THE HISTORY OF MATRIX part 1|2|3|4|5|6

by Tony Brewer.

BEGINNINGS

MATRIX held its first poetry reading on the first Wednesday in March 1999, and our first readers were David Wade, Paul Kirby, Wade Van Orman, John Pearson, and myself. We had secured indefinitely the back room at Soma, then a relatively new coffeehouse and juice bar in town eager to break into the scene -- apparently any scene as Soma also hosted live acoustic and electric music, DJs, and literary discussions in its early days.

Even then, though, that basement room with low, pipe-filled ceilings, ratty couches, and vaguely Pueblo-Santerian motifs (picture a Mario Bros. opium den decorated by Greg Brady) was filled to capacity, and with few exceptions has been standing room only -- often spilling into the hallway -- every first Wednesday of the month since.

Armed with our post office box, donation jar, traveling library, and a desire to put new and under-exposed poets in the spotlight, MATRIX began gathering submissions, some through the mail, some from folks John or I met at readings or on campus, and some from friends whom we'd never have suspected would be into "that kind of thing": writing poetry let alone reading it. Out loud. In front of people.

ARTISTS IN WAITING

There was something missing from the mix, though: visual as well as literary arts. Unfortunately, we simply weren't getting art submissions.

Part of the problem, I believe, is the amount of time, effort, and money it takes for a visual artist to prepare a submission (much less works for exhibition), and considering we had little to offer in return, asking for that kind of commitment to an infant NFP may have been a bit much.

Moreover, while John and I were fairly well connected in literary circles, we were relatively unknown in the visual art worlds of Bloomington and IU. It didn't take long for word of the opportunity to spread, though. The first artist to present work at a monthly reading was Ted Giffin in June 1999. From then on, we fostered the same level of trust and enthusiasm for visual art as we had for poetry.

As a result, MATRIX eventually brokered the sale of hundreds of dollars of artwork without losing the sense of community that had made MATRIX so inviting to emerging artists.

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