The COVID-19 crisis has turned life on its head for all of us in different ways, and as much as we are are in full support of those who are taking this time to slow down, go inward and pull back from the world, we wanted to highlight a handful of local creatives and entrepreneurs who have inspired us these past few weeks. These three folks quickly went into “hustle overdrive,” implementing new projects geared to help others, lift spirits and bring the community together through creative ways despite the current challenges.
“Look for the helpers.” It’s a Mr. Rogers quote that has surfaced time and time again during challenging times – sometimes ad nauseum, but it feels particularly relevant when framing this article.
If you have encountered “helpers” during this challenging time who you’d like to submit for consideration to be featured in the future, please email this magazine’s editor, Saraya Brewer, at saraya@smileypete.com.
In April, Sarah Smitha spearheaded “Front Yard Art Show,” a community art project suitable for social distancing. The second installment will take place May 9-10. Photo by Theresa Stanley
Sarah Smitha
Founder and owner of Candy Mountain Music
Sarah Smitha has built a career out of encouraging creativity in children. Her business, Candy Mountain Music, provides musical play sessions for babies, toddlers and kids up to age 9. And while the COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily taken away Smitha’s ability to hold in-person sessions, it hasn’t stopped her from spreading joy through music and art. Smitha has been sharing free, virtual musical play sessions to help families have fun and bond at home via the Candy Mountain Music Facebook page, and also spearheaded a popular event in April called the Lexington Front Yard Art Show. The community-based, drive-by art show showcased works created by families and individuals, and were placed on display in front yards for drivers to view from their cars. The first installment took place April 4-5, and was so well received that Smitha immediately put in plans for a round two, which will take place on Mother’s Day weekend, May 9-10.
Smitha said that the idea came to her during the first full week that schools and businesses were closed.
“I could feel a build-up of dread via social media,” she said. “I made a post on my personal Facebook page suggesting that everyone decorate the outside of their houses and make really cool art for their front yards so we could all drive around to look at it….I said it in a slightly joking way, but the comments grew, and before I knew it, I had created a Facebook event for Front Yard Art Show Lex and hundreds of people began sharing it.”
After posting the event on Facebook, Smitha created a simple Google form to collect addresses from those who planned to participate and then pinned them on a shareable map that anyone could access. (Addresses are kept anonymous for security purposes.)
“The biggest challenge was to just let it be simple,” she said. “I kept thinking I needed a website and other ‘big’ things, but I also didn’t want to feel overwhelmed by this project. So I had to breathe and remind myself that everything was going to be perfectly fine just the way it was.”
Smitha said her favorite part about the event was seeing the wide range of the types of art people created – scenes were made using stuffed animals and props, decorated trees, handmade sculptures and window art, and even some paintings on canvases, shared gallery-style.
“I saw art created by families and kids, political statements, and banners of hope,” she said. She said she was humbled and surprised by the enthusiasm and support that the event garnered by the community. “I loved how inclusive it was. That weekend, the event was shared everywhere, and people were so happy to have a reason to get out and do something fun.”
“I heard from so many who created the art that, in a time of heightened anxiety, it gave them something to focus on and was extremely healing and cathartic, she said. “I saw people waving at each other and so many smiles as everyone drove around neighborhoods – it brought our community together that weekend.”
For info on how to participate in or check out the second Front Yard Art Show, search for “Front Yard Art Show Lex 2” on Facebook.
Kayti McMyermick
Owner and Performer, Tinderbox Circus Sideshow, and Operations Manager/Local and Regional Talent Buyer at Cosmic Charlie’s
Kayti McMyermick is known locally for her daring feats as Trashique, one half of the duo that makes up the Tinderbox Circus Sideshow. A performer for more than a decade, Kayti and her partner, Zac Crouch, aka Captain Darron von Awesome, formed the performance troupe in the fall of 2010. While McMyermick has any number of side projects happening at all times, her current primary focus has been on her work managing and booking acts at music venue Cosmic Charlie’s. With the inability to host shows for a live audience during the COVID-19 crisis, Kayti quickly came up with a plan to livestream shows and provide a virtual “tip jar,” keeping fresh new entertainment available to folks at home while providing an income stream to support the venue and local performers during the shutdown.
“It was something I had discussed with our staff to add to the venue prior to closing to the public, so when all of this hit, it was an automatic response,” McMyermick said, citing a Kansas City venue called Westport Saloon, that has livestreamed all of its live shows for several years. At the onset of Governor Beshear’s directive to shut down “non-essential” businesses, McMyermick quickly got to work researching everything about broadcasting that she could find. The streams were ready to launch within a couple of days, thanks to the help of some friends who donated both equipment and know-how.
