I am an engineering graduate student at CU Boulder and my partner-in-crime, Melissa Utomo is a web developer and UI designer. We are based out of Boulder, CO, a well-known, predominantly white city. As two small brown women, Melissa and I have independently worked incredibly hard to build support among the brown and Black folxs in our various communities. Honestly, sometimes I forget that we live in such a white bubble. However, that is not the case for many people of color in Boulder, who leave the area specifically in search of places with more diversity.
As a way of infiltrating this homogenous representation of Boulder, Melissa and I decided to create an art festival to highlight local Black, Indigenous, brown, self-identified artists of color by celebrating their authentic expressions of art through a community supported festival. We want to emphasize the celebration aspect of this festival to counter the constant stream of disheartening, horrifying news stories about our communities of color. It is not new to us that a lot of our people are suffering, but we want to show that a lot of us are also thriving, despite the barriers we meet in many aspects of our lives. CRAFt will help the Boulder bubble acknowledge and admire these unseen, unheard artists, musicians, dancers, poets, and foodies. We do not want our lives to just matter or just exist, we want them to shine and inspire.
This festival will spotlight at least twelve artists, three food trucks, two bands, two spoken word poets, and a handful of other performers (mainly dancers and musicians). It will take place August 1st at a local brewery in Boulder called Visionquest. The main schedule will include the outside art gallery, a raffle, spoken word poetry and dance performances, single musician performances, and the two bands closing out the night.