The folx that brought you “Queer Vibes Only” at North Brooklyn Farms, introduce Qinfolk Festival: an art, film and mental health event centered on queer and trans people of color. The inaugural festival will take place October 5, and feature more than two dozen artists for a day filled with creativity, discussion and radical self-care. 

Based in Ithaca, N.Y., founder and executive director Candace Edwards created Qinfolk to expand a community she found within the city. “I found myself traveling the four hours back to Brooklyn and New York City to find community at events,” Edwards says. “I wanted to create a space for QTPOC folx in general, but particularly upstate, to find community and see ourselves represented authentically.”

And this community has only continued to grow. Carrie Hawks, a filmmaker screening their animated documentary black enuf*, heard about Qinfolk through the grapevine. “A friend shared the festival call with me,” Hawks says. “As a queer non-binary Black person, it’s rare to see things that center stories like mine. My current film project is about people of color and self-injury. I’m very interested in mental health for POCs especially.”