Callout or Not Callout?
February 5, 2010 3:03 PM Subscribe
Is it worth calling out a major promoter in your performance genre when you're a small fry?
I've been involved in a certain performing arts genre that is gaining mainstream popularity quickly but still has pretty tight-knit communities. Where I live, the major mainstream-fame events are mainly run by one promoter and her company, where she's signed on performers from all over the world - including people who are close to me and who have taught me.
I volunteered for a major event with this promoter last year and while the overall experience was OK, there were areas that could be improved, and I did feel somewhat unsupported by her. I dealt directly with cranky customers, one who was borderline racist, but could not get her direct assistance (thankfully other performers and the venue staff were very helpful).
I then wrote a blog post outlining my experience, mostly positive, but with a paragraph about what could be improved - most of them being comments from other patrons that had been said over and over. I soon received a message from the promoter asking me to take down that part as we were "staff", the show was still touring, and staff were meant to support each other. I did the edit, with a line explaining that I was requested to take that paragraph down.
Some time later I did another blog post talking about another event that this promoter had some involvement with (it was part of a franchise and she runs this country's arm of it). I mainly opined on the choice of venue, and a possible conflict with a similar event. This is where things got very wrong.
I got an email from the promoter later saying that "certain posts" in my blog have "angered the international [genre] community", that she had apparently been getting email complaints about me, and that I should watch what I'm writing. As she had commented on the post about the choice of venue (just saying that she didn't like the post) I figured that was the post she meant, but I wanted to be sure. I asked around the people I knew if they've heard things about me, but no one came up with anything.
The promoter then replied saying that I should take down any mention of me being associated with her and her events, that she was "unhappy" with my work at her event (this was about 3 months after the event and she never indicated anything about this before), and - when pressed about what the complaints are - she said "that's confidential" but I had to "be careful". I did take the post down, but that whole experience left a sour taste in my mouth.
I have debated doing a call-out post on my blog, which does have a small following and which is known for honest and occasionally provocative posts on the subculture and genre (which most people appreciate). I feel that her actions show a disrespect for newcomers/small fry like myself and while I've heard rumours about her doing similar things in other areas I have nothing to substantiate them. The issue has been especially pressing now since the event I volunteered at last year is doing its yearly tour again in a month or two.
However, I feel like any call-out I get will only get utterly negative reactions from everybody (ironically, given the genre, no one really wants to rock the political showbiz boat). It could potentially screw over my performance career, and negatively affect the people I'm close to that are signed with her. Also, she has the clout of big important names on her side, some of whom know me but others who don't know me from Adam and would sooner trust her than me. Also, in the mainstream world, she's seen as one of the representatives of the genre, so if this escalates she'd have a bigger advantage.
On the one hand, I want people to be aware of her behaviour towards small fry so that they can think critically about attending her events (and perhaps support other small fry which much more ethical practices). On the other hand, I am severely outpowered and this would probably harm more than it would help.
What should I do? Should I do the callout anyway? Make it anonymous? (It would be pretty obvious who I was when I mention specific names.) How do I let people know - some of these being pretty big names in the genre - "hey, she hasn't really been fair and has abused her power, perhaps you should question her on that"?
Throwaway email: whistledancer@gmail.com . Thanks!
I've been involved in a certain performing arts genre that is gaining mainstream popularity quickly but still has pretty tight-knit communities. Where I live, the major mainstream-fame events are mainly run by one promoter and her company, where she's signed on performers from all over the world - including people who are close to me and who have taught me.
I volunteered for a major event with this promoter last year and while the overall experience was OK, there were areas that could be improved, and I did feel somewhat unsupported by her. I dealt directly with cranky customers, one who was borderline racist, but could not get her direct assistance (thankfully other performers and the venue staff were very helpful).
I then wrote a blog post outlining my experience, mostly positive, but with a paragraph about what could be improved - most of them being comments from other patrons that had been said over and over. I soon received a message from the promoter asking me to take down that part as we were "staff", the show was still touring, and staff were meant to support each other. I did the edit, with a line explaining that I was requested to take that paragraph down.
Some time later I did another blog post talking about another event that this promoter had some involvement with (it was part of a franchise and she runs this country's arm of it). I mainly opined on the choice of venue, and a possible conflict with a similar event. This is where things got very wrong.
