August RSJ Spotlight | Olivia Evans

(Transcription below edited for clarity and length)

Lara: Thanks again for taking some time to meet with me and ahare more about the work that youÕre doing in Spokane. Why donÕt we start with your background and what brought you here.

Olivia: I’m from Wenatchee, Washington, born in Kirkland, Washington. I moved over to Spokane in 2011 to get my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and studio art, but I originally started in the forensic science program and led up to the art program. My love for art has always been consistent. In forensics, I wanted to actually become a missing person artist, helping build those profiles and help with building ceramics. How do I describe this process? If you were to take a skeleton and you’re trying to figure out what they look like, adding clay and moulding it to create that image so you can find that person. That’s really what got me interested in the arts. The further along I made it in the art department over at Eastern, I fell in love with story and film.

After I graduated, I started working for an art nonprofit here in Spokane called the Alliance for Media Arts and Culture. I’ve been doing their social media and help produce local documentaries at film events that represent underrepresented (groups). I really found my need to help BIPOC communities and underrepresented communities heal and be nurtured through story and culture and community. I’ve always been in love with community but unfortunately back home, I didn’t find that. When I made Spokane my home, having had both my children here, born and raised. This is where I landed and I’m proud to be here.

Right now I’m working on numerous projects. I am the director of The Root Experience Festival, which is our pilot year. That’s coming up on August the 26th and 27th. For the festival, it’s just reiterating and amplifying BIPOC and underrepresented voices that are here in Spokane that maybe are seen here and there, but the community itself is split and we wanted to find a way to bring everybody together and appreciate all cultures and backgrounds at once, creating that equal platform for everybody to be there and celebrate and nurture that healing and growth was really important for us to bring here to Spokane. It’s really exciting for us to have that going.

Lara: I would love to learn more about that side of your advocacy work and your professional work because I know that you also are involved with the domestic violence coalition.Ê

Olivia: I really enjoy consulting with nonprofits, whether it’s an art, social justice, whatever the case, as long as their mission is creating healing or prevention, or helping communities heal and celebrate who they are and not detract from all the needs that are in place in this community that need to be happening.

I just took my leave from the regional domestic violence coalition this week to really further my business which is Mama Wolf Media LLC. And within that, I am the festival director and that, unfortunately, overwhelmed me and I needed to take my leave to be able to figure things out and help other clients as well with their needs.

But theÊSpokane Regional Domestic Violence CoalitionÊholds a special place in my heart. I really want to help them in the future after IÕm not as overwhelmed.ÊWorking for them was a blessing to be honest. I come from a background of familial molestation and abuse and PTSD from a previous relationship through my daughter. Having that space to help victims of violence meant more to me than anything in the world. It really helped solidify a lot of my personal needs and helping community members heal. So again, just always relying on that mission and intention of the work that I put forth.ÊI know that the domestic violence here in Spokane in particular is really high. IÕm so glad that thereÕs community members here and organizations that are helping heal those communities.ÊI am still pursuing advocacy work, domestic violence in particular, and various social justice instances, as well. IÕm always reaching out to different organizations seeing where I can lend a hand.

As far as the NAACP, SCAR Spokane, I’m always thinking of different ways that I can help either move their story along, help promote with marketing and help with graphics, help photograph different events that they put on so the community is seeing what they’re actually doing. ItÕs a joy to see, honestly.

When I first moved to Spokane in 2011, I had no idea what was going on in these fields and after I graduated in 2018, I really wanted to use my skills in storytelling and film and different aspects of those to really expand on those stories that I want to be seeing in our community be heard. Being able to help these orgs and nonprofits with that is just really exciting and really personal to me and my values.

With forensic science in particular, my dad is ex-Marine, ex-cop from South Carolina. He’s been up to Canada, he was a Mountie, he was a correctional officer. I felt like my brain was going that route. And so I went into the forensic science program. But I want to put my artistic twist on it and figure out if there is a way that I could blend those. I really dove into biochemistry and feeling those fields out. When I found the art department, it was like, Oh, I could do this through film, I can do this through art. I do’t have to just fit into one sector. There’s multiple ways and mediums that I can do this and help our community grow and tell their stories individually. And so that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

Lara: I would like to learn more about what really resonates with you when it comes to storytelling and what you hope to achieve when you do go into these projects with other people and organizations.

Olivia: With storytelling in particular, I see it as an intrinsic human instinct, right? And the influence of it itself is it helps our evolutionary process within ourselves move along. Anything that feeds into our story, is helping us become either a better person, helps with personal growth, self-care, self-healing. Really, that’s where storytelling is important to me.

