Revised Report

On April 30, 2024 Arts Connect was contacted by Humble Hustle and invited to have Meditate and Create at their music festival, Not Your Average Weekend, as a vendor. This invitation was declined as vending was not part of the Arts Connect protocol. On May 15, Taylor Bush again contacted Arts Connect to invite Meditate and Create as an activity at their music festival. Although there were concerns this was not the best venue, after discussion all around it was decided that a Let’s Create a Sound Meditation could be in line with their event and we would try having the activity and see how it worked. From that point forward however, there were communication challenges getting answers regarding seating and other venue information. On May 31, I received an email from Myleah Akers of Humble Hustle with “run of show” information, which was very limited and not any more than I already had. When I called for clarification of some items and to determine availability of help to unload, I was met with resistance and told that was my responsibility. Myleah construed my request as expecting to have a dedicated person to unload and help me decorate my booth which I explained was not the case, that I needed help only to unload and set up my tent, which takes more than one person. With apparent reluctance Myleah said she would see what she could do. In retrospect I should have bowed out then but had already invested at least 10 hours of time and energy creating signage and gathering tent, chairs, tables, instruments and other items to create the experience for attendees.

Upon my arrival at noon Myleah was busy with another vendor so I asked for help from a gentleman putting up the sign for the Flower Petal area. He was willing to help me unload. In the meantime Myleah arrived and directed me to set up about 10 feet from the portable toilets. I asked if there was possibly another space since I felt being so close to the toilets was not conducive to what I was offering. I experienced attitude and was told that that was the space allotted. In order to maintain the peace and not create a problem I set up my booth at that location. After I got set up, around 2:00pm, there were no visible attendees at the event. Humble Hustle employees and volunteers were still busy getting set up. Laura, the other Arts Connect activity had arrived and gotten set up. We looked at the instruments I brought and she tried a couple and was very interested. She then had a couple of customers for portraits from the Humble Hustle group.

At 2:45pm a van from radio station WJJS arrived and parked next to Laura, who was next to me. The DJ proceeded to blast the vehicle vibrating bass their station is known for. This was not conducive at all to what Laura or I were doing and for me, physically intolerable. That sound and vibration makes me feel like I will explode and gives me a headache. I expressed this to Myleah and asked if there was anything we could do to have them move to another location. Myleah told me they had just arranged to have them there 2 days ago. I understand they would get a lot more benefit from the radio station than from my activity but also felt like this was not what we had agreed on. Myleah did move the van to face another direction but unfortunately that didn’t help much. Laura thanked me for speaking up and indicated that the sound and vibration of the radio station van was distressing to her as well. I went to Myleah again to request that perhaps for the time we were there we could turn the sound down significantly or off. Myleah said she would get to it as soon as she could but had other priorities. However, reluctantly before she left, she did turn off the sound but informed me that this was a music festival after all. At this time, there still were very few people in attendance. One woman came to the tent, interested to know what I was doing and I showed her some of the instruments and described what we would be doing. She shared she was a meditator but declined participation with just herself. I provided her with a catalogue and suggested she may want to have a Meditate and Create for her neighborhood.

After about 30 minutes of relief from the radio station van the booming bass sound and vibration was turned on again and with this and the fact that there were still very few people in attendance, I accepted it was time to end the experiment and pack up. When I took some things to my car, on my return I saw Xavier who was curious as to why I was leaving. I reminded him we had all agreed that if there was not interest after 2 hours we would end my participation and I would leave. Then Taylor came to my booth to see if everything was okay and I expressed to her that there had been several unpleasant interactions with Myleah, including regarding the radio station van. Had I known they would be there I would not have even set up.

Within moments, Xavier and Myleah came to the tent and Xavier apologized for the challenges and had Myleah apologize also. I accepted their apology and told them we did our best to make it work but it was not the right type of venue. Xavier said he could see it was suited to a more intimate environment and he would look at doing something at another date in the future and would be in touch.

At the end, Myleah did express that she felt overwhelmed because she is going to nursing school, working and in charge of the event. I can relate. However, in all my years of doing events, both indoor and outdoor (25+), as an organizer and a vendor, the level of disrespect I experienced was not warranted and very stressful.

I did my best to gracefully represent Arts Connect and express what was needed to do that. I did not want anything to be a wrinkle in the relationship of Humble Hustle with the Arts Connect program. I realized that neither Taylor or Myleah are knowledgeable about meditation or what I was trying to provide. This was coupled with inexperience in running an event. This contributed to the attitude that I was acting entitled when all I was doing was operating with the agreements we had made and attempting to provide an environment where the activity could be successful. We were invited to participate and I believe neither Taylor nor Myleah knew how to handle that participation because I observed that Myleah presented differently with the paying vendors.

When I returned the chairs from the neighborhood kit, I was happy to learn that the Humble Hustle event had been a big success as it was “packed” later in the day.

In the future I will listen and follow my inner knowing. I only wanted to share what I had to offer with the community.

Perhaps Katie or Doug could connect with Xavier and ensure any misunderstandings have been resolved and suggest and/or arrange another venue and date to provide this activity to their community.