BIPOC Voices

BACCES’ Impact

  • “I attended [a festival] before partnership with BACCES and after, and I felt a noticeable change in the comfort I felt attending. Seeing more BIPOC people present felt like a more accurate representation of the place the festival was held, I modeled a positioning statement [as well] in the opening of the festival which honored my own indigenous traditions."

    — Sxwíťáoź (Devon)

  • “Receiving a scholarship was really transformative. I would never have been able to take the time off work, pay for travel and focus on my acro training as much as I did. Being surrounded by people who look like me gives me a sense of belonging and hope that I can keep being a part of acro even when things got tough back in my home community. I’ve gotten to know so many amazing BIPOC students that I would never have met without this opportunity. I’m so grateful to the BACCES program and all the people who make it possible - it means the world when a community tells me, ‘you matter!’ by supporting programs like this.”

    — BACCES fellowship recipient

  • ". . . there is a difference between BIPOC 'friendly/welcoming events' versus BIPOC 'specifically invited', and I didn’t realize the difference until seeing the BACCES posters around the festival. It’s the difference between 'it’s cool if you come' indifference and 'we want you to come' inclusion. I’d spent a lot time applying patterns from other parts of my life in order to carve a space in the acro world for myself by striving to be excellent because that’s what I felt I needed to do to be accepted as a non-white non-straight person. And I didn’t realize I was unconsciously doing that until I saw those posters and deeply felt that the acro community in Vancouver wanted me in it regardless of my level of skill or what I could offer to it."⁠

    — Chris

Acro and Movement

  • “When someone finds that they have the power to learn through self-discovery, they start to sense that they have the potential to direct their own agency. I have seen that as people refine their capacity to learn, they find not only new ways of moving, but new ways of being. By refining our self-perception, clarifying internal connections, we can interact with more sensitivity in our external relationships as well. We discover our own inherent value, increasing our ability to determine what impact and role we want to have within our communities. Once we understand this basis of learning, we have the ability within ourselves to realize our true potential.”

    — Adi Firefly

  • “Growing up I always felt like I didn't look like the athletes on TV, and I was never as good as my classmates at sports probably because of my cultural background and because I was a short, overweight, brown person, the exact opposite of any "real" athlete. But acro, despite coming into my life at a point where I am more confident in my fitness, has really made me realize that I can do any sport supported by the right community.”

    — Anonymous

  • “Be inspired to notice more about who you are, and how you move. Then allow your body to tell you who you have been and how it has been impacted by who you were.”

    — Devon French (from How Are My Emotions Physical. Read more here)

“To anyone out there in survival mode, I see you, I know what it’s like to live in a deeply unstable world, and to have to fight to create some sense of stability, and security. Then at the same time have those around you give you advice on how to “get better” when they have never tasted the feeling of being unwelcome in society…”

— Devon French, from Healing is a Process (continue reading here)