1
00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,040
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about these questions. I'm thinking about where do

2
00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,880
Speaker 1: I belong? Where am I from? What's my real history?

3
00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:13,039
Speaker 1: Beyond the languages I speak now, beyond Spanish, beyond English?

4
00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:17,320
Speaker 1: Who am I beyond my colonization? What do I want

5
00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:19,520
Speaker 1: to sing about? Who do I want to sing for?

6
00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:28,400
Speaker 2: From media, it's Latino usay, I'm Maria no Josa today

7
00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:33,080
Speaker 2: Stefa a New York based vocalist and composer. I'm creating

8
00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:51,280
Speaker 2: their own origin stories. Seeing Stefa perform live feels like

9
00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,960
Speaker 2: walking through a portal into somewhere that is both the

10
00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:03,200
Speaker 2: past and the future. Sometimes Stepha performs with a band.

11
00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:07,440
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just them and their looper. That's a device

12
00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,840
Speaker 2: that allows Stepfa to layer their own vocals on top

13
00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:23,360
Speaker 2: of each other. Comes Stephi creates lush harmonies and soundscapes

14
00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:28,759
Speaker 2: that invite listeners to meditate on the music's message, whether

15
00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:40,279
Speaker 2: they are singing about their ancestors by cures or about

16
00:01:40,400 --> 00:02:01,200
Speaker 2: falling in love under capitalism. Born in Queens, New York

17
00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:05,760
Speaker 2: and raised by Colombian immigrant parents, Stepha began singing as

18
00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:10,560
Speaker 2: early as elementary school. After studying classical music for twenty years,

19
00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:15,320
Speaker 2: Stephi eventually found themselves longing to branch out beyond their

20
00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:19,120
Speaker 2: classical training, learning to use their voice in different ways,

21
00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:27,840
Speaker 2: and even trying out new mediums like performance and video.

22
00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:28,359
Speaker 3: Cepalino.

23
00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:37,520
Speaker 2: In twenty eighteen, Stepa released their debut EP, Ceppalina. It

24
00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:41,480
Speaker 2: was inspired by finding out that their grandmother was Embea,

25
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:46,960
Speaker 2: an indigenous people from Colombia and Banama. Ceppalina tells the

26
00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,800
Speaker 2: story of an indigenous alien who washes up on a

27
00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:54,960
Speaker 2: shore in the present, stripped of her memories and of

28
00:02:55,000 --> 00:03:05,640
Speaker 2: her language. In their upcoming project, Born with an Extra Rib,

29
00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:09,880
Speaker 2: Stepha challenges the story of Adam and Eve. The project,

30
00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:14,200
Speaker 2: which also includes a multimedia performance film and a theater piece,

31
00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:19,720
Speaker 2: follows Stepha's journey in creating their own origin story as

32
00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:24,040
Speaker 2: a non binary indigenous person trying to find home in

33
00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:25,080
Speaker 2: their own body.

34
00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:33,280
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm different today from the last time.

35
00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:41,000
Speaker 2: On this How I Made It segment, Stepa talks about

36
00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:45,880
Speaker 2: exploring their own identity through their creative practice and finding

37
00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:48,640
Speaker 2: ritual in their art experience.

38
00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:58,240
Speaker 1: My name is Stepha Marina Larcon. I'm from Queens, New York.

39
00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:06,000
Speaker 1: I'm a vocalist. I'm a performance artist, composer. When I

40
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:10,760
Speaker 1: think of Queen's I think of the Seven Train, I

41
00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:13,360
Speaker 1: think of my family. The things that I was listening

42
00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:17,800
Speaker 1: to at home with my family, so a lot of Cumbia, alagnato,

43
00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:18,920
Speaker 1: a lot.

44
00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:23,120
Speaker 3: Of hip hop. I was listening to what my sister

45
00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:23,719
Speaker 3: was listening to.

