We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Xiomara Forbez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Xiomara below.

Xiomara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The project that started it all was Exquisite Situations, a performance series on and for zoom that I designed, directed, and produced in 2022. It was a pivotal moment in my career as an artist because it was the first time I was truly able to realize my artistic vision. I had an idea, I pitched the idea, and Christine Leapman from the Gluck office enthusiastically supported the idea. And off I went, doing exactly everything that I wanted to do. I collaborated with performing artista Priscilla Marrero, playwright and actor, Esther Banegas Gatica, and filmmaker Kali Veach and together we made two live performances, a film, and a method workshop. The work was equal parts whimsy, weird, and intriguing and we had such a good turn out even with zoom fatigue. Being seen by others as a director and artist was important. What was equally as vital was seeing myself as a director and artist and putting my work and my vision out there unabashedly. We need both in life – to believe in ourselves unflinchingly and to have others see you and believe in you too. Exquisite SItuations received praise and good feedback with audience members enjoying the performances. Yet, I knew I had tapped into something intrinsic and necessary in me when a good friend said “I don’t quite get it and I’m not sure I like it but I’m still going to go to all four performances.” If that comment (which wasn’t even said or meant harshly) had come about something I had written in grad school, it would have sent me down a confidence and doubt spiral. But in the context of my art, I was completely nonplussed. Some people will like my work and some people won’t and that’s totally ok. This calm was revelatory and deeply deeply needed and welcome. This calm remains with me still. As I send in proposals to fund my ideas, I am not disheartened or disillusioned by rejections. Instead, I apply again, I apply elsewhere, or I apply anew. My ideas will find their homes. I will make it so.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Growing up, the only creative thing I wanted to do was dance – I wanted to be a ballerina but I didn’t start early enough and when I did start I didn’t think to ask or say “hey I want this to be my career – what do I have to do?” I was always a good overachieving academic student so I focused on school. Our high school organic chemistry teacher was amazing and I knew then I wanted to be a chemist. Eschewing taking a creative elective, I doubled up on science classes instead. Fast forward to finishing college with a double degree in linguistics and French and a minor in English as well as a burgeoning career in Research Administration (managing funding and grants for science professors). While I was comfortable financially and had great coworkers, I wanted something different for my life. I wanted to dance! My life coach, Marcie Mitler (rest in peace), suggested I apply to grad school. Fast forward to me finishing my PhD in Critical Dance Studies – with a burgeoning career in nothing. Did I want to be (I’m sorry try to be – not a lot of jobs…) a professor in academia? Did I want to go back to Research Administration? Did I want to go back to school and get another degree? Unclear. What I did know was that my favorite memories of grad school were conceiving, directing, and producing a dance and theater performance series on zoom. I wanted to do more of that – making my ideas come to life. I had always loved ideas – I distinctly remember every time I told my mom “I have an idea” she would shudder and groan – what kind of outlandish idea had I cooked up and what role would she have to play in it? Luckily, grad school taught me how to funnel ideas into writing but true to Angelica Skyler, Alexander Hamilton, and me – I’m never satisfied. I want to pursue my ideas in whatever form they come to me as – as performances, installations, collaborations, writing, visual art, anything. Naming myself a multidisciplinary artist not only makes sense, it’s necessary and inevitable – it’s fate.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding part about being a multidisciplinary artist is the ability to explore deeply and widely. My projects require me to travel and to do research about any number of things. Just a few months ago I booked a trip to Chicago because, riffing off of Good Will Hunting, I had to see a man about an elevator. For another project, I started teaching myself how to code, and for yet another project I was looking for Deaf playwrights, actors, and dancers to collaborate with (I’m still looking so if you know of anyone, please reach out!). For the first time in my life, it truly feels like the sky is limitless. Perhaps it is naive optimism speaking since I am an emerging artist, but I like to think that it’s just finally finding the right fit between my personality, my interests, and the structures and institutions that exist in the world. Even so, I know I’ll still have to carve out and design a space for myself and my work. I know it won’t be easy, especially as a woman of color who is not independently wealthy and whose ideas are often expensive and require many people. I know that traffic is almost impossible but here’s the thing, to rewrite Brandy (and end with my third popular culture reference), almost does count. Here, it almost means it’s possible.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Artists need more institutional support at national and local levels. We need access to affordable and good healthcare. We need access to funding to make sure we can pay ourselves, our collaborators, and get the materials and spaces we need. We need access to financial stability without needing to hustle 24/7. We need a country that believes in and cares for all its people, including artists. I heard of a system in a different country that supports artists by requiring them to work as artists for 6 months of the year and then if they are unable to find other artist jobs, the country funds them for the rest of the 6 months so that they can continue creating. What could we do as artists with that kind of support? I know naysayers would exclaim that many people would abuse systems like that and sure, some would but the majority wouldn’t. More importantly, I would hope that the gains of such support for artists and for countries whose cultural productions and many facets of their identity come from artists, would outweigh the potential losses. Artists have been finding creative ways to survive and still make work and we need cities, states, countries, businesses, and other institutions to meet in the middle (at least) – finding ways to help artists so that artists can give back to their communities.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.xiomaraforbez.com

Image Credits
The photo with the woman in the pink jumpsuit – Photo Credit: Matt Argondizza