MIA Q&A: 1FIVETWO

I sat down with Bause Mason (IG: @bausemason) and Ariana Teran (IG:@arianateran). As two of the founders of 1FiveTwo they share what it was like to first open up a creative space of their own, build a community, and what they hope to build in the future.

Can you introduce yourselves and what you’re doing creatively?

Bause: For sure, my name is Bause Mason, I am the founder and directer of Backroom Sessions. Backroom Sessions is a platform for local creatives, driven by creatives and curated by millennials growing up in Miami. Our mantra is, “Put the bottom of the map on the map”. Basically we are just trying to curate what Miami would be this up coming decade. You know we are really trying to make our generation kinda of shine as much as it can to it’s full potential.”

Ari: Alright so my name is Arianna Teran. I grew up loving art in every form. Whether it’s music or visual. I feel like helping, growing, and communicating are also a form of art. I feel like everything that I become a part of whether it’s 1FiveTwo, Backroom, or my visual work I’ve grown through out it. I guess what I do is continue growing and help other people grow. I either do it by being at 1FiveTwo welcoming anyone that comes in our door and helping them like, I don’t know, find them selves if there lost maybe? Working with Backroom you know, it’s all about these local creators just coming together.

What is 1FiveTwo?

Bause: 1FiveTwo is a multi-media content production creative space. 1FiveTwo is our baby, it’s just like a child that we are trying to raise. We are opening it up to everyone, we are allowing it to help everyone be more creative in their endeavors the way it helps us be more creative in our endeavors. We use it as a space for us to grow as it is growing it’s self. It’s called 1FiveTwo cause we are all kids from either 152nd Av or 152nd St.

What was day one like at 1FiveTwo?

Bause: Okay day one June 6, 2017 thats when we got the keys with the other co-tenant, there is another tenant named Xavie.

Ari: Xaviebaby

Bause: Xaviebaby, shout out on IG: @xaviebaby, so we were thinking about getting a spot and then we were looking around and then Ari looked at me and said “Yo I’m down”. One day we found this spot on craigslist and Xavie came in the morning to check it out and she said she loved it. I woke up and she said, “Yea I came to see it, cause it’s gonna go.” We went back in the afternoon, saw it, and we were like, “Yo this is it.” Ari was at work so she couldn’t see it so we were like, “Yo trust us, this is the spot , but we need to get it today ‘cause there is someone else that’s willing to pay more.” But the landlord loved us. Omar shout out Omar, we were gonna pay less and pay like a week later, but he was down and we just signed contracts.

Ari: We just wanna point out that we like barely knew each other, Xavie and Bause knew each other before but I didn’t really know them or know Zach, which is out 4th member so like we were all getting to know each other and it just created something like even more beautiful then we ever projected.

It’s day one and you got the keys, so you go in there and your working?

Bause: Nah, not day one.

Ari: We cracking beers open.

Bause: In there right now bro, there’s nothing in there. There’s nothing in there but a little fridge and us chilling on the floor. We slept on the floor the first night bro.

Ari: Xavie brought her friends over, shout out Brit Brat, Avery. We remember looking around like, “Damn this is ours.”

You were saying 1FiveTwo is your baby, so what do you want 1FiveTwo to become?

Bause: I’d like 1FiveTwo to be home base for Kendall, for a lot of people in Kendall they know at 1FiveTwo they’re gonna get the love, the intimate personal experience. They’ll be able to learn creatively if not be creative themselves in the space, and meet people. Just because there’s a bunch of motherfuckers that feel that energy, maybe they’ll roll up together. A lot of peer editing goes on between strangers, who become friends, who then later collaborate. I eventually want to see different 1FiveTwo’s in different areas.

Ari: I’d love for 1FiveTwo to be like what it is now, because I feel like in the passed year and a half that we’ve had this place its just grown so much, especially when it comes to community. So I just want to keep that going because that community has never broken down, like we see the same people all the time. It’s just about keeping that momentum, bringing in new people, and eventually like Bause said, get them across everywhere. So everywhere can have that home feeling that 1FiveTwo has.

You were talking about “Putting the bottom of the map on the map”. I feel that culturally, Miami is on the same level as all the other major cities but we’re just not just not included in the conversation. What do you guys think about that?

Bause: I agree, I don’t think we’re there yet but I think the fuse has been lit and it’s gonna blow up soon. New York already blew up, California already blew up, these places already blew up and I feel like it’s very saturated. Atlanta was the last one to blow up a couple years ago and you could see it’s trending to head south. I feel like now that a lot of people are focused on Atlanta, the’ve gotten to see a lot of Florida talent too.

Do you think people are going to come in and take advantage of the city when Miami blows up?

Bause: I think Miami is gonna blow up, not with outside help. I think Miami itself is gonna blow up. People are gonna notice us from the outside but we’re not waiting for people to come and help. We’re just going to blow up to where people can’t ignore us type shit.

