Meet Amy Kline

 

We were lucky to catch up with Amy Kline recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

In my adult years, I have always been fairly confident, but when we were all quarantined in 2020, I developed a project called the Dormont CoronaChoir. It was a choir of socially-distanced neighbors that I led each week for 11 weeks, all via Zoom. I was onscreen in front of all of my neighbors and, more publicly, singing loudly by myself in front of my house. The project itself garnered a ton of media attention, but it was the singing by myself as loud as I could that really changed how I view myself. It was an opportunity to be silly and have fun, but also allowed me to proudly do something I am not great at without any shame. At the time, I didn’t know that it would lead to co-founding Dormont Arts, and propelling me into the spotlight around that organization, but it certainly set me up well to do so.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

By day: I lead a team of customer success professionals for Activity Stream, an event experience software solution for the entertainment industry. By night: I lead the operations of The Parking Pad, a music promoter and presenter in the south Pittsburgh borough of Dormont. My partner, Stefan Flower and I, started in 2021 by having house parties and hiring bands so that we could provide a place for them to work when a lot of bars and venues weren’t yet reopened. We presented six shows in 2021, and followed it in 2022 with another five. We always provide sound and lights, and we also encourage our ticket buyers to bring something for a potluck, which supports our desire to provide a space that not only supports artists but supports community life as well.

Late in 2022, we were approached by the manager at the Hollywood Theatre (a local single screen movie theatre), formed our company, and presented three concerts there over the next several months. We continue to present and produce music in Dormont, at our home, at festivals, at social clubs, and when it reopens, back at the Hollywood Theatre. With Stefan’s production expertise, we have begun offering live sound services, as well as gear rentals, and I am managing marketing for some local bands. We are always looking for ways to expand and present additional concerts in both traditional and non-traditional spaces.This year, we were honored and excited to recieve a grant from Awesome Pittsburgh, a local foundation who supports great ideas and great projects. The grant will support our fifth season of concerts at our home which will feature five bands who have never played here before, along with our beloved hospitality and the sense of community that only we can offer at The Parking Pad.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

In my career, it has been essential that I learn to trust myself to stand up for what I believe is right or for what might be the most effective. Standing up for yourself and negotiating are often overlooked skills for women, who as children, are taught to “be nice.” As an adult that often means that they are pushed around in business. Learning to use my voice without fear has allowed me to affect change in my community, at work, and in all of my efforts.

Secondary to boldness, and sometimes seen as counter to it, is to be helpful others and connect with your peers. In January 2020, I moved to Dormont, and knew no one. Three months after, we were all quarantined, and through a Dormont Facebook group, I started a project that would connect the neighborhood once a week by “singing from our sidewalks,” mirroring what was happening in other parts of the world. I didn’t know how affected the neighbors would be in coming together like this, and realized quickly that it was solving a need: the need to be near to each other in some way and to connect. Once I realized this, and found a group of people to help me to manage it, we knew that this was a community looking for art and music and Dormont Arts was born.

And thirdly: never ask someone to work for exposure.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

The Parking Pad has been searching for a 250 capacity venue in our area for quite a while while we wait for the Hollywood Theatre to reopen after renovation. Without our larger space, we are in a constant money crunch, because we have lost our largest revenue generator. Smaller shows all year will continue to be our primary offering, but bigger shows allow us to make the extra revenue that we need to continue to pay our month to month fixed expenses. In order to subsidize this loss, we have taken on some sound and light gear rentals and sound technician gigs, along with some marketing management gigs for bands. We hope to be able to add a few more of these in the next year to keep us ahead.

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