Confessions of a Multi-Passionate Artist

I’ve often shared my creative journey on this blog. I’ve talked about how I started drawing at the age of six, singing at the age of nine and writing at the age of ten. As a writer, I’ve journaled, written songs, plays, short stories, and poetry. I started sharing poetry on YouTube in 2010 and performing publicly in 2015. Somewhere within all of this, I dabbled in photography. I’ve attended school for fashion design, crocheted hats and bags, self-published a novel, and taught myself to speak three different languages. It’s safe to say that I have many interests and have learned to do lots of things. On the surface, it may seem as if I’m tooting my own horn – and a part of me is doing just that. But deep down, being a multi-passionate artist is something that I have struggled with for a long time. 

For years, I thought I had to choose. In fact, many people would choose for me. Because I’m most known in my community as a poet, that is how I’m introduced. When that happens, I often think to myself, is that all people think I am? I’m so much more than that! Or am I? Do I really know who I am as an artist? Am I defined as however other people define me? I now understand that I am meant to be all the things. 

I often talk about how my younger self was told that I couldn’t be an artist at all. Even within the art world, there are those who have rules and limitations. When one approaches art as a business, it’s often said that you must choose a niche. You must pick one thing that the world knows you for and neglect everything else that’s a part of you – and that has never sat right with me. One day, the canvas could be calling to me and the next, the microphone – and it’s all valid. Furthermore, the world has been graced with several multi-passionate artists throughout history who have shined their lights in diverse ways: Leonardo da Vinci, Maya Angelou, Donald Glover, and Janelle Monae – Artists who break boundaries. 

My creativity spans across multiple lanes, and for a long time, I believed that this made me chaotic. The truth is that all my work is connected by my experience, my heart, and my expressiveness. My writing is poetic and heartfelt. My visual art is expressive and unique. And everything that I create is sprinkled with my blackness, my trauma, my laughter, and a mix of my Chicago roots and Louisiana blooms. And furthermore, it’s all by my design.  

It’s taken time, but over the years, I’ve become braver in sharing my truth. I acknowledge that the insecurities still rise inside me from time to time – comparison, beauty standards, and worrying if my work will be well-received. But then follows the aha moment: When I speak from my soul, people feel it. That’s the magic.

We often think that being a successful creative means you have millions of followers on social media and millions of dollars in your bank account, but those things are just effects that come from the true cause of success – connection. The best art doesn’t just impress – it connects. Perfection is not a requirement to make the things I do as powerful as they are. My power comes from my realness. 

This is a call to arms for anyone who is multi-passionate. As Saturn moves into Aries this coming weekend, it’s time to tap into your inner warrior and your true self. It’s time to give yourself permission to take yourself out of that box of what you “should” be. It’s time to give yourself permission to explore, evolve, and share the messy, radiant truth. It’s time to affirm to yourself as I’m about to: 

I am not here to be one thing. I’m here to be everything I am. And that is enough.