46
00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:28,800
Speaker 1: She was obsessed with Tupac and Biggie a little Kim.

47
00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:36,359
Speaker 3: I love storytellers.

48
00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:36,640
Speaker 1: I grew up listening to in the house. You know,

49
00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:43,240
Speaker 1: lots of rosil Go Buangadier. I think as I got

50
00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:47,240
Speaker 1: into thinking about Okay, now I'm gonna tell my own

51
00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:50,520
Speaker 1: stories through my music, through my art, these storytellers that

52
00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:54,120
Speaker 1: I was listening to, who were also incredible vocalists, I

53
00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:59,240
Speaker 1: think influenced that desire. My first memories of music, honestly

54
00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:11,479
Speaker 1: are me being an elementary school in chorus. I was

55
00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:14,520
Speaker 1: just like, I want to be singing with other people.

56
00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:18,919
Speaker 1: I want to learn songs, I want to be on stage,

57
00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:25,400
Speaker 1: I want to be special. So I ended up joining

58
00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:29,120
Speaker 1: this choir and we would go sing with like the

59
00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:31,520
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Chorus, and we would sing with like all the

60
00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,320
Speaker 1: choirs in the city. And of course, you know, I

61
00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:37,760
Speaker 1: had to be like the loudest I would be.

62
00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:39,280
Speaker 3: I might have been a teacher's pet.

63
00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:39,719
Speaker 4: Oh.

64
00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:50,760
Speaker 1: But I was at music camp when I was like

65
00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:54,120
Speaker 1: eleven years old, and this was like a music summer

66
00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:55,320
Speaker 1: camp at Manheim.

67
00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:55,960
Speaker 3: School of Music.

68
00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:00,000
Speaker 1: They would bust, you know, all these city kids into Harlem.

69
00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:04,160
Speaker 1: It was like the works band music camp, and.

70
00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:05,039
Speaker 3: I was obsessed.

71
00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:08,640
Speaker 1: When I was there, you know, like ten eleven years old,

72
00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:14,520
Speaker 1: I heard about LaGuardia. LaGuardia High School of Art and

73
00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:20,800
Speaker 1: Performing Arts is a specialized high school in New York City,

74
00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:24,600
Speaker 1: which means you have to audition and all of like

75
00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:27,600
Speaker 1: the camp counselors were like, oh, yeah, I'm going to

76
00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:30,560
Speaker 1: Laguardian next year. I was like, this is the only

77
00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,359
Speaker 1: place I want to go to, and I was really

78
00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:36,560
Speaker 1: scared of not getting in. But I sang, you know,

79
00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:39,560
Speaker 1: I sang my little heart out, and I got it.

80
00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:45,479
Speaker 1: When I got to LaGuardia, I was like, this is

81
00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:50,000
Speaker 1: exactly where I'm supposed to be. We had five periods

82
00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:52,359
Speaker 1: a day that were just music. We were singing a

83
00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:54,760
Speaker 1: lot of classical music. We were singing a lot of

84
00:06:54,960 --> 00:07:01,520
Speaker 1: you know, Mozart handle. My senior year year, I decided

85
00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:06,520
Speaker 1: to go more into theater performing as opposed to just singing,

86
00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:12,000
Speaker 1: and so I auditioned for the school musical, which was Ragtime.

87
00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:15,120
Speaker 1: I had this like big ballad, and I remember having

88
00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:22,360
Speaker 1: to work so hard on like hitting this note, and

89
00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:25,000
Speaker 1: I'll always remember like it was a B flat and

90
00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:28,000
Speaker 1: I had to belt it. And I remember once I

91
00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:30,160
Speaker 1: like learned how to sing that note, it was like

92
00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:32,000
Speaker 1: it was flying.

93
00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:34,920
Speaker 3: It was such It was such a big moment.

