“When you step out of yourself, you realize what makes you different”
I am a queer, African American woman that’s living out in Los Angeles California. I’m originally from Dallas Fort worth Texas. I lived in a town called Coppell that was 20 minutes away from George Bush’s house, so not the most progressive environment. My parents were immigrants. I lived in an abusive environment. But when I found art, particularly after I had such terrible grades I got kicked out of marching band. I discovered marijuana in high school. Then I discovered acting, French New Wave, Jean Luc Godard, Truffaut, Marlon Brando, Elia Kazan. These people I felt, they were more family and they spoke to me more than what was happening. That inspired me to train and I got into Stella Adler in New York City. I didn’t go because I decided to study economic mathematics in Texas to follow what my mom wanted me to do. Then I dropped out of that and took my last paycheck and moved out to Los Angeles. That was two years ago. Now I do activism work, something I’ve done my entire whole life, even back in college because I hated how conservative the school was. I said I’m going to learn as much as I can just to piss off my teachers. Now I’m an activist and an artist because art is an act of activism. Every time you expose yourself and stay true, you are able to make the world a better place. That is my ethos.
When you step out of your home town, step out of yourself, you realize what makes you different. What I hate about myself, is what actually makes me universal. I’m not actually someone who’s crazy or different or weird because everyone feels the same way, no matter who they are, no matter what their income level, what their skin color is. I realized how much of the audience is me. It allowed me to get out of my pretension and get out of my head and recognize I’m doing this for everybody. It’s up to me to be honest and real because people need that.
I used to have a white tiger. And the reason why I liked this white tiger is because I wanted to be a zoologist, when I was younger. I loved the fact that a tiger was a symbol of strength and power and the fact that it was white, which is rare, and I alway felt different so whatever was rare is different and that’s cool. I grew up in an abusive environment it was my comfort. I would go home, my parents would be yelling and I would have something there for me. It was my security to me, knowing that I had something so powerful as my protector.