Surviving The City

Have you ever chatted with someone who pushed you to consider what it means to go after your creative projects day in and day while staying true to yourself and your values? Is that even possible? And, what does it really look like to grow and evolve your craft with integrity especially in the comedy scene? In this episode, we hear from Gabe Pacheco, a thought-provoking storyteller, performer, podcaster and comic with over a decade of experience performing comedy all over the city and country.  

As you’ll come to understand through this conversation, Gabe has a strong sense of values and we often felt like we were chatting with a local philosopher.

Topics in this episode include:

• The origins of Gabe’s podcast “Halal Cartels” with co-host Sameer Naseem
• What it means to be in his “third childhood” and on “the bleeding edge of progress”
• The importance of incorporating “grace” into your philosophy as a creative
• The hustle in comedy and how part of showing up consistently is surrounding yourself with others who aspire to be better
• How Gabe landed the gig co-hosting a weekly comedy show at Pete’s Candy Store
• Having an ideology before you start to put yourself out there and knowing the boundaries you won’t cross
• The emergence of transphobia on the comedy scene
• Why it’s important not to hold performers to their past selves and leaving space open for self-critique and growth
• Reflecting on mistakes Gabe has made on stage
• Willingness to abandon a fan base to speak your truth
• Understanding who the gatekeepers are and whether or not your message aligns with theirs as a metric for whether or not you should keep your day job
• Traversing anti-capitalist topics on stage with audiences outside of Brooklyn
• Why it’s important to build, invite and create your community vs waiting for your community to appear 
• Psychedelics and personal growth
• What he loves about living in the city and the connection to people
• How he hates the struggle required for so many to live and stay here
• What utopia of a living situation looks like and means to Gabe
• Why the movie Blade Runner helped shape his world view

Keep up with Gabe’s work here or by connecting with him on Instagram or Twitter. You can also follow his weekly comedy show on IG Funhouse Comedy. And finally, definitely check out his podcast Halal Cartels!

Listen to more Surviving The City podcast episodes by following this link. And don’t forget to connect with us on Instagram.

Have you ever sat with someone who made you feel like going after your creative dreams wasn’t “crazy”? Like a bigger life for you was more possible? How does a licensed psychotherapist and transformational life coach really get you to change your life and follow your big creative dreams? And what would someone like this say to the critical thinker in all of us that gawks at the idea of following our dreams when considering all of the real pain and oppression that exists in our world? In this episode, we hear from therapist, life coach and healer Cynthia Santiago-Borbón with over two decades of practice in the field. 

As you’ll come to understand through this conversation, Cynthia is not a pie in the sky ungrounded dreamer. No, her work is deeply rooted in anti-oppression, equity and liberation. 

Topics in this episode include:

• How transformation happens with clients that Cynthia has worked with
• Sustaining long term change
• Shifting from “what’s wrong with you” to “what’s right with you”
• Tapping into your gifts and “purpose” and the clues along the way
• Understanding where choice is at play in our lives
• The power of the supportive morning routine
• Why self-work is essential to connecting to your joy
• Why connecting to your joy is important for creating the world we want to live in and not the privileged perspective we might think it is
• What brings Cynthia to healing work
• Putting manifestation in context and understanding both its power and limitations

Keep up with Cynthia’s work here or by connecting with her on Instagram or Facebook. 

Listen to more Surviving The City podcast episodes by following this link. And connect with us on Instagram. 

Many of us clock in and clock out when it comes to working on our creative projects. However, in episode 27 Vicky and Key chat with Chiquita Brujita, a third generation Nuyorican bruja and magic maker, who embodies her art day in and day out as a performance artist. 

Chiquita’s life has led her down a path of performance and nurturing the souls of those around her. She uses dance and the energy of community to bring people together in a celebration of the once taboo culture of brujería.

In this episode, Chiquita shares her exciting but unplanned career path that features tarot readings, building altars in the club, and founding the Brooklyn Brujería Festival in 2018. You’ll also hear why you should consider letting life lead you, the power of manifestation, and using joy as medicine.

Tune in for a magical conversation on cultivating a life and community through your art!

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Chiquita on having a multi-faceted career
• What being a performance artist means
• “Magic is fucking real”
• Fostering community
• Being a creative and working a 9-5
• The evolution to the Brooklyn Brujería Festival
• Building altars and dance floors as sacred spaces

Follow Chiquita Brujita on Instagram and check out her website for all this magic! http://www.chiquitabrujita.com

Listen to more Surviving The City podcasts by following this link. Also, connect with us on Instagram.

