In a Time of Divisiveness Across America, Pasadena Festival Seeks Level Ground

In a time when Americans seem to be separating into clearly defined ideological and political groups engaging in never-ending face-offs, two close friends with very different backgrounds who realized their wonderful relationship in spite of their dissimilarities could be a model for bringing people together are staging the fourth edition of the Level Ground Festival in Pasadena this week.

The pair — Samantha Curley and Chelsea Halligan — met while studying at Fuller Theological Seminary and together created the five-night Festival to bring together people of all persuasions through art that intersects on issues of faith, gender and sexuality.

From April 4 to 8, the festival has scheduled a free or low-cost mix of live music, comedy, art, discussion panels, live podcast recordings, art shows, happy hours and a closing party. The site is a special pop-up storefront location next to the Urth Caffe in the Playhouse District.

Founders Curley and Halligan have decided to hold the festival at a single location after years of being scattered at various locations throughout the district.

Curley, who serves as Level Ground executive director, relates how she and Halligan started Level Ground after she moved to Pasadena from Chicago and went to Fuller Theological Seminary, and together they thought about holding the Level Ground Festival four years ago.

“Through our friendship, we started a student group that led to us creating Level Ground,” Curley says. “At Fuller, we started recognizing that art has the power to bring people together across their differences and to help us see and experience what somebody was living and what somebody else’s story and that brought us closer together.”

To organize the Level Ground Festival, Curley says they are working with a number of other churches around Los Angeles and community partners including Skylight Books, Cuties Coffee Bar, and other groups.

“We bring in artists and speakers from L.A. and across the country to come in and share their art with the Festival,” Curley said. “I think it’s our best and most exciting lineup of art and films and I would just like to encourage people to check out the schedule and find a few events that would be interesting to them. We work really hard so that price is not a barrier for people attending so everything is reasonably priced and we are excited to have the community come in and be part of the Festival.”

The Level Ground Festival starts at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 4, with a performance by Julien Baker, an openly queer singer-songwriter from a Memphis Christian family. Opening for Baker is fellow musician Joy Oladokun. A post-show conversation about Baker’s story at the intersection of faith and sexuality follows the performance.

On Wednesday night, a “59” Live Art Soiree opens at 7 p.m., inspired by Level Ground artist-in-residence Leslie Foster’s “59” project. The soiree will bring the “Intersections of Identity” gallery live on stage with music, dance and spoken word performances.

Foster has been with Level Ground since it started four years ago. His “59” project involves creating one 59-second film every month for 11 months, featuring people who identify themselves across the gender spectrum.

The soiree will be followed by a screening of the acclaimed 2016 film “The Innocents” at 8:30 p.m. The film explores the true story of a doctor who helps a group of Polish nuns who were impregnated after being raped by Soviet soldiers during World War II.

Happy hours with free beer and wine, live music and art open at 6 p.m. nightly Thursday through Saturday.

Thursday night will also feature a screening of the recent Best Picture-winning film “Moonlight” at 7 p.m. The film follows the story of an outsider African-American boy who grows up to be a lonely gay man. Film shorts that explore the fest’s themes follow at 9 p.m.

Ask and Answer, a discussion about gender, race, and gender transition between writer-musician-visual artist Vivek Shraya and filmmaker-writer Chase Joynt, both Lambda Literary Finalists, kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday.

This will be followed by a special edition of the popular local comedy show “Bitchface Comedy,” featuring headliner Rhea Butcher, a married lesbian comic who co-stars in the Seeso website’s comedy series “Take My Wife” with her wife and fellow comic Cameron Esposito.

Saturday starts with a noon panel discussion, “Wildfire: Liberty and Justice For…” hosted by E! cable network news correspondent Miriam Isa. This will be about the impact of Supreme Court decisions on womens’ rights.

Six short films depicting the difficult balance of maintaining relationships across differences start at 4 p.m., followed by a live recording of the podcast “With Friends Like These” by political journalist Ana Marie Cox.

Saturday night’s closing program is a screening of “Dina,” the story of a married couple overcoming their struggles with Asperger’s Syndrome to forge a relationship. The film recently won the Grand Jury Documentary Prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

After that, all attendees can enjoy drinks and dancing at the 10 p.m. closing party.

Admission for some events are free, while tickets for other segments are from $5 to $20. Level Ground also offers two levels of passes covering all events and special extras at $50 and $120.

For more information and to purchase tickets in advance, visit www.onlevelground.org.