21 Grand: Right Behind God’s Gym

This was an interview conducted by Josh Wilson of the Expo for the Artist and Musician from 2005 that was edited and published in The Expo’s newspaper.

Profile — 21 Grand

21 Grand came up in the thick of the Bay Area’s dot-com spree. It was a period of excess, but also lots of cultural ferment. Tell us about the original motive, impulse and cultural/social/political moment that gave rise to 21 Grand. Also good is any background on what it took in terms of fundraising, motivating resources, finding volunteers, etc.

21 Grand began with six people brought together by JD Schreiber, who had a storefront gallery on Telegraph Ave. to form a larger collective, arts space. We wanted to do something in Oakland at a time when San Francisco was still pretty much the only place to go, though a lot of artists and people in general were leaving SF for Oakland because of the dot com effect. It was April of 2000. The 21 Grand Ave. space came first before the collective. It was available and it was cheap – $700/month for approximately 900 sq ft of storefront and about 1500 sq. ft. upstairs as potential studio space.

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First, major thanks to everyone who has donated money (you know who you are) and those who have donated time and expertise meeting with us about our current situation (Lori Z., Jen and Nicole, Ian, et al.). Thanks to Moe! for organizing the Rock Lotto, Aaron and the Fishtank for hosting, and everyone who played and attended for doing so. Thanks to Kimberly Chun for writing a article about us in the SF Bay Guardian. Thanks to David Downs for blogging about us for the SF Weekly.

We’re currently in a temporary holding pattern with the building department and should soon find out when and if they will let us obtain special events permits for shows. We may be limited to a capacity of 49 people until certain conditions are met. We don’t know yet.

We’re also looking for places (ideally in Oakland) to have benefit shows in the early part of next year.

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Okay here’s the latest, preceded by a short synopsis of how this came to pass:

Saturday night (a week ago) we got visited by the Alcholic Beverage Action Team of the Oakland Police Dept. They have a history of shutting down venues. I think that is one of their main duties. They weren’t even there to visit us. They were looking into the restaurant/bar next door, and we just happened to be next door and having a show, and they entered the building while the bands were finishing loading out. They saw empty beer bottles and our donation jar and cooler.

It took until Tuesday to figure out how serious it was. We’ve had cops come by before, but none have threatened to shut us down before. This dude was doing that, and bandying about the phrase “public nuisance.” So we’re seriously trying to get legal with the city and not get busted.
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