ARTS + CULTURE
story by JANET COOK • photos courtesy of ANGIE MARIE
The Gorge Speakeasy A MONTHLY EVENT AT THE RUINS INVITES CONNECTION THROUGH STORYTELLING NEARLY FOUR YEARS ON, most of us can agree that the pandemic was awful on many levels. No need to rehash. But it also gave rise to creative ventures that may not have otherwise come about. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a record 4.4 million new business applications were filed in 2020, only to be surpassed with 5.4 million in 2021. The Gorge Speakeasy isn’t a small business per se, it’s more of a community endeavor launched by White Salmon resident Angie Marie. But it, too, was a pandemic baby. The winter of 2020, those before days when we were all cheerily going about our business, found Marie living at Camp Arrowhead, a Girl Scouts camp near Home Valley, Wash. A Massachusetts native, she’d landed there after a stint in Utah working as an adaptive recreation guide. Missing lusher landscapes, she headed to the Northwest in 2017 and was hired as the Outdoor Program Specialist for the Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington. “When the pandemic hit, living there was great but also lonely,” she said. By fall, knowing she didn’t want to “go into a pandemic winter up there,” Marie moved to White Salmon. She and some friends, seeking connection, began gathering on one of their patios. “We called it Patio Fridays,” Marie says. “We’d come together, get takeout and swap business ideas.” Someone had the idea for a storytelling night, based on a regular gathering some friends were having. “They would get together in their basement and share stories,” Marie said. “We thought it would be cool to add a little structure to it.” But with the pandemic still raging, the idea was put on the back burner. Marie pursued her work as a blogger, writer, social media strategist and professional speaker. But the idea for a storytelling event still simmered, and Marie began revisiting it in the fall of 2021. One night, in a flurry of entrepreneurial creativity, she designed a slew of marketing 44
materials and began researching potential locations. Over the next few days, she contacted several venues. She got lots of positive feedback, but most of them had logistical hurdles — until she called The Ruins in Hood River. “They immediately said, ‘Hell yes,’” Marie recalls. The Gorge Speakeasy launched its first storytelling night at The Ruins on Nov. 2, 2021. “We thought if 10 people showed up, it would be a success,” Marie says. “We were flying by the seat of our pants.” Instead, 65 people came to The Ruins that evening. Now, crowds consistently number over a hundred,
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