By: Hannah BechtoltFeaturing: Candace Edwards
By: Hannah Bechtolt
Featuring: Candace Edwards
Hannah: What is your background?
Candace: I’m an IC Alum, Class of 2009. My degree is in Politics so a Bachelor’s degree from the politics department here, and right now I work in the Business school in the Dean’s office. I was an undergrad student here and an MLK Scholar. That program was, pretty foundational in my IC experience.
Hannah: What is the Qinfolk festival that’s happening on October 5th and what are your hopes for it?
Candace: The mission is to center and uplift the creative expression of Queer and Trans people of color. It’s a day-long festival. We’re having workshops that are artistically inclined and mental health inclined. We’re [also] having a short film festival - screening some submitted works of film or webisodes, mostly under 20 minutes, along with a pop up art exhibition. All festival activities are in locations on or near The Commons. Ensuring that the layout of the festival was accessible was very important in the planning. Both physically accessible to wheelchair users and also economically accessible. One of the initiatives that we’ve taken up for the festival is our art access program.We’ve been fundraising to be able to offer some financial assistance for folks, we might not be able to cover everything for them but just trying to help them to be able to help them come to the festival. I hope people get to experience this unique place, and build queer community in upstate New York.
Hannah: Where did the idea for this festival come from, where you got the inspiration, and why did you want to do something like this.
Candace: I’m from just outside of New York City so I moved back up here, in a non-student capacity maybe four or five years ago, but I found myself traveling to New York City whenever I wanted to go to a cultural event. I was finding that I was particularly going, driving the four hours to go down, to attend events specifically for Queer and Trans people of color. Art events or parties like BKLNBOIHOOD’s events or music festivals. At one point I asked myself, ‘why do I have to travel so far just to get to these things, just to find this community that’s really nourishing to me’, and I thought that ‘Ithaca can certainly host something like this’. There are queer people of color here in Ithaca. When you’re a student here, you definitely have more opportunities to connect with these kinds of affinity groups. You have, for instance, the LGBT resource center for students at these intersections to meet each other and connect but when you’re not a student, within the community, it’s a little harder to find folks that kind of exist at those intersections. Those are all factors went into the idea for Qinfolk.
Hannah: What artists specifically are presenting?
Candace: Qinfolk will feature the work of over two dozen QTPOC creators. Some of them are Ithaca College Alums as well. The talent among the Ithaca College community is abundant. This was another piece of inspiration for the festival. When I would connect with my IC friends I thought ,‘it’d be really cool if y’all would come back and show that off’ because I wanted to showcase another side to that creativity that we do have...within this community. One of the folks that’ll be showing their film is a Dillingham alum -- Gillian Glasco,class of 2006. She has been in and created a ton of really cool projects. A project she was involved in won HBO’s 2018 ABFF(American Black Film Festival) Short Film Award. Gill is supremely talented wrote this film called Tough. Tough came out in 2015 so Qinfolk will be it’s Ithaca debut. We’re [also] having an author reading and a workshop by an amazing illustrator and poet, Hana Shafi. She wrote, It Begins With the Body will be doing a live reading of the book at Buffalo Street Books, downtown.. I’m really excited about that and she’s also hosting a workshop during the festival called Art and Consent which will be really engaging and important.
Hannah: What potential do you think this event has in terms of how many attendees you think there might be.
Candace: That’s something I’ve been grappling with. I think that the tendency when you’re starting something is you kind of want to grow it exponentially, or there’s an urge to grow it exponentially but I think something that is really important with intentionally building community is being mindful of how much that space can grow before it loses its way. I know for me it’s very important that Queer and Trans people of color are centered in this festival so even for some of the workshops that we’re having, those are affinity spaces where it’s only for Queer and Trans people of color. We have other workshops that are open to everyone in the community but to facilitate conversations around more sensitive topics like mental health and like gender identity and expression we want those to be closed door, confidential, safe and brave. In that sense, wanting to build community you have to keep it small, so we’re having several workshops but those workshops won’t exceed 20 people in capacity. But for example, the keynote at the end at CSMA, the music hall holds 200 people so that could be larger, the author reading at Buffalo books, or the art exhibition, everyone is welcome and invited to go to those events. Some spaces we’re curating tightly, and other spaces are open so folks can ‘come through experience the art’. I don’t really know the answer to how big the festival will be but I know some aspects of it are going to be intentionally close knit because it is about those in community having conversations and feeling safe. I would love for the festival to grow, to an extent. We’ll see how the event is received and if it makes sense to do it next year.
Hannah: What are some of your hopes for the future?
Candace: I would love for this to be among one of the many festivals that Ithaca as a town has to offer. Ithaca’s known for Applefest, known for Chilifest, Wizarding weekend, Icefest in the winter like you’re still getting people to come out in negative temperatures. This could be something else that’s uniquely Ithaca and this community is the perfect space for it.
Hannah: Assuming you make this an annual event, what are some other festival activities you would like to add?
Candace: We don’t have a musical aspect of the festival yet and that would actually be something like moving forward in future iterations of the festival that I would love to include. Having a musical component is a whole other moving piece, it didn’t make it into the first, but years to come I would love to have a musical component because there’s so much talent here. You have to start somewhere, but you also have to be realistic. We have a humble program planned and the quality has to be there first.
Hannah: What is the grant involved in this.
