Today we’re excited to be connecting with Art Of Nothing Press again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

Art Of Nothing, we are so thrilled to be connecting again and can’t wait to hear about all the amazing things you have been up to. Before we jump into all of that, some of our readers might have missed our prior interview, so can you take a moment to reintroduce yourself?
Hello! We are Art of Nothing Press, a radical nonprofit collective that publishes annual art and writing issues and hosts art, music, and poetry events around SoCal! We first established ourselves in Feb 2021 and evolved from there. We haven’t stopped evolving. We are made up of five members: Victoria Oshun Hurtado, Cait Johnson, Cameron Capanash, Jessi Jarrin, and Sam Rivas. We have been honored to serve our communities this way to fuel creatives and connect. Art of Nothing Press has been a group of people, but most importantly, a space for queers, local artists, and creatives of all kinds. It has been a space of inclusivity, celebration, and experimentation. If you have heard of us, know that we love you and your support. If this is your first time hearing about us, we hope to see you at one of our shows or see your name in the next submissions pool.

Awesome, so we reached out because we wanted to hear all about what you have been up to since we last connected.
Since day one, our collective hit the ground running with events and issues, so we’ve had such a good time during the whole journey of gaining experiences in hosting events, having more responsibilities with making a name for ourselves, making new connections with venues, small businesses, and creators, and just staying authentic to our mission statement; there is no bullshit here, and we just want everyone to feel celebrated in creative spaces. Our team is just made up of good friends who are also poets. We centralized counterculture and recognized the fulfillment in it with zine making and DIY event planning with radicalized people. It has been a blessing to find the right people and foster evenings of pure joy together while we can still create conversations around politics, the evolution of art, and how profound a space can be when we give it purpose. It has been what feels like to us as our life’s work. We are grateful for being recognized for what we are as a collective. We are super excited for our upcoming show, “Lovely Jazz Night,” at Non Plus Ultra in LA on Saturday, March 8th, from 8 PM to 12:30 PM. We also just closed submissions for the next issue titled “Oddities.” It has been a delight seeing all the different submissions. We hope to see you there! More shows and issues to come!

Alright, so let’s do something a bit more fast-paced and lighthearted. We call this our lightning round and we’ll ask you a few quick questions.

Favorite Book: Vic says “Agua Viva” by Clarice Lispector

Sweet or Savory: Cait says “Sweet”

Mountains or Beach: Vic says “both — what the freak”

Favorite Sport (to watch): Cameron says “American football”

French Fries or Onion Rings: Cameron says “Friesssssss”

Favorite Breakfast Food: Cait says “pancakes”

What are you most excited about in the coming year?
We are super excited to just continue to expand. We want to book at more venues we haven’t been to yet and venture to different cities that don’t know us yet. For shows, we typically have three bands, three poets or open mic, and vendors. It is a night inspired by a life solely made up by creatives. We want to book one show for every month for 2025. We are excited to open submissions by the end of this year and are already brainstorming on the next theme title. We are excited to execute more ideas to create a memorable evening, like having different vendors than expected, providing bingo for attendees, and hosting with a marionette doll made from a creative in Boston. We are super happy that we just get to meet more talented individuals who hold good hearts. If you are a creative and/or book people at venues and are interested in working together somehow, please reach out via Instagram (@artofnothing.press) and/or email (artofnothingpresss@gmail.com)

Instagram: @artofnothing.press

Other: Freakscene: @artofnothingpress

Image Credits
Raincross District photo by photographer Amber Sayoc

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