It's been nearly a year since local women of color announced plans to launch Auntie's, a new safer space on the Minnesota music scene. Jay Gabler spoke with co-founders Sophia Eris and DJ Keezy about what's happened since, and about their plans for the future. Watch the interview below, and scroll down for a transcript edited by Sylvia Jennings.

Jay Gabler: Can you believe it's been almost a year since you announced plans to launch this new venue?

Sophia Eris: Yeah, I know. What a year it's been.

DJ Keezy: It feels like it was just yesterday that we announced, but so much has happened since then, which is pretty crazy.

Let's actually go back to that time. You announced your decision to found this new venue Auntie's, citing the need for safer spaces given everything that's happened in the #MeToo movement, the abuse and exploitation of women and non-binary people in the music scene, and of course calls for racial justice. Looking back on that now, what is your take on the community reaction to your announcement?

Sophia Eris: The first day we announced it was amazing. We had so much financial support. People felt and believed in the movement, and also there was some critique. We decided to have webinars to really talk through it with the community to understand what the needs truly are, and what a safe space means. You really can't guarantee a safe space, people are spontaneous. We really wanted to understand what that meant for the community and the best way to build a foundation like that.

DJ Keezy: I think that's important, because not everyone has the same experience as us. I could say [that] I don't know of any other venues that are as open as Auntie's of having community discussion. That's something that we sat with a lot that has happened this past year. We plan on holding more community discussions and having open ears.

What are some of the things that you learned in those community discussions? What are some of the themes that emerged?

Sophia Eris: Basically, when it comes to calling yourself a safe space, which you can't really guarantee, what can make it as safe as possible? What will make you feel the most comfortable? [People] want to see people like them in the space. If you're working there, they want to see themselves in you. Also, when it comes to when it comes to drinks, for example, a lot of people have been roofied, and so having a cup condom [available], you can cover your cup. There's a thing called a cup condom, and it has a face on it. When you put it on top of the cup, you put the straw in one of the eyes. There's no way to move it, and if it looks like it's been tampered with, it's been tampered with. We also created house policies. We created the virtual venue, which I'm sure we'll talk about in a little bit, but we created house policies. When you walk in, there's house rules. When you walk [we say that] consent is a must. [If] you see something, say something. This space centers, women, BIPOC, LBGTQ, and you know, just basically create a standard of what you are going to expect when you walk in and the etiquette that you should have when you walk in.

DJ Keezy: Another thing that popped up during this discussion was security, which is a major factor, and having security that also looks like you and having security that is approachable, to where you can go up to them with any issues [about] anything that happens in the venue.

Sophia Eris: [Also] having an escort service, so like staff members that are hired specifically for bar close to help walk you to your car, so you feel safe.

DJ Keezy: There's a lot.

This is really underlining just how much work there is to do in the scene, because you're just listing one thing after another that doesn't exist or doesn't exist as it should or as often as it should in local venues.

Sophia Eris: Yeah. It's been an amazing learning process and we're hoping to still listen and be better every day.

Let's talk about how it exists right now as a new venue, a virtual venue. How did that come together?

Sophia Eris: In the midst of when we were still waiting to finance property, we knew it was going to take a while, because we have a very big goal to reach. We were waiting for the perfect property to pop up too. In the meantime, we created a virtual venue with REM5, who is a rising virtual reality company in St. Louis Park. It took us like five months to build. We just gave them every idea that we wanted to have in this space, and they create virtual reality at their company. Now if you go to AuntiesVenue.com, you can take a tour of it. There's two rooms, and they both can hold a capacity of 25 each. We now hold virtual shows within it. You can create your own avatar. You see our house rules. You see the space that we want to create. We have local art in there, and we have a pool table lounge area. We have our merch wall, where you can buy or merch from when you walk in, and you can just talk to people through the screen as your avatar and mingle while a live show is happening on the stage. Right now, it is the liaison that we have until a physical space is created. Even for people that are still nervous to go back to the reality of being at shows again, they can still experience all the shows we'll have in our physical space in the virtual reality space.

Yes, this may actually be my next question: the physical space? Things are moving forward? You're looking? You're planning? You're thinking?

Sophia Eris: Yeah. The launch of our virtual reality space was amazing, and we got investors from that too, along with all the amazing community support that we have already. We're just waiting to lockdown that physical space.

DJ Keezy: It's still happening. It's definitely gonna happen. We're just taking our time with it, so we find the right space, the perfect space. We definitely have found a few spaces that we really liked, but then it just didn't work out for different reasons. We still are looking for a property and we actually have a spot that we are really interested in.

Sophia Eris: [We're] crossing our fingers that everything goes well, but this is the most important part of it, obviously. We want Auntie's to exist even when we don't exist anymore. We want it to be a staple for generations to come, so this is going to be a very important space to lock down and own.

Anything else coming up that you want people to know about with Auntie's, and how people can help or pitch in?

Sophia Eris: Yeah, so every Thursday, we hold something called Purse Candy, where it's just her and I DJing in our virtual venue or Twitch. Everything in the virtual venue comes from Twitch. That's how we keep the party going. We are there with you, and we're there to listen to you, and accept donations to help fund our physical space. For the next month, you'll see a lot of different curations that are going to be happening in the virtual space throughout this summer. We're just here to amplify our local community because it's amazing. We have amazing musicians here. A lot of the funding that was given by the community is just going to go right back into the community to help amplify as artists here.

People are really rethinking how the music industry is organized, and how physical venues are made to be safe or not so safe. Have you seen any signs of hopeful progress in the music world beyond what you're doing with Auntie's in the last year?

Sophia Eris: Yeah, there's actually really amazing conversations that have been happening, specifically, with the Minnesota Music Coalition. They've created a really cool committee that was created to talk about safer spaces within the Minneapolis music scene. I've been involved in those conversations, and they're amazing and solution based. It's not just going back into detail of everything that we've gone through, but it's like, where do we go now? Everyone on that panel has a big responsibility, because they all own spaces or they represent businesses that represent local artists. That makes me hopeful that people are actually having these conversations and want to create change out of the chaos that we've all gone through in the last year.

I know there's a lot of conversations happening. I think it's going to say a lot once spaces are really open, and if people are sticking to the word of things. That's gonna be very telling. I know people are doing the work, and sometimes it's not right there in our faces, but I see a lot of women doing the work still. I hope for more men to take the time to do the work as well.

Yeah, totally. Accountability seems like it'll be a very important word moving forward. I hate to surprise you with this question, but I've got to ask: Sophia, last year, you dropped some fire singles from what was possibly going to be an album project, but you, very understandably, put that on hold, given everything that's been going on in your life in the community. Any word on when we might get some new music?

Sophia Eris: I'm dropping a single on my birthday, which is May 21st. I'm really excited. It's a group that I created last year with Aaron Baum and Casey Gerald, who are amazing men, just cherubs. Very talented. It's called "Reception." It's '80s funk [and] R&B. I'm really excited to debut that on my birthday. It's going to be a really nice rebirth, and it's just going to make you feel happy and joy that we haven't gotten to feel that often. I'm really excited.

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