Expanding Arts & Culture Coverage

It all started at the 24 Hour Church of Elvis. Andi Prewitt on why arts and culture coverage is important.

FOWW – Old WW Head Out Article

Over the next two days, you’ll be hearing from Willamette Week staff on the importance of expanding our arts and culture coverage. To expand our coverage, we are asking for your help to raise $25,000. With each contribution, our staff and writers will have the resources to provide you with more; more local reviews, events, and profiles of new, talented artists. It’s happening, help us cover it.

Yesterday you heard from Brianna Wheeler, Willamette Week’s podcast host. Today, the former Princess of Newberg, Andi Prewitt.

Thank you for your support.

Help us expand our Arts & Culture coverage; become a Friend of Willamette Week.

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By Andi Prewitt, WW’s Arts & Culture Editor

I didn’t know it at the time, but my career as a culture writer began in high school when I got married at the 24 Hour Church of Elvis.

As a member of the student newspaper, The Echoes, I got to pitch my own stories, and our editor-instructor Mrs. Schlosser pretty much gave me free rein when it came to my assignments (turning a blind eye to the “no leaving campus during class” policy as long as I brought her back a mocha from the nearby coffee shop). So what did I decide to cover? Not class elections, sports or administrative policy. I wanted to experience unusual, exciting things—events and attractions in Portland that were nearly an hour north of my much smaller hometown of Newberg—and then report back to the student body.

Andi Prewitt

So one of the first assignments I took on was getting hitched at what was then one of the quirkiest destinations in the city and pseudo-sanctuary of the King.

Of course, the marriage to my friend Ricky, who I somehow convinced to come along on this bizarre ride, wasn’t legally binding. But the faux matrimony almost didn’t happen. When we walked into the Southwest Ankeny Street museum, crammed with kitschy Elvis memorabilia but also other oddities, including mannequin parts, stuffed animals and a tribute to Tom Peterson, I nearly turned right back around. That’s because the church’s founder and minister, Stephanie Pierce, was yelling at some visitors who apparently weren’t enthusiastic enough in their response to her sermon.

Despite feeling uncomfortable, I stuck around (perseverance has served me well as a writer since then), and once Pierce learned I was there as a student journalist, her demeanor softened, and Ricky and I got the full Church of Elvis treatment: a wedding ceremony in front of an angel-adorned shrine officiated by a feather duster-wielding Pierce wearing a white-and-gold, sequin-encrusted capelet. After exchanging vows, she then told us to run around the block holding a sign emblazoned with the words “Just Married!!”

It was wild. It was fun. And I knew it would make for a great story.

After high school, it would be some time before I returned to covering cultural topics—I worked in local broadcasting, writing about crime and politics, and had a long stint in academia, where I authored social science studies and taught. Several years ago, I finally returned to what I believe is my true calling: examining the practices, places and people that make our city exceptional, and then reporting back to a much larger student body than the one I started with at Newberg High.

But local journalism is in a precarious position, and quality reporting on everything from eccentric institutions to the city’s dynamic food scene to our thriving craft beer industry is at risk.

As newspapers stop printing hard copies—or fold entirely—across the country, culture coverage is increasingly dominated by online influencers, who may take gorgeous photos, but let’s face it: Scrolling through pictures isn’t as informative as reading an article that has been painstakingly researched, written and edited by trained professionals. Which is why we’re asking for your support.

Willamette Week has for decades been lauded for its arts and culture coverage, but the pandemic took a toll on our editorial team. We have a supremely talented small staff and dedicated network of freelancers, and continue to work hard to tell the stories that need to be told. But our resources are stretched thin at times, and we’d love to expand our team and reporting.

Please join us in our mission to give Portland’s vibrant arts and culture community all of the attention it deserves.

Help us expand our Arts & Culture coverage; become a Friend of Willamette Week.

Read some of Andi’s work here »

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