Creative Projects & Non-Attachment 

Episode 26

What happens when your passion for a creative project turns into an obsession over the outcome? How can we practice non-attachment to our creative goals while still maintaining our drive and focus?

Luckily, this doesn’t mean giving up all your worldly possessions and moving to a cave off the grid. Despite the image it conjures, practicing non-attachment is a whole lot less New Age-y than you might think!

Today, on Surviving the City, we explore the practical side of non-attachment as it relates to goal setting in your creative projects and how you can benefit from finding fulfillment at every stage of your creative journey, instead of fixating on the outcomes of your creative endeavors.

Join us as we reflect on our own journeys of tying our self-worth to our artistic output, the identity crisis sparked in each of us, and some of the ways that we have learned to separate affirmation from achievement and allow our creative projects to nourish us rather than stress us out.

To learn how you can practice ‘passionate non-attachment’ to give you a better quality of life and a sense of peace as you pursue your creative goals, tune in today!

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Why practicing non-attachment is less woo-woo than it seems
• Correlations between attachment, fixation, and social media
• The pitfalls of allowing your creative goals to define you
• How childhood goal-setting influences your creative identity as an adult
• The need to separate your self-worth from your creative output
• Creating a balance between feedback and validation
• How overcommitting can impact your mental and physical health
• The importance of grounding your goals in reality
• What it looks like to be nourished by your creative projects
• Navigating the tension between non-attachment and passion
• Finding fulfillment in each stage of your creative journey
• A visualization technique to help you practice non-attachment

Listen to more Surviving The City podcasts by following this link. Also, connect with us on Instagram.

In this episode of Surviving the City, we ask: how did a New Yorker and fifth-generation Curandera go on a mission to share the power of plant medicine, then go on to open up a modern-day apothecary, botánica, and community space?

Our guest is Lynsey Ayala, a spiritual herbalist, artist, and the owner of BreadxButta, a Brooklyn-based brand fusing wellness, art, and Sacred Earth Medicine education. 

As you’ll come to understand from today’s conversation, Lynsey’s work is deeply rooted in her Puerto Rican heritage and her upbringing in the Bronx. Having found her calling in decolonizing Sacred Earth Medicines, she uses a variety of modalities to ignite healing, including psychedelics and other medicinal plants.

Listen in as we break down what it means to Lynsey to decolonize this space, how she stays true to her mission to build and educate her community, while also facilitating personal growth, and how you can begin to cultivate a personal relationship with plant medicine.

Join us today as we learn about what it means to be a ‘healer’ using the power of community (with a side of plant medicine)!

Topics discussed in this episode:

• What inspired Lynsey’s contemporary apothecary and community space
• Her personal connection with Sacred Earth Medicines
• Building a community around your art and business
• Translating word of mouth into a digital following
• Demystifying cannabis, one mom at a time!
• Maintaining community while also facilitating personal growth
• Using astrology to chart a course for your business
• What it means to decolonize Sacred Earth Medicine
• Tips for grounding yourself, even in the middle of the city
• How plants remind us of seasons in our own lives
• Moments of remembrance in Lynsey’s journey as a curandera
• Viewing psychedelics as portals to potential
• Understanding that some of these medicines are not for everybody
• Psychedelics as powerful creative tools
• The power of music to enhance creative energy
• Insight into cymatics and sound healing
• Ways in which art has had a tangible impact on Lynsey

Keep up with Lynsey by checking out her website, connecting with her on Instagram, or following this link to access her events, online shop, free resources, and more!

Listen to more Surviving The City podcasts by following this link. Also, connect with us on Instagram.

How did a successful, born-and-bred Brooklyn artist use manifestation to get her film featured on Showtime? 

For those of you who tend to be turned off by woo-woo topics like manifestation and visualizing your dream life, this episode is definitely for you! Tuning in today, you’ll hear from Sakinah Iman, an award-winning Caribbean-American filmmaker, singer-songwriter, actress, spoken word artist, and educator.

For over a decade, Sakinah has devoted her artistic abilities to creating art that engages audiences in sociopolitical change. As an independent singer-songwriter, Sakinah has showcased her original music at numerous venues in NYC.

Sakinah’s most popular single to date, ‘Waiting Tables’, climbed to number 35 on the Top 40 charts on Bandcamp, and one of her most recent film projects, He Wants to Know My Number, is currently available for streaming on the major television network, Showtime.

