Hi Celeste, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I come from the cities of Norwalk and Pico Rivera. My family is quite small. It consisted of my mother, brother, and me. Growing up, my mother took the initiative to provide my brother and me with the best she could. She always told me to tackle any obstacle with strength. My family surrounding me always believed in me. From what I can remember, I was always writing and it became my passion.
When I was nine-years-old, I was recognized by my teacher from the third grade and he encouraged me to attend the Young Writer’s Camp at the University of Cal State Long Beach. Writing became a coping tool. In school, there were people who were not the nicest to me, and my mother struggled to keep a roof over our heads. Moving from place to place, I turned to writing because it made me feel that I had a voice. In school, I would say people described me as shy because I was afraid to speak my mind and just swayed with the crowd. When I was a senior in high school, I wrote, directed, and produced my first full-length play.
When applying to colleges, I chose to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of California Riverside. From there, my writing journey blossomed. I got involved in Playworks and The Latinx Play Project where I showcased ten-minute plays. At UCR, I met so many wonderful people that created a space for me to grow and create as a writer, performer, and speaker. In my junior year in college, I discovered my love for poetry. In the Creative Writing Major, you have to take at least one class in the three focuses: Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry. I have always put off poetry because I thought I never could write good poetry. I learned that I was wrong and that there is no such thing as “good” poetry. Poetry is personal and is strong when you allow yourself to be vulnerable. When I turned to poetry, I learned this was what I was missing and what I needed. I attended events from The Verbal Coliseum at UCR, an organization based on spoken word.
At these events, I would share my experiences of being a woman, person of color, and most importantly just being a human and dealing with struggles. I felt connected to a community. When the pandemic hit, many artists felt emotional grief knowing that we could not be in person. That is when I took to Instagram to host poetry live workshops and spoken words online. I figured I could use this platform to stay connected. I built a community by doing this. This helped me stay in tune with my craft. People from my Instagram Live sent me messages that the prompts I posted helped them through this pandemic, and that’s honestly all I wanted. This inspired me to create a website called Writer’s Collective where people can submit pieces they are working on, and I provide feedback to them. Launching my website has been exciting and I hope to get more submissions. With my poetry, I am working on the musicality and cinematic feel of it.
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?
I definitely learned many lessons throughout my journey and I’m still learning more to this day. One thing I struggled with the most was my self-esteem. I had a hard time accepting who I was and my capability to produce my craft. It became even harder when right before I began college, my number one supporter, my mother, passed away from Scleroderma. I had no idea how to deal with it. When I would crumble the most, I looked over our old text messages, and those inspired me to continue writing. I wrote about all the pain I dealt with. When you’re in a state of mixed emotions, it feels like a never-ending vortex. However, through it all, I had close people that stood by me. This taught me how important it is to ask for help and that you shouldn’t be afraid. It is human to experience these emotions, and my circle of people really showed me how essential it is to be vulnerable because your feelings are valid. I want to pay these acts of gratitude forward.
When COVID-19 hit, I was struggling with severe depression my circle of people really came through to take care of me and I am thankful because they kept pushing me to write and stood there to hear or read pieces I made through having video calls with me. I had lost my job because the school had closed down. I think many people can relate to me when I say remote learning is hard. My depression increased because of not having proper graduation and with everything happening, you can’t help but feel anxious. From here, I took advantage of the counseling services my school offered online to find the first starting point to healing. You have to really thank those who believe in you. I am thankful for them and to finally be working again after months.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a playwright, poet, and performer. I am known for my productions within Playworks at the University of California, Riverside. On social media, I am known more for my poetry and performing spoken word on my Instagram. I am most proud of the strength I developed within this journey. As an artist, it’s scary putting your work out there because you have no idea how others will feel about it. Before the pandemic hit, I attended an event with Teatro Quinto Sol (TQS), an organization with UCR where I sold my poetry and it was received well. People from my Instagram Live recognized me and it was a good feeling. I think what sets me apart from others is how I want to develop my poetry. As I mentioned, I am learning how to transform my poetry musically and cinematically because I want to produce music videos with it. Music is a huge part of my poetry, and I know I want to perform on stage. The stage is where I feel most at home and like myself. Playwriting is important to me, and I still plan to continue writing stories because I think it’s important to represent the Latinx community and playwriting is where I started. I would definitely love to showcase a play for Broadway as well as a series for the screen.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://celestealyssa97.wixsite.com/writerscollective
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/celestealyssagomez/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/celeste.gomez.12327608/
