We recently connected with Mo Nikole and have shared our conversation below.

Mo, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I grew up in a two parent middle class household in a family where emoting and transparency were not normalized. Often times, the motion of a thing, the aesthetic of what it looked like far outweighed its trueness. Me, a hyper creative, imaginative kid by nature came out of the womb dreaming about what felt impossible to attain in an environment where “realistic” superseded “exploration”. I yearned for arts and creativity, but my family and environment demanded polished, 6 figure income paths, and less noise in my character.

I lost myself before I discovered who I could become.
“I committed to an identity I did not choose nor explore.”

I spent most of my life exceptional in every classroom, president of every academic club, leader in every sports organization. A renaissance woman, groomed in my primitive years, knowing how to do all the things I didn’t desire but was required to do for the family and community optics. My family was proud of me. And me well…..I was struggling with chronic depression quietly.

By the time I made it to college, grad school, I met a woman (Bria Lauren) who was starting a creative project called the htxpplproject. The gist of the collective’s mission was to tell the raw, transparent stories of everyday people and why they matter. This collaboration exposed me to the way we can wear our truths, own our truths, live in our truths. And that even when our truths don’t align with the expectations of others, we still deserve safe and free space for those truths to live and breathe.

The collective wrote an article in the Forward Times Newspaper titled “LET THE BLACK GAY WOMEN SPEAK ON BEHALF OF OURSELVES,” followed by our names and a large cover photo with our faces.

This headline was my coming out story.
After 25 years, I had finally arrived.

My family and friends knew me as a mostly feminine presenting “straight” woman with pretty privilege. At the time of this article I transformed into an openly gay queer masculine woman with locs and “soft stud” aesthetic. There was nothing worth hiding behind any longer- even if my friend circle shrunk and the disappointment from my family created distance and hardly any contact for years to come.

This was and IS the risk.
Me, being me, wearing myself authentically without apology.
The risk that disrupted all my personas and helped me to become radically honest about who and what I am while being brave enough to say what I need to say and being free enough to wear my truths.

Visibility is.

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

I am known under the performative name “WOMON” and I am a sound practitioner focused on creating safe spaces to heal, connect, and discover through curated sound experiences, archival study and written text. I wield the many landscapes of sound and writing to encourage honest activations, boundless connectivity, and limitless exploration. My work centers the intimacy between sound, emotion, vulnerability, and the stories that follow.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My driving intention is to create safe spaces where people feel encouraged to tell their stories without shame or fear. In my work, I re-imagine and re-articulate vulnerability as a superpower rather than an extension of weakness. As a minority, we are often expected to wear armor at all times and withstand the resistance society places upon us. Despite the “all,”, we are required to still stand strong. But standing strong to me is unpacking the feelings and learning how to address the less than pleasing parts of our lives with mercy and open-ness. Standing strong is unlearning how to deceive ourselves and lie about what we feel because we are too afraid to not be and say we are not okay when we are not okay.

Accepting a life where we feel disempowered is how we give our personal power away. Regardless of who we are, where we come from and how we relate to others, our stories and our motivations matter, still. And my mission is to create space for people to reclaim their stories.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I’ve had to unlearn is to stop aiming for what pleases and what is easy- and to truly honor what is real and difficult. True intimacy with myself has come by way of total honesty with me first.

Contact Info:

• Website: bywomon.com
• Instagram: @by.womon
• Other: Soundcloud link for curated sound mixes: https://soundcloud.com/bywomon

Image Credits
Eric Michael Ward