On November 21st, 2015, we successfully held our first all-inclusive feminist arts festival at the gallery. The concept for the festival originally came out of a conversation with Jacob and a new friend Ally Hollier. We were discussing the way that victims of sexual assault feel as though they no longer have a voice or any power. We were wishing that we had a way to give people who feel this way a platform, when we realized that we did. We reached out to friends and aquantinces over Facebook and quickly found plenty of people who wanted to contribute and support the event. We opened the subject matter up to all feminist-related issues. In the end, we heard perspectives from our event speakers ranging from burlesque dancing and discovering self-love to testimonies of sexual assault.
October has been really active and exciting for me! From October 6th to October 14th I stayed with my best friend Rachel at her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was my first experience traveling alone; I'd never even been through an airport before! I was really freaked out on my first flight out of Lafayette (the plane felt tiny to me), but I got myself through it. This trip was a big deal to me as it was gift to myself for working hard throughout college and graduating, so I made sure to make the most of it.
On September 27th, we had our first festival and fundraiser at the gallery. Jacob and I joined and worked with the non-profit TownFolk to put on the first annual Victory Festival to raise money for the Victory Garden Jillian Johnson designed. The event-coordinator, Kelly Russo, dreamed up the idea for the event. The Victory Festival brought the largest crowd we have ever seen at the gallery so far. We raised over $16k for the Victory Garden thanks to everyone who contributed!
I've recently started working on a few projects with Londri Magazine, a new magazine based in Lafayette, Louisiana that focuses on diversity and female leaders. Their first event was two weeks ago: a zodiac-themed fashion show at the Feed n' Seed. Londri asked me to do creative photography for this event. This is exactly the type of project I really enjoy doing. Several of my friends were in the fashion show, so they made it extra fun for me. I used my film fisheye camera and 35mm film to get shots of the show and some silly selfies during the night.
Here are some of the best photos from the fashion show:
