hugs n’ gumbo

At last Saturday’s Shadow Art Fair, my friends Melissa, Jennifer and I unveiled a new enterprise called Hugs n’ Gumbo. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, but, for those of you who can’t figure it out, we sold hugs, along with gumbo. For $5 you got a bowl of vegan gumbo, a Hugs n’ Gumbo zine, a sticker saying that you’ve been hugged and gumboed, and, of course, a hug.

We sold 61 bowls of Gumbo, and ladled out 61 toasty warm hugs. Melissa and I were tied at 26 hugs each, and Jennifer, who did all the serving, was responsible for bestowing 9. (Jennifer’s hugs are rare and valuable.)

Since the very first Shadow, I’d had this idea for a booth where people could hold and comfort a “trembling artist.” The plan was to build a booth, and hire a skinny, male suffering artist-type to sit inside and mope. Then, for a dollar, I’d let people go in, tell him that things are going to be alright, and pat him on the back. I thought it was a brilliant idea for an art show, but I lacked the follow though… Anyway, that was kind of the genesis of the hugging part of Hugs n’ Gumbo.

During a Shadow Art Fair planning meeting, Jennifer, who is originally from Louisiana gumbo country, mentioned that she was considering selling vegan gumbo, and I suggested that, along with the gumbo, she hug people. Actually, I think that I said that I’d hug people. Then, things escalated, as they often do during our notoriously freewheeling meetings. Before either one of us could back out, Melissa had jumped in, bringing her ideas for zines, t-shirts and stickers. And the rest, as the say, is history.

So, we hugged a lot of people.

I’m not a natural-born hugger. My hugs, I’m sorry to say, aren’t, for the most part, genuine. They aren’t like the spontaneous ones you see on television between actors pretending to be friends. Mine are over-thought. I think I say, in the little zine that we gave away, that hugging me is like being thrown into the arms of a cadaver. My hugs are cold, awkward and devoid of affection. There are, of course, exceptions, but they’re few and far between. So, part of me, as this idea began to take shape, thought that it might be therapeutic. I thought that, over the course of the 12 hours that I’d be hugging people, I might get better at it. And I did. It was weird. I enjoyed it. And I wasn’t just hugging people for a few seconds — they were big, warm, genuine hugs. I’m not sure what I was expecting at first. Maybe I just thought that it was a funny idea. But, over time, it occurred to me that it was actually a meaningful kind of thing – serving hot, nourishing food, and making physical contact with people. And my experiences the day of the Shadow really verified that. Some of the people that we were hugging, I got the distinct impression, hadn’t been hugged in a long time, and I got the sense that it meant something to them. It wasn’t just silliness.

There was something really beautiful about Hugs n’ Gumbo, but I’m not sure if we’ll do it again. I’ve suggested that we do Slaps n’ Grilled Cheese over the summer, but it wouldn’t be the same. I mean, it works on the jokey level, but there’s nothing beyond that. Here, I think, there was an underlying statement about isolation and the need of human beings to connect… For what it’s worth, I’m really proud of this project.

In a general sense, this is probably a good place to mention that we, the planners of the Shadow Art Fair, would like to encourage more work that’s experiential in nature. We love our vendors who sell photos, zines, artwork and clothing, and we intend to keep them, but we’d like to encourage more participants who, maybe while they incorporate commerce, also kind of offer something more. We want to engage our Shadow guests- not just take their money. That’s what this has been about from the beginning. If we just wanted to make a buck, we’d raise the price of tables, and take the national sponsorship money that’s been offered to us. That’s not what we want, though. We want to get creative people in the same room together, talking about making stuff… And the occasional hug wouldn’t hurt.

And I should add that the gumbo kicked ass!

[All photos are by Melissa Dettloff. The middle one is of my hugging a local NPR celebrity. The bottom one is of Jennifer.]