Getting Art(ists) Out Into the World While Everyone’s Staying Home

The timing couldn’t have been worse for Alyssandra Nighswonger. After several months of planning and curating an immersive art experience to coincide with the release of Nighswonger Sings Nilsson (as in Harry Nilsson, contents self-explanatory), the country slid into shutdown mode just days before the show’s scheduled date.

“There would have been paper art installations to transport the audience to the Land of Point!” she says (referencing Nilsson’s sixth album and its accompanying animated feature film). “There would have been projections! There would have been an album included with admission! I would have worn a colorful dress and played with a damn fine band featuring [Nilsson’s son] Zak on drums!”

In other words, it would have been typical of the kind of the kind thing Long Beach mainstay Nighswonger has put on over the years. In 2010, she produced a Vaudeville Folk Spectacular at the Art Theatre of Long Beach, which in addition to a variety of musical performances featured tap dancers, poetry, a cross-dressed, gossipy recitation of a short work by Russian absurdist writer, and “amazing feats of strength by Strong Bear” (you had to be there). Over the next decade came similarly eclectic experiences (what else to call them?). “Illumatory Interlude” at the Long Beach Museum of Art included fire dancers and a shadow-puppet version of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros. An album-release show at the Packard for an album by frequent collaborator Ellen Warkentine included two floors of themed art installations and moving human statuary.  

There’s also been a host of facilitatory and behind-the-scenes work, including social media for the Long Beach Folk Revival Festival and ten years of hosting Viento y Agua’s weekly open mic, which she celebrated with (what else?) a ten-hour open mic.

But with live entertainment in a holding pattern (at least in parts of the world where public policy vis-à-vis health and welfare is guided by science), over the last six months Nighswonger—who in addition to putting on events has regularly gigged solo and with various bands—has been something of a fish out of water. What does a local musician cum impresario do during the time of COVID-19? 

Well, you do something. From April 30 and August 27 Nighswonger put together weekly open mics via Zoom, and from May 2 to August 8 she collaborated with We Love LB to bring local music to neighborhoods (because if the mountain will not come to Muhammad…) via trolley.

“Each time we would go to a sponsored neighborhood, and the trolley would slowly drive up and down every street with the musician on the back playing for people who would come out into their front yards,” she says. “Social-distance-friendly entertainment at its finest. I was the musician a few times, but I really liked getting other musicians connected, too. It felt really good to get some artists paid gigs when shows dried up. […] It’s not just about accomplishing my own goals: there’s also this question of how to give space for other people and other artists. The open mic was only half about being a performance space; it was also about creating a safe space to share feelings, experiences, and struggles—and to encourage artists to keep going.”
Last month Nighswonger tried her hand at live streaming with A Very Wes Anderson Birthday Stream, using her birthday (not Anderson’s) as an excuse to solicit from the area music community video recordings in one way or another tied to Anderson’s oeuvre, which features a songbook reaching from Hank Williams to Elliott Smith. Submissions ranged from the straightforward to silly (The Royal Tenenbaums tent scene “acted” by a dog and cat) to inspired. Highlights in the last category included Freddie Dilsdale’s “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” (featured in Moonrise Kingdom) seemingly recorded with a cheap cassette player and with lyrics rendered kid-style in crayon (both touches cleverly apropos of the film) and Fellow Robot’s Anthony Pedroza’s version of The Kinks’ “Strangers” (from The Darjeeling Limited), with Pedroza tripled and costumed as all three of the Whitman brothers in what serves as an effective DIY promotional video for the film.

A Very Wes Anderson Birthday Stream —

Overall, though, it wasn’t anything fancy or polished, just a creative way to get her community together in an effort to keep spirits high and artmakers motivated. Encouraged by the results, she says more such events may be in the offing. 

“Looking forward to the next time we can get together to do some big multimedia projects,” Nighswonger said during the show. “In the meantime, let’s do this.”
For all things Nighswonger, visit alyssandranighswonger.com.