[KinkForAll] KFALC: Possible Venues
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Rebecca Crane
Aug 13, 2012, 10:22:16 PM8/13/12
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In talking about venues, Dakota is really interested in trying to have KFALC outdoors. There are various pros and cons to this idea. The biggest con, I think, is that being outdoors may make Internet access more difficult and will certainly make sound insulation and good sound recording more difficult. The biggest pro, in my opinion, is that being outdoors really clearly reinforces the idea that this conversation is happening in a public space. It also just gives us more options for venues. With that in mind...
1. Park: There's a nice park at the corner of N. Main St and E. Picacho Ave.[0], right across from the public library. This is the park where Occupy Las Cruces was held. There's no permit required to gather there and nobody was hassled. (I think they charged them a $5 overnight camping fee.) It's possible, depending on where we set up, that we'd be able to access the Library's wifi. We need to go check out the range. I'm also curious to think about who might feel *more* welcome to an event happening in a public park on a busy street corner and who might feel *less* welcome. I suspect there are issues I'm not considering. (Wheelchair accessibility, for example.)
2. SB's Late-Night Lunchbox: SB's[1] is a little cafe that the owners, Kiana and Paddy, opened "so there'd be somewhere in Las Cruces where queer folks could go on a date and not get hassled." They have an alleyway and a parking lot out back that they've offered to let us use for KFALC. Less cushy than a grassy park with trees, but this means we could also use their WiFi and bathrooms and that we'd be more insulated from ambient traffic-noise. They've actually offered to let us use the entire cafe, both during and before/after business hours. I think that's an offer worth considering but it's tricky because the fact that they're a business takes away from them being public space -- this is something I'd like to talk over more with folks on the list. (I'd also be concerned about getting them tangled up in any possible accusations that KinkForAll is some kind of money-making venture.) The strongest thing in favor of SB's, to my mind, is that they are a place where a lot of people who might find KinkForAll valuable already spend time and, specifically, that it's a place where teenagers and other youth are welcome and feel comfortable. Given that there aren't a lot of places in Las Cruces where queer folks and people of a wide range of ages feel welcome, I'm inclined to take advantage of the work Kiana has already done to create that space, if she's offering.
3. The GLBTQ Center: On that note, once place we've considered is the GLBTQ Center[2]. However, we haven't asked them yet because they recently had their front windows smashed in, so we're concerned that they might not be up for hosting something as potentially controversial as KinkForAll. They're still on the list of places to investigate, though.
4. NMSU Sexual and Gender Diversity Resource Center: The NMSU SGDRC[3] has an office on campus. Dakota reports that it's staffed by one very overworked half-time employee and feels that they probably would not be supportive of KFALC, but we're going to look into it. I'm not a huge fan of the idea of doing it on campus. College campuses can sometimes feel inaccessible or exclusionary to people without a lot of education or class privilege and I think that divide is particularly salient here. But I want more info about what our options are there, regardless.
5. La Casa Rosa: This is sort of a fallback option. La Casa Rosa is our house. It's also a local DIY venue space, so it has a community-space feel. It's downtown and easy to get to. (For reasons of affordance[4], I'm not going to post our address on the mailing list until/unless we do actually decide to use it as the venue for KFALC.) It would be pretty easy to block off the section of the house where people have bedrooms, and that leaves two big living rooms, a common room, a kitchen and an outdoor covered carpark area that could all be used for KFALC. We have WiFi, bathrooms, etc. But again, using a private residence as public space comes with complications.
That's it for now. Thoughts? Given that we're considering a somewhat wider range of types of space than we have in the past, I'm especially curious about things I'm not thinking of re: who is going to feel more or less welcomed by various spaces.
Thanks!
- R
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