By Kristi Alexandra
@kristialexandra

What would happen if we improved access to creative fields? What if the gates to technology, education and creativity were opened? 

FEMMES Interactive, a women-of-colour-led collective in Vancouver, aims to answer that question with their inaugural workshop series. 

Founded by Kyla Yin James, Chimedum Ohaegbu and Sunny Chen, FEMMES (Femmes Engaging Multimedia and Evolving Systems) is supporting 15 women and nonbinary folks of colour with a series of free workshops in coding, writing and creative software.

Starting on September 29, the program will come at no-cost to the participants, who will complete the workshops, culminating in finishing an interactive fiction project.

For those who don’t know what interactive fiction means–commonly known as IF–Ohaegbu, an editor and writer who will teach the writing workshop, explains.

“On a continuum of choose-your-own-adventure books and video games, interactive fiction sits in the middle. It’s a text-based creative narrative [in which] the story can’t go forward without the reader specifically pushing it forward through their own choices,” she tells Loose Lips. 

Not-so-coincidentally, the mission of FEMMES Interactive mirrors the same goal: choices.

“It’s important for me because the video game industry has a lot of gatekeepers, a lot of gatekeepers who are very angry about people who look like us entering or succeeding in or staying in the video game industry. And that relates back to interactive fiction,” Ohaegbu says. 

“Considering an interactive fiction book as a reader and as a designer of it, it involves a lot of choice. So, what I hope for the workshops is that people are getting a supportive environment to make mistakes, to share themselves with others, and also to share their work with others.”

Ohaegbu met her co-founders through The Future is You and Me, a similar program designed to support young women of colour to take on leadership positions in arts, cultural and creative industries. FEMMES, as a result, is a subsidiary of the program.

Yin James is an illustrator, designer and new media artist; and Chen is a writer, director, producer, singer-songwriter and actor. Along with Ohaegbu’s writing and editing experience, the three co-founders bring a lot of expertise to their workshops, and they’re eager to pass on those skills.

“Anything visual, I will probably get my hands on at some point,” Yin James expresses. “My own interest and how it relates to FEMMES is that I think digital skill sets are increasingly relevant, and having those skills alone makes you a lot more flexible in terms of your employment and your creativity, and what you’re able to do with that.”

Chen agrees that the purpose of these workshops is to play to strength in flexibility.

“Because I’m a woman of colour, I have had to inhabit more roles than one person can really handle for a project, so we really want to bring together our community of women and non-binary people of colour, so they can also find each other, learn skills that they can use for their own projects, and hopefully work together,” Chen says.

The goal of the workshops isn’t necessarily to excel, but to create a safe space and educational opportunity for folks who otherwise face barriers.

“Even just giving women and nonbinary people of colour the confidence to make mistakes as they learn these skills, that’s really important,” Chen says.

For Yin James, it’s about opening up access to fields that haven’t always welcomed women of colour.

“[Learning code] was kind of a battle for me because I was doing something I didn’t think I was going to be good at, and then [I started] realizing that I can do it. I was also backtracking and reflecting and realizing that I didn’t think I was going to be good at it because I had been told growing up, culturally, that I wasn’t going to be good at it,” she reveals. 

“When you see the tech savvy person in movies, for example, it’s usually some white guy hunched over at a desk; or maybe it’s an Asian character that doesn’t have a name. Very rarely do we see a wide variety of representation in those roles and I think that affects our own beliefs.”

The workshops take place over three weekends, plus an interactive game jam and a panel entitled “Project Management and holding power as a POC.” The panel–although currently at capacity–is open to the public. All of the sessions will take place at the Vancouver Public Library. 

FEMMES Interactive is accepting applications for the workshop series until September 15 at 11:59PM. Space is limited to 15 spots for now, so apply here if:

● You identify as a womxn, nonbinary, and/or femme of colour
● You’re interested in learning about, reading/playing, and making works of interactive fiction
● You want to develop or better skills in coding, arts/design, user interface/user experience design, creative writing, or project management
● You want to meet others who fit the criteria above

Kristi Alexandra is an unabashed wino and wannabe musician. Her talents include drinking an entire bottle of cabernet sauvignon, singing in the bathtub, and falling asleep.