Local Art and Culture Festival to Celebrate BIPOC Talent and Break Down Barriers
News Story by Matthew Kincanon | FāVS News
This weekend, The Root Experience will be holding its art and culture festival that will celebrate BIPOC talent from various cultures and disciplines throughout the region, while seeking to erase borders created by colonization.
“Spokane gets a bad look for its lack of culture. Some of us don’t feel connected or appreciated here, and we believe it’s due to representation or misrepresentation,” said Devonte “T.S” Pearson, co-founder and co-producer of the festival. “We have stories not only rooted in trauma or PTSD. We have stories of love, redemption, identity and success. What better way to celebrate one another and our stories than with an annual festival!?”
The Roots of the Festival
Olivia Evans, director, co-founder and co-producer of the festival, said the idea for the festival initially began as another all-Native American event that was similar to one held in 2019 at the Garland Theater where they screened the documentary “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World.”
They wanted to highlight Indigenous people who are starting off and bring awareness that they are still here to the forefront. However, Evans said they realized that members of their communities are mixed-raced individuals consisting of African American, European and Indigenous heritage.
“We didn’t think that it was doing the community justice to just focus on one culture, so we opened it up to BIPOC,” Evans said, who is mixed-race Black, Italian, Blackfeet and Cherokee herself. “All BIPOC cultures are phenomenal. Heritage-wise there’s all of these different layers, so we wanted everyone to be included in that way.”
The two-night festival will celebrate regional filmmakers, artists, culture bearers, musicians and the stories they weave through their art, their Facebook page said.
The first day of the festival will hold its opening ceremony on the third floor of the Spokane Central Library, and the remainder of the day will continue within the library where they will present films, performances and vendors.
On the second day, the festival will be held at Magic Lantern Theater where they will mostly present films but will also have music and vendors.
The films and music videos that will be presented at the festival include:
- “Inhabitants” by Ben-Alex Dupris
- “Older Than the Crown” by Derrick LaMere
- “Enough” by Jenine Dalusong
- “Lost in Introspection” by Quomni
- “The Handsome Man” by Misty and Hope Shipman
- “What do I Remember of the Evacuation” by Sam Vu
- “Savory: Poetic Film & Photography” by Jamiea Zarzuela
Breaking Down Colonial Barriers
The goal of the festival, Evans said, is to break down colonial barriers as well as bring everyone within the BIPOC community (in both the region and Canada) together and connect on a more meaningful level.
She added that a top priority was to try to help create a sustainable art community for BIPOC artists who are not seen as much as other artists in the region.
“We’re going to be having Canadian artists as well involved in this, whether it’s filmmakers, vendors, musicians, we’re hoping to erase the borders that have basically been placed from colonization,” Evans said, describing how people have families across the Canadian border that reminds them that they are separated each time they cross it.
“Being able to decolonize art and social practice is really one of our top priorities right now, and also creating a safe space for people up in Canada and from all around to feel they can enjoy the space, and they can heal from anything that they’re feeling,” Evans said. “We just want this energy of positivity and creativity.”
The center of the festival, Evans said, is about storytelling as well as culture, families, different beauties of backgrounds and resilience. She added that they want to remind people that the borders were placed as an act of colonialism.
The Future of the Festival
Evans hopes to make the festival an annual event and make sure it provides the artists with an equal playing ground where everyone gets to say what they want and be who they are.
After the festival concludes, Evans said they will create an inventory list of everyone involved so the public can know of all the artists and vendors, and keep everyone connected.
“We feel that is super important because this is not a one-off thing, everybody needs to stay connected,” Evans said. “That’s the only way this ecosystem is going to be sustainable. We all keep talking, keep connecting, keep collaborating and keep supporting each other.”
Jáiz Boyd, a co-founder and co-producer of the festival, said he hopes the festival will create more awareness in the community about the artists in the film community, as well as inspire more people to embark on the journey of filmmaking. For those who pursue filmmaking, he wants them to know that filmmaking and telling their story doesn’t require a large budget.
Pearson also hopes that it will lead to their BIPOC population to share more of their work, to increase events regionally similar to the festival and to inspire more collaboration between businesses and creative leaders around Spokane.
“People and cultures thought to be extinct are alive and thriving,” Pearson said. “In a city with no pipeline for a creative economy, the possibilities are endless when we work together. Even in a place with little diversity we can shine a light on our peoples.”
The festival will be held on Saturday, Aug. 26, from 5 – 10 p.m., at the Spokane Central Library, and Sunday, Aug. 27, from 12 – 9:30 p.m., at the Magic Lantern Theater, 25 W. Main Ave.
More information can be found about the festival on their website.
