The subjects interviewed for Underground Rhode Island were selected, among many possibilities, for several reasons. The eldest were likely to have been part or the "hip" scene around jazz and the Celebrity Club of the 1950s. More than a few had a connection with AS220 and its circle, at some time in the past. And the youngest members have been active in the Rhode Island arts scene, in one way or another, during the last twenty years or so. Not all are either "lost" or "unknown"; some of them have long been prominent. And yet they represent a self-consciously offbeat take on the mainstream culture of Middle America. They are "underground" even when "overground," part of a world more recognizable to Allen Ginsberg (or Bruce Springsteen) than the people in the White House or Wall Street. And they were intriguing to the students who chose to interview them.
You may expect to find a photo--not necessarily from the recent past--a short biography, a recording of the subject's own voice, a verbatim transcript of the interview, and links to related materials. Not all these are present for each interview--some are still being gathered (or recovered)--but they definitely represent a sense of a life and creative work within that life.
Growing up in Johnston, RI in the 1960s and '70s, Joann Seddon always felt like an outsider. Through her older brother David, she became involved in the Providence music and club scene at a very young age. In 1986, Joann and some friends opened Rocket, a nightclub and concert venue owned by James McGrath. After Rocket was forced to close, Joann bartended at the Last Chance Saloon, taught environmental studies in Florida and Maine, and painted houses in New Hampshire before returning to Providence to bartend and eventually manage the bar at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel. She left Lupo's in 1999 and opened the Decatur Lounge on the West Side of Providence two years later.
© 2005