It’s a new year and with that we have room to invite new opportunities into our lives. It’s also a great time to kick bad habits and negative people to the curb. It is a perfect time of year to drop the haters. We all have them, people who pretend to be allies, but use manipulative tactics to undercut our efforts. Who try to insult us into taking on their “vision” for our careers/image/creativity. The artistic voice and creative soul is a very fragile and sensitive being that must be nurtured, and we no longer have to stand by and accept other people’s judgments of our choices. The New Year is a great time to get mad enough and to have enough self-respect to say “f&*k off!” to those career devils that only bring us down and hurt our self-esteem.
I am so excited to be in development with Ms. In the Biz founder Helenna Santos-Levy on a short film project, entitled Strangers, about two women who discover a timeless connection through a chance encounter on a busy urban street. I am so excited to work with her, and to tell the story of a love battled and scared in the sands of eons. Yet, I was surprised at how many people have raised their eyebrows and their insults at me for taking on another film project that tells a love story between two women. One producer even had the gall to send me a message that said, “Do you not think you are developing a resume of stuff that will kill a TV series for you?” And you know what, no I do not think my choices are ruining an artistic future, and I am telling these stories because we are in a time when it’s important that entertainers take a stand for the sake of equality and civil rights. I am proud to tell stories of women who love other women, because my role as an artist is to expose societal taboo, to change the course of what is acceptable, even if that is not always comfortable for my haters.
Photograph by Barry Morgan 2013
So I am taking a stand. In 2014 I am no longer going to associate with people who use insults as a way to get what they want. I am going to kindly disregard the people who are worried about my “image” and “career path” because it is my life and my art and my artistic journey, and quite frankly I don’t give a flying F&*k of what you think. Trust me, I’m not doing this for you. I’m not doing this for fame or fortune. I’m an artist because I want to contribute my voice to the world. I want to participate in a global discourse and influence in the small and large ways that I can. This is the way I have chosen to make the world a better place, to entertain, to create catharsis, to foster understanding and compassion. Big things are coming, and I will only work with people who are positive and creative and know when to keep their opinions to themselves.
I challenge you, too, to drop the haters. To kick those out of your mind-space who don’t support your journey, to kindly disregard the best intended comments that bring doubt and hurt your creative soul. Sing loudly and dance with freedom. Those people who are giving you dirty looks, well they only need be pitied (or if you’ve been keeping up with your spiritual practice, held in a compassionate space with great boundaries). They self-judge, and are really just projecting onto you. They wish they had the courage to tell their stories. And if you tell them to “go to hell” maybe someday they will be free enough to share their inner artist with the world as well.