🦄 Meet Keeva the Unicorn QueenPlus, a very rosé-y giveaway for you. By Cassie Ruud Oh hey there, Portland — it’s Wednesday. And that means it’s time to get weird. Every week, we celebrate elements of Portland’s wonderful weirdness in collaboration with Weird Portland United. If you haven’t read any features in this series yet, you can find our archive of Weird Wednesdays here, featuring The Unipiper, the Portland Sleestak, Spencer Sprocket, Carlos the Rollerblader, Strawberry Pickle, and many more colorful local characters. Today, we had the honor and privilege to speak with a local Portland artist and goddess — Keeva the Unicorn Queen about her work as an advocate for self-love and the importance of never losing touch with your inner child and creativity. What follows is our interview, edited for length and clarity. | 🦄 Prancing through the weird with Keeva the Unicorn Queen | | | Keeva is a local Portland artist on a mission to spread self-love, joy, and creativity with her fellow humans (and unicorns). (📸: Courtesy of Keeva the Unicorn Queen) Keeva Moselle is an artist who grew up in Portland and creates large scale interactive art installations, immersive beauty experiences, costumes, and multimedia art primarily using post-consumer waste and salvaged materials. She is a graduate of Oregon State University, where she studied socio-political ethics, an environmentalist, and a Black Feminist thinker and author. In 2011, Keeva created the character “The Queen of Unicorns,” as a public persona to inspire imaginative play and give young girls, especially those of color, representation in the cosplay and festival community. She’s presented at the Star Festival, Faerie Worlds, and Rose City Comic Con to talk about Black representation in pop culture and film. Keeva is also one of the 2021 recipients of the Career Opportunity Grant sponsored by the Oregon Arts Commission, The Ford Foundation, and Business Oregon. | Mind telling us a little bit about yourself and the work you do that adds to Portland’s weirdness? I grew up in Portland during the ‘80s. I have always loved unicorns and equines of all types. I have also loved costumes more than regular clothes my entire life. As a kid, I made every Halloween costume from the age of nine on, and I’ve carried that tradition throughout my adulthood. As I taught myself skills and worked through my creative process, I found my own voice, which is where I flourished in the idea that I am a cosmic being that inhabits this flesh suit on this earth. I am just as much connected to all the intelligence of the past as I am to all the possibilities of tomorrow. I decided to exit all conformity and allegiance to a system that was depleting all of my cosmic energy, chipped away at my worth, and balked at my creativity. I knew then that joy is the key to unlocking everything. Find out what brings you joy and do more of it more often! The only way to find joy is to choose it at each moment and reject the alternatives. | | | Keeva in the Unicorn Palace, pre-pandemic, inspiring others to embrace their inner magic. (📸: Courtesy of Keeva the Unicorn Queen) | How did you get involved with Weird Portland United? I have always loved that Portland was weird and artsy. That’s why I never left. I began really diving into the unique culture here when I moved back after college and noticed that everything was starting to change and the unique weird fun quirky “so Portland culture” was starting to meld into a homogenous Californiafication. I wanted to cling to the old Portland vibe as long as I could so I started seeking out more like-minded people, which led to meeting other weirdos like the founders of WPU. This year and a half has been difficult with the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the countless others that have lost their lives to a system that favors the wealthy and murders Black humans. I was so proud of every Portlander who marched for one day or all 100+ — our city stood up! I wanted to channel all of my emotions into uplifting people with all my heart and soul and put it into art. The piece “Promises” is about what comes out of that pain — the promises of our labor and the beauty from our ashes. | How long have you been practicing your art here in Portland, and what got you interested? When I wasn’t daydreaming or playing pretend, I was drawing, designing, making and creating art. Creating three dimensional, wearable, or usable objects appealed to me. Because beauty you can take with you on your journey as you move and live and breathe in the real world...those are like little companions, reminders to our souls and they become our talismans and treasures. These are the items we can take from our altars and shelves and reveal our uniqueness to others to display our most beautiful inner selves. | What does contributing to the wonderful weirdness of Portland mean to you? Helping, healing, service, and preserving a culture Portland is unique for. Helping everyone find freedom to be their most authentic selves without fear of being bullied, teased, or outcast. I promote freedom of self expression and radical self acceptance. I'm a champion of that! I also feel it is especially important as a queer Black woman to live out loud so that other young Black girls and women feel inspired and know that they too can let go of fear and conformity. And that they know they are powerful, capable and beautiful. That they see somebody that looks like them in the world being magical and full of joy and hope. Self-Love is the Best Love! Once you really get in touch with your inner child and begin to nurture her with beauty and joy and compassion, you really begin to self heal. I am writing a self help book that empowers others to channel their joy into healing and find freedom from the judgements and approval from others, to live unapologetically in self alignment and radical self acceptance and love. As Keeva The Unicorn Queen, I hope to inspire other young women and women of color to seek healing and fully commit to who they are so they can find and choose their joy, feel empowered,and utilize their talents and skills to better themselves and their own realm of influence — their own queendoms. Keeva is my innermost being seeking to be the best version of myself in this exact space and time each and every day. I want to share this magical transcendence with others even if it is just a fairy tale. Isn’t it more fun to live fully and to create and believe in something, rather than to spend all your time complaining about the way things are? | | | “I also especially feel it is important as a queer Black woman to live out loud so that other young Black girls and women feel inspired and know that they too, can let go of fear and conformity,” Keeva Moselle. (📸: Courtesy of Keeva the Unicorn Queen) | Where can people find you online, and do you have any upcoming events, news, things you want to shout out? I cheer for the Rose City Wreckers roller derby team and volunteer with unhoused Portlanders by teaching women how to find their inner joy. I am also working on several projects including a book. Do you want to add a dose of Unicorn Magic in your life? Take it home with you! I make custom, one-of-a-kind accessories, headdresses, and costume pieces, as well as custom one-of-a-kind event and living space aesthetics. You can find Keeva on Facebook and Instagram, as well as her business Realm & Reign, and keep your eyes open for updates on her art and upcoming book. Her art will be featured in the Newberg Parrish Gallery in the Chehalem Cultural Center from June 22 to July 31, and you can find her art installation “Promises” displayed in the virtual Oregon Country Fair Festival this summer, and next. For the rest of our interview with Keeva, follow this link. Thank you to our Bridgeliner Unabridged members. Stories like these are made possible with your membership and support. Thank you to our Bridgeliner Unabridged members. Stories like these are made possible with your membership and support. | |
