In conversation with Annika from Somewhere Good

On April 22nd I attended the launch party of Somewhere Good with my friends and partner. Beyond the energizing excitement that filled the rooms of the pop-up store, I could feel and see the crowd of people really resonating with the vision of what this team of creatives and entrepreneurs has forged in the digital world. Somewhere Good presents itself as an app, but at its core, it’s more than a digital tool: it’s a safe and solar community that celebrates Black and queer voices.

I was introduced to Somewhere Good by Jade Montgomery, their project manager. After getting to know a few other wonderful souls, including the founder and CEO Naj Austin, I decided that in addition to showing love by downloading the app, testing it out myself, and interacting with the community, it was necessary to highlight their great work with an interview with one of their team members. Being a Black woman, I understand how important it is to have representation in digital communal spaces, hand in hand with the physical world. Somewhere Good is a Black-owned company that celebrates BIPOC culture through the lenses of a Millennial-Gen Z touch and a queer vision of community. As an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, this month I made sure to engage in content produced by Black queer academics and read books by Black queer media professionals, while sharing opportunities with and supporting BIPOC creatives. My homework isn’t and won’t be done by the end of this month, as a committed ally knows. Through my platform I want this month to elevate my constant work by giving opportunities to BIPOC queer entrepreneurs and creatives to share their stories and views of life, focusing on the theme of love. With Somewhere Good, I wanted to focus on the role and meaning of love, not only as of the typical one-to-one dynamic that mainstream media solely seems to focus on but also as the warm sentiment felt towards community and its legacy, with an intentional vision and transparency.

One of the members of the team, who encapsulates all the energies and visions upon which Somewhere Good was built, had some time to chat with me and dive into this discourse. Annika-Hansteen-Izora (she/they/he) is the Head of Design at Somewhere Good, where they make sure to provide a great and welcoming space to all the users of the community.

What is Somewhere Good and what is its primary goal?

Somewhere Good is an audio-based social media app that connects people to keep our community through conversations.

This month my team and I dedicated time to thinking about Black queer love stories and perspectives. Love isn’t only romantic, it can manifest in so many ways. What’s your view on love?

To me, love is about showing up with actions. It’s a practice of nurturance. I understand love from bell hook’s definition of love, as a combination of care and respect, and a willingness to extend yourself for the purpose of nurturing another person. Love is rooted in action and practice, not just a word or an aesthetic idea. For me, love is about the daily practices that I can commit myself to in order to be in a relationship with the next person.

How do you express love to your people, the community of individuals you are closest to?

Community is a word that I really want to ground in intentionally. I feel like a lot of times “community” can be a vague term. To me, a community is a group of people that has a specific intention to grow and learn together. To me being in a relationship with the community means learning the intentions of the space, and what does growing mean within us, for us, how are we committing to the growth. There’s no way to show up for community if you don’t actually know the desires, needs, and values of the people within it. Showing love for the community to me means engaging in conversations and dialogues with the people and learning about one another’s needs, along with your individual and collective needs. This is what I call interdependence. I came into knowing about interdependence through disability justice activists, as this relationship structure where you are caring for your individual needs, but also about the needs of the collective and how they can be in a mutual relationship. Learning each other’s individual and collective needs is fundamental for a loving and healthy community, along with learning how I can best show up for myself and others.

All of us have different kinds of love languages. On a pragmatic level, how do you stay grounded in your loving?

I think that to be in a loving relationship with myself takes a lot of emotional awareness, including body and spiritual awareness. I think about a lot of how on structural domination and capitalism these types of awareness are cut off from ourselves, especially if coming from marginalized identities. I learn all this through somatic work, which is the process of thinking about the connection between the body and the mind. I want to be in awareness of my body so that I can best locate what my needs are in a situation and how I can best care for those needs because when I’m cared for I have the most capacity to offer love. My wellness needs to be full in order to give love to myself and to others, in a way that isn’t compromising.

How can allies show the best form of love and support to the community of Black queer people, especially within and on platforms like Somewhere Good?

Amplifying the work is one way to show support, but honestly, the way people can support is by directing funds to the people that are trying to build these new spaces. Supporting folks’ access to these resources to use these spaces is important.

What is your aspiration for the bright future of Somewhere Good?

For me, that looks like providing a space for people to more authentically connect to their own selves online. A lot of online spaces have been shaped by consumerism, militarization, and surveillance, which create the idea that all online spaces are nefarious and that all social media is bad. While I understand that view, I also think that it is a bit disruptive because it doesn’t give space for outside possibilities. With Somewhere Good my biggest dream is to provide a space to authentically connect with them and each other.

I see a bright future for Somewhere Good. The future of our digital lives is not only intersectional and diverse, but also transparent in its desires, vocations, and actions. It’s time to empower our identities, lift others up, and enjoy our own physicality within the right spaces.