Olive Scibelli
Unlike most businesses, music venues are largely vacant during daylight hours. Sure, there are folks in there fixing microphones, running sound checks or delivering beer shipments. But these spaces are generally closed to the public while most other businesses are open, and vice versa.
Long-running local independent haunt Drkmttr wants to be more than just a place to catch bands on the fringe. The Dickerson Pike space has always strived to be a central part of the community, wherever needed — whether that has meant offering free food items to community members who needed them or restructuring as a nonprofit to ensure its ongoing existence as a space for local artists. The venue has also recently launched Social Club, a program during daytime hours that helps elevate the work of Nashville community organizers. On a recent busy Saturday spent meeting with various community groups, co-executive director Olive Scibelli took 30 minutes for a quick chat with the Scene about the new projects the Drkmttr team is working on.
Since 2015, all-ages venue Drkmttr has shown up for Nashville’s music communities in a ton of ways, from serving as a vital component in the c…
“There’s a lot of time when this place is not being used,” explains Scibelli. “And we’ve tried to monetize it. But it doesn’t monetize very well, because it’s also kinda DIY and scrappy.”
Scibelli juggles a lot of challenges at the East Nashville venue — programming events, securing funding and organizing future projects — all while maintaining a career as a full-time hairstylist. “So pivoting from actually making money off of these things, we wanted Drkmttr Social Club to be the antithesis of that and basically be an incubator or a petri dish for organizing and art through the lens of leftist principles or socialist principles.”
The groups who have been incubating in the space include affordable housing activists, critics of capitalism and folks who want to provide free food as a human right to Nashvillians in need. “And really we’re just supporting people, trying to help them get their needs met and give them an opportunity to connect and bolster their projects,” Scibelli says.
The mission statement for Social Club can be found on the Drkmttr website. “We want to host and highlight local voices and struggles, connect people to the resources they need, and learn from and with each other to create a freer world.” Scibelli jokingly called the program “Leftist WeWork.” Welcoming artists, organizers and collaborators, Social Club even hosts a Monday afternoon event called Co-Work that provides free workspace, internet, printing and snacks.
“People I don’t know are showing up regularly and meeting each other,” Scibelli says of the unconventional workspace. “It would be great to expand those hours, but we need more funding.”
Talking with co-owner Olive Scibelli and others in advance of Drkmttr Fest
It’s never “all work and no play” around Drkmttr, however. To paraphrase a saying often attributed to early-20th-century revolutionary Emma Goldman, if they can’t dance, it’s not their revolution. Drkmttr has also been hosting Sunhouse, a monthly family-friendly dance party featuring DJ Afro Sheen and an Irish couple who call their group Dancing People. “It’s the first Sunday of every month,” Scibelli says. “The DJs set up and the music is fire.” Alcohol is decentralized at these events, offering a social alternative that doesn’t focus on beer and booze. The February installment of Sunhouse featured Music City Breakdancing’s crew, and goods from the Brooklyn Heights Community Garden.
“If you want to experience community, and you don’t want to be out late, and you want to dance, and you want your kids to have community, and you want to be with other like-minded parents,” Scibelli says enthusiastically, “it’s just been another beautiful place where people start showing up. … So it’s really expanding our programming and wanting to create those spaces that are intergenerational … and free and still give you a good time.”
As Drkmttr expands, Scibelli and co-executive director Kathryn Edwards will continue to host underground music — including some of my favorite upcoming acts, like Philly’s Poison Ruin on tour with Quebec’s Béton Armé, new romantic synth revivalist Riki and a hometown show for Nashville micsmith R.A.P. Ferreira. But the space is broadening what an all-ages art and community center can be.
“I’m wanting more people who go to shows to come to Social Club stuff, and people who go to Social Club stuff to go to shows,” Scibelli explains. “It all feeds into each other. I’m just hoping that we continue to grow our ecosystem. And we’ve been around for 10 years. That’s pretty impressive for all of us doing this as our not-full-time job.”