It’s something that humans have always been curious about and have held, but sometimes it’s not particularly fitting the needs of the individuals who are telling the story and sometimes the people who are hearing those stories aren’t giving them the value and respect that they need when they are telling them. Me placing myself in these situations and on these projects, that’s my goal to make sure that when people are telling their stories, or I’m helping them develop their stories for their branding, for their business, that they’re being true to their values, their intentions and, if their culture is the main aspect of it, I want to make sure that everything is equal and and thriving, in that sense. I wanna make sure that they’re seeing themselves through the work and graphics that I’m creating for them. Through the bios, through the resumes, through the websites. I help with a wide range of things. But just again, helping those individual organizations that may be lacking in that area. Like, who are we actually? Like, what is our mission and how can I actually put this in words or imagery? Helping people go through that and brainstorm that is just really special for me to be a part of.

Lara: How do you show those complexities and that spectrum that these people of color can be anything?

Olivia: Being a multi-disciplinary visual artist through my work that I exhibit at galleries and through events. My main story being a mom and coming from a mixed cultural background. My mom is Italian and my dad is Black and Native, Blackfeet (Nation) and Cherokee. I grew up mainly with my Italian side, because my parents got divorced at an early age. When they got remarried in 2007, it was like this whole new world opened up to me, right? My mom’s side of the family didn’t really talk about my dad and expand on that side of our ethnicity or self, in general. He was always the Ôdo not talk about person. Having him back in our lives really helped me and my sister find ourselves in more of a meaningful and deeper way.

Through our artwork, we’re noticing as we get further along in our careers that our intentionality throughout it all and focusing on culture is so important. Because that’s a piece that we didn’t have for so long and we’re finding more and more about ourselves through our artwork. I make various mediums, but I have this series going and my daughter is in a couple of them, my fiancŽ is in one of them. It really just encompasses my overall values and basically diving into all the different realms that I like to be in. I find myself out in nature constantly.

I’m a 24/7 mother. I have a 2 and a half year old son and an eight-year-old daughter and they’re fully in my life, no free time at all. I love it because we get to play off of each other in different ways. We make art together. We talk through things. We just talk about the random things in life and what to expect, and (we) talk about culture.

As my daughter gets older she’s been more fascinated in her culture and what it means to be BIPOC. Her being able to see herself at a gallery in one of my pieces for the first time was such a bizarre event. She was like, Are we famous? Like, Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe Spokane famous. We can say that, I suppose. It’s just so special for her to see and me being able to tie in bead work and drawing and digital art and photography, all these different mediums, to say what’s on my mind and for my experiences, and really engulf in my spirit as who I am has just been so special. Growing up, I wasn’t really able to do that. Being able to touch on my personal experiences through these different mediums, it’s really just blown my mind.

As years go on, just having this platform and being able to amplify voices that are dealing with similar situations, they feel like they’re not being heard, they feel disconnected from their homeland because maybe they grew up in the city. But that’s still who you are. You’re still part of that culture. You’re still a part of that community just because you left to you know pursue school or a job doesn’t mean you’re not a part of that community. Finding any possible way to amplify BIPOC voices, underrepresented voices, people who feel just inadequate, you know, in their own life and, they want to pursue more. I want to help them find that place.

Lara: I feel that disconnect as well. It’s like being stuck between different worlds; how do you make yourself feel a part of all of them?

Olivia: It’s almost like an imposter syndrome, right? You feel like you’re a part of it, but there’s something underlying that’s not quite right. You don’t feel fully involved and I definitely resonate with that as well, because growing up with my mainly Italian family, they came in as immigrants, as well. I saw that piece of my history, but through my dad, his dad was a sharecropper down in South Carolina and his mom picked cotton and that was what they did together. They couldn’t afford the minimal necessities and they were told to help take care of the farm and find a job and make more of yourself. And find a good career so then you can get out of that need of not having food sustainability or financial sustainability.

Something that my dad has always taught me was to be true to who I am. Whether it’s culture, whether it’s your spirit, whether it’s what you want to do for work or education, just make sure you’re doing it with intentionality and that your spirit is heavily involved because this life is short, right? You can pinpoint everything that you’re not doing right or things that you want to get out in life, but being in the moment is the most important. And helping the communities around you that you see are suffering. That’s really what my drive is, to help those communities, as well as myself, through self healing and through my experiences. And traumas, I guess, overall. Because we all have those no matter what, we all hold aces in our pockets and we have to find ways to uplift our spirits and continue on this path, whichever path that may be.

