Today we’d like to introduce you to Arielle Estoria.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I am born and raised in Northern California, specifically the Bay Area. I moved to LA not to chase dreams or anything of the sort but to attend a university and walk away with what I assumed would be a practical and “normal” career. At the moment, I have the honor of saying that I am I am a Spoken Word Poet, Teaching Artist and Social Media Story Teller and get paid to do so but that is far from what I thought I would be doing eight years ago,
In 2015, I graduated from college and decided to take the next year to pursue “being a creative” whatever that even meant. This was not the first time art or creativity was part of my life; in fact, it’s ALWAYS been part of my life but not in ways I thought to take seriously or pay attention to.
I have always best processed the world around me through written word. I have journals for days, and instead of scribbling doodles in my school notebooks, I would scribble phrases and poems. I thought however that this artistic side of me was meant for art high schools and extracurricular activities, not “real life.”
I realized however that this creative and artistic side of me was not just about what I did; it was an integral part of who I was. It was how I saw the world around me and processed it, it was how I knew to speak in metaphors and intentional like written out stanzas.
I now get to say that I full time create and perform for a living and this was not something I’d ever thought I’d be able to say mostly because I didn’t believe it was possible to do int the first place.
Please tell us about your art.
I am a Spoken Word Poet, so mostly I write…well actually I call it “spilling.” It’s usually this process where experiences, thoughts, and words all come rushing out of me before my pen can catch up or my fingers can type. Usually, my “process” involves instrumental music if it’s planned or just music in general. I gain a lot of inspirations from music and also just conversations and interactions.
As a spoken word poet, essentially I write poems specifically for them to be said out loud, my motto? Words not for the ears but for the soul, I want people to not just hear what I’m saying but feel it and feel it deeply. I think we do ourselves an injustice when we don’t allow ourselves to fully tap into our capacity to feel — it’s not a weakness it is in fact what makes us the most human. I often tend to create spaces and environments with my poetry where people feel comfortable crying…I used to apologize for that, and now I don’t anymore; instead, I say “I am so honored to have been part of your healing process. thank you for listening, receiving and responding.”
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
I don’t think that the role of the artist has changed necessarily but more so I think artists forgot their role for a really long time and now we are in a charged state as a society, and we are remembering why and for what we as artists exist.
The whole history of art was as a response to what was going on with the world around us and how we are affected by that, I think that there is an element of that still happening with artists, but even more so we are doing our best to add positivity and light to spaces that feel dark and doubtful.
As artists, it is our job to respond to the world around us, especially with my conversations as an artist in regards to women empowerment and self-love I find myself being very sensitive to those spaces and responding to them through my art.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
arielleestoria.com
iTunes, Spotify, Amazon
Follow me on instagram @arielleestoria to find out more about shows/events!
Contact Info:
- Website: arielleestoria.com
- Email: contact@arielleestoria.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arielleestoria/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arielleestoria/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/arielleestoria
Image Credit:
#1 Vanessa Todd @nessietodd
#2 naohmi @naohmi
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