Kae Burke is the Co-Founder of House Of Yes in Bushwick, Brooklyn. As well as the Creative Director of Yes Etc Creative Agency. HOY was recently named the #2 Best Thing To Do in the World by Time Out New York. The venue is internationally celebrated for fostering self-expression and nurturing emerging artists of all genres. Their events lead the way for developing safer spaces and consent culture.

On the show Kae talks about going to fashion school with Anya Sapozhnikova and how they created HOY. Kae also speaks about how the House Of Yes fosters an inclusive culture and how costumes and self-expression go hand-in-hand. As well as how the pandemic has changed the party landscape and we delve into the ways people have started to be more mindful of their consumption. Her new Creative Agency is called Yes Etc and we talk about what it was like to open an experiential agency during a pandemic and where she finds inspiration.

Transcript

Yulia Laricheva 00:06

Hey friends, welcome to another episode of dream nation love. I'm your host, Yulia. And I want to remind you to subscribe to my newsletter on Dream Nation Love on the Instagram page. So just go there and hit the link in the bio and find it. It has a lot of awesome little giveaways every month, like books and fun little information about women diversity and social impact that you are going to love. So please share it with a friend. Today on the show I interview the amazing Kay Burke, who is one of the co founders of House of Yes, along with Anya suborning COVID. But today on the show, I only speak with k has to be so super fun. If you haven't been to one of their events, then you're missing out. They have global events now. So you definitely have to go. Now, I bet you didn't know but how's to be us originally started out as a creative events face and also a circus Theatre in Williamsburg. And I've been in Williamsburg for over 16 years. And I do remember them opening up. So talk about like throwing a good party, right. K is also the creative director of Yes, etc. Creative. And on this podcast, we talk about how K designs inclusive experiences, how the pandemic has changed party culture, and what a person who throws parties for a living does for fun. You know, I was really, really curious. And he told me all about it. So enjoy the podcast and share it with a friend. Have a great day. Okay, welcome to the show. It is so exciting to have you here. Because we've been meaning to make this happen for a while. And you are here in front of me.

Kae Burke 01:44

Well, thank you. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Yulia Laricheva 01:48

Thanks. I really enjoy the work that you do at the House Of Yes. And I really miss going to the House Of Yes, because I am a mom now. So I don't really have any more fun. So I live vicariously through people's posts.

Kae Burke 02:00

We have a lot of I have to say we have a lot of moms with moms and dads anxieties. There's totally a culture for party moms.

Yulia Laricheva 02:09

As yes, no, there is. But it's like right now she's like, almost 15 months with you have a sleep schedule. And it's a routine. I need a babysitter and all that stuff. But I digress. Back to the house of Yes. Which is doing so much stuff. And that's what I really wanted to talk to you about it. And I wanted to take it way back and and see how early this idea started. Or if it even started. It's such a small age. But when you were a kid, you probably had a dream. What was your dream as a kid?

Kae Burke 02:38

I don't remember. I feel like I wanted to be a dolphin, a mermaid, a unicorn, a dog. I got to those dreams got to come true. Because as a performance artist, dancer, professional, performance weirdo. I got I've definitely dressed up and performed as all those things. And now I also get to have other people dress up and perform as any kind of creature of imagination that they wish. So I think my dreams as a kid ended up coming true. Now that that you mentioned it.

Yulia Laricheva 03:15

I love that. Well, you went to art school. Right? You started this with Anya. Yes. And so you both started it. And you started this out of art school too, as I recall. And then I read a little bit about how agree right? Like you were like, doing all these things you were like, doing still on he was doing still it's all those different work. But what was the exact moment that has to be asked came to fruition that you're like, we must do this. This is going to be a business, right?

Kae Burke 03:40

Oh, yeah.

Yulia Laricheva 03:40

What was the transition from art kid to business person.

Kae Burke 03:44

I mean, that took it really took years. And it's interesting about the creative process itself and the creative process of House of Yes is it was quite organic. It was not a decision unnecessarily. It's a series of choices, that ended up creating a reality, and organically growing and evolving into what it is now. But it wasn't oh my god, we're gonna do this. And here's the business plan. And here's the strategy, not so clear, not so clear cut. It came from, you know, of course me and Anya meeting in high school in Rochester making art together. And sometimes that was music. Sometimes it was scavenger hunts. Sometimes it was sewing. And the sewing actually really sparked a lot of joy and expression and took us into fashion school. So we both ended up going to fit in New York City. And we were young. We moved here at 18. So in addition to going to fashion school, we were also making weird costumes out of trash and going to dance parties, you know, making friends it was we only really knew each other in New York. We didn't have a huge community whatsoever. So it was really going to these dance parties and dressing up like maniac weirdos that started connecting us to these different scenes and serve roles within the city. So once that starts to evolve, we just ended up playing with these different mediums, sculpture and installation grew out of that. Doing more performance art, stilt walking grew out of our costume design and wanting to just be extravagant creatures of the night. And so participating in these parties is what really sparked a lot of choices and therefore opportunities that self propelled into really needing more space when you're creating on such a multifaceted multi dimensional multi genre level. You know, we're making more than just costumes or you know, really started to need more space and especially in New York being a very expensive city even in Brooklyn even what is this I'm talking about? It was still we didn't really come from money broke broke as artists and it was always if you wanted space to create it typically meant you would be in a live work situation. A live work loft because just the way that the city and the real estate works a lot of times those places were illegal.

Yulia Laricheva 06:10

Rubulad I think was a bunch of artists paying their rent through by throwing parties every month in the giant loft.

Kae Burke 06:16

Yeah and Rubulad was some of the first parties me and Anya on your went to that really sparked our community building. Even before we went to Burning Man, you know, on people can sense a Burning Man DNA within House Of Yes, like, yeah, there's Burning Man. But there's also realized and rebuild...

Kae Burke: Co-Founder of House Of Yes on building inclusive culture.

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