[Lara] I would like to shift now and talk about this festival. This is kind of a big deal! Especially for Spokane. I want to hear all about it.

Olivia: The Root Experience Festival is a 2 day festival focusing on art, music, storytelling, and film. Through this festival we are promoting and amplifying voices in our community, in our BIPOC community that are in the arts and we wanted to make sure that we’re celebrating living cultures, right? Because we do read into the history aspects of all cultures and we wanna make sure that we’re living in the moment and telling the stories as they’re being lived and, really celebrating community as well, it’s our high point.

We want to make sure throughout the year as there’s months that are specified on certain cultures. I mean, I love that as well, but we need a uniform event that all cultures are involved and celebrated. It just needs to happen and especially in Spokane. I feel that although Spokane is becoming more progressive in areas, it’s still on the conservative level and it doesn’t support BIPOC and underrepresented people in this community as much as it should.

There are so many refugee families, immigrant families, BIPOC families that are suffering and need to be heard, and having this equal platform and creating it for them to be able to tell what’s on their mind and their personal experiences is just truly profound. Olivia Evans

All the performers involved, vendors and filmmakers they all have unique experiences and perspectives, and to be able to have them all in one space is just insane. Everyday, we are going through the planning stages and we just released our official selections. There’s just so many ideas and creativity and just uniqueness throughout. To have it here in Spokane where it doesn’t typically happen all at once is pretty crazy. But we’re all excited about it and the venues involved have been super helpful.

Day 1, on August 26th, will start at the Place of Truth Plaza across from the Spokane Public Library downtown. That space in particular is really important to the Spokane Tribe and tribal peoples here. It’s a gathering space, really, is what it is. It’s a cultural space where you can feel elevated naturally just walking through it. It’s right there on the Spokane River, so it has that connection. It’s also made by Smoker Marchand and Jeff Ferguson. Those are the lead artists that created the space. Smoker passed about half a year ago now. Having the opening ceremony commence in that space is really important to the family and I feel the community needs to be in that space as well to be able to hear his story. He’s made so many different sculptures around town and over on the rez and to have him highlighted, even after the fact, as a master creator, it’s just really special.

We’ll be having an opening ceremony with song, prayer, land recognition. We’ll have a drum circle, and then after that we’ll be weaving through that space over to the library across the street and we’ll go up on the third floor where we’ll have films, we’ll have food, we’ll have conversation, we’ll have music, it’s a mixture of things. We wanna dive into any meeting as we possibly can, revolving around storytelling and how we can actually create that space. We’ll also have dancers as well at that event.

On Day 2, we’ll go over to the Magic Lantern (Theater) in the Saranac Commons. Over at the Saranac Commons, we will have musical performances. Right in between as you cross over to the Magic Lantern, there’s a courtyard; we’ll have vendors posted up there. We’ll also have vendors right in front of the Magic Lantern in the foyer and then at the Magic Lantern will have all day films being projected on both screens. It’s really just engulfing each space and utilizing it to the best of its capabilities. Again, all the vendors, all the performers, all the filmmakers are BIPOC and Holding that space is just I don’t have words to fully describe how that feels. To help facilitate that, it’s just really beautiful.

Lara: We touched a little bit on some gaps that Spokane has and what they could do better. What was the moment where this turned from something that Spokane needs into like, Let’s do it!

Olivia: Back in 2019, myself and James Pakootas from the Colville Confederated Tribes were co-producing this event over at the Garland Theater and it’s an all-Native event. We’re working alongside the Alliance for Media Arts and Culture who was presenting it. We showed the film, Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, and within that documentary, we also had land recognition, we had prayer, we had drum circles, all the performers that were there were all Native performers. We had a few vendors there that were Native. So like really paying attention to that overall arc of, We are celebrating Native community and culture, bring your family, bring your friends. We’re all here to celebrate this and enjoy the space.

That event in particular blew our minds. We did not imagine the turnout that was gonna be there. We did not imagine the full-on tears that would break us down hearing the music and the families see their family (members) up there on stage performing and see their culture through what we’re doing. We wanted to have another event like that, but of course, COVID came. We had to put that on pause.

We brought that back into the fold and early last year, we ended up producing another Native event but then we thought well, James is Native, I’m a mixture. Native, Black, Italian, TS, or Devonte Pearson, as he is most commonly known as, he’s Black. And then we also have Jazz Boyd, who is Black, as well. We wanted to find a way to engulf all cultures, as well as resonate with our own.

