CINCINNATI — As we walk out onto the rooftop garden, Victoria Hennings asks a friend to hold her wings. But before they can work on her costume for this weekend, she picks a few strawberries.
“Would you like some tea?”
Hennings introduces herself as an artist, activist and environmental educator. She’s standing on the roof of Rothenburg Academy in Over-the-Rhine, where she helps manage the garden for the students there.
But today, she and her friend are preparing for Black Fae Day. The simplest way to describe the event is that it's about cosplay — dressing up like fairies or fictional characters. Hennings calls it a holiday. And for her, this weekend in Cincinnati is about more than dressing up.
Although it's definitely about that, too.
“Black cosplayers are not always welcome in cosplay communities,” Hennings said. “If we are not welcome in these spaces, we will take space and make space for ourselves.”
That's why she's making tea.
WATCH: We go behind-the-scenes for Black Fae Day
In Cincinnati, Black Fae Day typically involves a meetup to take photos in the Mt. Airy Arboretum. And wings. Obviously.
This year, Hennings is organizing her own space with games and food at the Civic Garden Center. As she’s telling me this, she begins using what sounds like a voice from a movie trailer.
“In a world where there’s an herbal tea realm, a green tea realm and a black tea realm — which will you prefer?”
Sarah Kent is in charge of the black tea realm. She tells me her parents made costumes for movies like “The Waterboy” and “Old School.” And her dad used to put her on his shoulders while he worked.
Kent became obsessed with horror and loves making bloody limbs and things that would be too gross to describe in detail here. She also really likes "The Lord of the Rings."
This is her first Fae Day.
“Almost everyone who will be attending has felt like the other in some way — or like the only,” Kent said. “So, it’s a chance to not be the only and to be in community with each other. And I think that’s really special.”
Hennings nods. And while their tea cools, they pull out yarn and needles. It's time to finish the wings.
"We all are nerds," Hennings said. "And we can support that together."
For more information about Black Fae Day, click on this link. It's free, with multiple events planned on May 9. And you don't have to dress up to go.
