Ever notice how well people pay attention to causes shouted through the microphones of amped musicians? Organizers at Northside Town Hall in Williamsburg did, which is why they got Brooklyn bands They Might Be Giants, Nada Surf and Charles Bissell (of Wrens) to plug in, tune up and use their mics to help raise money for a new community center at tonight’s Raise the Roof benefit concert. Jordan Galloway spoke with concert producer Mikki Haplin to find out what about these bands and the community center project makes tonight’s concert worth the rain-soaked trek to the Music Hall of Williamsburg.
How about starting with some background? How did the benefit concert come about?
The town hall has to raise $1 million dollars in the next year, in what we’re calling our capital campaign, to rehab the building and get open. The city gave us the building for $1. There have been various meetings amongst the people on the Town Hall Board. The town hall is two groups—People’s Firehouse and Neighbors of Allies for Good Growth- so those individual groups and the Town Hall group have all been trying to think of ways to raise money. Since I have put on a lot of benefit concerts—I did one for [Hurricane] Katrina that had 30 bands playing at the Knitting Factory—so for me personally, I knew I wanted to do a concert. The first bands I thought of were They Might Be Giants and Nada Surf.
Sounds like a good pairing. What was it about these bands?
Because they have lived in Williamsburg longer than I have actually. The people in both of those bands have lived here for 12 or 13 years. I think Matthew [Caws] and John Flansburgh have lived here for 15 or 16 years, so I knew they were really into the community, that they care about it and they’ve seen the changes that have happened and the changes that haven’t happened. They were my first choices.
So after you knew what bands you wanted, what did you do next? Just give them a call?
Yeah. I just called Matthew because I know him. This is a very Williamsburg story. He and I were walking down Bedford and we ran into John from They Might Be Giants and had a drink with him. I waited until after the drink was over and then I asked him, so it was very fortuitous. And Charles Bissell, who doesn’t live in our neighborhood, is a great guy and just seemed like the perfect person to round out the bill. I sent him an email and he graciously agreed to do it.
What about these bands, in particular, makes them ideal for this benefit?
Well besides being from around the way. I really hate to see the division that sometimes seems exaggerated and sometimes seems fair between sort of old timers and hipsters, and I think that these bands epitomize that those things are not at odds- they are old timers and they’re hipsters. And I’m hoping that with the show and the town hall and all these community things that the old timers can realize that the hipsters have things to offer and that the quote-unquote hipsters can get more involved in the neighborhood and maybe dispel a few stereotypes.
You’ll have a lot going on at the benefit concert besides just the bands. What can people expect from the event?
There’ll be some local elected officials. There’ll be some games of chance. There’s a thing to pin bricks on town hall where there’s a big town hall and people get blind folded and they can try and pin bricks on town hall to win prizes. Stuff like that. More community, grass-roots stuff.
As much as this event is a chance for people to hear great music from some awesome Brooklyn bands, it’s first and foremost a benefit concert, so what is it about Williamsburg that makes a community center important, and what can people expect from the center when it’s up and running?
Both People’s Firehouse and Neighbors for Allied Growth have done a lot of work for the communities in a variety of areas, but one thing that they’ve both done a lot of work in is displacement. In addition to people being at risk for displacement, so are non-profits and community groups. One thing that the town hall will do is give both these two longtime, neighborhood activists groups a permanent home, which is really important, and this is a neighborhood that is pretty underserved in terms of social services. In proportion to the number of people who are below the poverty level, there are only a few food pantries, a few soup kitchens. There are only a few beds for the homeless. The nearest place to get food stamps is pretty much in Bed Stuy, and people read a lot about gentrification, and they read a lot about hipsters, and they get off the train at Bedford and those clichés are certainly true, when you look around you; however, if you just go a few blocks off of Bedford, or any other stop, you’re going to see more of what the rest of the community is like. There’s a significant population of people who need help with basic things like affordable housing, and food and warmth, but everyone who lives here, regardless of the income level, has problems with their landlord, or wants to know how they can get their local park not so crappy, or wants to know why there are so many trucks driving down their streets. Both of these groups have helped people in all of these areas, and now this will be more of a one stop shop where people can go and either get their problems solved or have someone take their problem to the next level and really speak out for them.
What are the goals for tonight’s event?
The two main goals are obviously to raise money, but also this is the real, first introduction of the town hall to the community. There have been a few small events, but this is really the first big, high profile thing, so a real goal is for people to learn more about the town hall and find out how they can get involved to realize that they don’t just have to be a passive citizen of the neighborhood. They can really join in and be a part of something, and they can know that it will be there in the future if they needed it.
