retooled Freight

The Freight & Salvage, music venue & coffeehouse in Berkeley, has sent out an announcement that it's retooling itself. Basically the problem is that it needs to increase and broaden its audience if it wishes to remain financially viable. And so it's undertaking the sort of things that organizations in such a fix traditionally do.

First, it's changing its name. People already call it just "The Freight," so that's going to be the official name from now on. This "formally signals our readiness to grow and evolve—without losing sight of where we came from." And to go along with it, new logos, colors on the marquee, etc.

Second, a new Mission Statement and Vision and Values. The old Mission Statement read, "The Freight's mission is to be a world-famous venue for traditional music, rooted in and expressive of the diverse regional, ethnic, and social cultures of peoples worldwide." The new one reads, "The Freight is a vital home for music with deep roots from around the world that celebrates cultures, connects communities, and inspires creativity." So it's no longer a world-famous venue, it's a vital home. It no longer plays traditional music but music with deep roots. It is no longer expressive of the diverse ... cultures of people worldwide, it celebrates cultures.

The announcement also says, "While we are strongly rooted in a profound respect for the varying traditions of all cultures, we acknowledge that some of our institutional practices over the years have perpetuated a system that caused some people to be excluded, silenced, or neglected." I would like to know what those terrible institutional practices are.

I'm only interested in a relatively small part of what the Freight offers, but that includes its recently rather extensive classical chamber music program. On top of which it's far from home and requires some work to get there, so I don't go that often and usually have to be tempted pretty hard. So I await to see what they're going to do with this, whether it means anything at all and, if it does, whether it means they're going to throw out the old despite denying they're going to do this.