Episode 29: Ideology & Integrity: A Conversation with Comedian Gabe Pacheco
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...
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Episode 28: Accessing Transformation with Cynthia Santiago-Borbón
Surviving The City
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...
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Episode 27: Magic is Fucking Real with Chiquita Brujita
Surviving The City
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...
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Episode 26: Creative Projects & Non-Attachment
Surviving The City
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...
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Episode 25: Community with a Side of Plant Medicine with Lynsey Ayala
Surviving The City
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...
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Episode 24: The Hustle to Manifestation with Sakinah Iman
Surviving The City
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,...
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Episode 23: Art & Solidarity Economies with Christina Freeman
Surviving The City
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...
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Episode 22: Artivism in Action with Y?
Surviving The City
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...
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Episode 21: Raw Movement with Justina Kamiel Grayman
Surviving The City
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...
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Episode 20: That Sober Curious Life with Candace Holmes
Surviving The City
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...
info_outlineTo 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.