Unisa Asokan

August 28, 2020 - Interview between Scott Morris and Unisa Asokan.

Unisa (aka Nisa) served as chairperson of the board (among other roles) at Eyedrum Art and Gallery. The gallery was located at MLK and Hill streets during the 2000s.

Hello, Nisa?

Yeah. Hey.

Hey, this is Scott. We're recording now.

Very cool.

I'm speaking to Nisa Asokan.

Yea sure.

Can you say your name?

Sure. It’s Nisa Asokan. Um, it's really a U N I S A. This is my first name. Uh, my last name is Asokan. A S O K A N. um, but most people know me by Nisa.

Okay? And can you tell me just sort of the history? Uh, you can go as far back as you like the history of of, um Eyedrum.

Oh, man, that's a big question, because um…

 The history of Eyedrum is at the space there…Whatever you think is a good starting point.

Sure. Um, well, Eyedrum first appeared at that MLK spot in 2001, and at the time, and we stayed there until, I think, 2010. So we had a solid, um, decade down at the, um, in that spot, which is, um, you know, pretty much what everyone thinks about when they think about Eyedrum. Uh, most people because, you know, everyone loved that spot so much. Uh, we, um I was the vice chair of Eyedrum  for the first five years there and for the last five years and also the music director. So for the first five years, I was the, uh, vice chair and music director, and I just did a lot of infrastructure stuff and programming, and, um, and then for the last five years, we... I was the chairman of the board.

Um, and so not many people know that, because if anyone would ask, at least people coming in, patrons coming in, you know, I just was like, I'm a volunteer just like everybody else. And I think that's what made, um, Eyedrum special to a lot of people because they felt like they kind of had ownership in it because nobody really knew who was running it. So, um, but, um, so I don't know what else about Eyedrum?

Well, how did y’all...How did you end up with that space? Like, how did you find it and move in there and all of those things?

Well, you know, we were down at the, um, Trinity spot. 253 Trinity in downtown. Which was, it really isn't that far away? Um, from that spot. And, um, you know, we were looking for a bunch of different locations and Will Lawless, um, found that spot through Braden Fellman and I believe there were already, like, artist studios back there. Um Woody Cornwall had a studio back there and Stan Woodard had a studio back there and then, um, and we had 3000 square feet for the first five years, and then we broke into the back space, which was, um, another 3000 square feet that we had, uh, built out to accommodate more for our music programming. And, um, so we had to, you know, we had a small gallery,  we had the main gallery and then broke through to the back space around 2005 and built the stage out and pretty much everything we did in there was DIY you know, Eyedrum was a nonprofit and still is a non profit. We're actually bringing Eyedrum back.

Um, I I left the board in 2010 but there's been a recent, like, restructuring and reimagining. And we’re kind of, we're going pretty strong again, Um, like into the future.

03:51

Cool. And what was the surrounding neighborhood in 2001. What...what do you remember about the neighborhood there, which I know the city kind of calls in Oakland, but it is probably a little more … people look at it as downtown and maybe Old Fourth Ward. Maybe Grant Park. It's just a nebulous area. But what what do you kind of … what was the community connection for Eyedrum and really the, the, the streets and sidewalks surrounding there?

Oh, man. Uh, I can picture that space like it was yesterday because, you know, standing on the loading docks at Eyedrum and just spending so much time out there, um, you know, obviously Daddy D’z was right across the street. And so, uh, we had a a really good connection with them.

And a across the street on Memorial was Azar’s, which was, Um, you know that with the huge ridiculous parking lot. Uh, and I think there's, um there's, like, a condo there now, but, um, I remember it was just pretty much, uh, some kind of like some wide open space. And, um, they had the, uh, those, uh, “Atlanta Beautification” spots.

Which we spent a lot of time in, Kind of just like going out there, and well not a lot of time, but it was kind of like our front, you know, our front porch or like our front yard, you know, behind Daddy D’z with that, um, weird Martian landscape where they had a city, it dropped like some big boulders and then put up these crazy cattail plants and and then put up a sign. You know what I'm talking about? Those Cattail plants, um, and put up a sign that just said “Atlanta beautification spot.” And and that was always, um, I don't know, kind of kind of funny to us, you know, like we...we had this strange landscape outside of our front door, um, which, which I kind of figured out was, um, the city kind of just doing, like, a placeholder to keep that land… to keep it looking pretty nice, but, like just holding on to it. So it didn't look so, like, dilapidated or run down.

Yeah.

And so there's one spot. Okay, so if you're standing at Eyedrum and you're staring at Daddy D’z, it was one to the left that ran all the way up to that church that you were talking about, that beautiful church.

Silver Leaf Baptist.

It just looked so rustic and… I don't know, it just looks so... it always had a certain charm. You know, that was, I always, um, appreciated it. And, um then so that's... that, I always thought that would be a great place for sort of like, you know, I always kept it in my back pocket of like, Hey, we can do some outdoor theater out here, you know, and project up on that billboard that’s above Daddy D’z. um, and then to the right of Eyedrum is Nick's, which, you know, we had a menu of for touring, band's or artist's a lot of places that they could go to, um, to go eat nearby. Um, so of course, Nick’s was there and Daddy D’z.

