Growing up in Calgary, Bethel Afework’s family was a dynamic household heavily involved in all things art, while her years at Father Lacombe High School were filled with music and poetry.
There she began to cultivate her love of performance by joining a spoken-word poetry team. Afework also volunteered at the YMCA, an experience that planted the seeds of inspiration for what would later become the Alcove Centre for the Arts.
PHOTO SUPPLIED BY: BETH AFEWORK
At the University of Calgary, Afework took a double major in communications media and energy science & mathematics. Her decision to pursue the two degrees was influenced by her personal inspirations and her father’s background as a mechanical engineer.
But during her studies, Afework found that her story wasn’t Calgary’s story — she felt the need to express herself more completely in the place she lived and loved. That was when a friend suggested the city was missing a free space for people to create and connect. Thinking that was “a genius idea,” Afework set out to make those creative ambitions a reality.
At the age of 18, Afework and her friends started exploring open mics around the city and found a wealth of local talent just waiting to be cultivated. Eventually, this would lead to her co-founding and establishing the Alcove as a recreational art space.
Cooking up creativity
Afework began reciting poetry at Lord Nelson’s Pub (now closed) on open mic nights, and would later to host a night there herself.
“It was a very dingy bar,” she recalls. “It was a five-dollar cover, but we had poetry, comedy and music. It was a variety show.”
After her first show gained traction, Afework and her friends decided to make it a recurring event and Raw Voices, the open mic show, was born.
Although she was pursuing other endeavours, the idea for a full-time space was still on Afework’s mind.
While she had a solid system in place with her friend, Sayson, to promote the variety show, they were one person short under the Societies Act to organize a non-profit so they could get their ideal creative space up and running.
That’s when Dennis Lee came into the picture. Afework first met him in 2015 and found they shared similar ideas about fostering creativity. When Lee caught wind of Afework’s plans to develop a creative space a couple of years later, he expressed interest in joining the project.
“I feel very fortunate to have someone that I’m able to work constructively with,” says Lee. “It’s not by chance that Alcove is successful. So much of it has to do with Bethel’s personality.”
But when the time came to graduate and for Afework and her friends to chase their dreams, the pandemic brought the world to a halt. Afework, however, saw an opportunity in the set back: “It was that perfect time to lay low and just think.”
Working together, Afework, Lee, and Sayson developed a business plan and decided that the right move was to run pop-ups. They secured funding to do so from groups like the Esker Foundation and the Calgary Downtown Association.
“Outdoor spaces, indoor spaces, commercial spaces, lobbies, hallways, I mean like crevices,” says Afework regarding all the different venues they took their pop-ups to. “We would bring a U-Haul truck’s worth of stuff and replicate what we wanted the Alcove to feel like.”
After a year of consistently curating spaces, Afework and her team secured more funding for their first permanent location in the downtown core on 7th Avenue SW. A second location, Alcove Beltline, opened later on 8th Street SW.
A full plate, eating well
While the Alcove is a thriving environment, Afework’s drive to foster community extends beyond the C-Train’s free fair zone in downtown Calgary
On Tuesday mornings, Afework co-hosts a radio show on CJSW called Soular Power Radio with Malika David. Originally, she came on the show as a guest speaker, but fell in love with the art of hosting and asked David if she could join him on air.
At night, Afework sings in a two-piece band called BASK. She also works in the DJ scene helping curate DIY spaces for EDM artists. Throughout her artistic projects, Afework has amassed an dedicated network of local artists who praise her efforts and for who she is.
Mylah Abrar, a close friend of Afework’s, says, “Outside of work, she is still the vibrant, bubbly person that everybody sees and knows.”
Over her years of fostering multiple artistic environments, Afework has noticed a shift and change in the city’s identity.
“Calgary is definitely in its infancy. I think it’s cool because I think we’re seeing it percolate.”