Life & Work with Briana Rivera

Today we’d like to introduce you to Briana Rivera of Roots of the City. At Voyage, we love seeing independent, non-corporate media thrive and we are so excited to see how Briana is using the power of storytelling at Roots of the City.

Hi Briana, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Hello, my name is Briana “Bri” Rivera and I am 23 years old. I was born & raised in LA but I grew up a little all over LA as housing instability played a large factor. A few of these cities included Watts, South Central, & Mid-city. Growing up in these different parts of LA has allowed me to see the shift in each of these communities. I am the founder of Roots of the City, an upcoming initiative that captures stories in my new video series/podcast about non-traditional professionals, skilled workers, entrepreneurs, scholars, activists, musicians, artists, and athletes. The groups play an integral part in creating the fabric of community unique to Los Angeles. Pursuing higher education was never in my plans but with the right support system, I was pushed to beat the statistics given my background.

In college, I studied film where I realized how important storytelling was especially with coming from backgrounds such as mine, where addiction, violence, and mental illness was ever-present but never spoken about. When I tell everyone what I am doing with Roots of the City the first question asked is how are you going to make money? I feel all my creatives understand, when you have a vision it’s difficult to have people catch wind of what you want your influence to be. My goal has always been to be the example I needed when I was younger, although I have gone through my life’s trials and tribulations, I’ve always risen and learned through myself and others, there’s a lot of power in that. A lot of those I consider in my circle never really had the example from someone older, we count on each other to teach ourselves about things like creating generational wealth by owning property and investing our money and time into the right things.

With ROTC, my personal goal is to push our community to invest back into the community that shaped us, whether it be with investing time, funds and allowing space to reclaim our neighborhoods that have slowly been stripped from us with the harsh realities of gentrification and policing which has divided us. The desire is to create a self-sustaining community of learning, with opportunities to pass along skills that can generate success.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This hasn’t been easy, with being a first generation college grad you’re expected to automatically land a 6 figure salaried job and be able to make enough to make sure your family is straight. Coming back home and having to start from scratch all over again makes you feel like you didn’t accomplish the milestone you just did. I feel most people that move out of the city can really feel me on this one. You feel like you outgrow your old self and are trying not to fall back into that old version of yourself.

It was difficult to find my purpose all over again, post-grad depression is real. You go from being used to having a certain lifestyle and come back to the harsh realities of what you wanted to “escape”.

I went from living in a nice house in San Francisco to having to move back to public housing with my grandmother, without a car and prolly about $50 in my pocket, if that. I’ve never been the type to ask anyone for help, especially because I’ve been financially dependent on myself for the most part.

I knew my vision was bigger, I stepped up and was working 2 to 3 jobs in order to change my reality. I set a timeline for myself and three months later, I purchased a car and six months later I had an apartment under my name about four blocks from where I grew up. Just like the late Nipsey Hussle says, “How we grind make the weather change for us”. Although I still wear multiple hats in order to keep my steady income, I decided to launch Roots of the City, my way of giving back to the community that shaped me. It has been difficult to try to navigate a full-time job, a side hustle and the launch of my cause. I gotta say LA breeds a different type of hunger, a different type of hustle.

It’s chess not checkers and you gonna take a few L’s before you make your way up top.

Always a few lows before you reach the highs, but that’s the beauty of creating your legacy.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
After deciding to move back to LA from the Bay area, I decided to put my energy into giving back to my community. After countless interviews at big record companies, I realized that lifestyle wasn’t me. I currently work in homeless services helping youth in South central and the South Bay secure stable housing, employment, and resources. I mostly felt connected to do this work after years of seeing my mother suffer homelessness and her lack of access to permanent supportive housing with mental illness & addiction being a huge barrier.

Most people see me as the person trying to support anyone I come across, and if I can’t directly help, I’d do whatever to find the resources to do so. I always try my best to be of support and of resource to every soul I come across to make my mark on this world, something I learned through the adults in my life whether it be learning from good or not so good experiences. It has been a work in progress to be able to tell myself I’m proud of myself because I feel like this should be expected of me. But if I had to be specific about something I am proud of it would have to be staying true to myself and always going for anything I want, Roots of the City is an example of that. I am on my way to creating something that is designed to be a safe place for growth, learning and healing.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Wow, there’s so many memories I have growing up. From those days cruising in my dad’s lowrider on a Sunday afternoon to my mom packing up her car and taking us all the kids to Kenneth Haun then for 25 cent ice cream cones at Mc’donalds. Although I grew up being an only child, my cousins really made my childhood. My favorite childhood memory would have to be those summer days when all the kids in the neighborhood would be at my aunt’s house playing basketball or jumping on the trampoline. My aunt’s house was the place to be, I remember all of us drinking water out of the water hose because once we went inside, we couldn’t come back outside, LOL. We used to have talent shows and sell tickets to our family members to see us sing or dance to put all of our change together to get ourselves snacks for our little potlucks when we used to get together and play with the kids in the neighborhood.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootsofthecity
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rootsofthecity
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5psqWcYBB3zuiQHTI_i-1A

Image Credits:
Photography by: frE$co Art Mural by Estevan Oriol & Downtowndaniel