SIGNATUREWRITER, A

FAQ

WHAT'S YOUR BACKGROUND?

I was born in Spanish Harlem in '95 and am of Puerto-Rican and Honduran descent.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO ART, MOST NOTABLY WRITING?

For me it was as early as the fifth grade. An English teacher told me that some work I submitted was very good and that I had potential to be a writer. I have no idea what I wrote, but I remembered what she said. I was more interested in doodles and making comics out of them. From middle school to early high school, my drawings and stories took heavy inspiration from Codename: Kids Next Door. Drawing was the way I was coming to understand myself though I did not really see this until the end of high school. I wanted to make my drawings into comics when I entered the High School of Art & Design in '09, but when it came time to choose a major, I was discouraged by the information that the Cartooning and Animation majors were competitive to get into because everyone wanted to do them. Instead, I chose filmmaking since it would’ve been the next way to make my doodles come to life, and that is what I studied throughout high school. [Side note, my back up choice for my major since they make you choose a second in case you don’t get the first choice, would have been architecture. Makes me wonder where I would be now if I had been put there. Anyway,] I found throughout high school, I enjoyed specifically the writing aspect of film, rather than the camera work or editing. I enjoyed filmmaking enough that I wanted to major in it in Purchase College, but I  missed the deadline for their film conservatory after losing the locations for the films I was making to apply to them with, twice. I settled for a Media Studies-type program and took a minor in Screenwriting to compensate. After college, writing was where my heart was at and still is today. Initially, it was supposed to be in writing for Film/T.V., but it wasn’t until about age 21 where, in the middle of a very detailed outline for a feature length film, that I considered writing a short story. I had no training in this kind of story telling and chose to explore it for the sake of trying something new, hoping to surprise myself with whatever the outcome would be. This allowed me to branch off into poetry, short stories, and even cocktail recipes. Plenty of older folks always remind me that I am young when I have fears of not succeeding or knowing fully what I want and I took a chance to throw myself into a different form of the passion I already had. To date, I have all pieces available on the site and more under my belt, and I still doodle all the time.

WHEN DID YOU START TAKING ART SERIOUSLY? WHAT DRIVES YOU IN YOUR DAILY LIFE?

Whenever I am at work as a server at a cafe or as a doorman, I am reminded that I and other minorities are usually only ever servers in life and it is dejecting. I don’t want to take orders my whole life, that is not what life is for. It’s about growing and becoming the highest, most aware version of yourself you can be. I can do that best with art.