(bright music) (gentle music) - Destiné Price supports her community by providing a safe, brave space for youth to express themselves through their open mic nights, art programs, and Summer of Healing.

Well, introducing you, Destiné, to our Kalamazoo Lively Arts audience, in your home called Fire, I'll add an exclamation mark to that.

So congratulations, and my first question is what's Fire all about?

- Yeah, thank you, thank you for having me.

So Fire, known as Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative, is a arts-based, nonprofit organization that serves youth here in the community.

We serve youth 13 to 21 years old, and we have historically been known as a safe, brave space for both youth and local artists here in the community.

We are also Kalamazoo's longest running open mic space.

- Ooh, I bet you've been on stage saying a little poetry or two.

- Oh yeah, I actually was a former Fire youth.

That's how I started off here at Fire, directing here at Fire.

- [Shelley] Take me back to its beginnings.

How was the need determined that a space such as this is needed?

- Back in 2005, Fire was founded by Dr. Michelle Johnson and Denise Miller, who are both artists in the community as well and two Black queer folks who were really adamant about creating a space for Black folks here in the community.

Then, the youth came in the neighborhood, and we're like, "We need a brave, safe space too."

And that really, building those relationships and seeing that need, really showed us the necessity for this space.

- Yes, and this space has a lot of history in it, doesn't it, like a engine station?

- [Destiné] Yeah, so we used to be a firehouse.

We used to be a laundromat, and we used to house folks.

It used to be an apartment building.

- [Shelley] And where are you physically located?

- [Destiné] We're located on 1249 Portage Street here in the Edison neighborhood.

- What do you offer us throughout the year, your guests, well, to be inspired?

- Yeah, so we're a space to nurture expression, truth, and freedom.

That magic can mostly be found every first Friday of the month at our open mics.

So, like I said, we are Kalamazoo's longest running open mic.

So every first Friday, 6:00 to 8:00, that magic happens in our doors, in one of the units here at Fire.

We also have youth programs that are just solely for our youth, and they're free to youth in the community.

We have creative arts-based writing workshops and poetry-based workshops that involve and are in collaboration with other artists and poets in the community.

We also have our yearly Queer Prom, so that's really a space to really provide a safe, brave space for queer youth in our community as well.

And we also do a Summer of Healing, so that's where we really engage a small, intimate group of youth with skill sets around healing and transformation.

- And you welcome artists to bring their installations in that have messages to share, yep.

- Yeah, so just like Maya James came and had their installation here at our building, Fire is definitely a space for artists to come showcase their work, to tell their stories.

- What's Your background?

- I myself, I'm a poet.

I'm an artist as well.

I dabble in a couple different mediums.

Painting, I do some visual arts, I do a lot of drawing, but I'm really a lover of the words.

- Yeah, is the toughest maybe step for someone who wants that safe space to walk in the front door?

- That can always be the toughest step, I feel like, is to take that step in the door.

One thing I actually identified with youth recently was it almost takes seeing or feeling something familiar in a space.

And that's something that the staff and myself here work to do, is to make some type of familiarity, so folks are comfortable in this space.

- Now this has four, you say, divisions or sections or what makes each section different?

- Yeah, so we have four units.

So this unit has turned into both a gallery space and is growing into a community store space.

So, our youth are really the ones in charge and the curators of this space.

So upstairs is the space where our youth meet, and they do a lot of sensory things together and community building.

And our open mic space is where all the magic of open mics happen.

We're constantly shifting, and like I said earlier, Fire acts as a portal and is really curated by the youth in this community.

- How can this community help?

How can you ask for their help and what can they do for you?

- You could really support us by visiting our website.

We can be found on thisisfire.org, on Instagram and Facebook and really just coming and showing up, showing up for youth, showing up at our open mics, really spreading the word.

We had been closed for a long time due to COVID as many organizations were.

So now that we have the space and resources to really share with community, it's really getting the word out.

- Why support the arts in Kalamazoo?

- The arts is a very important and special home for a lot of folks.

It's a way to express ourselves.

And I think as humans, we innately are designed to express ourselves.

Arts in particular, here in Kalamazoo, is important.

It saves folks.

It has saved many youth that I know.

It saved myself.

So really creating spaces for folks to explore themselves and their identities and to express that in art is special.

- Well, with your background in poetry as an open mic night, give me a sample here.

- The first time my body was disrespected, I knew love found a way outside of my heart and found a home on my arms, steadily exposed, out poured until drained, a grass no more.

Who do you think you were when you siphon the healing my inner child had bestowed on me?

Denied my words, breath and space replaced with sweaty hands, like you have a hold on me.

What you did not know is that everything that was within me is still, that my body is delicately mine, that I have a voice, that love will slowly move its way from my outsides to caressing the organs abused, pouring back into my chest cavity, traveling to flush my cheeks and soften my eyes.

What you did not understand is how undeniable I was, I am, and will be.

- On behalf of Fire, thank you, Destiné.

- Thank you.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.