I got an email from the promoter later saying that "certain posts" in my blog have "angered the international [genre] community", that she had apparently been getting email complaints about me, and that I should watch what I'm writing. As she had commented on the post about the choice of venue (just saying that she didn't like the post) I figured that was the post she meant, but I wanted to be sure. I asked around the people I knew if they've heard things about me, but no one came up with anything.
The promoter then replied saying that I should take down any mention of me being associated with her and her events, that she was "unhappy" with my work at her event (this was about 3 months after the event and she never indicated anything about this before), and - when pressed about what the complaints are - she said "that's confidential" but I had to "be careful". I did take the post down, but that whole experience left a sour taste in my mouth.
I have debated doing a call-out post on my blog, which does have a small following and which is known for honest and occasionally provocative posts on the subculture and genre (which most people appreciate). I feel that her actions show a disrespect for newcomers/small fry like myself and while I've heard rumours about her doing similar things in other areas I have nothing to substantiate them. The issue has been especially pressing now since the event I volunteered at last year is doing its yearly tour again in a month or two.
However, I feel like any call-out I get will only get utterly negative reactions from everybody (ironically, given the genre, no one really wants to rock the political showbiz boat). It could potentially screw over my performance career, and negatively affect the people I'm close to that are signed with her. Also, she has the clout of big important names on her side, some of whom know me but others who don't know me from Adam and would sooner trust her than me. Also, in the mainstream world, she's seen as one of the representatives of the genre, so if this escalates she'd have a bigger advantage.
On the one hand, I want people to be aware of her behaviour towards small fry so that they can think critically about attending her events (and perhaps support other small fry which much more ethical practices). On the other hand, I am severely outpowered and this would probably harm more than it would help.
What should I do? Should I do the callout anyway? Make it anonymous? (It would be pretty obvious who I was when I mention specific names.) How do I let people know - some of these being pretty big names in the genre - "hey, she hasn't really been fair and has abused her power, perhaps you should question her on that"?
Throwaway email: whistledancer@gmail.com . Thanks!
It sounds to me like you are really failing at playing the politics here. An employee grouching around about a company reflects poorly on the company and its leadership - especially when this grouching is public and visible, which is apparently the case with your blog, since the things you write are getting back to her and to other people in your world. She has to protect herself and make sure she doesn't have to start making apologies to clients (perhaps donors?) who hear about your blog and start asking what's up. Maybe nothing you've written is that inflammatory, but you haven't heeded her warnings and she's worried about what you're going to say next and if it might jeopardize some important relationship she's built, and she doesn't want that risk.
As long as you are associated with her company and continuing to write freely this risk is still there. From her perspective, and I don't really fault her for this, it is quite reasonable to ask you to either knock it off or quit. You did neither and basically you got fired, in the sense that she has severed your association with her company. It doesn't matter that the tour is coming back this year; I doubt you'll be invited back to volunteer.
If you call her out, you are basically asking everyone you know to weigh the story and take your side vs hers. This is a bad idea for two reasons. First, she's more powerful than you and people need to do business with her, so they won't be able to come to your defense even if they want to. Second, I don't think many people will feel you've really been wronged here. You may find yourself all too alone once you pull the trigger.
posted by PercussivePaul at 3:31 PM on February 5, 2010
As long as you are associated with her company and continuing to write freely this risk is still there. From her perspective, and I don't really fault her for this, it is quite reasonable to ask you to either knock it off or quit. You did neither and basically you got fired, in the sense that she has severed your association with her company. It doesn't matter that the tour is coming back this year; I doubt you'll be invited back to volunteer.
If you call her out, you are basically asking everyone you know to weigh the story and take your side vs hers. This is a bad idea for two reasons. First, she's more powerful than you and people need to do business with her, so they won't be able to come to your defense even if they want to. Second, I don't think many people will feel you've really been wronged here. You may find yourself all too alone once you pull the trigger.
posted by PercussivePaul at 3:31 PM on February 5, 2010
If you would like to have credibility sufficient to "call out" a primary player in a relatively small field, you should likely stop publicly criticizing said player and go out there and become a primary player yourself. Stop focusing on pointing our her flaws, and go out and do good things independent of her (not necessarily competing directly with her unless you feel that's the only reasonable way to go.)
