It would take more than a snowstorm to keep Jill Summerville from rolling into Wild Goose Creative Thursday, Jan. 7. In a wheelchair since the age of 6 because of cerebral palsy, she convinced the Handicap Van drivers to take her in spite of the snow. She was one of more than 40 attendees for WGC’s very first Speak Easy that night.

“I think this is the kind of thing Columbus needs,” Hoke said.

Hoke is one of the six co-founders of “Wild Goose Creative,” a multidisciplinary arts company in Clintonville. He has partnered with Storytellers of Central Ohio to create the Speak Easy.

“The idea is everyone is welcome and has a story to tell,” Hoke said.
According to Hoke, a Speak Easy is simple: “an audience, a microphone, and really great true stories.” People sign up at the door and get seven minutes on stage.

“It’s not a complicated event, no prep is needed,” Hoke said.

Stage time is optional; guests are welcome to just listen, too.

Summerville went to the microphone and told a secret only two other people knew: the story of her recent almost-romance’s end.

“The day after I told the story … was the first and only time I’ve cried about it. There was something about sharing the story that triggered me having to deal with it,” Summerville said.

Some of the other stories told that night featured misadventure on a dirt bike, a humorous engagement story where the future groom was hit by a car, and Hoke’s childhood history of practical jokes he played on his mother.

“It’s a very intimate act listening to people tell their story,” Hoke said. “We’re here to give people a place to experience art and to get to know each other.”

This is exactly what Erin Caricofe and Todd Mills encountered when they went to the Speak Easy. “I had so much fun talking to the people there last time, I want to go back and talk to them again. I feel like we made some friends … It’s a good community of people,” Caricofe said.

Mills and Caricofe just moved from Oakland, Calif. at the end of December in pursuit of Caricofe’s Master’s degree at OSU. Since Oakland has such a “vibrant gallery scene,” they began looking into the arts life in Columbus and read about WGC on the Internet. The January Speak Easy was their first WGC event.

“I think that it’s a wonderful project in terms of being able to listen to other people and bear witness to other people because that’s something we don’t do in our culture right now,” Summerville said.

As Hoke put it, “[We] want to be in the same room, breathe the same air.”
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” Hoke said. “There’s an unending well of life experience to draw from … This could become something big.”

February’s Speak Easy theme will be “Lost and Found: Stories about Love”.

Wild Goose Creative is located at 2491 Summit St., one block away from an East Residential CABS bus stop. The Speak Easy costs $5 and takes place the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. The next event will be Feb. 4.