We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christine Hall a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been one of the most interesting investments you’ve made – and did you win or lose? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

In my estimation, everything in this life is steeped in duality, There hasn’t been a thing that hasn’t been a mixed bag, two sides of the same coin kind of bargain. If we love, we lose, eventually. If we live forever, it’s as bugs. My best investment was my worst investment, a hodgepodge of an experience trying to start a business in my mid-20s.

First off, I couldn’t decide if I wanted it to be a business or a nonprofit, and attempted to jump straight into the role of community organizer with no formal training. This was in 2005, before Kickstarter, and before Nashville woke from its stint as sleepy little town. I brandished my DIY punk sensibility with reckless naivete. Dreaming of an arts collective, I scoped out an 1888 Victorian in Germantown, and decided to spring for the lease. I called it MuseX Bazaar Community Art Center, and drew the logo on the sly at my PR day job. A benefit staged at a friend’s bar, plus a few gifts from family and a second mortgage on my home got us going.

My then-husband and I knew artists of many persuasions, and invited them to start creating with us. We booked another benefit, this time at Belcourt Theatre, conceived as a daylong festival combined with an art show in the lobby. The Swindlers (composed of the kids of well-known musicians), Glossary, The Alcohol Stunt Band, Tim Northern, and other local favorites joined us onstage.

Going through the codes process, I found my landlord had lied about our building previously housing a registered business, and it would either need a sprinkler system or a historic exception. Even yet another loan, acquired in desperation with payments I could not afford, did not get us there.

Eight months after signing the lease, having never officially opened our door yet fully renovated and stocked, I walked away from MuseX Bazaar. My marriage failed and my closest friendship crumbled under the duress. I lost more than I can calculate and gained an invaluable education. Research up front, check, double check, reference and cross reference. Have a failsafe, and if you are building something on a template that isn’t in wide use yet, keep humble expectations. Yes, aim high, but start small.

Christine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Coming from a ragtag group of artists who pledged allegiance to an evangelist ideology, I felt pressed to break out and create something genuine. I shrugged off all the put-ons I could, shedding layer after layer and excavating a personality built under duress.

I’m an experimental artist who has treated life as a research project. Often romantic encounters inform my work. My parents ported their obsessive tendencies into the cult following a stint in pornography, and I took a cue to live up to their adventures as my sacred duty.

After graduating early and fleeing the oppressive patriarchal religion of my youth, I left a scholarship to pursue the girl I loved across the country. When I arrived in San Francisco, I landed on the street. A few years of travel and rooming house-hopping later, I grew tired of partying and turned to motherhood, with steady office work to support.

I never could stop making art to catalog and process my experiences. Specific therapy-related trauma meant I needed some other medium to sort through issues. Life gave me a nexus of crises that compounded one another, and I poured this energy into multi-media outlets. Unless I could channel my angst into art, I compulsively exacerbated my problems, picking at them and seeking outbursts for relief.

From 2014-2019, I performed with the Cabaret Noir Collective at Exit/In, concocting characters to perform monologues in increasingly outlandish costumes. I delivered diatribes on gender roles as Lady Bluebeard and Harry Picklegroin (the Burlesque Poet) for the final two Cirque Noir shows. During the pandemic, I satirized my misadventures in romance with the experimental video miniseries PandaMik. The PandaMik Supercut and Interview with the Panda bonus footage are available on my YouTube channel.

Poetry, images, sculptures, videos, private spaces and places for gathering, I dabble and cross-pollinate. I have curated shows for two decades, hosting the Poetry in the Brew open mic for 8 of those years. My current focus is a novel memoir.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The magical thinking and outsider status with which I was raised translated to cognitive and emotional dissonances when navigating the concrete world. The tension between the alternating advice to “follow your heart,” “go with your gut,” and “use your mind” led to a confused stretch in every direction. I perceived a rift within myself, a struggle and quarrel inherent to my existence.

When I let go of wishing for a golden arrow—that one stroke of luck to change everything—I began to cultivate an environment conducive to golden moments. In practice over the long arc, I developed a more well-rounded view and grew more able to marshal my internal forces. It is a matter of constant consideration even now, every step a deliberation of the senses.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Creative works can function as invitations and permission slips. My encounters with these kept me from feeling utterly alone and alien at pivotal times in my life. It is my aim to carry that expressive torch and engage in a true communion.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xineraquel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineHallisapoet/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-hall-nashville
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/marigoldpie
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrFKq9hNbdzYQx9KaQy3Qpw

Image Credits
Bart Mangrum Sharyn Bachleda Illysse Daniels Born Rich Club