On The Scene: Yara Shahidi, Tess Holliday, Dascha Polanco and more attend 29rooms

Yara Shahidi, Tess Holliday, Dascha Polanco and more attend Refinery 29’s 29rooms, which is back in NYC for a limited run from September 6-15.

This year’s theme is ‘Expand Your Reality,’ and of course each of the installments represent Refinery’s core values, imagination, inclusivity, individuality, and impact.

The mission of 29rooms is the following: Rooted in storytelling and self-expression, 29Rooms: Expand Your Reality encourages you to unearth your deepest creative instincts and enter into a new realm of abundant thinking.  

For the luminaries in attendance, that abundant thinking and submersion into culture and creativity was expressed as each of them were asked, What do you think about when you hear the phrase ‘Expand Your Reality,’ and how has expanding changed reality for you?

Logan Browning: “Wow. Expanding my reality just means to kind of check myself and see if I’ve been limiting myself in any way. Whether that’s in my work or in my friendships and relationships. [Also] how I dream. I think I can dream much bigger. I think I’ve achieved some amazing things in my life and I really do believe that I can achieve so much more and just being here makes me feel like that.”

Coco Rocha:“I think that whatever your reality is, it’s pushing it a little further on personal boundaries. My reality is modeling. And how did I push my boundaries? Well, I’ve actually started a model camp. And I’ve been teaching the trade to girls of all sorts of shapes, colors, and sizes at our little camp site. I think that that is my expansion and my reality.”

Yvonne Orji:“There was a song that I used to love in church. I think it’s like a children’s song [sings] if you’re gonna dream, dream big. I could just go on and on. And I used to love that song because I was like, you are right. What’s the point of dreaming dreams that you could totally fulfill in five seconds? Like, it’s actually not a dream but just a wish that you could go do. But a dream that requires assistance from like 20 other people, or something that you can’t even fathom how you would do yourself, or something that stretches you beyond the capacity of what you thought you could do. Like, that’s a dream! And if you’re going to dream, dream so far that you say ‘I’m going to fill stadiums. I have no idea right now because I can’t even fill my kitchen, but I’m going to fill stadiums.’ And like, that’s a dream that you have to aspire to and work hard for. But it’s so sweet. It’s so much sweeter when you accomplish it.

So like expanding your reality, dream outside of what you see. Dream outside your comfort zone. Dream outside your neighborhood. Push the layers back. What layers? When you think about [how] somebody created WiFi in the air. Like what? You’re on the plane and you could text somebody [who is] on the ground. Somebody dreamt that and it’s like, how? Why did they want to text someone from the air? But now we’re not even thinking that. We’re just thinking, I’m so glad I can text someone from the air. So it’s like, expand what’s normal because one day, what’s not normal [will become] normal tomorrow. And then people can’t live without it. So it’s just fascinating to me  to look around and say, ‘this is what someone dreamt and then did?’ Like how is this rope hanging? [Looks around] So many questions, but I can’t wait to go in and find out. And it’s so cool.”

Ajiona Alexus: “Reality is whatever you want it to be. It’s your world and you create your own circumstances so never let anyone limit you off of what you think reality should be like because your reality is really your true dreams.”

Yara Shahidi: “Expanding your reality means to educate yourself, not only about5 the very literal things we see in text but to really go past that and learn about our global community. Learn about what’s happening in the world. And this is a beautiful moment through arts, to do that. To be able to look at different cultures and communities over some time. Moments of the future, past and present, and realize there’s so much that we don’t know until we embrace it.”

Dascha Polanco: “I think that expanding your reality is a step outside of what society considers as standards. It’s to live what truly is your best life, make yourself happy, work on self-love, self-lovery all the time. I think it’s important for us in order to move forward as humanity. We need to embrace, not only the positive and negative, but we need to be able to reach beyond what is considered normal!”

Tess Holliday: “For me, expanding my reality means changing people’s narrow view of beauty and what that means to them. Especially for marginalized folks and marginalized bodies and we can’t push things forward if we have such a narrow view of what that means. Do you have to expand your reality if beauty because that’s how things change. It’s representation and visibility.”

Zazie Beetz: “I feel it’s important as someone who is creative and tries to sort of always access the spirituality of life. Not in a God sense but in a universe and nature sense, a well-being sense. I think it’s important to remain open and keep your mind curious and engage with the world around you. I think that causes an expansion of self and an expansion of being. And everyday I try to really just approach the world and receive what it gives me and remain open and vulnerable to it. So to me that is an expansion and an expansion of reality.”