The decision to get started quickly after shutdowns were enacted was partly financial and partly to provide entertainment. “When we first closed to the public, we did the math and figured out roughly what we needed to generate per week to be able to reopen once it’s safe to do so. The three of us who produce the streams are collecting unemployment at this point and not making anything from the streams, so it’s really just about making sure that we and the rest of our staff have jobs to come back to, and keeping a space for independent artists and musicians alive in Lexington.”
So far, the shows are meeting that goal. “Our average at this point is right above that goal, and we couldn’t be more grateful to those who have kept us afloat thus far,” McMyermick said, though she added that,“the future is still very uncertain, with no definite end date in sight.”
McMyermick said that in some ways, the livestream shows, dubbed “COVIDcasts,” are very much like regular shows.
Kayti McMyermick, the operations manager for Cosmic Charlie’s, helped usher the music venue into hosting livestream ‘concerts’ to a virtual audience several nights a week. Photo by Sarah Cahill
“In other ways, things are very different. Where the audience would normally stand on our floor is now my whole broadcast station, with computers, cameras, audio interfaces and all the equipment we use for the stream itself. Then, of course, there’s all the sanitizing of all surfaces and equipment at the beginning and end of each night. We wear face masks, do lots of hand washing, and never have more than ten people — usually less — in the room. It’s artists and necessary staff only.”
For the artists, the experience can be unusual.
“From what I’ve gathered from speaking with our featured artists, everyone who’s rolled through our room for the livestreams comes out of it feeling a combination of ways,” she said. “Some really enjoy the stripped down feel, and some don’t. Some feel strange performing to an empty room, while others don’t. But the overwhelming response has been one of appreciation and support.”
That support is also coming from the displaced audiences, and Kayti sees the livestreams as something that she wants to keep going, even when the venue is eventually open to the public again.
“There have always been music fans for whom going to live music venues is not an option. Live streaming has wonderful potential to help anyone and everyone experience live performances in an interactive, social environment, even after the era of COVID-19 passes.”
While it’s impossible to say right now what the future holds for the entertainment industry, McMyermick said, her experience with the COVIDcasts has helped her maintain an attitude of gratitude and hope.
“The incredibly eclectic array of local Lexington talent has come through – every night is so different, but it’s always fantastic,” she said. “We have such an amazingly creative community in Lexington, and I hope we can show that to a wider audience that may not have known before that there is so much talent right in their backyard.”
Dan Wu
Owner, Atomic Ramen
As the pandemic started to take its toll in Lexington, restaurateur Dan Wu knew that his restaurant might be closed during the pandemic, but also that there was no way he’d be able to “sit on his hands and do nothing,” as he says. The owner of Atomic Ramen quickly joined forces with a group of like-minded food-industry entrepreneurs to enact a program designed to help unite and lift up small businesses. Within the first days that businesses were forced to shut their doors, he had helped put together a small team of “go-getters” to spearhead the LexUnite movement (www.lexunite.com), a user-friendly website highlighting and featuring links to purchase gift cards for nearly 100 small businesses. The project went from concept to launch in five days.
“Once LexUnite was launched, we started thinking of other pressing needs in the community — namely, helping all the restaurant industry workers affected by the pandemic,” Wu said. With the infrastructure and financial assistance from the LEE Initiative, a national organization based out of Louisville, a team that included Wu and Samantha Fore (chef/owner of the pop-up restaurant Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites) was able to launch the Restaurant Workers Relief Program, which provides free meals and essential supplies to out-of-work restaurant workers and others in need. Operating out of Great Bagel’s Boston Road location, the organization had overseen distribution of more than 4,300 meals at the time this magazine went to print, as well as thousands of dollars worth of household items like diapers, wipes, hygiene products, and canned food.
At the same time, Wu jumped on another opportunity to support the community by starting a new online conversation series, called “LEX Get Through This Together,” which he currently broadcasts via Facebook Live.
Designed to highlight ways that different people in the community are getting through the crisis, the show “is an excuse to have conversations and connect with people I love, admire, and am interested to talk to,” Wu said. So far he has featured Rabbi Shlomo Litvin from Chabad of the Bluegrass, Zarin Froukh from Habibi’s, and councilmember Jennifer Reynolds. Upcoming episodes feature small business owners, teachers, doctors, nonprofit heroes, reporters and even a punk band, Wu said.
“It’s more incumbent on us than ever to work together for the common good,” Wu said. “I don’t believe we will see ‘normal’ like we did before this crisis, but I think we have a terrific opportunity to innovate and create new paradigms for how to do business and how to positively impact our community.”