This week, The Argus sat down with writer-filmmaker-musician McKenna Blackshire ’25 to chat about the live music scene on campus, the implications of a career in the film industry, and what it means to be an artist.

The Argus: Why do you think you were nominated to be a WesCeleb?

McKenna Blackshire: I send a lot of emails! That’s the immediate reaction I get from people, that they got an email from me this semester about some music-related thing happening with The Shed or that they’ve seen me putting up posters.

A: Can you tell me how you got involved with The Shed in the first place?

MB: I’m a proud four-year DJ for WESU (88.1 FM), and as part of our training process, we intern with experienced DJs to sit in and see what they do. I sat in on a show with Joseph Cohen [’22], and he and his co-host were very nice. I remember chatting with them when they gave us a ride back after the show at like 3 a.m., and it was so awesome, so uniquely Wesleyan, just talking with people who love music. I ran into him a few days later, and he was like, “I’m a part of this group, and I think you’d be a really good fit for it. We meet at my house, like, come by.” It was all about live music.

They had this practice holding these little concerts in the shed in [what is now my] backyard, at 58 Fountain [Ave.], where just a small group of people would get together, a band would play, and then they’d record it and put it on YouTube. It was a way for a lot of the student bands here to preserve the work they were doing and share it with other people. When I came in they were changing and expanding it in the weird COVID[-19] transition period, so I met a lot of cool people who knew how to set up sound equipment, or make experimental punk music, or all of these crazy things, trying to make different kinds of live music showcases and student talent happen on campus.

A: I didn’t realize you now live in the house with the actual shed—so full circle.

MB: It’s so serendipitous! I remember texting Abbi [Abraham ’23] over the summer, who ran The Shed when I was a sophomore, asking for the old Instagram password. She was like, “It’s something, some number Fountain, I can’t remember.” And I was like, “I live in a house on Fountain, and there’s a shed in the backyard.” So then I was logging into the Instagram, and I tried 58 Fountain and it worked, and I was like, “Oh my god!”

A: How did you end up studying English and film?

MB: I definitely always loved art. Always wanted to be an artist in any way, shape, or form, but also just definitely was attracted to the abstract appeal of the identity since I was a kid, and [I] floated between everything and never really stuck at anything. Tried to be a pianist for a while, tried to be a painter for a while, and I really liked writing, and I was always really bad at talking to people, especially when I was younger. The page was the only place I felt like I could just say what I needed to say, so I really considered being a writer for a long time. But over time I found myself getting really frustrated with this thing where I would see something in my head and all I wanted to do was put it on the page, but I could never capture it as it was. Film felt like a way to do that.

A: Do you think growing up in [Los Angeles] played a role in that?

MB: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I kind of hate Los Angeles, and I wouldn’t consider living there again for a long time now that I’m not forced to. But there’s something really magical and something I always appreciated about being from a place where you can do whatever you want. Being exposed and engaging with all these different arts was like, art is magic, and you can do it too, if you want to. And so I came to Wesleyan, because I knew I wanted to study film, but I was very hesitant about going to a school [like NYU Tisch, where] I could only be a filmmaker. As much as I loved it, I’m not a person who’s good at making the big, coherent decisions, especially at the age of 17.

That’s why I’m grateful to be here now, because four years later, I don’t know if I really like film that much or at least, the way it’s taught to you in film school. There’s this quote in this movie I was just watching where it’s like, “To be a filmmaker you have to be your own miniature capitalist,” and it’s so true, and I hate it. And I love movies, but all the movies I love are people not doing film like that, it’s just that they have something they need to say or a story they need to tell.

A: Right, like this is the medium, but maybe not the business.

MB: Exactly. Going to Wesleyan and being able to figure out what being an artist means to me. I love film and I love writing, and I have no fucking idea what I want to be in a tangible identity sense, but I like doing these things, and I’ll explore them. That’s led me to a very happy place.

A: How do you feel like you’ve changed since freshman year?

MB: I feel like I’ve become a lot less timid. I spent so much time so worried about everyone else and trying to be the person I thought I was supposed to be here. That’s what scared me about being a filmmaker [or] being a writer and still does. But I am slowly learning that there are infinite ways to do the thing. I got very wrapped up in not being the right film student, or the right English student, or not being the right musician, or not being the right friend. And then now, very gratefully, through knowing people who would just do the things they loved and be very confident in it, I started to trust myself more. I think in that, I overcame this big, long fear and uncertainty with who I was. Now I really feel like someone who’s very confident in the decisions they make. It’s crazy to think that four years ago, I never would have said that about myself.

A: Just think of the next four years, or the next eight. Do you have any particular hopes for after graduation?

MB: There’s a residency program at the Schomburg Center [for Research in Black Culture] in Harlem, which would be amazing. So I’m applying for that, and I was lucky to get a grant from our English department to do a project on the art scene in Harlem over the summer, and there was so much more I wanted to do and say but couldn’t because I was going back to college. Ellington [Davis ’25] and I are probably going to move to the city together. And I’d love to keep making music. And I want to have a camera around me wherever I am, trying to capture and collect all of these weird little experiences, in hindsight, looking back at Wesleyan and how crazy and special and weird and awesome this place is.

A: You’ve mentioned collecting things a few times—is that an important part of art making for you?

MB: [Associate Professor of English, Creative Writing Danielle Vogel started class the other day] like, “Tell me what your project is as a writer. Just tell me.” And I was like, this is actually something I needed to be asked. My project as a writer and artist is that I don’t want to forget things, and I want to preserve things. I think it’s really ironic, because I’m definitely also someone who’s really quick to throw things away, or I was for a long time. A lot of what I’m doing for my writing project in this class is on this idea of vessels—what am I a vessel for? And it’s things and people and experiences, just the random assortment of [things that] I love coming together in a way that’s really beautiful and very fleeting, but also very freeing.

When I was at Duke Day last night, I was watching people play and just being around everyone dancing and smiling and talking. That kind of moment is my favorite thing in the world. However that manifests in art or with people is key to what I want to do for the rest of my life.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sophie Jager can be reached at sjager@wesleyan.edu.