By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

Another night of hope has come and gone with little clear in the exact future it heralds.

The autumnal Arts! Alive festival unfolded in spectacular fall weather on Oct. 26 and everything was in place for a wonderful night.

Admittedly, Artifice was unable to spend much time on the pavement. A quick dash along Dauphin Street between Claiborne and Jackson found the Skinny Gallery with modest attendance. A stop into Chesser Gallery was refreshing in that there was actually room enough to move around for a change.

A moderately sized crowd lolled about Cathedral Square with eyes transfixed on the screen reflecting the film scramble entries. We could afford no further exploration though since the clock was ticking and we had to scurry around the corner to The Temple to catch the films forming the centerpiece of the evening’s festivities.

Later reports gave Artifice mixed street attendance estimates, some light, some heavy and the best that could be ascertained was a fair turnout, a far sight better than last fall.

The films at The Temple were well attended. The first movie, “Eugene Walter: Last of the Bohemians,” followed the course of the Mobile author’s life both at home and abroad. His journey through the intelligentsia of post-War Europe was covered with detail not often seen in local surveys of the enigmatic and notorious artist and gave a good account of the personality characteristics that endeared him to some and repulsed others.

The latter portion of his life spent back in his native Mobile was made especially unique by the many figures interviewed in the film who also dotted the audience in The Temple that night. Those stars included the room itself, shown as the site of Walter’s wake and it lent an inescapable impression to viewers of a dual existence, of somehow watching the film yet existing within the very work itself at the same time.

The second half of the night’s bill, a screening of the 1927 silent science fiction classic “Metropolis” accompanied by a live score from local ensemble The Western Lands, was superlative. Months of focused composition by the musicians resulted in a dynamic, textured, professional and intensely riveting work that enhanced Fritz Lang’s landmark film and catapulted its prescient themes further into the contemporary consciousness. The overflowing crowd was enraptured and greeted the conclusion with a resounding ovation.

However, a journey to The Temple’s front steps during the intermission found a mixed bag of thoughts. As I craned to watch the iron pour set up in Claiborne Street, it was comforting to see the attention by the crowds drawn to the visually riveting process.

But overheard conversation gave pause as some local arts cognoscenti seemed to be openly discussing plans for developing art spaces on Holcombe Avenue. It was the third time in less than six months the subject has reached Artifice’s ears, of forming an arts district on the lower rent thoroughfare south of The Loop in Midtown. Were the conversation caused by a lack of downtown space and overwhelming demand for galleries, it would be bolstering but it might not be so sunny.

It seems the exploding condominium market downtown and the rapidly escalating cost of space is driving tenants to other quarters. Gentrification might be taking an early toll.

It’s too bad this flies in the face of proposed plans from a variety of quarters. Many high-priced consultants have formulated a series of strategies to finally get downtown Mobile over its doldrums and an active arts district is the cornerstone to much of it.

Main Street Mobile has strived for over a decade to bring this dream to fruition. Arts! Alive honcho David Calametti stated as much in a recent Press-Register article, saying the biannual festival is slated to “give people a vision of what a vibrant downtown arts district is like.”

Even Mobile’s savior du jour David Bronner recently admonished a crowd of locals about not developing the downtown arts scene more thoroughly, noting its key role in returning full vitality to the city’s oldest sector.

Are things slipping away downtown? And what would be the detriment should a high-end realty market strip away the possibilities entertaining low-rent bohemian dreams?

Maybe we have an example in a sister city on the Creole Coast.

New Orleans Time-Picayune headlines recently screamed of an early October incident in the Crescent City’s historic Tremé district wherein police arrested snare drummer Derrick Tabb and his brother, trombonist Glen David Andrews. Their crime? Making music in a street procession to honor recently departed tuba player Kerwin James of the New Birth Brass Band.

The ensemble was “bringing down” James in a time-honored tradition so ingrained in Crescent City culture as to even be featured in tourism ads for Louisiana. Twenty police cars arrived on the scene and cited a noise complaint from a Tremé resident, ordering the musicians to cease playing. The musicians complied and instead began to lift their voices into the traditional hymn “I’ll Fly Away” when cops swarmed and brought out the handcuffs.

“I’ve been parading in the Tremé for more than 25 years, and I’ve never had to deal with anything like this,” Rebirth Brass Band leader Phil Frazier said. Frazier is also brother to the deceased. “I told the cops it was my brother we were playing for, and they just didn’t seem to care.”

Times-Picayune reporter Katy Reckdahl told of police charging into the procession, grabbing at horn players’ mouthpieces and snatching drumsticks from hands.

Locals point to a shift in Tremé demographics as the source of new protestations to the centuries-old tradition. The district was unflooded during Katrina and the good fortune gathered notice. Realtors touted the area to tonier new residents and home prices rose accordingly, nearly 20 percent immediately thereafter. Long-time residents have specifically noted the changing face of the neighborhoods.

Similar obstacles have also arisen in the path of Sunday afternoon second line processions and Mardi Gras Indian parades with the city raising fees triple or more from pre-Katrina rates, even beyond those paid by Mardi Gras carnival parades.

Those who warned of homogenization via gentrification of post-Katrina New Orleans were initially labeled as paranoids. Now they don’t seem so crazy.

Pay attention, Mobile. There’s a lesson in this about “balance” for all of us on the Creole Coast. Let’s just hope we’re sharp enough to find and apply it.

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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