Now, if you come back to me and say "well, I can't be a major player without her help", then suck it up and play ball, because you need her and you're committing professional suicide otherwise. Otherwise, get moving -- every valuable field has room for talented and committed newcomers to grow.
posted by davejay at 3:35 PM on February 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
Now, if you come back to me and say "well, I can't be a major player without her help", then suck it up and play ball, because you need her and you're committing professional suicide otherwise. Otherwise, get moving -- every valuable field has room for talented and committed newcomers to grow.
posted by davejay at 3:35 PM on February 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
oh, and don't convince yourself this is some kind of raw deal for you; if she's really such a big player, then she's put in a lot of effort and taken a lot of risks to promote herself and this field, so you should look past surface flaws and be glad she cares and takes useful action. it's very easy to pop in once the field is getting traction and go "oh, well, this doesn't seem like the best idea", when that idea was initiated back when the alternative was everyone sitting around doing nothing.
posted by davejay at 3:37 PM on February 5, 2010
posted by davejay at 3:37 PM on February 5, 2010
If you really think she's treating newcomers unfairly, do the leg work, find the evidence and the victims and do it right. I do not play ball with bullies, primadonnas, or politicians and if you don't feel you should, then you shouldn't either, but be aware that everyone else does and you've got to become a bully, primadonna, AND politician temporarily if you want to neutralize this one, if that's your wish.
posted by cmoj at 3:46 PM on February 5, 2010
posted by cmoj at 3:46 PM on February 5, 2010
I guess I'm confused. If your complaints are mainly with things having to do with what could be done better, did you not you try and maybe speak with her or someone representing her organization directly before blasting her in a blog post months after the fact? You sound incredulously she'd bring crap up months after the fact, but if this is the first time you directly talked to her about your questions and concerns, I can kind of understand why'd she be on the defensive. Are you sure you aren't misinterpreting her warnings about what others have said as helpful warning? If you care a lot about this scene and want to continue to work in it, that seems like it would've been the more mature approach. It also would've shown this person you really want to be involved and care about the work too. I guess I'm just confused from your scant description of what your issues were=blog post telling the whole world about how disappointing the whole thing was, because honestly it sounds like shit that happens all the time at creative festivals.
Unfortunately shitty customers happen. I know you're asking anonymously, so a follow up is hard, but I'm just puzzled as to how you expected the main promoter of a large event with performers from all around the world to be right there for you to deal with the issue of bad behavior from customers. I get it if it was something particularly egregious and she was right there to witness it, but was she really involved in the day-to-day what volunteers were doing? If she has an organization I'm sure there's a chain of command for this kind of stuff. Weren't there other people in her organization around you that you could spoken to directly involved to help you out? Did she basically see something crossing the line like violence from customers and just walked away? Or are we just talking about rude people in general? Did she let the borderline racist person into venues anyway after having this person being brought to her attention?
Honestly, your description of the blog entry sound like you and friends groused a bit, then you listened to some patrons grousing, then you took the grousing directly to a blog entry rather than present your grievances directly to her and giving her a fair chance to address your issues and concerns. On top of that, now it sounds like you're trying to use this callout blog post as a soap box to gain some sort of footing in some kind of David and Goliath fight with the backing of the populace and your "small following" behind you. Are you sure this is really the hill you want to plant your flag and die on? At least the promoter approached you via email rather than blast your business all in the public eye first.
posted by kkokkodalk at 7:00 PM on February 5, 2010
Unfortunately shitty customers happen. I know you're asking anonymously, so a follow up is hard, but I'm just puzzled as to how you expected the main promoter of a large event with performers from all around the world to be right there for you to deal with the issue of bad behavior from customers. I get it if it was something particularly egregious and she was right there to witness it, but was she really involved in the day-to-day what volunteers were doing? If she has an organization I'm sure there's a chain of command for this kind of stuff. Weren't there other people in her organization around you that you could spoken to directly involved to help you out? Did she basically see something crossing the line like violence from customers and just walked away? Or are we just talking about rude people in general? Did she let the borderline racist person into venues anyway after having this person being brought to her attention?
Honestly, your description of the blog entry sound like you and friends groused a bit, then you listened to some patrons grousing, then you took the grousing directly to a blog entry rather than present your grievances directly to her and giving her a fair chance to address your issues and concerns. On top of that, now it sounds like you're trying to use this callout blog post as a soap box to gain some sort of footing in some kind of David and Goliath fight with the backing of the populace and your "small following" behind you. Are you sure this is really the hill you want to plant your flag and die on? At least the promoter approached you via email rather than blast your business all in the public eye first.