In this episode of Surviving the City, Sakinah shares some insight into the production and distribution of He Wants to Know My Number—a powerful, provocative, and entertaining spoken word piece that expresses her take on sex and promiscuity—and how she actively relinquished the narrative that she would never be able to make a decent living as an artist. 

We also take a look at the role that an abundance mindset plays in creating the life that you want to live in real-time, debunk some common misconceptions about manifestation, and unpack the Law of Attraction, plus so much more!

Regardless of your opinions on manifestation, we hope that this conversation will inspire you to be more, show up, and live up and love up on the life you want.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• How Sakinah wrote, directed, produced, and starred in He Wants to Know My Number
• Shifting the limiting beliefs that tend to keep artists broke
• What Sakinah learned from the ‘pay to play’ film festival circuit
• A look at her upcoming film: Running Star
• How to use astrology in your creative process
• A candid account of self-imposed roadblocks on Sakinah’s journey 
• Defining manifestation and what it means to Sakinah
• Tips for activating a euphoric state of being rooted in abundance and love
• Using visualization to reprogram your subconscious
• How Sakinah manifested her dream job
• The importance of detaching from a desired outcome
• Debunking the misconception that manifestation is an infallible law
• How Law of Attraction works
• How your ego might be getting in your way
• The unexpected 90s television show that had a big impact on Sakinah

You can connect with Sakinah and keep up with all of her projects by following this link.

Check out her short film, ​​He Wants to Know My Number, on ShowTime and watch the official trailer for Running Star on YouTube.

You can also stream ‘Waiting Tables’ and more on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your music.

Resources mentioned:

Abraham-Hicks and the Law of Attraction

Joseph Rodrigues

Listen to more Surviving The City podcasts by following this link. Also, connect with us on Instagram!

The legacy we leave through art and interaction is just as important as the footprint we leave on this planet through our consumption. 

In our highly capitalist society with consumerism skyrocketing higher than ever, with no end in sight, especially living in the city, it feels impossible to stray away from the comforts of efficiency. 

Living outside of this paradigm is of course considered alternative, so in order to create a new paradigm, it is up to smaller groups of like-minded people creating solidarity economies all over the world, using trading as a means of purchasing items. 

Our guest on today’s episode is living this truth and has joined us to let us in on how she does it. Christina Freeman, is a teacher at Hunter College, a practicing artist and curator, creating conceptual art using photography, video, artist books, multimedia installation, and participatory performance. 

Christina has shaped her life to be one that is true to what she believes, and that is to operate in an economy that makes sense to her, and is living by example inspiring others to do the same.

Christina is a talented artist with beautiful insight that you don’t want to miss!

Topics discussed in this episode:

• How efficiency culture manifests in our lives
• How the project ‘Plums for Trash’ was created
• Solidarity economies around the world
• Personal insights on selling for money vs. trading
• The psychological and emotional power of exchanging items
• What economy means to Christina
• Why Christina isn’t interested in efficiency
• Recommendations on how to participate in alternative economies
• The Amazon trap
• Why must artists take what they can't get?
• The disparity of cost of living and artist income in NYC
• A piece of art that has changed Christina’s outlook or behavior
• Art life crossover
• Christina’s response to critique and pushback of conceptual art
• Why Christina moved out of NYC

To get in touch with Christina head to her Instagram page or her website!

Listen to more Surviving The City podcasts by following this link. Also, connect with us on Instagram!

We are joined today by an incredibly wise and humble guest who is an artivist (art + activist). He shares with us the stories of his passion for music and his artivist journey. His name is Y? 

Y?’s journey was anything but conventional, being born in a family fleeing their home country of Guyana to the US due to unrest, and having humble beginnings, his passion for art and music was always apparent, but could not be nurtured until he was in his 20s. 

Although Y? had dreams to go to school for art and music, these dreams never came to fruition, but he still managed to find his way to his passion and is now a successful artist with a wide array of talents. Y?’s natural ability to connect and hold space is a lost art in and of itself, but he carries this deep love for himself and others so gracefully, it can be felt through this episode. 

Tune in to hear some of the most inspirational content yet, and a beautiful story of Y?’s last moments with dear friend Robert Enamorado. This is a special episode you do not want to miss!

