DIY festival darlings return to Lansing's east side

StoopFest brings national acts and focuses on improving accessibility.

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Dom Korzecke built a reputation in the Lansing DIY music scene by hosting a series of shows at his home. With connections in the Mid-Michigan house show circuit, Korzecke decided to launch a new project in 2016.

“A lot of the times DIY shows and performances that happen in houses can feel exclusionary,” Korzecke said. “I wanted to take that cool experience which is DIY music and hopefully open it up to a broader community and allow people to come together for a day.”

The founder of StoopFest studied economics and public policy at Michigan State with an emphasis on community empowerment. When conceptualizing the idea of a neighborhood music festival, he enlisted a team of like-minded innovators.

Korzecke met co-founder, James Radick, upon booking James’ punk band to play at his east side home. Radick said he and Korzecke “are the only two people left from that first year that said, ‘Yes this was a ton of more work than we thought we were going to do but, it is also a very cool thing we want to keep doing.’”

This year, the core team consists of 10 members. A Stoop-veteran and MSU senior, Claire Post, has been coordinating the festival for two years.

Post explained how over the years the community has demanded the house venues be suitable for the physically disabled.

“Even if we built a ramp, some of the houses on the east side have first floor bathrooms that don’t fit a wheelchair,” Post said.

Post added that while it is difficult to alter homes, the team will “still want to make sure we have more transparency about it.”

The team said wheelchair accessibility has been one of their largest challenges in planning this year’s festival. On the list of solutions are building ramps, backyard performances and a map of venues detailing their degrees of accessibility.

Korzecke said while the team is still exploring its options to accommodate individuals with physical disabilities, it is looking at other ways it can make the festival more inclusive — including a substance-free venue.

In addition to reflecting community needs in terms of access and safety, festival coordinators have tapped into their resources to provide a diverse line-up of talent.

Musical Acts

New this year, the festival will kick off with a proper pre-show on Friday at Reo Town Marketplace. Local gems such Rent Strike will be performing, in addition to such national names as Sammus and Mourning [A] BLKstar.

The latter group is an amalgam of punk, trip-hop, jazz and whatever else the group feels like playing on a given day. Hailing from Cleveland, Mourning [A] BLKstar is a dynamic septet that cracks open the hard exterior of the black experience and reveals a free-flowing substance at a constant high volume.

Vocalists LaToya Kent and Kyle Kidd are enthusiastic about returning to the Lansing festival. The singers shared a mutual respect for the festival’s “grassroots cause and the type of artists performing. Kid said the band decided to stay both days “because we believe in the artists here.”

Kent, who offers her punk rock roots to the group, reflects on the positive feedback the last time they came to StoopFest. Kent said last year, during their performance, someone in the audience took out $20 from their pocket and set it on fire.

Kent and Kidd shared hopes for their Friday set to ignite a similar energy with tracks off their upcoming album, “Reckoning”.

“This album has a lot of love-themed songs. All the ways you can feel it. It is very beautiful and diverse,” Kent said.

The album is set to be released May 10 through Don Giovanni records.

Joe Steinhardt, founder of Don Giovanni Records, is one of the latest additions to the core team. Post met Steinhardt upon taking his class at Michigan State University in 2018. He has since offered his national network and mentorship to assist the team in booking an array of national acts. One of the most eclectic being Lavender Country.

“He is like a Cowboy and he’s super gay and super awesome and he’s like 80,” Post said. “Joe kind of pushed for him to be there because he sees him as this cool historical moment to have and we were all like ‘hell yeah’.”

Lavender Country frontman Patrick Haggerty, 74, claims to be the first known openly gay country singer in the world. He started the band in 1972 and released a self-titled album the following year. With only 1,000 pressed copies of “Lavender Country,” the group sold out of records and disbanded by 1976. After Lavender Country died, Haggerty ran for office twice on the platform of being a radical, anti-racism and gay-rights activist.

Forty-five years later, an unknown source posted the heart-felt track “Cryin’ these C*cksucking Tears” to YouTube and Lavender Country was reborn. The group was picked up in 2014 by record label, Paradise of Bachelors, and there are rumors of a feature-length film in the making.

Sticking to their roots

Other national acts performing are rapper Open Mike Eagle, Sammus and Chastity.

Despite the shiny big names on the line-up, the StoopFest crew are focusing on the strong talent growing in their own backyard.

“It’s really wild the response we had this year in terms of local artists who wanted to play. More than we’ve ever had.,” Radick said.

This year, the number of local submissions doubled, causing the team to spend five hours listening and reviewing entries. One of the local acts performing are Sister/Sibling. The new-born project is the result of sisters Sav and Mariya Smith’s natural habit of bonding over music.

“I think the coolest thing about StoopFest is how much they emphasize local acts,” said guitarist Sav Smith. “It’s also a unique opportunity to play alongside some people that I’ve been listening to for years.”

Smith advises newcomers to try to see acts they are unfamiliar with.

“I feel like it is very clear when people will stay at one venue because all their friends will be there. StoopFest is a great opportunity to find new people and music.”

StoopFest

Friday April 19

6 p.m. to midnight

Saturday, April 20

1 p.m. to 1 a.m.

$20

General Festival Admission

For full schedule and list of locations,

visit stoopfest.org/schedule

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