94
00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:44,920
Speaker 1: After LaGuardia, I got into a drama school in London,

95
00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:51,360
Speaker 1: little city kid Stefa moving away from home for the

96
00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:58,240
Speaker 1: first time ever. London was incredible. I saw a lot

97
00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:01,040
Speaker 1: of theater, I saw a lot of art. I was

98
00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:06,200
Speaker 1: very like, I'm not just an actor, you know, I'm

99
00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:07,160
Speaker 1: not just a singer.

100
00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:08,239
Speaker 3: Like I'm an artist.

101
00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:12,480
Speaker 1: Even though at drama school I was told, if you

102
00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:15,480
Speaker 1: are going to do this thing, it's the only thing

103
00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:16,360
Speaker 1: that you can do.

104
00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:19,200
Speaker 3: If you want to be the best at it. And

105
00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:21,000
Speaker 3: I was always very anti that.

106
00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:24,200
Speaker 1: I was always like, but I have so many interests

107
00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:26,000
Speaker 1: and I love so many things.

108
00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:28,560
Speaker 3: How could I just do one thing?

109
00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:33,079
Speaker 1: And so as much as I loved London, people were

110
00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:36,079
Speaker 1: incredibly confused by me. People didn't know where to place me.

111
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:45,080
Speaker 1: So it was also incredibly isolating. Between twenty ten in

112
00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:47,880
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, which is when I left drama school and

113
00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:52,480
Speaker 1: when I released Sepalina, my first DP. There was so

114
00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:57,440
Speaker 1: much undoing that I had to go through. One of

115
00:08:57,480 --> 00:08:59,840
Speaker 1: the things that I had to learn from my train

116
00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:05,040
Speaker 1: were the limitations that were placed on me, because when

117
00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:08,960
Speaker 1: I was at Luguardia, when I was in drama school,

118
00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:12,600
Speaker 1: I was told, this is your voice, this is what

119
00:09:12,640 --> 00:09:17,960
Speaker 1: you should sound like because you look like this, because

120
00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:23,439
Speaker 1: you're not tiny, blonde, white, you have to have this big,

121
00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:29,280
Speaker 1: booming voice. But then when I really started to learn

122
00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:33,640
Speaker 1: my voice and what it could do, I realized I

123
00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:40,440
Speaker 1: could sing incredibly high. I could also yell if I

124
00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:57,280
Speaker 1: wanted to, you know, use these different parts of my voice.

125
00:09:57,559 --> 00:10:01,640
Speaker 1: There was so much undoing for me to even start

126
00:10:01,679 --> 00:10:04,800
Speaker 1: writing the first song that I wrote, which was Negra Maslinda,

127
00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:09,360
Speaker 1: that I wrote in like twenty fifteen. I was back

128
00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:12,280
Speaker 1: in Queens, living in New York. I started finding like

129
00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:16,720
Speaker 1: queer family, just so many people down to try anything

130
00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:19,240
Speaker 1: and just put themselves out there. So I'm like, well,

131
00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:23,640
Speaker 1: what if I just try to write something myself. This

132
00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:27,640
Speaker 1: was twenty fifteen, so a lot of protests are happening

133
00:10:27,640 --> 00:10:27,840
Speaker 1: in the.

134
00:10:27,920 --> 00:10:32,280
Speaker 3: US, peaceful Protests continued last night in Ferguson, Missouri, over

135
00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:35,960
Speaker 3: the fatal police shooting of unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown.

136
00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:43,600
Speaker 1: And I'm on Twitter, and I'm seeing these things, you know,

137
00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:46,520
Speaker 1: and I'm watching people share what's happening to them.

138
00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:47,760
Speaker 3: You know.

