The Flow (and Fun) of Intentional Community
creative connections from Boot Tan Fest 2025
A week has already gone by, but my heart is still at Boot Tan Fest 2025. What started as a fun idea by my dear friend Jenny Verrochi five years ago officially stamped itself as a yearly pilgrimage of collective feminine joy that continues to grow with each year. It’s honestly taken me all week and many journaling pages to fully embrace all the radical connections this year’s festival sparked. These articles by the Denver Post - Skiing naked is the ultimate form of female empowerment at this Colorado festival and the Sopris Sun - The Future is Boot Tan Fest do a much better job with their words highlighting the importance of sharing this space with everyone. The Sopris Sun even included a Professor Slu shoutout,
“Days later, while attempting to wrangle the words that encapsulated my first BTF experience, I recalled some wisdom from Professor Slu, art educator and guide for BTF’s journaling session: during reflective practice, channel gratitude. I am grateful to connect with a place where everyone — cis, trans and queer — is safe and seen, for playfulness and deep belly laughs and the flow of intentional community.”
Just being a woman and a gender queer human historically has faced many challenges, living in our present-day is no different. With a world actively against each of the bodies joyfully laughing in the sunshine, my friend
’s comment “Boot Tan made everything in this chaotic world feel right for a moment. What an absolute gift.” rings truer than ever. In a magical transportation, we were all safe to be our most silly and creative selves. Being in community and supporting and embracing each other l is exactly what BTF founder Jenny expressed as the biggest gift of BTF, “It’s not about trends or popularity. Glitter is currency. Kindness is cool. There are no cliques, no cool kids table—just friends. Trans, non-binary folks, and people of color are centered, not sidelined. Older women are honored. Younger women are lifted up. Everyone belongs. We don’t compete. We rise together.”From true fun to the power of friendships there are many themes that thrive out of Boot Tan. Even after a rowdy night of dancing under the full moon, I’m always surprised at the amount of folks who wake up to have coffee and journal with me – taking that final moment before packing up and heading back into the world to solidify the experience we all just had with each other. Joined by my friend Kathleen Hooper of LVDY, we led our morning group in creative action through drawing and singing along with each other.
It’s my favorite classroom of the year. This year’s theme was True Fun, the concept from author Catherine Price’s book The Power of Fun. I exclaimed how true fun was in essence what we felt with Boot Tan Fest. Following the equation True Fun = Connection + Playfulness + Flow, I asked everyone to reflect on what their personal connections were to the various elements of True Fun. I surely saw and felt Playfulness in the laughter, outfits, and variety show. Connection in the rich friendships and teamwork that it takes to plan and put on an event like BTF. Then lastly, Flow by dancing all night and drawing that morning. Following the writing/reflecting prompt, I encouraged everyone to join me in a simple line drawing, reminding them that drawing is for everyone – not those who are just “good” at it. At the end of our workshop I asked everyone to show their drawings to a neighbor, one final giggle to connect with each other. A reminder that the lessons and feelings felt in that moment & all of the moments the previous day back to their own pockets of community. Perhaps they’re inspired to reach out to a friend or maybe it helped them overcome any personal hurdles– whatever it is, each person’s own creative light shined just a little bit brighter.
In my own journaling when I got home, I couldn’t help but come back to all the many connections and how they continue to fuel creativity. This is what I feel my art teacher self is meant to observe and share, a main goal of even this newsletter to celebrate these various connections. Here are some of my top creative connections from Boot Tan 2025 & if you’re around next April I hope you can make it to Colorado to join as well!
My friend and amazing photographer Kersten Vasey Bowers made a triumphant return to her creative practice post baby.
Gaining a new friend MT (@heavy.charms) and being super jealous of the tattoo they drew on my other pal Schlag (@_schlag_)
Shoutout to this amazing group of morning journal participants.
How cute my Field Notes journals go with morning BuckWild Coffee
DJ Harmony (Kathleen Hooper from LVDY) throwing down an amazing Friday night set. My body is still sore from dancing.
All of the new friendships & connections that came from this day!
Connecting friends from all over!
BONUS Connection: Days later I was listening to Amy Poehler’s new podcast Good Hang (it’s quickly becoming my favorite) and was publicly crying during this episode where her and Kathryn Hahn are talking about their female friendships. What Boot Tan Fest has connected to me most powerfully this year is how special it is when we get to be silly with our friends.
