Since 1987, Flint Local 432 has provided a safe place for musicians from all genres and at all different stages in their careers and development as artists to have access to a professional facility and equipment. A recent grant from the Live Music Society ensures the Local, one of the longest-running all-ages venues in the country, will continue to have top-notch technology, lighting, and equipment for artists and productions.
The Local received a grant from Live Music Society’s Toolbox program, which provides venues with funding to support projects that ensure compliance with regulations, enhance accessibility, upgrade technology, and other improvements that support audience experience.
The Local plans to use its grant to make upgrades to its lighting and other technology and equipment inside the facility.
“Technology improves every day and changes so quickly,” said Maiya LeGardye, general manager of Flint Local 432. “It’s easy to get left in the stone ages if you don’t keep up with it. So this grant specifically allows us to continue to keep up with the newest technology to continue to improve the way that we’re able to give shows to our audiences.”
LeGardye said that the last time The Local was able to make these types of updates was around 2022, so she said it’s “huge” for the facility, but also for the performers and for the city.
“Just allowing the kids and the artists and the people from the city to be able to experience the top notch equipment and technology is important,” she said.
In order to make the upgrades, The Local will be closed in late January and for most of February. That will allow time for installation and for any training that staff need to use the new equipment.
“For a very long time, we’ve opened up our doors for artists to come in and rehearse and for people to come and learn how to run the board themselves,” LeGardye said. “So as an artist, if you’re anywhere else in the world and you’re in a situation where you don’t have somebody to run the board for you, you’re able to set yourself up. We want to just give the knowledge back to our performers. We’re a learning institute on every level, be it from the performers to the staff, to the kids that we have come in and train under everyone who’s already here.”
Her Own Learning Experience
When LeGardye describes the experience Flint Local 432 strives to provide for performers and others who use the facility, she’s also a beneficiary of that environment.
In 2018 while she was a student at Mott Community College, she began working as an intern in a studio above the Local run by Ashley Peacock, a talented and beloved Flint musician who died in 2019.
“When I was interning with him, I would come down and kind of shadow him down there (in the venue),” she said.
She also met Joel Rash, founder of Flint Local 432, and became close with him, learning more about booking and other critical elements of running the facility. Eventually, that experience helped her step into the general manager role in 2022.
“I tell a lot of people the Local is like your kindergarten,” LeGardye said. “This is where we learn a lot of foundational things that’ll help you elevate and take you to the Capitol or the Masonic Temple when that opens, The Machine Shop, and other venues in other cities.”
That experience was important for LeGardye, because she always had a passion for music, but not the connections to understand how to get started in a career in the industry.
“I was a music student. I’ve always loved music and wanted to get into music,” she said. “But the barriers to entry were a lot for me at the time because I had no connections. My family’s not musicians. I had never had any experiences with live music or performances, and I hadn’t even really been to that many concerts at that point of my life. So it (the Local) has been a huge teacher for me. Just being around everyone who does music, or people who are into the arts or even just people who appreciate music and the arts was life-changing for me.”
Those types of experiences are exactly what Flint Local 432 has existed to provide over the past 40 years. The venue is known for music, it really caters to nurturing the entire creative scene in the Flint area. Performers in music genres ranging from hip hop to punk to rock to metal and more can regularly be heard on stage. The Local has also hosted theatre productions, films, and art exhibitions, as well as youth workshops and camps and other special events.
Although the facility provides space for young musicians, established performers can also regularly be seen on stage. In recent months, Flint Local 432 has hosted performances by Flint rappers Jon Connor and Dizzy Wright and legendary punk band the Suicide Machines, and more. Working in a space that hosts professional performances by high level acts right alongside up-and-coming and aspiring musicians is invaluable.
“I think what I love most is that the Local strives to give just the everyday regular person the same experience that someone of maybe a professional caliber may get,” LeGardye said. “The Local never compromises the quality, it never compromises its love for the Flint community, and it is open for all of the Flint community. I really do love how everything about the venue has always kept Flint first.”
Celebrating Women’s History Month
Although Flint Local 432 will be closed in February, LeGardye is working on big plans for March, which is Women’s History Month. A grant from the Flint Women and Girls Fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Flint is allowing the Local to promote women musicians and artists throughout the month in a series called, “AmplifyHER.”
“We want to highlight and celebrate women in the arts in Flint, Genesee County, and surrounding areas and to really highlight something that can be missed a lot of times and really celebrate it,” LeGardye said. “One of the great things at the Local, when I first started, I trained under a young lady by the name of Torri Lawrence. I remember coming around the Local and a lot of people would tell me this is the only venue where the head engineer was a woman. And then obviously me, coming in as general manager as a woman, it’s something that I think has almost become like a signature. There have been a lot of strong, incredibly smart, and talented women who have come forth and helped shape what the venue is now.”
Plans for March are still in process, but LeGardye said one positive of being closed in February is that it will give the team a lot of time to plan a great lineup that celebrates women in music, comedy, fashion, theatre, poetry, and more. She also plans to host an event to get public input, but for now, people with ideas or interested in performing can contact booking@flintlocal432.org.
“The entire month will be spent celebrating, empowering, giving a voice, a spotlight, a stage for women to be able to express themselves,” LeGardye said.
What LeGardye is most looking forward to is that it will simply be another way the Local serves as a community resource that is open to everyone.
“One of the things about the Local that I absolutely love is that it’s a learning space,” LeGardye said. “It’s a space where you can learn unjudged, you can walk in and not know a thing. And by the time that you leave, everybody there is is giving you advice and giving you different tips. It is a real family type of vibe when you go in here. Once you become a part of the Local family, you’re a part of the Local family.”
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