Candace: We received 4 grants for the festival. The office of sponsored research has been an amazing partner. To qualify for grant fund an organization needs to have 501c3 non-profit status. Since Qinfolk is a project and not a non profit we needed a fiscal sponsor to qualify for grant funding. The office of sponsored research through Ithaca College’s status has served as our fiscal sponsor to make us eligible to apply for these grants. We’ve been awarded the Tompkins County Marketing and Advertising Grant as well as the Tompkins County Tourism grant. Through these grants we’ve received support from the Ithaca Visitors Bureau and Tompkins County Bureau of Tourism. We’ve also received a grant from the Community Arts Partnership which is another downtown organization. For the CAP grant, Ithaca Underground, served as our fiscal sponsor. Then of course we were awarded the IC Presidential Seed grant which was incredible. The Seed grant was actually the launching pad for the festival; it moved the festival from an idea to a realistic possibility. The Seed Grant was the first grant we received and laid the foundation for the other grants Qinfolk has earned.
Hannah: How are members of Ithaca college involved and what other members of the community are involved in terms of making this event happen.
Candace: Luca and Brittany in the LGBT resource center on campus -- I can’t even praise them enough, this wouldn’t even be possible without them. We’ve also had support Student Engagement and the Center for IDEAS, they’ve been spreading the word about the festival to students. So many faculty, staff and alums have been involved with the project the support has been humbling and encouraging.
Hannah: Specifically for the audience you’re catering to, what are some of your hopes for them to take away from Qinfolk? What do you hope they feel at the end of this?
Candace: One of the main things I want people to feel is that, especially Queer Trans people of color, I want them to feel that they’ve seen themselves represented authentically, and artistically and maybe in a way that they haven’t seen before. We are living in a transfolrmative time where you’re getting to see a few really interesting Queer characters on telivision or in other art mediums they’re in pop culture. That’s been great but there needs to be more. Often, when our stories have been told it comea from this narrative or suffering or pain. So many of the things you see is about the negative or challenging aspects of our identity as a result of our society, rather than a celebration or representation of joy. That’s what I want people to see. I just want them to see themselves reflected back in a way that’s truthful and uplifting -- that’s really important to me. Additionally, a part of the Qinfolk mission is to normalize the conversation within this community about mental health. The Qinfolk workshop, QTPOC Mental Health with Kenya Crawford covers this topic specifically, in addition to providing guidance on how to access mental health resources. In marginalized communities, mental health is still stigmatized or seen as something outside of the culture -- seeing a therapist is something that white people do, which it’s not. Once we overcome that hurdle we’re faced with the challenge of finding a therapist that looks like us. There’s a shortage of representation in the Psychology field -- ‘ok I feel good about seeking support, I feel good about wanting to maintain my mental health and being proactive about it but I don’t want to have to go to a therapist and explain how racism affects me everyday’. I don’t want to go to a therapist and feel like my gender identity isn’t affirmed or feel like my Queer identity isn’t affirmed. Those are things that are also barriers and are detrimental. I hope people walk away with at least one resource, at least one self care practice that they can use to care for, heal and empower themselves. And then the third thing is community. It can be isolating to be a person of color living up here because there are not many people of color. Ithaca is a very whtie space. And I’m not saying that judgmentally, that’s a fact. Ithaca is also a Queer- leaning space too but still a white Queer space. I want people to feel like they’ve made connections with community and that’s where our whole name of the festival came from. It’s a play on the word Kinfolk, but kinfolk itself as a word means family, kindred spirits, folks you have a connection with and identify with, and I put the Q there because it’s queer. If I had to say three things that I wanted people to come away with, it would be those three things. Uplifting representation, a sense of community and a sense of having (beginning to develop) the tools to take care of your mental health, or if you don’t even have those tools, to start thinking about ways to do that and kind of normalizing that within yourself. Because you can only work on yourself. Even just being in a room with people of color talking about mental health itself is powerful and affirming like ‘ok I’m not alone’.
Hannah: Why is it important to put on such an event in Ithaca? Like why does Ithaca need this?
Candace: The Ithaca community is a very collaborative and supportive community. It’s not a perfect place to be but I think that’s it’s an ideal place to incubate idea.That’s something I love about Ithaca itself. I mentioned before Ithaca is this really unique community -- it’s kind of an anomaly. We have stunning natural beauty, I’m a big nature person, the hiking is amazing and you have the lake, you have gorges within walking distance. Ithaca is also so intellectually diverse compared to other places -- there’s so many different kinds of people and ideas here. On the other hand there’s the fact that Ithaca doesn’t really have designated queer spaces. When I was a student here we had a few more specificaly Queer spaces, and now they are gone. There’s a sentiment that Ithaca is generally Queer accepting, you don’t need spaces because you can go anywhere and feel comfortable. And ‘Ok I get it that -- but not really though’. That’s not enough. It is necessary to have spaces that centers queerness so folks can feel at home, grounded, build community and feel seen and safe. Even though this is a temporary like pop up event, it’s a space that’s necessary specifically within Ithaca.
Hannah: Is there an admission fee for this festival?
Candace: Yes, It’s a ticketed event, [and] it’s in tiers. Qinfolk Festival tickets begin at $15 for access to the film festival and art exhibitions. For an additional $10 the general admission ticket is expanded to include our keynote celebration, #qinfolkconversations Live! Workshops are $5 to attend, to cover the facilitator and venue fees. We also have discounted group tickets for groups of 5 or more. And of course if the cost is too burdensome we will work with attendees who with to pay for tickets on a sliding scale. Anyone who wants to attend Qinfolk should be able to attend.
Candace: Toni Morrison has this quote continues to resonate with me, in general but specifically with regard to building Qinfolk, she said “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
Visit the Qinfolk Festival Website: https://www.qinfolk.com/
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/2019092512541156