Phoenix creative collective *om elevates the local vibe

One of the frequently lobbed criticisms of the greater Phoenix metropolitan area is that it lacks culture. Outsiders are slow to pinpoint the identity — the flavor, if you will — that marks the Valley’s creative panache. What the hell does Phoenix even have outside of burritos, goofy politics and the Waste Management Open?

Donovan Johnson and Winston Turner are redefining it with om*, a self-described “creative entity” that blends music, art and creating and caring for community.

“It started with the idea of om*RADIO, and the first thing we ever did was a radio show,” Johnson explains. “But we started to sort of manifest om* into something a lot larger.”

That bigger picture is reflected in their flagship event, Com*MUNITY SERVICE, reprising on Saturday, May 23.

Like the inaugural event in January, Com*MUNITY SERVICE is a curated cultural experience that brings together artists, musicians, vendors and food and drink at the Studio at Wilson, 1624 E. Washington Street in central Phoenix. The daytime portion of the event (noon to 7 p.m.) is free to attend and open to all ages. From 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., the *om World of Music nighttime event costs $20 and features a tight lineup of DJs for ages 21 and up.

It’s going to be a hell of a party, but community remains the focus of the day.

“What I love about Phoenix the most is that it’s very tight-knit,” Johnson explains. “If you know one person, you probably know somebody else. It’s incredible to know that you have a community, especially in my hometown, where people are pouring themselves into the arts. Where people are committing themselves to the arts and are not only doing it for themselves, but supporting one another.”

The rise of *om

Johnson and Turner met while pursuing journalism degrees at Arizona State University. Turner moved to the Valley from Las Vegas.

“I always wanted to leave Vegas,” Turner recalls. “My dream school was UCLA. But when it came time to go to school, UCLA didn’t actually have a journalism program. The moment I stepped foot on ASU’s campus, I knew that I wanted to be there, because the Cronkite School was just so gorgeous.”

The name om* grew from elements of Johnson’s early design work. Turner, who goes by winston t when DJing, remembers when the asterisk became an anchoring symbol for their fledgling movement.

“Donovan had his first solo exhibition. It’s called the ‘Art of Expression.’ It happened at dialog,” Turner recalls. “He just kept messing around with this asterisk and he kept putting it everywhere … We were chilling in my car and I was like, ‘D, What does the asterisk even mean?’”

One of the uses of the asterisk is to denote an omission. 

“om* started as ‘omitted matter,’ and it was just quite literally the definition of the use of the asterisk in language,” Johnson reveals.

The name evolved into Omitted Matter Radio, says Turner; his training lies in music production and DJing, and he had been building an amateur radio station as a side project.

“Donovan was the one who shortened the name up just to om*, which I’m really glad, because it didn’t need to be just the music thing. Obviously, it’s evolved into so much more,” Turner adds.

Johnson went on to attach a mission statement to the acronym.

“What I started to realize is omitted matter can also be related to … how we see life and the small things. I sometimes like to call om* ‘the unseen,’ the small things in life and bringing light to those moments, right? Putting a flashlight on those moments, highlighting those, because those are the things that really make life worth living. And that is our north star for om* … to quite literally bring light to the unseen,” he says.

om* would evolve into the umbrella for om*RADIO and om*STUDIOS, the design and production arm of the brand. The pair hosted om*EDU, their first community outreach panel, in March at Home44 Studio, to “(create) space for dialogue around empowering young minority youth, and young artists in our community,” according to their promo materials.

“One of the biggest things inside of that mission statement was that we operate in all mediums, and we live without boxes. We live without construct to what the world may say we are. … People are sometimes like, ‘What is om*? What does it mean? What do you guys do?’ And I love that question because it’s completely up for interpretation,” Johnson says.

What’s next

Turner and Johnson’s success lies in the trust they share while creating together.

“Before we were business partners, we were friends,” Johnson says. “Breaking the bubble really was just inviting others in to understand that, like, over here, it’s all love.”

The partners see the long-term value in being ambassadors as more people move into town.

“I started to realize, like, the possibility for music here,” Turner says. “I started to get told the industry’s happening, people from L.A. are moving here. A lot of stuff is changing. And in a couple more years, you may want to be here in Phoenix. And then I started to physically see that when we started inserting ourselves in the scene.”

The visionaries behind om* have no plans on stopping, and Phoenix is all the better for it. Now, more than ever, the Valley could use tastemakers like Turner and Johnson staying put and cultivating the flavor of the city.