posted by kkokkodalk at 7:00 PM on February 5, 2010
Her actions (or lack thereof) aside, you showed a lack of propriety in blogging publicly about your experience (even if it was mostly positive) rather than going to her directly if you felt that she needed to know. I'm not sure how old you are, but this sounds like the actions of someone fairly young and inexperienced. Use this as a lesson learned. She may not be the most upstanding or respectful person in your business, but she's clearly a fairly major player and it will behoove you to keep this relationship as positive as possible. I can understand your wanting to call her out and get some sort of "justice", but this is one of those situations where letting it go will serve you better down the line. You are building your reputation; every action is a brick in that reputation. Don't take your gripes to a blog. It's not professional.
posted by FlyByDay at 7:15 PM on February 5, 2010
posted by FlyByDay at 7:15 PM on February 5, 2010
Mod note: This is a followup from the asker.
just want to put an update:posted by cortex (staff) at 1:32 AM on February 6, 2010
1. The blog post I did about the event I volunteered in was made a day or two after, and was mostly positive. ("Hey, this is what I did, these are the people I saw, here are the performances") The one or two lines that could have been negative, and which she asked to take down, were mainly what patrons and performers were relating to me and each other repeatedly over the night, and I think there were some efforts to let her know that but I'm not 100% certain. She made the request a day or two after the blog post, I edited it with a note saying "I was asked to edit out this section", and then we didn't hear from each other for about 3 months.
2. The second blog post that led to the drama was something I was speaking only as an observer and a part of the scene - "here's this interesting subcultural event, it's back after a while away, I'm not quite sure they've picked the best venue, but we'll see what happens." This was the one where she commented "I don't like this!" and right after this she made the (unsubstantiated) claims of people supposedly complaining about me to her. This post was made 3 months after our last email.
The other "provocative" posts I make aren't regular, and have nothing to do with her; they're more about how this specific performance genre intersects with politics, culture, society, etc. Things that get people talking and sometime polarises people. But never about any specific person.
I have called out others on their lack of ethics, and am known for standing true to that, but what makes this complicated is that quite a number of friends and mentors work with/for her directly and I don't want to get them into trouble. They're familiar with me, they know I'm OK, but not all of them know about this particular challenge.
What I find troublesome about her is that she never backed up her claim of "the entire community" complaining about me to her (why should they? I don't work for her, and I'm easy to access), never explained which posts were offensive and what was problematic (instead just saying "be careful!"), and that it took her 3 months and no warning before she decides that she didn't like my work (and didn't say why!!) and used my blog as an excuse. It feels to me like lording her power over me; any attempt to talk sense just get brushed off with "I'm busy".
I don't work in the exact same spheres as her so I'm not necessarily worried that she'd ruin my career, but she does have a lot of clout and the scene isn't very big. I haven't written about her before or since, don't care to, but I'd rather not be threatened with "People complained about you to me! You be careful OR ELSE!" but without any specific complaint or reference.
Perhaps I'm inexperienced and perhaps I'm bad at politics, but I'd rather not be bullied around by people who just happen to have the commercial monopoly.
I'm going to go against the grain here and say you should be free to constructively criticize these events as long as you are doing so from a place of good will. If you're doing it just to get revenge or to make her feel shitty, which it sounds like you kind of are at this point, no good. But your original two posts seemed innocent enough and you never should have caved in to her in the first place, because now you have no power.
I would do some research first — has she screwed with any one else of your level the way she's screwing with you? If you want to let her shady practices be known, do it via word of mouth, that way she has no way to make you "take it back," and you might even find some comraderie too.
posted by Brittanie at 4:23 PM on February 6, 2010
I would do some research first — has she screwed with any one else of your level the way she's screwing with you? If you want to let her shady practices be known, do it via word of mouth, that way she has no way to make you "take it back," and you might even find some comraderie too.
posted by Brittanie at 4:23 PM on February 6, 2010
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She doesn't sound incompetent, she sounds like she might be a prima donna, but that's really not that big a deal. Your posts sound designed to provoke her--she asked you to take something down and you made sure to make a note that you were asked to?
She's saying she wants you to play ball. Sometimes you have to play ball. She might be awful, you might have exactly the right picture of her, but there's still your own professionalism and integrity to concern yourself with. You know the saying, you wrestle with a pig and you both get dirty? That's what this is.
You're small fry now. Suck it up and apologize and fly right and chalk it up to an investment in your career. Anything else is foolish. You aren't in a position to go up against her. No one is going to "think critically about attending her events," you'll just be living it down ten years from now and wondering what you were thinking.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:26 PM on February 5, 2010 [1 favorite]