Lilac City Live paved the way for many Spokane Public Library events. Now, the event series is coming to an end

The bad news: Lilac City Live, the Spokane Public Library’s late-night, locally focused talk show, is coming to an end with one final show on Thursday.

The good news: This doesn’t mark the end of community, culture, creativity and entertainment at the library.

Lilac City Live was the brainchild of Jason Johnson, who came to the Spokane Public Library as the downtown branch manager in February 2016. At the time, there was little in the way of adult programming, so Johnson made it his mission to “position the downtown library as a cultural anchor and community destination” and highlight creative residents and community organizations.

Johnson struggled to come up with a program wherein it would make sense to have an artist and a business or community leader at the same event until the idea of a late-night talk show came about.

With the format worked out, Johnson and the library staff had to figure out where to host it. Johnson remembers having a “shoestring budget” with which to redo the third floor of the downtown library. The staff bought some carpet and had the facilities manager build a stage in front of a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.

“When I came here, that space with the greatest view of Spokane had a bunch of shelving and stuff blocking it, so we wanted to open it up,” Johnson said.

With the format and location now worked out, it was time to figure out who would host the show. Johnson did not want the job himself and remembered that Ryan Tucker had previously hosted a punk rock talk show at the Big Dipper, so he reached out. Tucker was immediately interested. The first Lilac City Live was held in December 2017.

The first show, which was co-hosted by Sean Glasgow, featured author Sharma Shields, visual artist Amber Hoit, comedian Ryan McComb and musician Marshall McLean.

“(Tucker) put so much effort into it and really built the vibe of it being real goofy and loose but also highlighting all these artists and musicians and people doing important things in Spokane,” Johnson said. “We didn’t know what to expect on that first episode. We’d never done anything like this, and I think 350 people showed up for the first one and that showed us we were onto something.”

The audience stayed around 300 to 400 for the first two years of the show, which were held on the third Thursday of the month. Johnson said once people saw what it was all about, it was easy to book guests, as people really wanted to be involved.

Other Lilac City Live guests included authors Jess Walter and Samuel Ligon, comedian Harry J. Riley, artist Chris Bovey, former mayor David Condon, current mayor Lisa Brown and musicians Myles Kennedy and Truehoods.

The show won the 2018 Top Innovator Award for Innovation from the Urban Library Council, and Johnson won a 2018 Library Journal Mover and Shaker Award for creating the LevelUp co-working space and the Community Lens performance space.

When the downtown library closed for remodeling in 2020, the show planned to move to the Lucky You Lounge, the space now occupied by the Chameleon. The pandemic canceled those plans, and Tucker released episodes of the Lilac City Recorded podcast when people were unable to gather.

The show returned to the library once things reopened, but with many reluctant to attend events as the pandemic subsided, Lilac City Live featured a smaller, though no less dedicated audience upon its return.

At the same time, Johnson’s job changed from downtown branch manager to community engagement manager for the library system, and the number of events hosted at the libraries in a month grew toward its current rate of 350 to 400.

“Lilac City Live really planted the flag for Spokane Public Library on ‘This is the type of stuff we can do. This is the type of innovative programming we can bring,’ ” Johnson said. “That’s led to all this other stuff we’re doing. It led to the recording studios and video studios and arts education specialists and writing education specialists, all these different positions we’ve created since then, so Lilac City Live is a really important piece of the story of our library system.”

The show’s branding has also led to Lilac City Records, an online local music platform, and Lilac City Local, the library’s magazine. The show itself, Johnson said, changed the way some saw libraries, with many only realizing all the library had to offer when they came to Lilac City Live for the first time.

For the last year or so, Johnson, Tucker and the team moved from monthly shows to quarterly to see if that would give them more time, but with all the other programming, there was too much to balance.

Tucker is now an employee of the library (he was previously paid an honorarium to host the show) and is running the video lab where he helps people edit and create video content.

Johnson said, after 40 to 50 episodes of Lilac City Live, it simply was a good time to let the show go so they could focus on other programming. The final show, a Halloween spectacular, promises surprise guests as well as some tricks and treats. Costumes are encouraged, and all ages are welcome.

Johnson said there’s the chance the show will come back for special occasions, but for now he’s looking forward to bringing more programming to the library that follows Lilac City Live’s lead.

“At the heart of it all, it was all about showcasing Spokane and all the great stuff that we have right here in our city and the stuff that people are doing that’s making a difference in Spokane and impacting people’s lives,” he said. “That was the heart of the show from the beginning of it. ‘We live in a cool place. Let’s show everybody.’ ”