THE WINE DOWN EFFECT
WE SAT DOWN WITH THE CURATORS OF THE POPULAR EVENT, WINE DOWN CT, AND ASKED THEM ABOUT THE PROCESS AND GROWTH OF THIS GROWN AND SEXY EXTRAVAGANZA.
Thema and Loren of Wine Down CT
Wine Down CT is an exclusive pop-up event series based here in Connecticut, owned and operated by two amazing black women, Loren and Thema. They curate an entertainment experience with live music and art, all to create an inclusive cultural platform for a mature and diverse, BIPOC-centered audience. By partnering with community members and organizations across the state, they are able to activate safe spaces for discourse, dialogue, wellness, and inclusion. Their mission is to empower connections for professionals of color through curated events, experiences, and brand partnerships. We had a chance to sit down with the founders of Wine Down CT and discuss how this idea came to be and all that goes into creating their one-of-a-kind experiences.
ANGEL: What inspired you both to create this social event that features wine? How do you balance the party atmosphere with the wine experience?
LOREN: We were actually inspired by the show, Insecure. I love Issa Rae, and the show Insecure was a show that I really connected with and so when it was over I was like, “Damn. How do we continue something like this?”
THEMA: After the show they had talkbacks called The Wine Down. And so we were both watching the final episode you know, crying!
LOREN: So it was like, “Ok, the series is over, but now what?” I felt like there were a lot of people who were like Issa, like myself, like Thema who watch the show, drink wine and also wanna do black shit! So we were like how do we create something that is for black people and includes this Wine Down/Insecure vibe. Issa kind of showed the world that there is this generation of people that likes to turn up but we’re also professional.
THEMA: Right, we like an elevated turn up.
LOREN: Right like an elevated experience that’s a little ratchet but not so ratchet that I gotta run. So that was really what we wanted to create. We’d go out and realize there’s nothing that’s really like a little vibe out here (in Connecticut) so we wanted to create a vibe. Something where if you wanna turn up, that’s fine, and if not, then that’s also fine. Some people are just really here to socialize and meet people. We really feel like wine and champagne give you that experience. We really wanted to create a grown and sexy feel while still being inclusive and making sure that everyone feels included and safe.
ANGEL: Yes! I love that and that’s exactly what you do. In addition to providing wine, what other unique elements do you incorporate into your events to add to the experience?
LOREN: We feel like music is a big piece of it. I’ve been djing for a long time and have always loved live entertainment. Any events we do, we really like to have a live music experience. We always try to showcase local acts and local DJs.
THEMA: We also like to make it an immersive experience visually. Any space we go into we like to transform it with decor. We had one at the state house and if you’ve been to it before then you know what it looks like. But when people came into the event there they were all like, “Wow! Where are we?” We want you to be transported into a different space. Our social media also plays a big roll. Having photo opps is a great way to let people know where the party is but also give others a little bit of FOMO, ya know.
LOREN: Looking back at the event we did in September, all I could visualize was a block party in Brooklyn. I want people to come out to New Haven or come out to Westville and be like “Wow! That was New Haven?” That was so cool for us and so every experience we try to curate to be something different. Just because you went to the last one doesn’t mean you can’t go to the next one. We recognize that our generation always wants something new to experience. So how do we create an experience every single time? We really take a lot of time just to curate. We’ll ask, “What did you see that you love that you want to create? “ We just try to put together a team of creatives that will create new and different things and bring elements of different cities into New Haven or into Connecticut.
ANGEL: How do you decide on the venue, theme and vibes of your parties?
LOREN: Well we travel a lot. So when we go somewhere, we’re always wondering, “How to create our own version of this?” We often create themes based of shows and experience that we see or our friends see and find ways to bring that to life here in New Haven. SO a lot of the themes we create come off of our everyday experiences.
THEMA: Yeah, like bits and pieces of parties we’ll go to. Whether you go into one of the immersive photo experiences or going to a museum, it’s all inspiring to us. So we’re just grabbing all of those little bits and pieces and combining them into a vision.
LOREN: Right or even going to parties out of the state. We want people to feel and have these experiences out here too. Do you know how many people don’t leave Connecticut? So we aren’t just gonna leave, we’re gonna come and bring it to you.
ANGEL: Yes I really love that! What has been the biggest challenge you’ve both faced in organizing and hosting Wine Down CT.
THEMA: Venues. Yeah finding venues. The idea of having it in different places is exciting and we really want to be centered in the New Haven area. It’s hard. Especially when you get up to like, “I wanna bring 500 people into a place!” That’s when it really gets kind of dicey and limiting. There’s a lot of gatekeeping and it can be really disheartening. Especially if you don’t have a lot of money or people want to police the decor, or ask, “Who’s gone all be there?” or “What’s it gonna look like?” It stifles our creative process when we’re looking to turn out a venue with decor or just allow people to feel free.
LOREN: Yeah and i think when you’re living in a small city, people aren’t used to this big energy of, “I wanna transform this space into something else!” They’ll assume we can’t do that just because they’ve never seen it done. I also feel like because New Haven used to be a space there was so much violence and they tried to get rid of a certain demographic, people assume that when you want to bring people of color together, “How many police officers do we need?” But we’re not that type of crowd. Our people are just coming to have a good time in a really innocent and fun way. We’re just here to network and chill.
THEMA: We’re here for peace and love and acceptance. That’s the kind of energy we’re holding. Community. We’re not bracing ourselves for some sort of violence to break out.
ANGEL: I totally get that! Well we’re on our last question. What plans do you have in store for Wine Down CT in the near future?
THEMA: Well to not give away too many details, we’re really looking forward to going back to our roots like with the first Wine Down. It was a lot smaller and bit more intimate where you could really have a conversation with most people in the space. We’re looking to curate more spaces like that where we could do events more frequently. These larger events take a lot fo time and energy, they’re great and we love them but we also want to have spaces where people can get to know each other and see other more often. It would allow us to really start to build more community within these spaces.
LOREN: I think we’re also looking for and open to more partnerships as well. Collaborating with other black and brown creatives that are creating dope things in New Haven and CT. We want to turn New Haven and Connecticut into a space where people are like, “Hey! I can go to Connecticut and turn up and it can be fun! I can meet people and there’s community and love.” We really get people to move here. Ultimately that’s our goal. How do we create community and give people a space where they feel comfortable to come and live, work and turn up with us!
ANGEL: Right a lot of people dont see that for Connecticut.
THEMA: Right there’s even so much culture here. We want to open the doors to that.
LOREN: I feel like Connecticut can be a lost state in some sense. We don’t have any major sports teams and we’re in between two major cities, Boston and New York. Connecitcut is kind of looked over. But we just got ranked 50 out of 52 for best places to go to in the world, so we really want to add to that.
Wine Down CT x University of Dope, Photo By DCDARDEN
There's so much more to Connecticut than people know, and Wine Down CT is proof of that. It is much more than a party! It is a space for Black and Brown people to exist safely and genuinely in their joy among one another. No fights, no drama. Just community, music, activities, and of course...wine.
