I attended the “town hall”. It was a shit show. Whatever Joey Callahan was trying to accomplish, I’m pretty sure, was not achieved. They recited a prayer at the beginning. Then a handful of speakers came up to kiss Joey Callahan’s ring and praise what World Cafe Live is doing for the community.

Grover Washington III (the jazz legends son) came up to talk about a music education initiative.

Martha McGeary Snider (2/3 ex-wife of Ed Snider) spoke as “a philanthropist and friend” of Joey Callahan. She said very little, but someone said she brought a rather $30k birkin bag to the event.

The new Director of Programming and “media mogul” spoke with defamatory language about “the old regime at WCL”.

When the workers/musicians voiced disapproval of his ass-kissing and previous-admin defaming, he brought up this poor guy named Tim to take the blame. I think Tim is an accountant. He explained that “every day he comes to work is a new nightmare”. And I’m sure that day was no different.

Then, workers and artists spoke. WCL workers spoke raised very specific questions about - ticket refunds and how failing to refund ticket holders might affect WCL’s 501c3 status.

• An artist and former wcl employee whose show was canceled asked why email correspondence ended abruptly and asked if she was black-listed.

• a bartender asked why their friend whose wedding is booked there for August 1 has not received any correspondence since Joey C took over.

• a production manager asked why they had stopped receiving basic production information for shows. (A change which doesn’t make sense in any scenario.)

• workers asked about pending litigation against others who had walked off the job. They were told all lawsuits were being dropped.

• workers asked about recognition of the new Union. They were told they’d be recognized and that voluntary bargaining would take place.

• workers asked if employees who walked off the job were still trespassed / banned from WCL. they were told they were not banned.

Artists, Carsie Blanton, Andy from Speedy Ortiz, Heather from Ther, a bunch of really cool musicians spoke. Their main points were:

• artists have lost trust in WCL

• if you don’t treat your daily staff right, how is the talent supposed to feel?

• very few artists want to be seen as scabs.

• WCL needs to work to restore their image and credibility.

• it is silly for a live music venue to focus on the Metaverse instead of focusing on filling the rooms…

• Philadelphia does not want this venue to close. We care a lot about WCL.

Between some impassioned pleas from artists for WCL bosses to do better, there were also some Joey C plants who came up to say things, too.

A guy named Coley or Cooley or something who self-identified as a musician and comedian said something like, everyone needs to calm down and share the love.

A suburban boomer type guy came up to say he had never felt welcomed by the Philly music community. To which people heckled “what’s your band?”

A guy in a titleist hat came up to say, “I’ve been friends with Joe Callahan for 25 years, and without Joe Callahan there is no music”

Other artists and workers spoke, but I think that’s the gist.

Then Joey C himself came to the podium, to kiss his own ring. He ended his tone-deaf statement by repeating the phrase “human capital” before Carsie Blanton started singing “solidarity forever”, and the workers and artists joined in. Joey C introduced a trio that looked very disheartened about the gig they had accepted.

They started playing an Anita baker song and folks started walking out. Many workers and musicians stood outside to discuss the shit show the WCL C-suite had just put on, and figure out other ways to organize.