The answer is always yes. It’s that simple.
That is the phrase that has come to represent what playwright, actor and theater director Bob Devin Jones has done for St. Petersburg in the last 17 years.
Jones has lived and traveled across the United States, accomplished many artistic feats and received an assortment of accolades. For all that, he prefers to stay focused on the place and challenges at hand.
Most mornings, he frequents the original Kahwa coffee shop on Second Street N., his overflowing planner spread on the table before him. A majority of the papers concern events at the Studio@620 – a community arts space and non-profit organization he founded with his neighbor, Dave Ellis, in 2004. Ellis retired in 2010, leaving Jones with a lot to do.
Under Jones’ direction, the philosophy of the studio has been to never turn down an artist’s idea. If it is humanly possible for the studio to provide what a group or artist needs, the answer is to their proposal is “yes.”
As Jones looks anxiously over his notes at Kahwa, a gray-haired patron entering the shop smiles when he sees him. They exchange a few words in French, and the man waves goodbye. Jones swears he only dabbles in foreign language. Before he leaves the shop, another four people recognize him and stop to talk.
“It’s a typical outing,” he said, laughing.
On the way back to the studio in a black stick-shift Jeep, he flips the dial between country and classical music.
“I enjoy classical music the most when I’m writing,” Jones said.
His writings include more than 10 plays on a range of topics, though most of them deal with social justice and civil rights in one form or another.
The one he talks about the most is “Uncle Bends: A Home-Cooked Negro Narrative.” The one-person play, based on the history of several of his ancestors, has been performed in Ireland, New York and St. Petersburg. In it, Jones portrays several characters who lived through slavery and segregation, cooking for the audience as he talks. The name is both a reference to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and the resiliency of African slaves and their descendants.
“They would bend and bend under adversity, but they would not break,” Jones said.
Back at the studio, he walks up the creaky stairs to his office on the second floor. The room is full to the brim with memories. A black and white photograph of his parents in elegant clothing hangs directly over his desk. Posters for past productions of his plays line the walls, and a bookshelf is full of his literary inspirations.
Prominent among the works are several books by James Baldwin, a black writer who motivated Jones in his life’s work.
“He said something like ‘the best thing a man can do for the movement is to do what he does best,’” Jones said. “I wasn’t a great marcher or organizer, but I did care a great deal about social issues. So I wrote.”
Jones was the first in his family to go to college, though he didn’t find school all that fulfilling. He attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. During his second year there, he participated in a study abroad program that enabled him to enhance his craft on the stages of London. The day of his graduation he flew to Chicago for a Shakespeare festival.
“School was never for me,” Jones said. “It wasn’t particularly challenging and it didn’t capture my attention.”
In St. Petersburg, he has had the chance to learn by doing, and help build a new piece of community in the process.
“Bob is the best at what he does,” said Alizza Punzalan-Randle, president of the executive committee at the Studio@620.
“Bob has seen and done a lot, and he’s really a cornerstone of the community,” said Ray Arsenault, civil rights historian and John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at USF St. Petersburg.
Arsenault’s release party for his Pullitzer Prize-nominated book, “Freedom Riders,” was held at the studio.
Over the last few years, the studio has expanded its programming a great deal, including more events linked with USFSP. Among recent programs were an honors thesis presentation by USFSP student Karleigh Chase in the form of a play, and the “Big Kids Art Show,” in which students of the graphic design department morphed elementary school drawings into advanced works of art. Former USFSP student Hunter Payne helped paint the new mural adorning the side of the studio.
Jones is particularly excited about an $80,000 Doris Duke Charitable Foundation grant the studio was awarded over the summer. The studio was one of 10 organizations selected out of 249 that applied nationwide, thanks to Sharon Scott, an actor, writer and singer who works closely with 620.
With the grant, they have created an arts program called Project GenYes! targeted at generation Y — including students at USFSP. The program will be half virtual and half in-person. It is intended for theater, dance and jazz artists, but Jones says they will consider applications from artists of any medium. For example, a writer could write a play, or a filmmaker could make a documentary, Jones said.
“We want to take native talent to a professional level,” Jones said. “But the exploration is as important as what we find out at the end.”
The applicants will be narrowed to a group of 12 for further interviewing, and then to a final six, who will participate in the program. Those chosen will receive $1,000 and three performances of their final project at The Studio@620. They will work one-on-one with experts in their craft, among them Scott and Jones. The eligible age range is 18 to 32.
“It’s for the younger than Jesus, older than Justin Bieber crowd,” Jones said.
The performances will be in the fall of next year, after months of work and collaboration. The hard deadline for applications was Oct. 15, but the studio is extending it to Nov. 1. Until then, Jones is trying to get one person to register every day.
Jones says he wants to be even more proactive in reaching out to the community through the studio than he’s been so far — and keep spreading the “yes.”
The application for Project GenYes! is online at studio620.org.
arts@crowsneststpete.com
