Screening: “Is This Happening to Anyone Else?” Dec. 17 with Wildfire Journal and Temple of Kinship
December 17, 2025
4:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET
How can we use art as a supportive vehicle during hardship? Join textile artist Francesca Olsen, April Stearns from Wildfire Journal, and Temple of Kinship Founder Alyssa Tsagong for a collaborative screening of the short film “Is This Happening to Anyone Else?” and a conversation about cancer, creation, and caregiving at 4:30 p.m. PT/7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 17.
Wildfire Journal just released its 10th annual metastatic breast cancer (MBC) issue, guest-edited by Tsagong and featuring writing by 20 women living with Stage IV breast cancer all diagnosed under 50 years old, including a feature on Olsen’s 2025 exhibit, “Witness,” a series of seven quilts exploring the experience of young adults in cancer treatment. Wildfire Journal’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief April Stearns will emcee the event.
“Working on this year’s MBC issue reminded me how often young people with metastatic breast cancer are forced to hold impossible truths at the same time—fear and hope, grief and creativity, devastation and beauty. Francesca’s quilts live in that same liminal space, where art and story become a kind of lifeline. Collaborating to bring the story behind the “Witness” quilts via “Is This Happening to Anyone Else?” to living rooms everywhere feels like an extension of that mission: gathering to witness one another, to honor the realities of MBC, and to show how creativity can carry us through the unthinkable,” says Stearns.
As a way to support the Wildfire issue, Olsen and Wildfire are collaborating on a screening of the nine-minute documentary, “Is This Happening to Anyone Else?,” which was created by Olsen’s husband, filmmaker Joe Aidonidis. It tells the story of a mother going through cancer treatment and how art scaffolds her through it. Aidonidis, who has been Olsen’s caregiver through almost four years of treatment, will be at the screening to talk about making the film and the caregiver perspective. Current patients are encouraged to invite their caregivers along for the discussion.
“Is This Happening to Anyone Else?” screened at four film festivals in 2025 and won best documentary at the Access Film Fest in Framingham, Mass.
“I admire Wildfire’s mission of using writing as a way to help young cancer patients connect and tell their stories,” said Olsen. “I’m excited to collaborate on this event and help spread the word about Wildfire’s programming and printed journal. Art’s power is unique and undeniable–in hard times, many of us turn to art to help establish a sense of self, document a journey, create a legacy, or for mental health. All these methods are valuable and valid.”
After the screening, Tsagong and Olsen will do a Q&A about art, cancer, caregiving, and the connections we make through all these avenues–something they both know well, since they were connected through Olsen’s “Witness” project, and Tsagong’s nonprofit creates space for Stage IV women to reflect with their closest friends. Tsagong reflects, “With the number of people being diagnosed with MBC, and the number of people “too young” for cancer, hearing those words increasing, these stories matter to all of us. So that we can have mirrors and windows that offer opportunities for understanding and care.”
Being diagnosed with cancer as a young adult is to be thrown into a crossroads, to be confronted with unanswerable questions. “When going through a traumatic experience, it’s important to see and hear from other people who are doing the same thing,” Olsen said. “That’s why I created a quilt that asks, ‘Is this happening to anyone else?’ I want to invite others to share their experiences, to meet each other at that crossroads. I think Wildfire is doing something similar and incredibly valuable by making space for us to write, think, and share, and it feels important to help signal boost this awesome project.”
About Francesca Olsen
Francesca Olsen is a quilter, writer, and consultant. Her creative work focuses on storytelling, heritage, ritual, magic, and the power and significance held in objects and stories. Olsen is a connector whose work aims to build community by holding space for others and creating a dialogue around legacy, history, and the symbolism we assign to it. She is the recipient of a 2024-25 Artists at Work grant, a WPA-inspired program that funds a year of artist work with community organizations. North Adams Project grant via MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists, a 2021 grant from the North Adams Artist Impact Coalition, and a 2022 grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation’s Martha Boschen Porter Fund. She has reached hundreds of artists via digital marketing talks for various arts and culture organizations across New England. www.noaestheticquilts.com
About Wildfire Journal
Wildfire Journal & Writing Community is a multiplatform media company specifically designed with the younger breast cancer experience in mind. Through a bi-monthly narrative magazine, podcast, and small-group writing workshops, we believe that experiencing writing and experiencing the stories of others provides a much-needed community and support network. Learn more at wildfirecommunity.org.
About Temple of Kinship
Temple of Kinship is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2024, offering free-to-attend retreats designed for people navigating Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC), and one friend. Our goal is to support social bonds that offer healing, specifically, friendship. The retreats supply tools, practices, and space for participants to strengthen and sustain supportive healing relationships, build community, and tend to kinship with their bodies, spirit, and nature. www.templeofkinship.org
