We recently connected with Ashley Vargas and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Becoming a full-time artist was definitely not something that happened overnight or right away. It’s taken me roughly 7 years to get to the point where my creative talents pay my bills.

I say “creative talents”, because one of the main lessons you learn with becoming a full-time artist is that you must have many tools in your proverbial tool chest. Full-time artists don’t do just one thing. For me, I have a history of event planning so being able to coordinate poetry events has really helped to subsidize my income, in addition to doing poetry gigs like submitting to blogs, commissioned work or performance bookings. I am also very good with grant writing and consultations, which help tremendously. With the knowledge that I have acquired over the years I am now in a position to be a teaching artist. Being able to teach workshops is a game changer. Financially speaking.

I don’t know if I could’ve sped up the process in anyway. I truly believe in trusting the timing of your life. Seven years ago, I made the decision that I wanted to do the literary arts full-time, Every day since I made that decision I have been making small and sometimes not so small daily decisions that help to propel me to my ultimate goal.

First and foremost you need to study people who are already accomplished in your desired field. You have to be able to see what success looks like to be able to create that for yourself. Networking is still king, don’t let anybody tell you different. It’s important to get out there and talk to people.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Ashley Vargas and I am an arts, coordinator and poet. I have a deep passion for poetry. There’s something magical about sharing one’s authentic experience in a poetic way.

I also am the founding Director of a Las Vegas-based poetry organization called Beyond the Neon Poetry or BTN poetry for short. Our organization focuses on poetry exclusive events and community outreach. We first started as a digital poetry slam platform on Instagram during Covid in March 20 20. Over the last three years, we have grown to be a staple in the Las Vegas poetry scene, as well as garnering national attention with our poetry festivals, corporate partnerships and poetry slams.

Being based in Las Vegas, I am most proud of our organizations dedication to all age/family friendly events. Thanks to our wonderful corporate partnerships 90% of our events are free of charge.

Beyond the Neon places accessibility to literary arts as our primary mission.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When BTN started its journey in 2020 it was ran by a team of creatives. There were about five or six of us that shared the creative direction and responsibilities of the organization.

During our first year, we grew very fast and solidified a few corporate partnerships that changed the trajectory of the organization as a whole. What I thought would be a joyous time for BTN turned out to be a time of gut wrenching creative differences. With that, I found myself running the organization alone.

At this time, I was a single mother, working my butt off as a massage therapist to keep a roof over my head and my child fed. There were many times I felt like quitting the organization like so many had that first year. I also had a few people in my ear, trying to convince me to give up but there was some thing about the organization that wouldn’t let me. Something about the power of poetry that could not so easily be silenced.

By 2021 I was directing my first poetry festival for BTN with over 1000 attendees and multiple corporate partnerships. It was at this time that I retired from massage therapy, became an artist full-time and made BTN my primary focus.

I’m very grateful for the journey so far. Yes there were moments when things were really really hard, but there have also been so many moments that have been the most beautiful of my life.

In my poem, ‘Who are we?’ I explain,
“We tell our stories because we have to. We tell these stories because somebody has to.”

I encourage all creatives to be brave and strong enough to do what needs to be done. To share what needs to be shared because creatives are the only people who can change the world for the better.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Funding. So many people hold to this narrative that artists have to be broke, can’t make a living being an artist or even worse, that you can’t get notoriety as an artist until you’re dead.

Creatives need to be supported now. The community needs financial backing now. Corporate organizations and nonprofits support any number of initiatives locally, nationally and internationally.

Why can’t art be one of those initiatives?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/Msayevee
• Instagram: Instagram.com/msayevee AND instagram.com/BTNpoetry
• Other: https://linktr.ee/BTNpoetry

Image Credits
Photos courtesy of Beyond the Neon Poetry 2022