Espace Joie De Vivre - MTL Venue Series
It was love at first sight, but before I saw it with my own eyes, I admit I was skeptical. When I was first invited to a comedy show at Espace Joie de Vivre, my friend's description gave me pause: it's in a basement. BYOB. The entrance is in the alley. I wondered aloud if we were going to someone's apartment, and my plus one wondered if we would be trapped in a stuffy room with cigarette smokers. Thankfully, we were both entirely wrong.
Getting out of Berri-UQAM, I'm ready to get lost (I generally get lost), but there are chalk arrows on the sidewalk and I know they're for me. Then Lucas appears, asks if we're going to the show, and I know we're on the right track. Turning into the alley behind Atateken, and we're here. People are mingling, laughing, old friends are hugging. Two lovely ladies about my age (but much better dressed than I am, if I do say), are sitting on the stoop, off to the side, beaming smiles, drinking red wine from beautiful stemware. These broads are right up my alley (no pun intended), and I tell them as much. Lo, this is how I meet the venue's co-owners, Isabelle Truchon and Laurie-Lynn Macdonald. This is genuinely love at first sight. I go to a lot of cool things at cool places, and while I sometimes meet the head honchos, they are rarely participating. These women aren’t overseeing the event, they are happily attending, and it is obvious on impact that we share a passion for experiencing joy wherever we can find it. Oh, Espace Joie De Vivre…I gettit. My gal pal comments that their logo is reminiscent of the 3 of cups, and our new friends are ecstatic that she's made the connection. It's intentional: the 3 of cups is a symbol of people coming together for a shared emotional goal. This feels fated, and suddenly, we’re all besties.
Inside, the space is bright and clean, warm and womb-like, all at once. There's a white board with carefully marked events and schedules, and I'm reminded of yoga studios. While the space is ideal for classes, I realize that those are the only other spaces I've frequented that are statistically female owned and run. There's something to that: this doesn't feel like a traditional venue, it feels like someone's home. In fact, when I return a couple of weeks later to talk to Isabelle and Laurie-Lynn, we gather at the kitchen table, and it's easy to forget where I am. Plates and bowls are arranged on the shelf like a design mood board, we open a bag of Doritos, some wine, some beer, and get down to (pretty chill) business.
First up, I'm dying to know how this dream team met. Isabelle tells me that after her divorce, she was looking to create the life she wanted. She came across a listing for a dance event Laurie-Lynn was facilitating. “I must have stalked that Facebook page 177 times, kind of wanting to go, but at the same time kind of going, Is this me? Is this something I want to do?...So I didn't go. But then a few months afterwards, I got invited to a yoga benefit…and Laurie-Lynn was there and I saw this amazing woman dancing her little heart out, and I thought, I want to be her friend.”
(I'm grinning ear to ear. That's how I felt when I met these chicks.) Fast forward a few years, and Isabelle took her Groove Facilitator training, to teach what had piqued her interest to begin with. Fast forward a bit more, and oops, pandemic. That was when their path together started to clarify.
“For some reason, we started talking about starting a business together,” Isabelle says.
“I had this, like, fantasy of this space,” Laurie-Lynn tells me. “It was an idea that I wanted to make happen, but it always felt hard to do…and then [Isabelle] was like, Oh, this sounds cool, let's get on it. We had dinner and talked about it, but nothing happened right away, until it all happened really fast six months later.”
“So, we had dinner and we were talking about ideas, and kind of going, we could do this, we could do that, but it wasn't crystallized,” Isabelle continues. “Then fast forward to December [2022], and it happened really fast. I saw her, and I asked hey, have you been thinking about the project? And [she] said oh, you know, I've been so busy and things are complicated. I came home and I had this inkling to Google space for rent in Montreal, and this was the first space that came up. and it was really weird, because they had taken a video of this space.”
That's the other thing I'm itching to ask: what was this space?
Laurie-Lynn tells me that at one point it was a warehouse. “I think for storage for the pharmacy [upstairs] or something, but then in between that and us there were these young girls who were renting it just to throw parties. The floor wasn't even finished, it was still dirty concrete. It wasn't painted, it wasn't anything. Yeah, so we kind of made that happen.”
It's hard to imagine this space as anything other than it is now. And each time there's a different event, I find it difficult to wrap my head around the transformation. From comedy shows to dance parties to markets, and art exhibitions, in each incarnation the space seems to be meant exactly for that. And that was important for the owners: they knew they needed a spot that could accommodate different parts of the community, a space where people could meet up for a myriad of happenings.
“That was always the goal: not one specific thing,” Laurie-Lynn explains. “And I think it's kind of what makes the business, actually. Because if you try it, it's an activity that doesn't work well…we're not committed to anything. I think it’s good just to throw things out there, see what sticks and what doesn't, and we could just move on. So it's always had the intention of being like a multifunctional space with the ultimate goal of really just making a social impact, like building community.” It also creates a non-competitive space for experimentation. To try new things, to fail at new things, to see what resonates.
Isabelle tells me that experimentation is foundational to the vision. “As you get older, you realize [there are fewer] places where you can go and try new things and really let your freak flag fly…It was a surprise to me to see how many people sign up for the open mics and come and play music, and read their poetry. And they love it. And they're happy. And you know, a lot of them…they're like there's nowhere else where I get to do this. And that's my own little satisfaction: that we provide this place where we can find new things. Because that's the other thing, you know, society pushes us to want something without even trying. It pushes us to want to perform and do really well even though you haven't had a chance to fuck up in practice. Yeah. So this place is about that. It's about trying things. And you know, if you're no good at it, or you hate it and you say I'm not coming back next week, it's perfectly okay…This space is just for that.”
The versatility of Joie De Vivre seems infinite. In fact, Isabelle is an officiant, and when a couple asked her to perform their Valentine's Day wedding but didn't have a venue, she volunteered the space. The couple needed a witness too, so Laurie-Lynn was there as well. The first (but probably not last) wedding in the space likely left some extra love lingering, a blessing all around.
Really, community is the focus here. It is both the kit, and the caboodle, of what Espace Joie de Vivre is about. In that vein they host a monthly Women's Circle, reuniting us with an oft neglected part of our genetic heritage. With guided discussions, mindfulness practices, and most vitally, women holding space for one another, creating a rich network.
“[It provides] an opportunity to put words to what's going on inside of us, to put it out into the world. It's something that women have been doing forever. Women would wash clothes at the river together, or prepare a meal together…but we no longer have that opportunity,” Isabelle says.
The Women's Circle runs on a donation basis, and discussions are in English, French, or both, depending on what participants want. They look forward to starting a Men's Circle too, creating a network our brothers too rarely get to participate in.
These fab women also practice what they preach, courageously trying new things. For instance, Laurie-Lynn went from being an artist’s muse to taking painting lessons, and had her pieces included in an art exhibit held at Espace Joie De Vivre. It was a first for her and some of the other artists, and certainly a memorable moment for them all. Isabelle gave stand-up a whirl at an open mic, then she tried again, and she’ll be performing on the upcoming Sweet & Salty Comedy Show. More evidence that you really can't know what moves you until you dive in and try. Of course, the best place to try something new is a kind hearted place, filled with lust for life (and plenty of Joie de vivre).
The first Sweet & Salty Comedy Show is Friday, March 8 @ 8 PM with a super lineup in honour of International Women's Day.
The next Women's Circle is on Monday, March 11 @ 7 PM.
