Dozens of people — college professors, young musicians, poets and retirees — poured into a backyard in a Mid-City Baton Rouge neighborhood on a warm Friday night in October.
The eclectic bunch of friends and strangers milled about the yard, drinking out of mason jars and basking in the warm sepia glow of Christmas lights that were strung from tree to tree, left over from a wedding this summer.
As the sun set and the neighborhood quieted, people took turns stepping on a wooden stage in the middle of the lot, with a hand-painted “Bee Nice” sign as the backdrop, to read and recite poems and prose. Bands graced the stage to play acoustic sets for the intimate crowd.
This is a normal Friday night at Penni Guidry and David Mooney’s “Bee Nice Concert Series,” a plot of land turned into a concert space in the middle of a Capital Heights Avenue residential area. The venue is filled with Guidry’s decorations—mostly rusted, discarded items she finds and repurposes.
Guidry calls these items FOSTR — “found on the side of the road” — and her venue is filled with them — rainbow colored pianos, disco balls, repurposed windows and assortments of chairs, which accommodate her growing Friday night crowd.
Growing up in a small town west of Monroe, Guidry said she was not exposed to artistic communities but fell in love with a jazz musician at 16.
The pair had three children — who are all musicians now — and moved in with Mooney in Baton Rouge in 2009 eager to invite local musicians over to hang out, talk and jam.
“I don’t care if it’s bad, as long as it’s live,” Guidry said. “I’m not real wild about canned music, but the live stuff, yeah, because it just makes people have fun.”
When the couple bought a turquoise and white trailer for Airbnb rentals, they were reminded of a vacation they took in Key West, Florida. The two wanted a space where they could relive their time on the island, and the seeds for the venue were planted.
Since June, Mooney and Guidry hosted 12 concerts, three weddings and are preparing for a Halloween festival for children.
Guidry said her decorations often make people do a double take while driving or walking by. Giant sheets of rusted tin form a fence around the yard, which Guidry and Mooney bought from a neighbor, and inside the yard are countless items they collected through the years and revitalized.
She said once a collected item becomes unusable, she often throws it into her brick fire pit to roast marshmallows over it.
Guidry’s philosophy of “never throw anything away,” informs her decorating habits and culminates in a multi-colored “hippie yard,” Mooney said.
He said the church across the street from their house put on live music for years, but stopped before last summer.
“We usually had 50 or 100 people wandering around in our yard,” he said, “and picnic tables and stuff and they’d bring the kids over here to play while the music was loud. So instead of playing over there, we just opened. I put a roof over, and we put the porch down for a wedding, put a roof over it and bought a little used PA [system] from a church.”
Since then, Mooney said their venue is well received, with musicians calling the couple to ask if they can come play. He said the venue is popular with local bands, who can play from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., make a few hundred bucks from “passing the hat,” and get to another gig by 10.
He said the venue is also popular with neighbors who want to bring their kids, have fun and are home by a reasonable hour.
Guidry said she comes up with ideas for “Bee Nice,” and Mooney has the tools to bring them to fruition.
“She’s more eclectic than I am,” Mooney said. “I’m more of a button down and khakis kind of guy.”
Stephen Dixon, ACLU representative, hosted the “Freedom of Expression Festival” at the venue Oct. 16.
He arranged for local artists to read, recite and perform formerly banned or threatened works of art, an annual event in conjunction with the American Libraries Association “Banned Books Week.”
While different artists and educators gave wide-ranging opinions, from Walt Whitman to an obscure article titled “Liberty and LSD,” read by a local lawyer, Mooney and Guidry bustled about behind the scenes — Mooney working the impromptu sound-booth, and Guidry passing out wooden fans and entertaining guests in between acts.
“David and Penni embody the spirit of freedom of expression,” Dixon said
The couple will stop the concerts in November, Guidry said, but will continue to provide the space for neighborhood gatherings, parties and weddings.
Guidry said she has only three rules — no smoking, no pets and be nice.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Sam Karlin

The Upper 2s play a set at the "Bee Nice Concert Series," a backyard lot repurposed for live music Friday, Oct. 16, 2015.