Photo by Rowan White
Olya S. sits as she waits for the Pink Rock Culture Co-Op (PRCC) to begin their monthly open mic. A 27-year-old Syracuse University alum in laced leather docs and a black cardigan, Olya has always had a desire to share her music with the world.
“This [will be] my first time performing,” Olya says. As she plays her original song, Through the Thorns to the Stars, onstage, the room around her is completely silent except for the strum of her guitar. There’s no phone in sight, no side conversation—every person is fixed on her music.
It’s a place like this that every wishful artist dreams of, and Syracuse has one hidden in plain sight. In the words of owner and founder Amanda Rogers, the Pink Rock Culture Co-Op is a “creative living room,” tucked between South Warren and East Jefferson Street, and welcome to any creative.
After spending 15 years of her life as a touring musician, Rogers knew that once she returned to her home city of Syracuse, the area needed a place for artists to make the space their own.
“[In] the years [since] I came back in 2012, there wasn’t a big house show scene,” Rogers said. “In putting the space together, I brought all of the things I loved and felt really supported me as an artist…the best of the coffee houses, theatres, and DIY punk spaces.”
One of the things that separates the PRCC from other venues is the complete security it creates as an all-ages and substance-free space.
“I feel like, as an artist, to perform to a sober audience is so much more fulfilling,” Rogers said. “A lot of us [artists] carry a myriad of traumas, and I want this space to be where they feel seen and respected.”
In the upcoming months, the space is hosting events like Sub Rosa Sessions, an instrumental Italian guitar show, on Oct. 22, as well as an all-ages and gore-free Teen Punk Show and Costume Party on Oct.30. The PRCC also routinely hosts the “Syracuse Story Project,” a monthly storytelling event, and the “Matty Experience: an Open Mic,” for all creatives. Details for those events can be found on the Pink Rock Culture Co-Op website.
In the chaos of doubt and anxiety, sometimes all an artist needs is a space where someone can hold a shaky hand.