of…ancient Oaxacan cuisine cooked like in the villages in generations before.”

                 His large compound, just outside of town, has been in his family for generations.  Next to his house are gardens of fresh herbs, goats, chickens and a fat pig named Bacon. Dogs roll in the grass. There is an indoor kitchen with an electric stove and an outdoor kitchen with fire pits topped by comals (huge flat griddles).  Shelves are stacked with tortilla presses and walls are full of hanging utensils.  We joined ten other visitors at a shady table and talked about what we hoped to cook.  Miguel took notes and sent us off to the neighborhood market to shop. 

        Tables overflowed with a kaleidoscope of colorful vegetables and fruits: varieties of bananas in shades of yellow, huge green cactus leaves and orange and red tomatoes. We gathered up bunches of cilantro, tomatoes, garlic and several kinds of chili, peanuts, plantains, limes, quesillo cheese and squash blossoms.  We asked the vendors about pitayas, a red fruit with a spiny skin, dared each other to try the chapulines (grasshoppers) and bought handfuls of pale yellow sugar mangoes to take back to the hotel.  We learned that the white limestone rocks that were piled on tables are used to soak corn kernels to make them digestible before they’re ground.

                When we returned, wood fires were burning.  First we learned how to grind the corn into masa on a flat stone called a metate.  It’s a tricky technique that looks simple when the Mexicans do it.  Then the masa was formed into tortillas in a wooden press and laid on the very hot comal.  “Flip it once to seal in the water and a second time to puff it up,” we were told.  We stuffed our tortillas with squash blossoms and cheese.  They looked like art projects.    

                “Mole is a sauce… it was an offering for the Gods in pre-Hispanic time,” Miguel explained as he pointed out the ten little bowls stretched along a table.  Each was for a different mole or salsa we were going to make so we divided into small groups and proceeded according to his instructions.  My group had an unusual assortment of peanuts, sesame seeds, tomatoes, onion and a variety of peppers and spices.  He showed us how to toast the spices and then the nuts very quickly in a hot pan.  We charred the tomatoes by putting them right onto coals in the fire.  “The kind of wood you use becomes part of the recipe,” Miguel said.  Once that was done, we boiled everything in a pot with some broth and then blended it until smooth.                 

                

We used the moles and salsas to top the tamales and tacos we made.   We also made pozole which turned out to be the class’ favorite.  It’s a rich soup made from prepared corn and a variety of peppers, broth and spices.  It took hours to make and eat the wonderful feast.  But there was still a dessert made from mashed plantains and bread crumbs along with our choices of nuts, chocolate, coconut and cinnamon, rolled into balls and deep fried. 

                Quite full and happy, we poured toasts of mezcal and relaxed in the lovely garden.  A few days later Miguel sent us the recipes.  I’ll do my best to replicate them but without the colorful town of Oaxaca surrounding my kitchen they may not taste the same.  

For More information please see Quita Brava