139
00:10:47,800 --> 00:10:50,120
Speaker 1: Everything starts to like crack open. I'm like, oh, okay,

140
00:10:50,520 --> 00:10:54,559
Speaker 1: this is where I live. Around this time, my mom

141
00:10:54,800 --> 00:11:00,280
Speaker 1: was finding out a lot about my grandmother's past. I

142
00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:06,160
Speaker 1: found out that my grandmother, a the was Embda. Embida

143
00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:11,440
Speaker 1: is an indigenous community from Colombia. And I remember putting

144
00:11:11,559 --> 00:11:15,800
Speaker 1: a photo of Mayouila in front of me and asking

145
00:11:16,280 --> 00:11:21,440
Speaker 1: her to communicate anything she wanted through me. That's how

146
00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:51,120
Speaker 1: Niga Muslina came out of me. Nag I was like, okay,

147
00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:53,360
Speaker 1: I'm a songwriter now, so I gotta start writing music.

148
00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:55,760
Speaker 3: When I started.

149
00:11:55,440 --> 00:12:00,760
Speaker 1: Writing music, I really missed singing in group because that's

150
00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:04,760
Speaker 1: how I learned to sing is with other singers.

151
00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:05,920
Speaker 3: And so I.

152
00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:10,040
Speaker 1: Felt like with a looper I could recreate the sensation

153
00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:18,120
Speaker 1: of having eighty voices on stage with you. We are

154
00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:21,959
Speaker 1: in my bedroom in bedsta in front of me, I

155
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:28,760
Speaker 1: have a RC five oh five loop station. I'll press record,

156
00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:33,040
Speaker 1: I'll start singing, and then I'll press record again. And

157
00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:36,360
Speaker 1: what that does is it allows the first thing that

158
00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:39,839
Speaker 1: I recorded to keep going. So then what I can

159
00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:44,360
Speaker 1: do is I can record my voice again in time

160
00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:48,600
Speaker 1: or in harmony with the first track that I just did.

161
00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:24,560
Speaker 1: My favorite song to perform from my first DP is Sepalina.

162
00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:30,359
Speaker 1: The story behind Sepalina is I looked up embedras songs

163
00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:36,320
Speaker 1: online and I found one of this man singing, and

164
00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:41,880
Speaker 1: I wrote the words down that I could phonetically write myself,

165
00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:53,160
Speaker 1: and I found this melody way way, way.

166
00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:01,080
Speaker 3: Becoming.

167
00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:08,800
Speaker 1: There's no translation page for these indigenous languages, there's no

168
00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:15,000
Speaker 1: Google Translate for embeddat. You know, I almost had to

169
00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:20,040
Speaker 1: put my own meaning on these words. It's frustrating. I

170
00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:22,120
Speaker 1: don't know what these words mean, but I want to

171
00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:30,640
Speaker 1: sing them. They're a part of my history. Why don't

172
00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:31,240
Speaker 1: I know this?

173
00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:31,920
Speaker 3: You know?

174
00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:40,720
Speaker 1: Why am I so separate from this part of my ancestry?

175
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:46,040
Speaker 3: To see.

176
00:14:50,080 --> 00:15:01,240
Speaker 1: To it was almost like I am resisting right now,

177
00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:05,920
Speaker 1: Like I'm resisting that colonization by singing this, by saying,

178
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:10,080
Speaker 1: you can take away our history, you can take away

179
00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:12,520
Speaker 1: our language, you can try to take away our traditions.

180
00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:17,560
Speaker 1: But we are the survivors and we are continuing to fight.

181
00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:29,680
Speaker 1: In January of twenty twenty, I was like, Okay, I'm

182
00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:32,880
Speaker 1: going to put out my next record. And I go

183
00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:35,760
Speaker 1: into the studio and I record all these songs and

184
00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:38,960
Speaker 1: they're like half ideas and there's like things that I'm trying,

185
00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:41,640
Speaker 1: and I invite all these really great instrumentalists to come

186
00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:45,960
Speaker 1: into the space with me, and then COVID hit and

187
00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,560
Speaker 1: I'm listening to this music and I'm like, this isn't it.

