Sharing Privilege, Collective Energy, Identity

Scott on top of the dome during installation, Summer of 2017

People regularly share comments with us that relate to Smokestack's identity in Dubuque. So often, it's the encouragement we need to go forward. Just a few to share, mostly from customers who have become friends: "The two of you have created a safe space in Dubuque," and "Change [needed to achieve greater equity] is happening in Dubuque and it's happening faster because you are here and doing this," and "I feel safe in two places in Dubuque: my apartment and Smokestack," and "Because the two of you are here in Dubuque, because you are doing this in Dubuque, I can be in Dubuque." 

Scott articulated long before Smokestack opened that he wanted it to be a place where people of all kinds would gather together for shared positive experiences. That has mainly happened and we feel part of it is due to the energy of this property, but part of it is Scott and me and our having grown up in New York City. I view us as citizens of the world, which kind of defines the word "cosmopolitan." I stunned a Dubuque friend last year by calling him "cosmopolitan" while stating that I feel Scott and I are cosmopolitan people with a cosmopolitan idea in Smokestack. He was stunned that I would think of him as cosmopolitan. He considers himself an "Iowa farm boy,"and that may be true of him in one way, but all people have many layers. To me, this man and so many others I know from this region are at least as cosmopolitan as he apparently thinks Scott and I are. There are times in my four years in Dubuque when I have felt that being a "citizen of the world" has meant that I am without a true home, but that's another aspect of Scott's and my story that may or may not be shared one day.

Underground, inside the real smokestack

Last June, I was asked to speak at an Inclusive Dubuque event about how we try to be inclusive at Smokestack. Inclusion, to me, is basically an aspect of being a citizen of the world - that you accept and respect new people and new experiences in your life, even though it may sometimes be difficult to be truly open. I spoke about a lot of things that day, like how we view employees as colleagues, that we strive to make Smokestack a place that is inclusive and respectful of everyone and that it does not always work even when trying our hardest, and that we've personally experienced a degree of inequity in Dubuque that we did not anticipate and that I often think experiencing that is part of why we are in Dubuque in the first place. I ended on the subject of privilege, that Scott and I recognize how privileged and fortunate we are, that just being able to pick up and move as we did for the purpose of creating something like Smokestack is an undeniable privilege, but that we both believe the real point in having privilege is to stretch your hand out and bring others up with you, that there is no point in having privilege if you don't share it to the benefit of others.

Scott and I are not one person, but we are basically like-minded and agree on most things though we challenge each other all the time. We adapted an Armenian wedding tradition for our wedding ceremony in the front parlor of our Brooklyn home in 2005: we placed our foreheads together in a moment of silence so that we would be of one mind in our life together. I do think this small action had deeper impact on us than we thought it would, even though we already held similar beliefs. Those shared beliefs have helped shape Smokestack and its identity, just as the property itself has, but much of Smokestack's identity actually rises from others. They imagine Smokestack in ways we have not yet and they help make a fluid, changing Smokestack into reality.

And so, Q&A #5 of Dominic Velando's unpublished 2016 interview for Grain, the former magazine of the Dubuque Area Arts Collective. The last paragraph of our answer is all Scott: for someone who people think rarely speaks, he has huge things to say. 


Dominic Velando
The Smokestack’s identity stands out in this town... How would you describe how that identity has developed? Has it met your expectations for the kinds of crowds and acts you want there?  

Scott & Susan

On the Rooftop with a Manhattan
Imagining can become reality

People at Smokestack and in our life in Dubuque are primarily the young and the young at heart, the dreamers, people open to new things, grown-ups with a sense of whimsy and irreverence - these are personally true of us as well. Smokestack is an “everybody, everyday” place, an authentic and beautiful space to be accepted for your authentic and beautiful self, in which we want all people to be safe, empowered and enjoying life. Our goal is to enable others to have a forum for their own growth, celebrations and creativity, a space used for art and performances of all kinds, private and public events, for just hanging out and being.

Watching the development of Smokestack is fascinating: it’s something we have been in a position to enable, but the course and ultimate result is beyond our abilities and imaginings alone because it is guided by the demands of the building and by the creative input of everyone, the collective consciousness, if you will. Nabokov wrote, “Who knows from whence comes that gentle nudge that jars a man’s soul into motion and sets it rolling, doomed never again to cease.” The collective energy of everyone associated - our patrons, our contractors, our employees, our friends, and others too - has set Smokestack in motion and even if this incarnation of the building eventually falls to the relentless tides of the river or to the steady march of the tree of heaven, the energy that has summoned people to this spot for thousands of years will never cease.

Next is Q&A #6, when Dominic asked if there were a time when we almost gave up. Oh boy.


Related posts: Smokestack Q&A 1, Smokestack Q&A 2, Smokestack Q&A 3, Smokestack Q&A 4