Over the years, DIT(K) has come under a lot of scrutiny from folks both near and far. Due in part to our contributions, Kalamazoo is a more recognized destination on the independent touring circuit than possibly ever before! Artists from all over the country and all over the world have been talking about how much fun our little community is! However, in this time we’ve also generated some confusion and misconceptions.
In this article, I’d like to explain what DIT(K) is, how we operate, our mission and how anyone can get involved!
Do It Together Kalamazoo started in early 2009 as a response to the growing number of local DIY shows and general lack of communication between the different folks setting up those shows. Ideas of how to accomplish this were thrown around for a while. Eventually we settled on the wordpress powered site we now occupy. Our goals then expanded from simply improving communication to also finding ways to get new people involved in the community, increasing show attendance and providing touring bands with an easy way to get booked. For a long time there were only 3-4 of us actively involved in running the site, keeping fresh daily content and checking dozens of emails each week.
DIT(K) can be described as a loose collective of promoters, musicians, and music lovers volunteering to help each other create a more collaborative, active, open, and safe arts community. We do not want to become some sort of governing body that regulates events. Instead we encourage anyone to get involved. Whether it’s booking shows, playing a show, putting up fliers, writing posts or even providing touring artists with food. Everyone is invited. If it ever seems like DIT has become biased on the type of shows being promoted, it’s simply because the people currently volunteering are working within their separate, personal interests. DIT is only as good as the people willing to help. That being said, we are constantly striving to be inclusive. Even if that means promoting events that our volunteers are not enthusiastic about. We do not write negative articles and never try to discourage attendance of a specific event. Every article at minimum attempts to accurately describe the artists performing and what someone can expect from attending.
Every genre of music is welcome. Our only stipulation is that shows covered generally fall in line with DIY ethics. This means that the musicians are playing purely for the love of their craft and of their community, and that promoters are volunteering their efforts with no goal of personal profit. Most of the shows covered are booked around touring bands, and often ones that have never played Kalamazoo before. Sometimes they even have no previous ties to the city. This is not intended as a critique of other types of shows. We simply feel that a broader spectrum of coverage would become muddled and be near impossible to manage. Also, historically there have been plenty of other events covered by organizations such as West Michigan Noise, Kzoo Music Scene, Kalamazoo Local Music, The Gazette and more. We simply try to focus on shows and genres that do not get much coverage from other sources. This includes basement shows, art spaces, punk shows, experimental shows and anything generally embracing Do It Yourself or Do It Together ideas.
DIT(K) can be contacted at any time via email at ditkalamazoo@gmail.com. However, we generally have only one person regularly checking the email and it can be very easy for things to get lost due to the ever increasing number of people contacting us from all over the world. The best way to to get in touch is by coming to one of our weekly meetings. These are held every Sunday, 5pm at 210 Allen Blvd.
Often, the local emails we get are from Kalamazoo artists wishing to get booked by DIT. Our goal is not to monopolize the booking in town and have all shows come through us. Rather, we want to educate folks so that ANYONE can set up their own show. DIT is more than happy to help in any way possible but we do not have the desire or manpower to be the ones setting up every aspect of every show. The idea is that EVERYONE can be a part of DIT(K).
We do not have a perfect system and are always looking for ways to improve. The sum of DIT(K) is only as good as it’s parts. If you see something missing, then by all means join in and fill the void. The members of DIT only want to see Kalamazoo continue to cultivate the best arts community possible. We want people of all ages to feel welcome at shows. We want to see people throwing a show and then going out the next day to put up fliers for their neighbor’s show. We want to see 100 people come out and support a touring band they’ve never heard of before. We want to see punk, folk, metal, noise, hip hop, electronica, rock, jazz, bluegrass and pop all in the same week (or in the same show). We want everyone to DO IT TOGETHER!
For better ideas of how to get involved and keep DIT(K) balanced and thriving, please come to one of our meetings. If your schedule doesn’t allow, please email us with any questions or thoughts. If you don’t get a response right away, please don’t get discouraged. We’re trying! There is also a wonderful online zine that has been created by the folks over at dodiy.org with step by step guides on how to set up your own shows and become an active part of your community. We’ve got plenty of great touring bands looking for shows and need all the help we can get!
-Sean Hartman
DITKalamazoo 
I run Gonzo Chicago, here in the windy city, and this is nice to read. Cheers to you all.
“If you don’t know, ask someone who does”
I don’t know where any of these houses are, and I don’t know anyone who does. There isn’t exactly a sign on the front door that says “NO FUN HOUSE”. If there was, I still don’t randomly cruise the streets of the student ghetto to find the place whenever there is a show, and even if I did, you have ways of hiding the herd of chain smokers so that they’re not seen from the street. I get it, you don’t like the cops breaking up the shows, you don’t like douchebags ruining the place, and you don’t want randoms showing up thinking it’s a party. Trust me, I get that.
That said, I want to see shows, I want to give bands my money, but I don’t want anything to do with the crowd that shows up. There is no open listing, here or elsewhere, that allows me to find any of these houses. At 902 Davis, and the early days of Scorpion Island, I felt like a welcomed person. In the later days of Scorpion Island, I felt I was being judged and shunned by an extremely pretentious crowd, especially when you stopped allowing people to exercise their rights to indulge in recreational activities, and started forcing your own ideals on the crowds that came to see live music.
