Claire Nowak-Boyd has one of those personalities. 

One day, you’ll find her raving about a thrift store find. In fact, not something at the thrift store, but an entirely new store, which she’s come across through some strange and ironic way. The next day, she’ll be waxing nostalgic about an abandoned building that she’s touring, after-hours, with friends, lit by moonlight and fueled by gumption. And the day after? What will she have to say, then? Well, she might be calling you from an alley, where she’s found a dynamite armoire in need of nothing more than a coat of paint; or she’ll be texting from a small town diner, raving about the grilled cheese sandwich, some 40-miles outside of town.

Splitting time during her formative years between St. Louis and Chicago, Nowak-Boyd’s been back in St. Louis for the better part of the last half-decade. During that time, she’s been involved in any number of projects, from rehabbing a home in a developing neighborhood to co-hosting a monthly screening of 16mm films. Her interests span a wide range, obviously, and her enthusiasm for new projects and challenges seems fairly limitless.

These days, she’s adding to the civic fabric of St. Louis by hosting two monthly socials. One’s aimed at preservationists, architects and urbanists of all stripes. The other’s geared to librarians, which isn’t a surprise when you realize she clocks hours at one of the several libraries of a major university in St. Louis. 

While it may seem that we’re suggesting a flightiness to her efforts, in fact they’re all organized around some central themes: a desire to see people explore, an equal desire to see them working together, an obvious love of civics and a rooting interest in underdogs.

You can follow her projects that a blog: http://curiousfeet.wordpress.com.

And you can read the interview below for a primer.

For background: your age. And remind me about your STL/Chicago growing up days. Grew up here? There? Where? Came here about four years ago?

I’m 24, a number that gets me all kinds of eye rolls and gasps on a regular basis from people who’ve inquired. I was born in Chicago, moved to St. Louis as an infant, moved back to Chicago as a teen, and then returned here three or four years ago. As a kid, I lived on the South Side but went to school and was on a swim team on the North Side, so I got to see different parts of the city every day in a way that sparked a curiosity I still can't seem to shake. I'm glad to be back, and I'm really glad to be living on the North Side.

You’ve become quite known for hosting interesting and unusual events. Does any pressure come with this role?

Yes! I feel like I’m always doing everything last minute, and it’s a bit of a race to see if I'll finish everything and if it’ll work out. When I've got everything done for one event, I get about two seconds to catch my breath before I have to turn around and work on another one. That said, it’s always worth it. I love doing this.

Speaking of pressure, I ought to note that I’m typing this at a bar about half an hour before Drinks and Mortar is supposed to start!

To your knowledge, is their a monthly drinking club focusing on architecture anywhere else? Was this an adapted idea, or something directly from your own brain?

I don’t know, but I probably ought to look into that. I will say that St. Louis’ exceptional architectural fabric does seem to foster a particularly vibrant culture of community engagement here. We have a lot of blogs, a lot of activists, and a lot of people who care.

Drinks and Mortar was founded in January of 2007 by a group of built environment activists and bloggers who came together to see if we could possibly collaborate and coordinate our efforts. The group pretty much dissipated after a few months, and Drinks suffered as a result. I took the reins in October to bring it back, and attendance and conversation volume have both gone back up since then.

The idea was inspired by Green Drinks, the local event for the discussion of environmental issues. It felt pretty logical to us. People would say, “Well, we've got the architecture blogs, but is there a ‘real world’ version of this conversation?” Now, there is.

What kinds of conversations come about during a happy hour for preservationists? Any deals struck? Any allegiances formed, for projects? Or is it good for folks just to have a place to discuss these issues, for the sake of conversation alone?

There is a lot of discussion about local development and politics, and about planning and civics in general. Whatever the hot-button issues are at the moment will be discussed vigorously. This evening, I know I’m definitely going to hear a lot about the endangered San Luis Apartments, 1951 St. Louis Avenue, and St. Stanislaus School. And of course, there’s a lot of talk about ongoing scourges like Blairmont and brick rustling.

A number of friendships and alliances have been formed. There's nothing like a concentration of troublemakers with booze in hand to get new projects flowing! I feel like St. Louis can sometimes be a hard place to meet people, and so I try to counter that with my events.

You move these events frequently. Seems that it’s important for you to keep an eye on diversifying your ranks, yes?

Yes. Trying a new spot every month gives people one more reason to come out and join us, and it enables us to see different parts of the city. My favorite Drinks & Mortar was the one we had at Zack’s in The Ville. The evening ended with Drinks attendees and bar regulars having earnest conversation about the city and race. People were buying each other drinks and the jukebox was in use. It was a good time.

And yes, it’s key to keep new folks coming in, to keep the conversation fresh and to forge new friendships. When I’ve got several new faces at a Drinks night, I’m happy.

You also host a librarian’s social. That's gotta a be a heady group? What kinds of conversations emerge from there?

Yes! Dewey Decimal Drinks meets on the second Thursday of every month. It’s a fun bunch of folks. There’s a certain amount of what you might expect — complaining about computer systems at work and swapping stories about outrageous library patrons. But there’s also talk about pretty much everything under the sun. People talk politics and art, people flirt, people compare favorite zombie movies — you name it. Librarians are just like everyone else, except that when you ask us a question, we HAVE to figure out the answer, even if you don’t really care that much. That, and we know how to work a pair of glasses.

St. Louis has a reputation as a drinking town, with lots of organizations hosting “themed” nights. Lots of these go away after a time. How long can you go with yours? And how do you want to keep yours both fresh and socially/civically relevant?

I hope I can keep both Drinks & Mortar and Dewey running for a long time. As long as librarians want to socialize and as long as the city’s treatment of its historic buildings drives people to drink, there will be a need.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the simplest ways to keep these events interesting is to switch up the venue and the neighborhood every month. Occasionally, we’ll have a little special draw to add to an event. DJ Swansin, who is a librarian by day and a DJ by night, spun records at one Dewey Drinks. That was great. I’ve had some not-so-great ideas – at another Dewey Drinks, I advertised that the person who wore the best stereotypical librarian outfit would win a prize, but I was the only one who dressed up! That’s the thing — a lot of the extra stuff sounds neat, but it ultimately doesn’t matter to people. If you can turn out a good, enthusiastic crowd and you can cultivate an environment that fosters spirited conversation, people will show up. That’s the part that counts.