Topics discussed in this episode:

• The story behind Y?’s name
• What is artivism?
• Y?’s experience with artivism
• Y?’s education journey
• A piece of art that has impacted Y?’s life
• The importance of community for artists
• How Y? created connection during Roberto Enamorado memorial event
• The story of Y?’s last moments with Roberto Enamorado
• How Y? stays present and positive with all the pain and suffering in the world
• Importance of honing in your purpose and perspective
• Why trying to convince others of your perspective is not beneficial
• How to cultivate self love and stay in the community
• Rediscovering creative purpose in the midst of a tragedy
• The difference between expressing perspective vs convincing

CW: Please note that at 36:00-50:00 in we reference suicide as the friend that we speak about took his own life. Tap out and forward if you need to take care of yourself during that portion of the episode.   

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is now active across the United States by dialing 988– it is available 24/7 to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Visit https://988lifeline.org/ for more info.

Connect with Y? by heading to Why Not Show Love here. You can also catch him on social media via Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. You can also shoot him an email here!To learn more about Y?’s company Creative Expressions, visit his other website here.

Listen to more Surviving The City podcasts by following this link. Also, connect with us on Instagram!

To build authentic connections requires being authentically connected to your body first. Disassociating where connection is required can cause detrimental consequences to your mental and physical health. Especially for creatives living in or just moving to the city to work on their craft. The transition isn’t always easy and the individualistic nature of living in a big city is a breeding ground for disconnection. So how do we come back to ourselves and enjoy living in our own bodies to create space for connection?  

Today's guest went through major dissociation and depression when she moved to New York City many years ago. Having just broken up with her boyfriend and starting school, it was a rough start that brought out some inner demons that were locked away for a long time. She found solace in dance, a place where she could connect with herself and express herself through movement. Expression, which was next to impossible for her in any form prior to finding dance. 

Justina Kamiel Grayman is a dancer, artist, choreographer, and psychology professor, who has bridged the gap between dance and psychology to create a program called Raw Movement, that helps others that were in her shoes connect with their bodies through unstructured movement, dance, conversation, and much more. Raw Movement is to co-create spaces for deep connection so others can thrive by feeling comfortable in their bodies.

Tune in for an authentically raw conversation about mental health, dance, art, and how we show up for ourselves and others in society.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• How Justina discovered dance and choreography
• Justina’s battle with depression after moving to New York
• How dance helped with Justina’s mental health by expressing herself
• How Justina bridges the gap between dance and psychology to create connection
• How Justina created raw movement
• What is body safety and expression
• Why Justina dislikes the word transformation
• Is there a place for hierarchy in growth and liberation?
• Information about raw movement
• What a raw movement session looks like
• How city creatives can build more authentic connection through community

Listen to more Surviving The City podcasts by following this link. Also, connect with us on Instagram!

To learn more about Raw Movement workshops, visit Justina’s website here.

Connect with Justina on Instagram and Facebook!

Alcohol is such a prevalent part of our culture, especially in city life. Events, celebrations, social gatherings, even clocking out of work is commemorated with a drink. When it feels almost impossible to do any of these things without a drink, that’s when we need to re-evaluate our motivation for drinking. If you do drink alcohol, even on occasion, have you ever asked yourself why you do it? Our hosts, Vicky and Key, asked themselves this same question and the answer they found was profound enough to start their sober curious journey. 

In today’s podcast, Vicky and Key will be discussing how their relationship with alcohol has changed and why they decided to head toward sobriety and its impact on their lives. Along with our hosts, blogger from ‘Exploring Sobriety 365’, Candace Holmes, will be joining us to discuss her family’s history with alcohol abuse, and how staying sober year round has changed her life for the better. 

Of course, battling any sort of addiction has its challenges. This episode takes us through the emotions, mental processing, and lifestyle changes that inevitably take place, along with practical tips on how to get through it.

Join us for a deep dive into how alcohol has woven its way into our lives, and what we can do to change that to be more present in our relationships, and harness creativity with sobriety. 

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Sobriety from alcohol and the pandemic
• How drinking takes away creative power
• Candace’s journey to sobriety
• Mental processing when wanting a drink
• Practical tips on how to avoid drinking
• How living in a city gets woven into drinking culture
• Non-alcoholic drink alternatives
• Does alcohol make you more creative?
• Alcoholism in the family

Listen to more Surviving The City podcasts here

Check out Candace Holmes’ blog Exploring Sobriety 365

Quit Like A Woman by Holly Whitaker

The Sober Diaries by Clare Pooley

Check out these podcasts mentioned in today’s episode:Sober Curious

Sober Black Girls Club