Meet Weirder Wonderland | Creative goods and services business in Kalamazoo owned and operated by Anne and Chafe Hensley

We had the good fortune of connecting with Weirder Wonderland and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Weirder, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
This is a great question, and kind of hilarious, because we talk about risk a lot in our household. For the longest time, Chafe wanted to leave his job to start the business we now have, but felt like it was too much risk to take on. We always joked that he was looking for the “safest risk,” and quitting a job with a salary and benefits didn’t feel like that safest risk. At around the same time, Anne left a job to return to school full time, which compounded the risk. On the other side of taking those risks, we now see that so many opportunities, relationships, and paths opened up that we didn’t expect because we moved that boulder of “safest” out of our way.
It’s important for us to point out that we had a lot of privilege, or inherent safety, that contributed to our ability to take those risks. We’re older and have established decades of community networks and relationships, along with experience doing professional creative work. Through those years we’d been able to accrue a small(!) savings that buffered the transition. We have also taken on the risk of loans, which can sometimes be scary. But the sidecar of scary is energy. Taking the risk in order to do work that is meaningful with people we care about and believe in is invigorating, and gives us a new well of emotional resource.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
If anything, we want the world to know that weirdness is really just the full scope of humanity. The more we embody and celebrate weirdness, more of us get to be whole.

We are both lit up by the way art connects people to each other and themselves, and to ideas and feelings that go otherwise unexpressed. Our aesthetic preferences tend toward weirdness, what is outside the norm, humorous or unnerving. We are excited about art’s power to expand narrow ideas of what it is to be human, and think we can all benefit from that expansion.

Chafe’s path to here started with drawing every day of his life. He’s been a graphic designer, teacher, muralist, illustrator, and created fliers for hundreds of entertainment events. Was it easy? Only in the sense that it was all he ever wanted to do. The challenge comes in having to incorporate the steady dedication of creative pursuit into a life that includes practicality: family, household, paying bills, having a full life. Anne’s path to here began with writing, which got her a job at a design firm. Collaborating with designers and artists gave her a deep devotion to the power of visual communication. Was it easy? Not at all. Anne didn’t consider herself a creative person until later in life, and couldn’t be more grateful to have found that calling.

Our path to here, collaboratively, has been a design partnership of love and trust. We have learned to serve the work and do our best to sideline our egos in pursuit of effective creative solutions. We’ve learned we have so much to learn from clients and partners, and if we listen to them we can collaborate in ways that honor and amplify their voices.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is a bookstore / Bookbug for days and days of books, art supplies, music, community, food and drink, friends and friends and friends. Factory Coffee, Fiddle Leaf Café, and Caffe Casa for americanos, lattes, and baked goodness. Asylum Lake and Kleinstuck for the wonders of the woods. The RAWK’N Shop, to support youth creators. Rasa Ria, Saffron, Martini’s, Cravings, and Nonla for our favorite eats. Jerico for a community of small businesses, makers, and artists who grow community that delivers. Backyard Yogis to care and be cared for. Music at the Polish Hall or Bell’s or any number of houses in the Vine Neighborhood. Art all over the place. One of the best things about Kalamazoo is that this list is woefully incomplete. Stop anyone on the street and they’ll tell you about a Kalamazoo gem we’ve never even heard of. That’s the generative power of this place.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We both were fortunate enough to be mentored by Peter Brakeman, of Brakeman Design Group in Kalamazoo. Peter showed us by example how to run a business with integrity, humility, kindness, creativity, and humor. BDG was an incredibly encouraging environment to learn and grow as a creative person, and we were given the space and foundation to explore and build. Peter was adamant about creating a workspace that was respectful to the whole human, offering enough time off to be present parents and support for maintaining our personal creative lives. He is also a dedicated (if stealth) community pillar, nurturing young businesses and organizations by helping them to communicate in vital and honest ways. We are forever grateful for his example and friendship. (https://www.brakemandesign.com/)

Who else deserves recognition in our story? Kalamazoo’s independent music community. We are both lifelong musicians, and Kalamazoo is a constant source of inspiration and collaboration. Our town’s tradition of house shows, all-ages venues, slap-dash one-off concert spaces began long before our involvement and thrives to this day. Thousands of people have been a part of this web that stretches across time. We have and continue to be the beneficiaries of that love and commitment.

Website: https://www.weirderwonderland.com/

Instagram: @weirderwonderland

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/weirder-wonderland/

Image Credits
All photos and images courtesy of Weirder Wonderland.