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UP FRONT
On the Hot Seat with Tom D’Antoni:
Lisa Lepine
Everybody knows Lisa Lepine and Lisa Lepine knows everybody.
If there is a “six-degrees” person in the cultural life of
Portland, it is she. But what is she? She used to be a publicist,
but don’t call her that to her face.
Mainly she is a conduit for creative
people. She has managed musicians Dave
Carter & Tracy Grammer, and currently manages
pianist Scott Fisher. She was the Festival
Coordinator for this year’s expanded Alberta
Art Hop and books the local music for The
Bite of Oregon.
You may have seen her, walkie-talkie in
hand, goofy art hat on her head, walking the
festivals, putting out fires, knowing everyone’s
name and smiling.
And she always knows what reporter to
call at which paper to make the best story appear
on whatever she’s pitching. We reporters
love to hear from her. Her stories always rock.
But what does she do, really? I found out at
Pete’s Coffee on NE Broadway.
Tom: Why all the festivals and other such
public entertainment?
Lisa: When I was a little girl my mother
refused to give me a birthday party because I
was the youngest of the five children she had
in eight years. I think that’s why as an adult
I’ve been drawn to putting on shows and
events.
Tom: She let the other kids have parties later
on?
Lisa: Of course, once she got the hang of it.
Tom: So you’re not a publicist anymore.
Lisa: No!!
Tom: But you used to be.
Lisa: Part of my work used to be publicity.
What I really do is help people move forward
in their careers, whether it be music or art
or staging festivals. I’m really about helping
people move to the next level.
Tom: How do you do that?
Lisa: I do it with magic.
Tom: Card tricks?
Lisa: I have a real good understanding of the
technical pieces and also the collective unconscious,
the psychological and even metaphysical
aspects of what it takes to move yourself
forward. If you’re creating something, you’re
a small business. If you’re going to move
forward, you need to be clever and understand
business practices, how the PR machine
works, and tell your story really well. That’s
what I help people do.
photo: Jason Kaplan
It’s not like I’m going to tell someone
what to do, but it’s more like, “Have you
thought of this, or that?” A lot of times there’s
an “ah-ha” moment and something shifts. I’ve
seen miracles occur...from someone crying
on my couch that they had an unreleased CD
in their closet...to being on the cover of The
Oregonian’s Living Section in a year’s time. It’s
helping people help themselves.
What I really like to do with people is find
their story. “Where did you start and where
are you today?” I call it living the gestalt, the
big picture. I usually spend about 90 minutes
in my consulting sessions. It takes about half
that time to get the vision. If I could truly see
you as a creative being, what does that look
like? And all of a sudden, boom, there’s a
picture. And I’m able to say, “Here’s the piece
that’s not working.”
I’ve had people say I was better than any
shrink they ever had.
Tom: How did you put those individual skills
to work on a festival like the Alberta Art Hop?
Lisa: The Art Hop or The Bite were festivals
that really needed to move into a new phase.
It’s very much like what I just described. What
is the gestalt? What’s the big story? What’s
the archival past? What does the festival really
want to be as a festival?
It’s not about knowing the answers,
it’s about allowing the answers to come
through...creating an infrastructure so that
the festival can actually fall into place. It’s
almost like something is out of joint in your
back and I’m the chiropractor who moves
things around a little bit and all of a sudden
it’s like, “Ahhhh, there it is.”
With The Bite of Portland turning into
The Bite of Oregon, that was taking 20 years
of history that had become inert and declaring:
It’s a new century, it’s a new vision. How
can we present the music differently?
There will be things I’ve learned from
each festival. Art Hop had already done great
stuff for seven years and I just got to take all
the archival energy and bring it up another
notch, expand it, give it a different platform,
surface it a little better.
Tom: You always seem to bring people
together.
Lisa: I want to be the ultimate hostess. I’m a
great sorter. I see linkages and commonalities
where people don’t see them. If a thread can
be connected, I love to see that spark.
Experience Lisa’s work firsthand while
enjoying th local music at this month’s Bite
of Oregon (details on p. 9).
10 PDXmagazine.com / August 2006