A Queer prom was hosted by Meow Wolf and the Human Rights Alliance of Santa Fe on June 14. The HRA works to educate and engage the Santa Fe community in Queer and LGBTQ issues. The prom was held in honor of Shontez ‘Taz’ Denise Morris – a former Meow Wolf employee and member of the HRA.
HRA is an organization first created to advocate for the civil rights legislation in the 1990’s and currently provides a scholarship and hosts pride festivities, according to the Santa Fe HRA website.
Mark Westberg, a committee member for the HRA, worked with Meow Wolf to organize the prom. The event was focused on creating an environment that Taz would enjoy. The committee’s members' roles include community outreach with an emphasis on Queer youth, Westberg said.
“I think the other night at Meow Wolf was a prime example of how we could come together and celebrate, and create something beautiful by simply coming together and being our unique individual selves and living our truths,” Westberg said
They hosted two DJs from the Queer Community in Albuquerque and served a specialty cocktail that had glitter in it in honor of Taz. A portion of the proceeds for the cocktail went to the HRA.
“(Taz and) I were originally the first two people that were gonna start the committee a couple years ago. We never got to work with each other because she passed away last year. … (The prom had a) Y2K theme combined with space – both things that Taz really loved. The whole thing was in honor of her,” Westberg said.
The HRA, Westberg said, chose to work with Meow Wolf because they uphold similar principles of being unique and unapologetically yourself. The partnership was a natural choice because the two already have a good working relationship, Westberg said.
“Meow Wolf is a staple in the community as well as HRA is right now. I think it's important to keep building healthy and beautiful partnerships in places like that,” Westberg said.
While organizing the prom, Westberg said it was important to their team that it was accessible to not just Queer youth, but all ages of the Queer community. The prom cost $10 to attend; The HRA and Meow Wolf were focused on creating a safe space for the community to celebrate themselves, Westberg said.
“It's important that we celebrate in the face of adversity and let people know we are here and we've always been here. We've never been invisible throughout history and we're not going to stop. We're not gonna back down,” Westberg said.
Isabel Slator – an Impact Manager at Meow Wolf Santa Fe – creates programming for Meow Wolf that gives back to the community and supports their employees. The prom was an important way to allow community members to celebrate with a prom they might never get to have, Slator said.
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“It works on multiple levels. It's something to offer to young people who maybe it's their first prom. But I think it's also something to offer to people who maybe wanna revisit their prom days or maybe didn't get to celebrate prom the way they wanted to. They felt like they couldn't be themselves at prom,” Slator said.
Meow Wolf hopes to be welcoming to the community, Slator said. Part of that means thinking about how they can continue to make Meow Wolf accessible to everyone.
“Last year we gave out over 4,500 free tickets to the community – particularly to marginalized communities. Trying to eliminate cost barriers is a huge part of it. We also recently became a certified autism center so that all of our staff is trained in how to interact with people on the autism spectrum. We're doing a lot of work to identify and lower those barriers of access,” Slator said.
The prom was focused on giving back and celebrating the Queer community, Slator said. Meow Wolf’s history and creative success owes a lot to the Queer community, and they were excited to host the prom there.
“Creativity in the arts really does owe a lot to the Queer community. There are a lot of incredible artists that belong to that community and, in some ways, I don't think Meow Wolf would be here without the New Mexico Queer community,” Slator said.
Addison Key is the culture editor at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @addisonkey11
Addison Key is a senior reporter at the Daily Lobo and served as the Summer 2023 culture editor. She can be reached on Twitter @addisonkey11.