188
00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:52,800
Speaker 1: I went through this like dry spell of eight months

189
00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,920
Speaker 1: of not singing and feeling like I couldn't sing, and

190
00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:58,720
Speaker 1: then I wrote another song and I wrote how do

191
00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:01,680
Speaker 1: I cope? How do I? How do I?

192
00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:03,880
Speaker 3: How do I cool?

193
00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:07,000
Speaker 4: How do I how do I?

194
00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:09,200
Speaker 3: How do I come?

195
00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:14,440
Speaker 1: I started thinking about what I wanted this next record

196
00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:14,720
Speaker 1: to be.

197
00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:19,000
Speaker 2: You.

198
00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,360
Speaker 5: When I came home from college, my mom is like.

199
00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:25,320
Speaker 3: You what happened to you? Skinny? Give any see?

200
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:28,120
Speaker 5: I don't give up, and she's like, touches me and

201
00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:31,320
Speaker 5: she feels something and she's like why is you?

202
00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:33,440
Speaker 3: Go in the doctor and find out I was born

203
00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:34,320
Speaker 3: with an extra rib.

204
00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:36,880
Speaker 2: I know.

205
00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:42,240
Speaker 1: This song with Gosthias was the seed for this record,

206
00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:46,120
Speaker 1: which is called Born with an extra rib Gosthias, which

207
00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:52,640
Speaker 1: means ribs, felt like this redemption for me as a

208
00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:58,160
Speaker 1: non binary person, as a person getting closer to myself.

209
00:16:58,840 --> 00:16:59,360
Speaker 3: It made me.

210
00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:02,840
Speaker 5: Start thinking about my body and about these stories that

211
00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:08,200
Speaker 5: we're told are origin stories, especially someone like me where

212
00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:14,000
Speaker 5: I'm for generation. My family was displaced from their ancestral homes.

213
00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:16,200
Speaker 3: So many of our stories are erased.

214
00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:19,840
Speaker 5: But the power of creating your own stories is just

215
00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:22,600
Speaker 5: It's why we're here right now all together.

216
00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:29,160
Speaker 3: On Mistakes with Cristeas, I was like, I'm not what

217
00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:33,720
Speaker 3: you want me to be. And I was like, I

218
00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:35,120
Speaker 3: feel this.

219
00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:37,080
Speaker 1: Energy, Like I want to write like a punk song,

220
00:17:37,119 --> 00:17:39,440
Speaker 1: Like I want to write this like hard song where

221
00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:42,840
Speaker 1: I'm not just singing, but I'm like screaming and yelling

222
00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:50,040
Speaker 1: and like using my voice in different ways.

223
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:59,200
Speaker 5: Meda can be medad.

224
00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:03,639
Speaker 4: You know.

225
00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:06,480
Speaker 1: I got to channel that rage and I also got

226
00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:22,480
Speaker 1: to channel this like excitement that after me comes freedom.

227
00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:28,240
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't want it to just be

228
00:18:28,280 --> 00:18:31,560
Speaker 1: a record. I wanted to also be a theater piece.

229
00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:33,639
Speaker 1: I wanted to also be a film. I also wanted

230
00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:37,920
Speaker 1: to be an installation. I want to push the boundaries

231
00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:49,000
Speaker 1: of what a record can be. So I made a film.

232
00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:52,560
Speaker 1: It was a sixteen hour shoot. We went through a

233
00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:56,760
Speaker 1: ritual that day. It was a very intentional opening of

234
00:18:56,800 --> 00:19:00,560
Speaker 1: the space together. There was like twenty something people on set,

235
00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:05,320
Speaker 1: inviting all of these people to help me go on

236
00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:11,359
Speaker 1: this journey. Was incredibly emotional in the space, being back

237
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:14,560
Speaker 1: in the theater that for so long I adored, and

238
00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:18,399
Speaker 1: then for so long I felt so rejected and so

239
00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:21,720
Speaker 1: angry at and then to be back on my own

