Queer In Oakland Hosts Festival SCORPIO To Encourage Community
Scorpio season has just begun. The creative, alluring, elusive and sexy season calls for connecting your mind, body and spirit. This is how Gabrielle Hooks pictured the upcoming arts and craft festival, SCORPIO, hosted by her company Queer In Oakland.
“I’m a Scorpio…I feel like [the name] really embodies the vibe of the festival if it was in person, which is what I was envisioning,” Hooks said.
SCORPIO will take place on Nov. 25 at 5 P.M. PST. The event will include over 30 different vendors selling things like - crystals, sex-positive offerings, decor, plants and plenty more. There will also be virtual lounges where attendees can chill out in between shopping during the event. The event was originally meant to take place in person.
“It is our first time [hosting this event]. I’ve thrown other crafts fair events before but nothing virtual and of this specific nature,” Hooks said. “The goal of the event is really to showcase the amazing queer and trans vendors in the Bay Area but also beyond. We have vendors from Canada, the UK and all across the U.S. with a focus on queer and trans BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) folks.”
Queer in Oakland is a platform that connects queer people in Oakland and the East Bay Area with various social events. The company was founded in 2016 after Hooks returned to Oakland after moving to Seattle. Once she came back, she realized that she knew nothing about the queer community in Oakland and how to connect with them.
Gabrielle Hooks. (Picture by Gabrielle Hooks)
“I just realized wow, I’m from here and literally left here and felt disconnected, so I couldn’t really imagine how difficult it would be for someone new to the area to find community,” Hooks said. “I started Queer In Oakland as a public calendar on Google, and then built an Instagram and then a website… and then we started hosting our own events in 2018.”
SCORPIO is a free event, but attendees are encouraged to donate to cover the costs of hosting the digital platform, for the hosts’ time and labor in coordinating and moderating the event, and to the Pacific Center For Human Growth: a Berkeley-based non-profit organization that offers services like culturally responsive therapy, peer to peer support groups, community outreach services, and facilitated workshops. The Pacific Center is the only sliding-scale mental health clinic for LGBTQIA+ and QTBIPOC people and their families in Alameda County.
“It’s the third oldest LGBTQ+ center [in the U.S.]. There were not many mental health centers that just targeted the LGBTQ community. They have a safe place to come and feel secure,” said Vanessa Serratos, the Volunteer Program Coordinator.
Serratos works with a team of about 20 volunteers who take shifts at the center (pre-COVID). The team also includes about 14 staff members. A dollar donated equates to one minute of therapy. Interested participants get a twenty-minute screening to find their ideal therapist.
“They will help you if you’re looking for a therapist that’s trans-identified or if you want BIPOC. We have those kinds of therapists available,” Serratos said.
Hooks said that it’s important to continue offering virtual events because COVID-19 has “forced isolation,” which can make queer folks feel alone.
“I feel like being queer can be isolating under the best of circumstances… so it’s important to be reminded that you are not alone and to find that support system that may not be present in day-to-day life and try to meet folks to be inspired by and to connect with,” Hooks said.
Click here for tickets to SCORPIO.