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

Hi Cinzi, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Every project on which I work carries great significance for me. First, art is inseparable from feelings, and without emotional attachment to my work, it wouldn’t ring true. Second, plays and novels don’t happen overnight; I eat, sleep, and breathe a project for months at a time, so it has to be something that deeply engages me on many levels, because I’m going to be spending a lot of time with it.

Dividing Line is a play I wrote regarding Indigenous land rights. Since my own heritage is European, I focused on how non-Indigenous characters would respond to what they perceived as a threat to their community. Land rights is a topic long overdue to be addressed, and I’m very encouraged to see that consciousness is currently being raised by various novels, films, and TV shows. I believe it’s only a matter of time before people begin to understand it more fully and set aside their fear regarding this subject.

Dividing Line is exceptionally meaningful to me because the root of it deals with injustice, which is something I have the ability—and the responsibility—to address as an artist. I created Dividing Line to explore the concepts that revolve around land rights for Indigenous people, and in the process, I learned that the taking of Indigenous land is not just something that happened in the distant past, but in fact, is still ongoing, with sacred sites under threat of being turned over to mining companies. Moreover, there are ridiculous misconceptions about native Americans—such as the false belief that they don’t have to pay federal income taxes. These are things I address in Dividing Line as well, because part of my work is to educate audiences.

Years ago, in an email exchange with Robert Reich, who served under three Presidential administrations, he wrote, “I believe artists are at the center of social change.” The arts have the power to change the way people think, so we can create a better world for everyone. My job is to help us imagine it together.

Cinzi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born in Manhattan and raised in Texas, which provided me with a lot of perspective on American ideology. My family were European immigrants who fled to the U.S. before the second World War, so I grew up in a mixed culture. That may explain why so much of my work revolves around uniquely American subjects, such as my biographical musical drama about Captain Joshua James, the so-called father of the U.S. Coast Guard, or my novels, The Taciturn Sky and Nemesis of the Great, that deal with the twilight of American aristocracy. I’m especially honored that several genealogical heritage societies whose members are descendants of this country’s founders have chosen to recognize me for my contribution to American culture.

As a musical dramatist, playwright, and author, my career is a combination of everything that came before: experience as an actress, singer, theatrical producer, instrumentalist, choral conductor, educator, and composer. I became a professional musician in my teens, working regularly while I was still in high school, and despite having no formal education in music, in 2010, I performed by invitation at the White House.

I’m very proud of the diversity amongst those who enjoy my work, and I feel a tremendous sense of loyalty towards my fans. I’m truly honored to be inspiring and educating people and opening their minds to what is possible.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There are several books that have shaped my thinking as an entrepreneur and I’m happy to share a few of them. One is The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, which offers a radically different approach to success and time management. It profoundly affected how I think about my work, and about the process of work itself. While I couldn’t apply some of Ferriss’ particular techniques in my own career, the book’s value lay in the fact that the basic concepts were very powerful and could easily be tailored to anyone’s circumstances.

Another book is The Complete Tightwad Gazette: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle by Amy Dacyczyn. It may seem an unusual choice as an entrepreneurial guide for an artist, but while it offers tips and tricks for economizing as well as financial management strategies, the book’s overarching philosophy of making the most out of everything (often by leveraging creative thinking) can be directly applied to one’s career. The mindset promoted by Dacyczyn—one in which nothing is wasted—really speaks to maximizing potential, and this concept can be equally useful in considering professional opportunities.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I’ve been asked many times by people who work in sectors other than the arts how it’s possible to tolerate the level of risk that creatives routinely have to assume. Every time we launch a new project, we face the possibility of failure, not to mention financial uncertainty.

It comes down to three things. First, you have to believe in yourself; in your ability to undertake the task at hand, and to do it successfully. Second, you have to believe in the project—with every fiber of your being—and in the truth or lesson it offers to the audience. Third, you have to be willing to throw yourself on the mercy of the universe, which is what risk is all about: being unafraid to move forward even when you can’t see the path ahead of you.

Being an artist isn’t something you choose, it’s something that chooses you, so it’s hard for us to imagine any other kind of life. Maybe that’s why to us the risks seem so easy to bear and, hopefully, so worth taking.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cinzilavin.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CinziLavinOfficialFacebook/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cinzilavin/
• Other: BOOKS BY CINZI LAVIN: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Cinzi-Lavin/author/B08WJH8ST5?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Image Credits

Anna Zuckerman-Vdovenko@AZV PHOTO/MEDIA