Today we’d like to introduce you to Anita Obasi
Hi Anita, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Sapphic LA started in January 2023. I was sitting at home contemplating the meaning of life and also being like “dang, where are all the ladies at?” Just kidding, but kind of not at all. Sapphic LA was created from the consistent challenge I was experiencing of not being able to easily find events that were specific to queer women like myself. There was no central place to find events that weren’t mainly gay male oriented or bar-centered.
Sapphic LA is a free weekly newsletter that now has a presence on various social media platforms and is also evolving into a multi-media, multi-dimensional center of gravity for all things sapphic in Los Angeles. It is an offering to my community and a way to gainfully contribute towards strengthening the queer ecosystem in this city. I chose to use the word ‘sapphic’ in the brand’s name because it seems to transcend any notions of binary where terms like ‘lesbian’ and ‘women who love women (WLW)’ feel restrictive.
In defining who Sapphic LA is for, I have landed on: the ladies, theydies, and gentlebois. You feel me?
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Yes, building Sapphic LA has been intentionally very smooth; I am very much a ‘terminally chill’ type a gyal.
I did not start Sapphic LA with the intention to capitalize on people the way we have been socialized to do in this capitalist society, where one’s gain leaves the other with lesser benefit. I don’t gate keep the information I send out in the weekly newsletter because our community is already marginalized enough. Even now, a paid subscription is really just donating to the cause, although my good people will soon be receiving more tangible value than good karma from their monetary investment probably by the time they read this!
Sapphic LA is a labor of love, and the part about love is what I center in its evolution. There has been no struggle to speak, and I have found empowerment in using the brand as an amplifier in keeping liberation struggles that currently exist top of mind for the community. Queer liberation means liberation for all, which means it is important to leverage the resources we have to highlight very present struggles in the world that threaten people’s agency and lives.
That is probably not the answer you were expecting from this question but there are truly no struggles to speak of in growing Sapphic LA. It has been very entertaining and such an enjoyable, creative outlet, as well as a crucial channel to advocate for the liberation of all people.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Sapphic LA is definitely not my main gig, if you even want to call it a gig.
I have been an event strategist for over a decade. I am highly versed in and deeply passionate about every area of events; from production, management, conceptualizing, design, you name it. My career has touched everything from production managing awards shows, music label showcases, events at boutique hotels, leading experiential creative direction for lifestyle brands, developing peer-centered harm reduction initiatives for national entertainment tours, running a creative co-working space for multi-disciplinary artists to connect, and truly…so much more. What sets me apart from others is my relentlessly sunny disposition and highly intersectional identity as a queer, bi-racial, first-generation baddie.
One of the more fulfilling moments in my events journey was having produced the first ball (think Paris is Burning, Pose) at any major U.S. festival at SXSW a few years ago. This was really special to me because of how we were able to authentically amplify and celebrate the QTPOC foundations of ballroom, which is sometimes overlooked despite the scene influencing so much of pop culture today.
In this moment of my life, I find myself supporting the state and federal advocacy efforts of a criminal justice reform non-profit, by leading the execution of events that intentionally create visibility around the crime victim’s movement in the U.S. Currently, this means coordinating a 2,500 person March on Washington for victims of crime. They will be coming from all across the country to convene in D.C. this fall to demand for more action towards smart safety solutions that allow for a break in the cycle of crime-such as funding more trauma recovery centers instead of more jails.
Being responsible for coordinating events that foster macro-level changes in our society is one of the more serious engagements within my career, which is balanced out in my being such an unserious person at heart. The unserious-ness lends itself to joy, which in my mind is an act of resistance against oppressive modalities like capitalism, racism, homophobia, and all the other icks that often work to suppress the narratives and objective worthiness of marginalized people. Joy, play, and unserious-ness are big themes in my digital strategy with Sapphic LA, especially on social media.
The other side of my career involves cultivating community on a local level, because micro-social interactions cause macro-social change. Regardless of what context I am storytelling within, I genuinely live for connecting people within intentional and safe spaces. This is a major influence in the manifestation of Sapphic LA as a conduit of resources that are relevant to the sapphic-and more generally, queer-community in this city.
As a whole, producing events is a generative means of existing for me, because of the level of impactful storytelling that it allows for. Experiential storytelling requires multi-sensory interaction with whatever message you are looking to engage people with, in a way where the message actually sticks. I have had the opportunity to speak in great detail about this as the keynote speaker at the University of Texas for the Feminist Action Project conference a few years back. The message I generally try to run with in all variations of my storytelling is one of liberation.
To tie this all back to my labor of love, Sapphic LA, which is the reason I have the opportunity to share all of this; by centralizing relevant resources to the sapphic community, this project is essentially a live archival of a larger story around queer liberation. What you see is a newsletter, but what I see is a means of documenting history in motion, in addition to a bridge towards a stronger ecosystem.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Stoney, Ms. Beanbag and Carrie. The first two…well, if you know, you know. I’m a Scorpio who feels like they’ve already said too much so I’ll leave those without explanation. The latter person however, is one of the best sapphic painters in America (@carrie.wilmarth – go follow and buy their art) and one of the greatest people in the world-certainly in mine. They were instrumental in helping me create the mental space I needed to spawn Sapphic LA.
Pricing:
- Founding Member Subscription: $50
- Yearly Subscriber: $30
- Monthly Subscriber: $5
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sapphicla.substack.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/sapphic.la
- Other: https://tiktok.com/@sapphic.la
Image Credits
Julian Basjel, Moyo Oyelola, Jinni J., Manuel Frayre