A BIPOC festival really made sense to us because we’re not pinpointing just one culture, or a couple. We’re expanding to the whole community and therefore, the whole community is presented, and they feel like they’re being uplifted, because they’re all being accepted into the fold and will have that same platform to tell their story and experiences. Not having that particular, just singled out culture was really important to us because, being the name of this festival, The Root Experience, we wanted to derive the stories from everybody’s cultures within this community. Really paying attention to history, upbringing, family, and the beauty that runs throughout and all the various similar differences that are kind of a common thread, throughout all of our stories and myths.

This was really just the way we found that engulfs that entire thing. And it just made sense, there was like a light switch that came on and we’d kinda turn it off and then we were just going, going, going like, Oh yeah, we need this, we need to do this. And eventually it was this whole festival and you know, all these different connections and stories within. It kind of turned into a beast and it’s here to stay.

Lara: Could you talk a little bit more about the artists that are featured?

Olivia: We have 12 performers that will be coming out, as well as 12 films and then around 15 vendors or so. But it’s a mixture of culture again. For the performers, we have Hawaiian performers, we have Black performers, we have Native, we have Asian. We’re really reaching out to the community to find every pocket possible. And unfortunately, that’s hard for your first time, having a pilot festival. Even when you put out the submission, you don’t know exactly what’s going to come back. Once we got the submissions back and went through those, we found certain gaps, and we reached out to those cultures and the community to see if there are any performers or films or vendors that wanted to be involved. Of course there are, because there’s just so much uniqueness here. The performers, it’s a wide range of cultures, the vendors, it’s the same way.

In the films, we have Canadian films because that’s within our reach, in our main goal for this festival alongside amplifying BIPOC voices is to bring in the Pacific Northwest region and Canada, in particular, because everything dealing with Canada and the borders and trying to erase the borders right now with the tribes that are involved, their family, they grew up there and they were knocked down here to the US and having that border in between separating these families and going through these struggles and trying to find their homeland. We wanted to find a way to decolonize that and decolonize social practice and art practice. Being able to collaborate with Canadian artists, as well, and bring them down here was super important to us. Because we’re all how do I put this in some short words? We’re all a part of this bigger picture, right?

We’ve all had these struggles, being minorities in America under this capitalist society and feeling that we don’t belong here because that’s what the media is doing to us. It’s putting out that energy. It’s telling us we don’t belong. We saw it with the BLM strikes and the marches, you know? There’s so much force in America, in particular, to keep down minority communities. We need to have this space for artists in our community to perform and to tell their story because it’s just so important. There’s no way around that. And to be able to have this decolonization factor in there. and bring down Canadian artists and filmmakers as well that have family in our town and have that connection, it’s just so special. It’s a collaboration that has been a long time coming and it’s only going to grow from here.

Lara: I think it is important to bring that up and there is piece of Canadian history that is pretty involved in that and the Native communities. I hope that there are more opportunities to learn about that because that seems pretty important as a continent.

Olivia: Canada is seen as like, it’s really on this high level, we wanna go there, they have better healthcare, all these different situations, but you gotta realize they’re the same type of capitalist society as we have down here. There are same pressures on First Nation communities and on cultures that are up there, and they’re still having those struggles, no matter if on the surface it looks pristine and beautiful. The more we work with the Canadian artists and bring them down here as we will more and more in the future and for the next festival for next year, we’re finding all these different threads, they’re so close to us on the border. They feel so far away, but they’re so close and a lot of tribal communities down here, they go up to Canada to have certain ceremonies down here, they go up to Canada to have certain ceremonies like salmon ceremonies, in particular, because that’s their homeland, you know, and being forced down here was not of their being. Yes, they dealt with that situation and they adjusted and found their home here, but being able to have that thread and bring those families down here is, it only makes sense to me.

Lara: What is one thing that you’re most excited about this festival?

Olivia: Oh man, so many things! Meeting all of the artists involved, in particular, has been super exciting. As far as the festival grows traction in general, we’re finding more media outlets and people and organizations around here being just excited overall about the event, which makes us excited because it’s something that a lot of creatives around here have been wanting to see.

