Art From Ashes at Another Planet

Amidst charred pages of literature and drawings, seared piles of used clothing and two blackened second-hand pianos at what used to be a home for homeless artists, Luanne Poindexter was hard at work creating art.

The independent clothing designer was making collages from the remains of the gutted Another Planet art center on Skid Row.

Last week the converted gas station on the corner of Boyd and Wall streets that had become a shelter and cultural center for many of its Skid Row patrons was destroyed by a fire.

“Everyone was so sad and so depressed, I thought I’d come down and take what was left and do something positive,” explained the smudged artist, who lives in a tiny hotel room two blocks from Another Planet. “They’re such creative people and I just wanted to motivate them to get something out of the ashes.”

Clyde Casey, the creator of Another Planet, said that the fire has not destroyed their spirit. “Out of the ashes, the phoenix will rise,” he vowed.

Ron Segal, owner of Segal Fine Arts and a longtime supporter of Another Planet, said he intends to announce a $1,500 donation at a press conference today at the ruined site to help Another Planet’s artists find a new location. He also plans to have a poster made to benefit the artists.

“Another Planet will survive,” Casey said, during a brief break in his search for a new Skid Row site. “Out of all the negative can come positive. Now we have artists like Luanne, looking at the charred remains as a form of art in itself.”

Casey hopes to have a festival to encourage the artists and exhibit the works generated from the fire.

To keep the creative spirit alive, Casey placed a large pink plastic sheet along the barbed wire fence behind Another Planet. In white paint he wrote “Up from the ashes out of the ruin/Will arise such a sound/Singin this is what we’re a doin . . ./Rappin do wah diddi diddi dum diddi do.”

On Friday evening a small group of Another Planet regulars gathered at dusk to hold what could be their last poetry reading. The debris had been cleaned up and a replacement piano had been brought in. As they gathered to the sound of conga drums, they each lit a candle and listened to the poetry, which was dedicated to Casey and Another Planet.

“People know there’s no giving up when you’re on Another Planet,” Casey said. “When you’re down the only way to look is up.”

But to some of the regulars at Another Planet, the loss of their artworks was difficult to take.

“It’s been very discouraging,” explained Frank Parker, as he wandered around the site, “besides being my home, it’s been my workplace too.” Parker, a homeless artist who has been a frequent visitor to Another Planet, lost a sculpture in the blaze. “I’d been working on it for three weeks,” he said dejectedly. “Now it’ll never be seen.”

Parker along with other homeless artists, writers, musicians and actors, had gathered Friday as usual and were sitting in broken chairs, among the debris, reflecting on the loss.

“I’ve been here since the first chair was put on this lot and I’m here when they have the last chairs here,” said an angry homeless musician, as he leaned back surveying the ruins. The man, who refused to give his name, had often played his piano and guitar at the center, and lost both in the fire.

Toni Buchanan used to pass by and listen to the live music and participate in the poetry readings, games and video screenings that were a mainstay of the homeless center.

“You could hear the men playing the pianos from blocks away,” she said, nostalgically as she looked at one of the charred pianos. “It’s sad because a lot of people enjoyed coming here. They’d come to listen and play the piano.”

One of the people who would come regularly to listen to the music was Kevin Dyer. Dyer, who has been living on the street since 1987, used Another Planet as his “home base.”

“I kept all the numbers for my contacts here,” Dyer said, adding that he had just done a recent audition. “Now I’ve lost the Rolodex with the numbers and they have no place to call and contact me. I’ve also lost the tools of my trade, my wardrobe. . . .”

Mark Roberts, a homeless artist and writer from Florida, recalls running out of the burning building after being awakened by his friend during the 2 a.m. Wednesday fire.

“I not only lost my backpack, my clothes, my typewriter and several pencil drawings but the script I had been working on for over two years,” said a barefoot Roberts, his hands and feet blackened by soot.

“I remember coming to one of the Planet’s poetry readings and I wrote my first poem. I ain’t much of a poet, but that was my only copy and it was lost in the fire.”

Roberts, along with Raymond Sweet, an unemployed factory worker from Kentucky, had just begun writing a science-fiction novel. “Now I’ll have to try to remember what we wrote,” Sweet said.

“The Planet had a creative atmosphere. I’d come here every day sometimes to write or play chess,” the 26-year-old, first-time writer said in a Southern drawl. “Casey wouldn’t have to encourage us, we’d just feel creative.”