Be the spange you wish to see in the world AUGUST 2025

What do Milli Vanilli and my current state of Ennui have in common? 

Blame it on the rain, baby.

It's been a soggy month. Yet, with all the rain the world is still on fire- oh, the humanity.

All this rain has waterlogged my anxious clutter and it's affecting my headspace with the smells of black mould and misenthropic damp. The Strug Life is real, my dudes. But in this economy all I can do is pass the time by surrendering to the flood of cortisol and smoking another wet cigarette I can barely afford.

I'm a pruney old man wearing a housecoat at noon with the sadness of a mime all over my face when all of a sudden, que Allison with where to meet for our interview:

“The Regal Cat Cafe. How much fun would THAT be??”

It was almost as if she knew I needed a fur baby and a friend with a heart of gold and Bette Davis eyes.

Allison is PRFM's Kids Corner coordinator and maven behind “Waxy Mama”. Her Instagram account, @waxy_mama, describes itself as “Upcycled vinyl to fill your home and melt your heart. Punk prayer candles to light your way in the dark.”

She morphs what is destined for the trash into functional home decor. What was once a Lionel Richie record abandoned inside its sun-bleached sleeve is now a kitchy catch-all dish:

Is it keys you're looking for? Not any more cause they're in the Lionel Richie bowl.

The punk rock novellas she makes are a multifaceted statement.  Decor on the surface, sure. But a novella is an act of reverence, a way of venerating the chosen saint while asking for their strength. What Allison does by placing a glowing flame behind the likes of PeeWee Herman, Divine, Dolly Parton, and Elvira Mistress of the Dark, is offer all us scofflaws, contrarians, and miscreants an opportunity to say thank you to pop-culture sinners with sacrilegious devotion.

Sustainable Kitsch is Allison's art.

But her craft is worthy of its own devotional flame.

“...I work really hard to show up for people.

” She says while an orange Tabby named “Mosquito”purrs at the touch of her fingers.

Do not let Allison's sheepish smile and blatant kindness fool you- her Alma Matter is the University of Hard Knocks and she graduated top of her class. She's simultaneously an unstoppable force and an immovable object when it comes to her advocacy. Growing up everything she was denied she learned to give others- tenfold and selflessly, I may add.

 For Allison, showing up for someone equates to advocacy:

A prime is example of her advocacy was her volunteer work at the Remand Center. In 2007

(Pre-covid, A.K.A the Before Times) Allison was leading yoga classes around the city, but couldn't help but feel disenchanted about the lack of accessibility to marginalized communities. Knowing there were those who had nothing to eat but the grit of being left in the dust, she decided to take action.

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" I once fed the members of Nirvana spaghetti."

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“So I started a yoga program for incarcerated women at the remand center…somewhere

along the way, between our centering practice and guided meditations, I made room for play. We would do things like meow & moo in cat/cow poses- just laugh and be playful, it was fun, and also healing. They came away from our classes feeling calmer, happier, just better, and that’s what yoga is all about. I can't think of a group that's more isolated and marginalized than incarcerated people, so to show up for them was a privilege. But the program closed during Covid and my son, Charlie, who has severe non-verbal autism, wasn't in school anymore so I wasn’t able to continue.”

There's a pregnant pause after she says that. A near moment of silence as she privately remembers the memories she publicly stated meant so much to her. It's a pragmatic resignation to the reality that transpired. Covid changed the trajectory of everyone. But what it didn't skew was Allison's moral compass and her mission to bring playfulness to the forefront.

“The PRFM craft corner isnt just for kids, it's for everyone.”

A brownie now occupying her fingers in this moment. Our thirty minutes of kitty cuddling has come to an end and Mosquito is currently being seduced into a rumbling trance by another persons hands. Proof that cats are hussies and we love them for it.

“I just imagine it from the kids perspective,” she continues, “they get brought to this massive market with their parents and there's so much awesome art around them and they actually get to be a part of it. They get to be creative, too.” There's a subtle, but electric, joie de vivre in her voice when she says this. “I remember at the last market watching this cool looking, big, burly dad with his daughter. To the untrained eye, you might think he was intimidating. But he was playing with his daughter while making crafts, laughing and having fun. They were both just playing and being involved…I could tell it was a very special moment for them.”

Albeit seemingly simple, the craft corner is deceptively capable at growing the grass you need to touch. 

And that was the moment I realized the craft corner had nothing to do with sedating children through distraction: the craft corner is Allison's advocacy for everyone's inner child. A chance to revive our unadulterated imagination. To rekindle our naivete that all heroes wear capes, so we put one on. Another chance to practice, if not for a fleeting moment, the same reckless abandon that had us believing in pots of gold at the end of rainbows and our ability to find them if we kept our eyes peeled and feet quick enough to chase them. 

That's what Allison does.

She let's you know it's o.k to play;

that it's necessary to escape your adult cocoon and be a glow worm again; that art is a vessel that holds space for everyone- much like she does. 

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" I've been snotted on by a humpback whale."

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A few weeks later I finally found the words for this article. All it took was sitting with Allison's mantra of advocating for my inner child and an electric scooter at five-thirty in the morning after a light rain left the sleepy streets glistening with the smell of ozone. Home as a destination with Milli Vanilli playing through my headphones while a cigarette hangs out the corner of my mouth. It is in this moment of velocity and freedom that I'm reminded of my childhood bicycle and the adult me feels like a kid again. The wind against my face begins to air out the damp from my mind and I realize that I'm reliving the fun I almost forgot.

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"Two words: Elvis bathroom."

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As dawn cracks the darkness with a watercolor gradient I swear i can see a rainbow for the first time since it started raining all those weeks ago. And in that moment I think I'm playful enough to believe there's a pot of gold at the ending of it, so 

I'm gonna chase it.

Written by @Alottacollage - PRFMYYC August 2025