Us being able to bring this forward Ð it’s like actually happening, right? It’s actually happening and it’s been a long run. But I’m so excited to meet everybody and to hear everybody’s performances and stories and find out exactly what their stories are because everybody has their own experiences and traumas and expressions and how they deal with self healing and care and what how they feel like they should be contributing to the community. Being able to brainstorm and level up on that, and figure out ways we can continue to work together, creating a sustainable, creative economy here for BIPOC creatives and not just a one-and-done festival.

We want to continue this through workshops and different trainings. James Pakootas and TS Pearson, they own Panoramic Dreams Recording over here in Spokane and they help artists here that are either hip hop artists, no matter the case, no matter the genre, they help them amplify their voice by recording their material and helping them put that out there into the world. Really anything having to do with amplifying BIPOC voices is our jam and we want to see ourselves in the community and our cultures in the community, helping in any way possible do that. It needs to happen. It needed to happen years ago.

Lara: What is next for you and for the founders of the festival after this inaugural one?

Olivia: We’ll be having workshops lined up. We wanna help artists here, emerging and professional. Doesn’t matter where you are in that range. We want to help you develop through different media programs, how can we create this promo for you that will get your voice out? How can we help you with these tools, of learning Adobe programs and how to edit your own videos? all these different factors to help you create a sustainable business for yourself. And also help you have the tools and necessities that you need now, in this digital age to get your name out there.

We’re also working with the Alliance for Media Arts and Culture to put on different workshops. Within that, they have this program called Arts To Work apprenticeship program and it’s one of the most I’ve never seen anything quite like it, because honestly, I don’t think anything exists in the apprenticeship world with media arts. They’re one of the first nationally known accredited programs that does that. Bringing it to Spokane is something that we’ve always wanted to do but, of course funding is always strange and has its own routes and complications and all those things. That’s really our next step after the festival, is bringing those workshops to Spokane and finding youth to professional creatives here to be able to take those workshops. And reach out to businesses to help. Once the creatives go through the training, they’ll get an apprenticeship certificate and we will link up with different businesses in our community that will take them on as apprentices. Being able to have a job outside of this training, like right off the bat, is a beautiful relationship, because it just doesn’t happen, right? You have to go get your degree, you have to prove, there’s always proving yourself and what you can do in your abilities to all these different organizations and people that you want to work for, right? We’re trying to figure out a way to get over that, because these people, they’ve already proved it. They’re working towards it. They’re creating all these necessities and tools and really getting those needs met to where, when they do come out into the community, they can just start. It doesn’t mean to be this, ‘Oh, let’s see if they got this for about a year. Let’s see if they can do this for a couple months once they are out of the program.’ They can go straight into the business and help with the needs that that business has, but using their own artistic abilities and values to further that.

Lara: How do you practice self healing and self care while doing all of this? How do you get through all of that and keep your sanity?

Olivia: It’s a question I ask myself all the time actually. How do I keep my sanity? Through all these projects that I find, again, pushing on my values and intention, making all these different connections, that’s one of my major self healing, self soothing actions, making sure that I’m constantly involved in community. I didn’t have that back in Wenatchee. I had it on a base level, as a young kid would with their friends, but not an overall aspect. I didn’t feel like I was even on the radar. My culture wasn’t there being seen, people didn’t know what my ethnicity was. Coming to Spokane and having that and really embracing that portion of myself.

I find that beadwork if I’m constantly working on beadwork, it’s so therapeutic. You can just space out and just do it. It’s so nice. I’ll stay up to high hours, until 2 in the morning I’ll be working on the work just to get through my frustrations of the day.

I also take my kids out into nature and work on artwork. Just being around my family in general is another self soothing piece for me. I have my parents here, my sister, my nephew, my kids, my fiancé, and then he has his family here, so always being involved in family is another way to nurture that space as well. I would say those are my main things. Always diving into nature, family, working on beadwork and art and always reaching out to the community to see if there’s somehow I can help, whether it’s with Native events, Black events or anyone else, it doesn’t matter. I just wanna be of help in some way or another. It’s really healing for me to feel a part of community, but not only that, just know that I’m helping in any way possible to my ability. Even though I’m exhausted, I’m okay. It’s just really enriching to be able to have all these different, special ways to self soothe and create more. You know, really nurture the spirit, I guess, in a sense.

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The Root Experience is a 2-night festival featuring BIPOC talent from various cultures and disciplines. The festival will run Saturday, August 26 – Sunday, August 27 at Spokane Public Library’s Central branch and the Magic Lantern. Find more information here.

Learn more about Olivia’s consulting company, Mama Wolf Media LLC, here.

Read the 2022 RSJ Impact Report here.

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