And then to the right across the street from Nick’s was, um, another “Atlanta beautification spot,” which, uh, to me always had, like, this amazing, um, sort of built in amphitheater. If you look at it, the one that’s across from the gas station, um, there's like a steep hill in there with, like grass, more boulders, more, um, cattails and other kinds of landscaping that they had...the city had done.  And so, like, down on the gas station side.

I always pictured that, like, you can fit sort of seats in there and have people on the hill. And have performers down in that little corner, Um, which, I don't know, to me, like now in quarantine seems more relevant than ever, because that space still can be used... utilized for those kinds of things, you know?

Did you ever do anything in those places?

Uh, yeah, well, you know, not officially. You know, we we went out there and kind of did our own, you know, nothing on the actual programming side, but, like, you know, you spend time out there, um, like, um uh, you know, Stan Woodard and Alison Rentz and I had a band called Chinese Frankenstein.  And so anyway, we were... we were in Stan’s studio, we spent a lot of time in there, um, practicing or whatever, And that's where the band was born in one of those ‘beautification spots’ because we went outside and … like we had, like, these torches and like, we got the name for the band because it was like this last scene in Frankenstein where people were chasing the monster with their torches.

Oh, cool.

It's pretty ridiculous, but, um..

No, that's awesome.

It was, uh it was a lot of fun. We It was really it did provide a good, you know, creative space that gave us, you know, the space to to think a little bit.

But, um, I realized that even the most cities, um, like, not most cities, but like the capital, the US capital or the capital, the capital of, um, the Capitol building in, um in Austin, Texas. You know, they have all of these big lawns that roll up to the capital. You know, like these big entrances of like, you know, to make the capital seem really important. And, you know, so I figured that's what the city was doing with these beautification spots and sort of like… And then it dawned on me that, Eyedrum was in the past, you know, of all of this development coming from the city right up Memorial and right into, you know, all the way up to, um Moreland, you know.

Mhm. Yeah, the Memorial drive corridor. So then to go back, the thing that initially brought Eyedrum to that location was the already existing artist studios and things like, there was already a little artist colony thing going on or?

Not really… I would have to check on that. I think maybe, um, I think that all happened at the same time. Once the artists, once you have Eyedrum there, and then kind of our pitch to Braden Fellman was that we could bring artists to the building and they can rent it out. I think at the time, the only space that was really renting out with the, uh, GSU storage just like they kept their bookshelves and stuff in there. Um, Georgia State,  was storing a bunch of stuff in there.

Um, but then, once we had gotten there, I think, um, Woody might have picked up a studio and Stan picked up at the studio. And then there was a recording studio, hip hop studio in the back with, like, Pastor Troy.  He was out there a bunch. Um, yeah, he used to hang out. He used to hang out in that space a lot.  Um, and then, um, I think Mandy Mitchell…it just kind of grew out from there.

Yeah. Alright. Um uh, what are some of the more memorable nights. I'm sure there are plenty in a decade that... Do you have any kind that sticks out as favorites or craziest or anything of that nature? Anything memorable, really. Especially memorable?

Uh, yeah. I mean, you know, there was always the, uh the Eyedrum … word kind of, um… well, you know, I always thought Eyedrum as sort of as a think tank, and like a lot of our conversations about, like, pushing creative-ness, creative community forward was always happened outside on the outside, on the, um um with the entranceway where people would go out for a smoke. Um, So that that kind of that kind of space always was really, really productive for us, But, um, in terms of programming? Oh, my gosh. Uh, you know, I would say bringing in, um, international acts like Jean-Louis Costes, the French performance artist who, like, uh, he came in and did the, uh, the Holy Virgin cult show.  And, um, it was just so out there, there was one of his one of his, um, there was, like, a was, like, it was a three person play.  Okay, one of his, um, performers had, like, just, like, kind of looked everywhere. They just kind of whipped the whole crowd into, like, this weird mind state frenzy of like, ‘what the hell is going on?’ You know, it's like one of those moment in my life where, like, the foundation beneath me kind of shifted and, you know, they just, there was one guy was like scaling the column and he's all the way up in the rafters, and I don't know how he did it. And one of them was, there was one lady who was cutting herself with the razor. But it was all fake, you know, And they were wonderful, beautiful people. But it was just, the fire Department came because the smoke alarms went off, and then the fire department had to hack through a wall.

They had to hack through a wall?

Yeah, to get to smoke alarm, to turn it off because, I don't know,

That must have felt like part of the act.

It did.  It totally did. But I mean, I think I think everyone would agree that Costes was, uh, he's, he's kind of banned in France because he's considered obscene. Um, but it was it was very it was really powerful and just remember him, like running around and like, Costes running up to, uh, I think Bradford was at that show, Bradford Cox from Deerhunter, Bradford handed him something to drink, and he's like I asked for a red wine. You gave me a Coca-Cola, you stupid Americans or something like that. I don't know. It's just really, really wild.

I don't know if that's really a good one to represent…

Haha, it's like, No, no, this is it doesn't.

A project by Dashboard and MARTA | Artbound.