"I started off writing songs, just randomly through childhood, and then as time progressed I wanted to take my stuff onto an actual stage in front of
people. But I was kind of shy, so I performed my pieces as poems, and folks started to validate me as a poet. They were like, 'wow, that poetry was great' you know, and it made me feel like, 'wow, I can claim that now, I can be like, oh, this is mine, I am a poet, and these are my lyrics, and people do appreciate it.' So then I started getting more open on singing, and I
did a lot of acappella work for many years. Through networking in the Upper Room, which was a community center back in the days in San Francisco and in
Oakland, I met so many wonderful musicians and got to write some incredible music along the way, until today I mean a lot of those same people I'm still working with, and you know, it's all like the Bay Area family thing, you know what I mean?"
"I want people to be able to just reach as far as they can and be open to all their inspiration. I'm kind of one of those people, I write about my healing process, and music is very much a healing process for me. The
vibrations, the process of writing down the words that I'm experiencing, and the melodies that come out of that as well. So when I try to incorporate
that, I really want people to understand that they can heal themselves. That you know, I mean there's therapy, but there's also your own soul, and
only you truly know what can bring you peace and happiness and what is interfering with that."
"We [Bay Area Artists] were raised in this community, and this [La Peña] is our community center and it's all ages. It's kind of like we go hand in hand. They raised me, I raised them to a certain degree, and we just kind of came up together, and we're still strong, and we're influencing each other. So the crowds that come know, "oh, La Peña Cultural Center." It's
not just Bimbos, or 330 Rich. It's not flashy in that sense. It's like walking into somebody's home. And you're gonna feel comfortable, you're
gonna see beautiful art, you're gonna see beautiful artists coming up there and doing their thing. You're gonna see people that are working really hard to make the show go well and there's delicious food next door, and sangria, and, you know, people feel warm here."