Outside of that, anytime I would begin in an interesting discussion of music, there was always someone standing over my shoulder judging me by what I listen to (Yes, even you, Sean). I felt unwelcome because of my other recreational activities. All the same, I kept to myself, didn’t trash the place, and still loved talking with bands. I still do not know why the crowd was so judgmental towards me, maybe it was because I wasn’t at every show, maybe it was the smell of my recreational habits that I partook in before I came over, but I never established a connection with any of them. However, I’m never going to let a bad crowd keep me from enjoying the music that I love.
Which brings me back to location. By purposefully keeping the location of these events from the public, it makes it seem like you are trying to create an elitist community, where only the underground population is aware of where these shows are held. I’m honestly surprised you don’t ask for a password, like speakeasies used to, upon entering. This extremely simple thing makes me feel left out. Chastise me if you will, but I love music, and from that time on, I have been excluded from it. I never got into an argument, I never caused a fuss, I was never told to leave, although I felt unwelcome. I distanced myself for an extremely short while, but Sean moved out of Scorpion Island, and I haven’t been to a show since, because I didn’t know where they were. Effectively severing me from the community, mostly because I don’t want anything to do with the crowd, but that shouldn’t have severed my ability to see a show. Now, the only people that know how to get to your shows are those who know the people who already go to your shows, and I don’t want anything to do with them. I see it as, you want the DIY to continue growing, yet you’re restricting your audience to those within a certain social faction.
I am not joining (and will not join) your DIY group so that you may hear my voice.
I am a part of the Kalamazoo community, a music lover, and that should be enough credential for my voice to be heard.
Finally, Sean, if you see this as a personal attack, it is not my intention. I apologize if that is how you see it, but although we might not agree on things, this is how I feel about the DIY community.
Thank you for reaching out! It really pains me to hear about people who take me as elitist or judgmental. I understand it’s easy to give that impression sometimes but I assure you it’s NEVER my intention.
The thing that really concerns me is that you obviously know who I am and seem to have had problems with me since 2009. However, I do not know who you are and have not heard of these problems up to this point. I can only imagine that these issues could have been resolved a long time ago via a simple email or conversation. I do understand that something like that can be very intimidating. So, I’d like to take this opportunity to extend an invitation. PLEASE get ahold of me via my email, forgetthetimes@gmail.com. If you want, we can set up a personal meeting as well. I am always open to constructive criticism and am not afraid to admit when I’m wrong. All I want is to help out my community in the best way possible.
As I said in the article, this is not a perfect system buy we are TRYING. The sum is only as good as it’s parts. Please, if anyone has an issue with me or DIT(K), get ahold of me and let’s talk! We can only move forward and work together once issues like this are brought to the surface and dealt with.
“I keep hearing rumors about people with conceptions of me as this puritanical, elitist judgmental figurehead of Kalamazoo.”
Nope. Never once said that. In fact, I’m pretty sure I was trying to state the opposite, especially at the end. From my experience, you’ve been a decent person, even if you aren’t exactly welcoming to me when we would cross paths (pro tip: say “hi” to people you make eye contact with). Outside of a musical discussion, I’ve always respected you as a person because you have done great work with building our musical community, you’re open to new music, you ask others to try new music (Yes, I listened to Arctic Paradise), and you stand your moral ground. WE don’t have a qualm, in fact, I see you around pretty often. Again, say “hi” once in a while. 🙂
Lets get this straight: It isn’t you. It’s the community. I thought I made that clear in my last post, but I guess I wasn’t clear enough. The comments on your facebook post weren’t helping my perception of the community, that’s for sure (especially “Sean, let’s you and I go on a two day bender at the local strip bars and then drunkenly trash Wendy’s. Maybe people will like us better then.”). It’s that kind of reaction, even in sarcasm, that makes these people seem like a bunch of idealistic, pretentious, unwelcoming, judgmental assholes. Now, I know you’re not out to destroy those who partake in these activities… last I knew you were doing booking for a bar. Again, this isn’t about you. For that person and the one who left the “butthurt” comment: I’ve been sober for some time, I’m not irritated because I cannot smoke weed, I’m irritated because of you.
There are a handful of people who commented on that, who have the right idea. I’ll agree that your being open is wonderful. Thank you for that. However, I’m not exactly in the position that I could write this and not have my own well-being suffer (That’s as far into detail as I can go, sorry). I may or may not be close to the musical community.
I’ll be sure to email you one day, about the address, when I want to see a show, but up until “4v4n7g4rd3f4c3″s comment, I didn’t even realize the DIT email as an option because it was never an option that was presented to me. Instead, the only thing I got was “If you don’t know, ask someone who does”. Consider this: Go to a facebook event (like the one for the Milhouse) and find either the address or an email contact and assume you know nothing about the DIT or anyone in it. Does it seem like the general public will be able to readily find this information? Believe me, I’m not sending these messages because I am unable to send you a message, I very well could have already. I’m in this for the sake of all music lovers who aren’t openly welcomed to message you personally for the simplest of concert details: location. The current process is too convoluted.
If you won’t post the address directly, at least be welcoming with a post something along the lines of “Don’t know where it is? Contact us at blahblahblah@email.com! or send me a message”. By not openly welcoming the communication, I feel you aren’t welcoming outside people to join.
I’m glad you voiced your concerns, anyone who seems to have as much knowledge about the community is always welcome to put in their two cents. But it seems as though all of that can be rectified by asking the person who either is hosting the event, or the person who did the DIT write-up. Seriously, all you have to do is shoot an e-mail to the DIT gmail and ask. We send you the address back within the day, most times.