Ari: With no community there’s no growth, like you have this community and bring people together, that’s what helps you grow in the most authentic way possible because it’s people really supporting you. It’s like they’ve come to know you coming through, let’s say, every Tuesday.

Bause: Shoutout Workmode

Ari: Shoutout Workmode

When did you guys start Workmode? Has it always been there?

Bause: It’s been now a couple months that we’ve been doing it consecutively, but the idea has been around for like half a year plus.

Ari: I dont remember, with Xavie we were just in the studio like, “What are we doing? What should we do with 1FiveTwo?” Something that will be good for the community and also help them grow and socialize with each other.

Has the family that’s in there been there before work mode? Or did it come as a result of Workmode?

Bause: Definitely all those as a result, they’re all like a new crowd but already a regular crowd.

Ari: But there are definitely some people that have definitely been here since like day one.

Bause: Oh yea, definitely some people in there that are ride or die up in here.

Would you ever lean towards doing more events to build your community? Or is 1FiveTwo always going to be something that you rent out to tenants?

Ari: I’d say both.

Bause: Yea a little bit of both. We can offer the space and help other people do what they want to do at a fraction of what the would pay anywhere else, and we’d help them do it the same way we did it. We did it already, so we’re helping people that are trying to do it. We’ve helped some young kids and we were like, “Damn imagine when we were their age if we had some help”. It’s not too many years of difference, so it’s chilling, it’s automatic help to the next generation right away.

Ari: It’s amazing because we could do events. We could hold our own events, lets say like 1FiveTunes. 1FiveTunes is an event were we have a couple live performances and we also have beerpong. We also have 1FiveTwo movie nights, 1FiveTwo Tourney Tuesdays which we’re gonna do once a month. Instead of a regular Tuesday Workmode you’re coming to Tourney Tuesday.

Bause: Yea so it’s like board games, different Nintendos, game systems, and beerpong.

Ari: A veriety of ways to come together and never forget to have fun.

Bause: Ya’ll worked hard three weeks, now let’s go at it.

Ari: Let me not get into BeerPong

Bause: Ya’ll don’t want this shit, whoever is reading this that thinks they can get it in beerpong, come to 1FiveTwo. 12236 SW 132nd CT come through if you want Beerpong.

Ari: Another beautiful thing about doing events is that it’s not only our events, we have our 1FiveTwo events but we also collaborate other organizations just like Backroom Sessions. We’ve got Kinection Tour coming, we also have Further Down South and East Hoodie that we’ve collaborated with. It’s cool because every event that we do, everyone learns from each other. We really grow and learn from each other so I love collaborating.

Bause: Everything we do is really family oriented, we’re a family of people that randomly found each other.

Would you like to talk about Backroom Sessions too?

Bause: Backroom is what brought us together, six months later we spend 1FiveTwo. Backroom is what solidified to us that we could do this.

Ari: It’s apart of everyone.

There’s other creative spaces, like U2S Studios who collaborate with businesses, do you think that’s something you guys could do here?

Bause: U2S Studios? Im part of that studio I’m of go the partners there. I have it tattooed right here, I have 1FiveTwo and U2S.

Ari: Shout out Finnesing.

Bause: Shoutout Finnessing, I always give him L’s at Super Smash Bros.

Ari: OH MAN YOU HEARD THAT ALDHAIR!?

Bause: All day, all day.

Bause: But for sure we have Crafty Beer who’s not too far away, we collaborate with him on some events. We collaborate with other businesses and we open up the space.

Ari: We have Love Hope.

Bause: Shoutout Love Hope. We’ve had food trucks and different entities. Nothing large scale yet, I think Kinection Tour is the biggest thing yet.

Ari: Yea we have KInection Tour which is a fitness tour that’s gone around the US, and they’re finishing their tour here. So it’s something we’ve never done before. We’re excited.

Bause: So we really just want to open it up and let it become whatever it wants to be.

Ari: We also have a toy drive coming December 22nd if you guys want to come through, and also a potluck style Workmode for Thanksgiving.

SHOUTOUTS!

Bause: We’re gonna be finishing the Backroom Sessions Bottom of the Map Tour, we’ve already gone to six different college cities throughout the state. We’re gonna be in Jacksonville November 30th and finish the tour in Tallahasee December 1st. Then back in Miami on December 29th we’re gonna have the Backroom Sessions two year anniversary, at X Miami in Midtown. Come through.

Ari: For New Years here at 1FiveTwo we’re gonna have RESET Round Two, an event where we say goodbye to last year and welcome the new one. We also have this group of producers we’re very close with called ATO, they’re gonna be revamping the upstairs of 1FiveTwo and turning it into a recording studio. So it’s going to be ATO powered by 1FiveTwo.

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