Once again, Keene State students have the chance to craft their own college experiences with the return of Crafternoon.
Crafternoon is a weekly event where students can go to the Cultural Center on Thursdays at 4 p.m. and make crafts for an hour with other students and staff members.
“Crafternoon has two different functions: creating a space for students and also allowing students to meet different staff and faculty in a more chill environment where people can just make things,” said senior Nat Wood.
Crafternoon stopped running weekly after the advisor of the event, Hunter Kirschner, left this past year, but Wood has been one of the few to help take over. They said they are excited to get Crafternoon up and running again.
According to Wood, Crafternoon started out as an LGBTQ safe space. With the return of Crafternoon, Wood planned for it to be an event that is geared to all students and faculty who want to do crafts.
“But it’s always been smaller, more casuallike, like a close-knit space. The really cool thing that I like about it is the fact that staff and faculty will help put on the craft so they will bring whether it’s something that they’re familiar with,” said Wood, “And so it’s nice for students to be able to meet staff and faculty in a nonconventional way.” “The only wish I have is to create an inclusive space for all identities on campus,” said Coordinator of Student Diversity, Belonging and Equity Darrien Waugh. “A space where students can feel comfortable being vulnerable and speaking from their experiences. Crafternoon is ‘made by students and for all students!’”
Wood has been planning a variety of crafts that they hope will be done at the event such as Shrinky-Dinks, zines and needle felting. “It’s definitely taking longer than we hoped Crafternoon would take to start back up, but also it’s okay. To be quite honest, we’ll have a few afternoons this semester, but I’m really hoping that we’ll be able to really find our groove by next semester and have them like really regularly like every week,” said Wood. Wood talked about their goals for Crafternoon and how they hope it will be a space where “for an hour we can just work on a little craft and like to have fun and chat and make something with our hands, which is honestly really therapeutic.“
According to Wood, there will not be any major changes to the event in terms of structure.
“Don’t fix what isn’t broken. Unless something pretty glaring comes up to me where I’m like, ‘I really think we should try this and shift,’ for right now, I think its goals and its function are pretty solid. So I’m not in a place where I want to change anything,” said Wood.
Amanda Rotigliano can be contacted at
arotigliano@kscequinox.com
