On Monday, May 26, Takoma arts center Rhizome DC hosted the second annual ShivFest, a music and arts festival highlighting underground performers from the region and beyond.
Organized by promoter Shiv Sharma, for whom the festival is named, the event hosted 13 different musical acts and 15 vendors offering art, homemade and upcycled clothing, jewelry, and tattoos.
“The first ShivFest was in my backyard,” said Sharma, 32, who also performs in local band Sebastian. Coinciding with their final year of grad school at American University, the original event was a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that DIY arts events can provide the same resources as traditional cultural institutions.
“I wanted to study community art, and as I was going through my master’s program that was focused on nonprofit arts leadership, I found that the nonprofit sector in this area can be very capitalistic, very white, very focused on old cultural institutions like symphonies, museums. But the nonprofit arts world also includes community arts, arts education, empowering disenfranchised voices through the arts.”
While the first ShivFest illustrated that the underground community could provide a space for underrepresented artists, the second delivered on that promise tenfold. Last year’s attendance was capped at 150 people, while Rhizome was able to house over 300 visitors.
Additionally, proceeds from the event were donated to GirlsRock! DC, a nonprofit that provides music education programs centering girls and queer youth.
ShivFest also exists to affirm that threats to arts and culture won’t be taken lying down, said Sharma. Amid widespread defunding of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the introduction of Executive Order 14238, which orders the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, community spaces like Rhizome are caught in a difficult bind. With large museums facing massive cuts to programming and funding, smaller arts spaces are given the opportunity to pick up the slack and potentially court a larger audience, but at the same time lack the scale or resources.
Last year, Rhizome announced it would relocate from the 2-story house on Maple Street that it has occupied for the last decade. The property, which they lease, has been contracted by a developer to buy and convert into an apartment block since 2020, though the developer has not closed. Thanks to a grant from the DC Arts Commission, Rhizome was able to purchase a building on Alaska Avenue to serve as the space’s “forever home”, but the move-in process has stagnated. Without adequate funds to update the building, Rhizome has been left in limbo, waiting for the developer to close while they continue to tentatively use the Maple Street house.
“I grew up in houses like this,” said rapper DJ Lucas, who traveled down from Massachusetts to play at the original ShivFest and returned to headline their second lineup. Lucas is also producing a documentary series journeying across the Appalachians, uncovering unique musicians and artistic traditions across one of the country’s most underserved regions. The first episode, focused on northern Georgia, is available on the Dark World Records Youtube page.
“Off of 100 trips, you couldn’t accurately represent an area. The goal is to find artists that I’m moved by,” he said.
Also present was documentarian Calvin Gidney, shooting footage for a project about the DC underground music scene to present to his fellows at the Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State. Gifted expensive video equipment from the college as well as a two-week stay in a “fancy” NoMa apartment, the DC native said he felt a contrast between the connection he feels to the city and the ways the program expected him to interface with and capture it.
About the documentary, he said, “It feels like a resistance to a lot of things I don’t like about DC – the rapid gentrification that Rhizome is falling victim to. Even being in NoMa is a little bit uncomfortable, because ten years ago that was a completely different community.”
“I want to put a spotlight on the intersection between art and activism, and also highlight how it’s a safe haven for a lot of people.”
Among the diverse crowd, one of the havens provided was for emerging or out-of-practice performers. While the booked acts played inside, an outdoor stage was opened to any attendees to use, with a microphone, sound system and guitar provided. Multiple of the billed artists also mentioned that ShivFest was their first gig in years.
“I met Shiv last year through mutual friends, and I heard about ShivFest,” said Felix Perez, who performs under the name Felix. He said Shiv offered him a 15-minute opening spot, which was “perfect”.
“I haven’t played a show in six years, so I wanted something that I knew would be low pressure, and also just a community space where I would feel comfortable,” he said.
Singer Zen Xaria, who also performs in psychedelic rock band Strange Attractor, acoustic group Mountain Spring and with a jazz trio at The Wine Collective in Baltimore, said ShivFest gave her a chance to play solo and decompress from the expectations of a band.
“It was my first solo set in a really long time. I really love ShivFest for its absolutely DIY, down-to-earth ethos. I felt really supported, and it was like performing again for the first time in a way.”
When the day closed, attendees filed out of the narrow kitchen of Rhizome and into the open backyard, air hazy with bonfire smoke and the smell of s’mores roasting.
“DC has always been spoiled for choice when it comes to arts, whether it’s music, theater or visual art,” said Sharma. “The community at large in DC is very strong, and people really are protective of it. I don’t think it’s going anywhere; if it’s under threat, it’s only going to get louder.”
