First Times: Karen Campos

“First Times” is a look at the pioneering spirit that animates the arts community in Edmonton, and provides our mission as an artist-run centre. We’re celebrating that spirit in the winter air on February 18 at our new annual fundraiser: the Parka Patio.

Karen Campos is a designer, artist and DJ here in Edmonton who we’ve worked with for a few events over the last couple of years. She writes two blogs: one about her projects at heart-beats.ca and a Tumblr. We talked to her about running events and what it takes to not give up.

Regulars to Latitude 53’s events will recognize you as DJ Campos—you just played at our McCauley skating event, “Dancing Under the Winter Stars”. Do you remember the first time you were involved with an event at Latitude 53?

That’s actually hard to recall. Latitude feels like such a staple for anyone involved in the arts in this city but I think officially, it was DJing “53 Ways To Leave Your Lover” in 2010. It was one of our very first paid gigs. Up to that point my DJ partner (smallcaps) and me were putting on events on our own so it was great to be recognized by a space we always admired and frequented. This is when we learned something still relevant after a few years of DJing all over the city: Latitude gigs have great food, drinks and crowds. In short: always a treat.

This summer you were one of the artists behind in the “Colour Alley” project led by the Edmonton Arts Council public art team, right in our neighbourhood downtown—and part of your contribution was a stencil featuring hearts, lightning bolts, and “YEG”, the airport code for Edmonton that is a shorthand for the city online. It showcased a very particular kind of attachment to the city—the combination of internet culture, hip-hop derived aesthetics and DIY civic pride. Can you tell us more about that feeling and where it comes from?

One of my favourite aspects of street art is the ability to voice whatever you are feeling at any particular moment rather timely. The temporary nature, especially in Edmonton where all is wiped clean, really lends itself to bursts of emotion especially if you’re able to execute something quickly in a tag or whatever. I actually really struggled at first, the space to be covered felt massive and I really wanted to do right by the Council and by the streets of Edmonton. I began to think of it as a conversation with the city instead; not just what I wanted to say but what the city was saying back at that time. Summer weather was particularly stormy and I was feeling really enamoured with someone so the elements shamelessly came into being this pattern.

I am all of that: internet, hip-hop culture and ongoing search of what it means for me to be in this city (thanks for noticing!). My experience in Edmonton is foremost as a refugee and immigrant. For a long time it felt like the most random location to be since we had no family attachments or anything grounding us whatsoever, though I know there are the official socioeconomic explanations. I think realizing that I didn’t exactly belong to the place where I was born led me to getting to know this city and essentially learning to love it. It doesn’t sound like a particularly natural process but it has been an exercise in being present and it also happened at a time when there was a community eager for something new and open to what I had to say. I felt the love, it was time to reciprocate with Colour Alley.

You obviously are a big believer in the power of music to carry important messages about identity and politics, and one look at your blog makes a case for the ways that radical attitudes and jams go side-by side. When that connects with your DIY Edmonton spirit, it seems to lead to your work as a DJ, throwing parties, and forming the group Sideponytail. But starting things is hard work—and as usual, people leave Edmonton, recently your long-term DJ partner smallcaps. What makes you keep going through the winter?

It’s pretty tough and a question that comes up often for me. I set out to create spaces for people like me, particularly in the queer community at a time when it wasn’t feeling very diverse and inclusive of people of colour, immigrants, etc. I’ve been lucky and have had a lot of privilege. This is a place that allowed this brown kid from the northside to play dirty hip hop at the Art Gallery of Alberta and paint half a city block. There’s a kind of room to play and evolve but most importantly, there’s often a really supportive audience. Maybe it’s the constant loss that makes us appreciate the work that is still around. I mean, I can only speak to a specific experience in the visual arts but I see it in the excitement of the seemingly sudden emergence of the food truck or watching all sorts of talented musicians come up, collaborate and suddenly make it on to the big music sites—Edmonton is a solid foundation for all of that. If anything, winters give you a bit of time to get really good at what you do.

I’m not sure what would get people to stick around. It’s exhausting to do all the work yourself so I often wonder if there’s not a burn-out element to it all; other big cities offer you a place where you can be nothing but a participant vs. organizing everything; carrying gear, putting up posters, working the door, etc. Maybe what we need to do is make sure we are taking care of one another, not just having places to showcase or perform as artists but also to really know each other as people, making sure winter isn’t getting to us the way it so easily can.

Advance tickets for the Parka Patio are available at www.latitude53.org/parka for $12—and proceeds from the event go towards keeping Latitude 53 in the middle of brave new ideas in Edmonton.

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