FELLOW SPOTLIGHT: EILEEN LEVEL
Connecting Japanese culture with the BIPOC community in the New York area, AniTOMO Convention, founded by Eileen in 2023, is a free event where historically underrepresented people can meet, collaborate and learn through manga, anime and gaming, while growing new friendships. Eileen’s work channels Japanese art and its social impact to foster inclusivity and reshape narratives and identities in present-day youth, through themes such as resilience, empathy, love and belonging.
Furthermore, Eileen has been working in the film festival industry since 2014 and she is the Head of Education at New York International Children’s Film Festival, an Oscar-qualifying film festival bringing films that represent and celebrate unique, diverse, and historically excluded voices to thousands of students throughout NYC and Newark, NJ!
A champion of the cinema-going experience, Eileen’s endeavors can be summarized in these words:
Amplify Cinema. Impact Community.
How did you find out you wanted to take an entrepreneurial path?
I knew I wanted to take an entrepreneurial path because I had very niche passions which I saw as solutions to problems in communities I was serving. I was also feeling consistently bothered by the lack of positive recreational safe spaces for BIPOC people living in disenfranchised communities but realized that I was often in the minority group of people that wanted to make a change using art-related events as the vehicle.
Tell us about your venture/work.
AniTOMO Convention is a free event aimed primarily at the BIPOC community in the New York area. The event focuses on accessibility, inclusivity, equity, and building friendships in the fandom community by way of engaging with Japanese culture through manga, anime, gaming and more!
How did you decide to tackle this particular issue?
AniTOMO envisioned a space where historically underrepresented people in urban communities can gather in welcoming safe spaces, to discover, contribute, and above all enjoy manga and anime content without any barriers to entry. This pop culture phenomenon inspired AniTOMO Con to create a space in which participants could better understand beloved graphic novels and characters that cover relatable themes such as resilience, empathy, courage, love, belonging, and grit, and many other emotions of our coming-of-age youth.
The larger goal was to have the community in which it served to feel included but also become a part of the storylines that were reshaping the narrative and identity of youth in today’s society.
On July 8th 2023, AniTOMO Con’s inaugural convention was hosted at the Brooklyn Heights Library the second largest and newly reconstructed branch in Brooklyn in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library Incubator Program. BKLYN Incubator annually supports innovative programs by fostering partnerships between library staff and community partners. I applied to be a participant of the program and later pitched the idea to have a free manga and anime convention, and during this competitive process I became a recipient of the BKLYN Incubator Round 9 and was awarded $10,000 to implement my idea in collaboration with the library. The event was a success with over 1000 registrants and media coverage from both amNew York and News 12 Brooklyn.
Today AniTOMO Con looks forward to hosting its second annual convention in Japan Village, the premier destination for Japanese Culture with the support of many organizations including Japan Foundation, which recently awarded AniTOMO Con the Art and Culture Grant.
What do you enjoy most about being an impact entrepreneur? What are the main challenges?
I love building new partnership in effort to create more pathways for others that often face barriers. My connections have placed me in environments and in touch with people I could have only dreamed of previously. One of the main challenges is finding sustainable funding sources for my projects, and to pay myself and staff without having to charge the very people I am serving. Beyond that having to balance my day job and personal life with my entrepreneurial endeavors has proved challenging as the work load increases.
What advice do you have for early-stage impact entrepreneurs about using their time and relationships to prepare for this kind of career?
- Find a stable job that can financially support you while developing your venture.
- Save a portion of your earning to support you venture just in case you don’t receive grants funding or sponsorship.
- Partnerships are key! Money is important but so is what money can buy, which sometimes is easier to ask for than the money itself (for example, donated space).
- Learn how to pitch your project in more than one way with passion and ambition.
- Start small and grow gradually.
- Make time to rest and do things you love outside of your venture.
- Discover who are all the local influencers in your community to help you network and grow.
- Work with interns so that you’re not taking on a full load of work.
- Think of the best business model that can change based on your situation.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Yes! I also am the Founder and CEO of PaleFO Cinema, an ongoing initiative to support cinema exhibition in disenfranchised communities often coined as cinema deserts. PaleFO Cinema brings free movie screenings to New York City Housing Developments with community input.