240
00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:28,840
Speaker 1: terms was such a healing moment, and it made me realize,

241
00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:47,000
Speaker 1: like theater itself is a ritual to performing is so

242
00:19:47,160 --> 00:19:51,280
Speaker 1: wild because I have to have so much control in

243
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:55,879
Speaker 1: a way. But then within those kind of boundaries that

244
00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:57,960
Speaker 1: I give myself, which is okay, this is the song,

245
00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:02,840
Speaker 1: I have to push myself. It's almost like you're balancing,

246
00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:05,560
Speaker 1: like you're almost gonna fall off, but like you're still

247
00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:09,240
Speaker 1: on the line, you know. And I feel like that

248
00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:11,480
Speaker 1: when I'm performing, and I think that's when I'm having

249
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,560
Speaker 1: the most fun, not when I'm like everything was perfect,

250
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:19,680
Speaker 1: every note was pristine. That's not the fun part of performing.

251
00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:22,879
Speaker 1: The fun part of performing is like we already know

252
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:26,280
Speaker 1: what we're doing. Now we get to have fun. Now,

253
00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:30,480
Speaker 1: we get to push ourselves beyond what we thought this

254
00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:36,160
Speaker 1: moment could be. Maybe I'm different today.

255
00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:43,760
Speaker 2: Steffa's upcoming multimedia record, Born with an Extra Rib, will

256
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:45,800
Speaker 2: be released in the summer of twenty twenty two.

257
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:47,080
Speaker 3: You can listen to.

258
00:20:47,119 --> 00:20:51,080
Speaker 2: Their latest single, Ghostillas and the rest of their music

259
00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,040
Speaker 2: on all streaming platforms, and you can follow them on

260
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:56,040
Speaker 2: social media at Stepha.

261
00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:59,399
Speaker 3: Libs, scagg you, scagg you.

262
00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:11,000
Speaker 1: Sometimes it throws me off, like the side.

263
00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:15,040
Speaker 2: Of This episode was produced by Julia Rocha. It was

264
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:19,240
Speaker 2: edited by Alejandra Salasad and mixed by Julia Caruso and

265
00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:23,760
Speaker 2: gabriel A Biez. The Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Cruzado,

266
00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:29,680
Speaker 2: Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Julia Ta Martinelli, Victoria Estrada, Patricia Sulbaran,

267
00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:34,320
Speaker 2: Gini Mondalbo, and Rinaldo Leanos Junior, with help from Raoul Berees.

268
00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,960
Speaker 2: Our editorial director is Julio Ricardo Barella. Our supervising senior

269
00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:43,280
Speaker 2: engineer is Stephanie Lebau, Our associate engineer is jj Carubin.

270
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:48,200
Speaker 2: Our digital editor is Luis Luna. Our fellows are Elisa Baena,

271
00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:52,640
Speaker 2: Monica Morales and Andrew Vigilis. Our theme music was composed

272
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:54,920
Speaker 2: by Zenia Rubinos. If you like the music you heard

273
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,800
Speaker 2: on this episode, stop by Latinousa dot org and check

274
00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:00,840
Speaker 2: out our weekly Spotify playlist. I'm your host and executive

275
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:03,720
Speaker 2: producer Maria Josa. Join us again on our next episode.

276
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:05,639
Speaker 2: In the meantime, I'll see you on all of our

277
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:10,639
Speaker 2: social media. I know it's bemos asta lapproxima Bye.

278
00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 4: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Heising

279
00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:22,920
Speaker 4: Simons Foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities more at hsfoundation

280
00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:26,960
Speaker 4: dot org, the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,

281
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:32,160
Speaker 4: and the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front

282
00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:34,200
Speaker 4: lines of social change worldwide.

283
00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:41,159
Speaker 1: Babe, you're going in Oh my God, not ps fe

284
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:42,720
Speaker 1: H two elementary school.

285
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:45,840
Speaker 3: We are out here, we living memories.