We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Victor Vauban Júnior a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Victor, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

As far as I can remember, I always wanted to be an artist, but the environment did not allowed me to. I was born in a family of 18 brothers and sisters. In a city, where there were not many opportunities for the agonizing population. The country was plagued with illiteracy, violence and poverty and diseases were rampant.
My parents, a cook and bricklayer raised their kids with love and structure in a three-bedroom house built by my father.
Despite my parent’s efforts in providing us with an education, the system was against those efforts as the school quality was way below a minimum quality level.
Growing up in our culture, people of color were subjected to only two options: become a domestic worker or construction worker. From a very early age, I was determined to becoming neither. But the big problem was, I didn’t know how or what to pursue. By the age of 15, I decided to move to the big city, where I realized my 7th grade education was worthy nothing. But at this point, I could attend a better school, get a better job and send money back home. Once I got that, I decided to pursue bigger dreams and pursue a career in the arts field. After an audition, I went to a better school, got.a better job as an acrobat in a circus. In a week, I was making more money than my parents combined in a month. I was happy I was able to support myself and be able to help my family as an artist. The artist was born. That was the begging of my artistic journey that later on morphed into other forms of art as I begin to explore different art’s field.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Victor Vauban Júnior (Dramatist, Actor, Poet, Circus Performer)

Victor Vauban Júnior is a former circus performer, who discovered a new passion: writing for the theatre. As a dramatist, Mr. Vauban has had his works featured at the Writer’s Guild, in The Guild magazine, and readings of his plays have also been presented at the Classical Theater of Harlem’s workshop.
Mr. Vauban has a growing presence at NYC theater festivals. He started in 2012 at “Writers in Performance” at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, under the tutelage of Mario Giacalone, Program Director of the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center. In May of 2018, his play “Martin’s T.R.U.T.H.” was featured at the Strawberry Play Festival Competition in Manhattan, where the audience votes propelled the play towards the finals, where it was judged by a professional panel. The play received four nominations: Best Actor, Best Play, Best Director, and Best Play Diary, winning the award for Best Actor. The following season, his play, “LEAVES” received four nominations at the same festival and received awards for “Best Play” and “Best Actress”.
As a circus performer he has been an instructor at Cirque du Soleil’s social program, Cirque du Monde, and he has toured with well-known international circus companies such as: UniverSoul Circus, Gran Circus Norte-Americano, the Beto Carrero Show, Gran Bartholo Circus and Circus Amok, based in NYC.
August Wilson, Tennessee Williams, and Lorraine Hansberry are just some of the sources of inspiration for this playwright, who is always seeking ways to bring new energy and innovation to his work. He enjoys sharing his passion for the arts with his students, and others in the community.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

As far as I can remember, I always wanted to be an artist, but the environment I was living in did not allow me to. I was born in a family of 18 brothers and sisters. In a city, where there were not many opportunities for the agonizing population. The country was plagued with illiteracy, violence and poverty and diseases were rampant. My parents, a cook and bricklayer, raised their kids with love and structure in a three-bedroom house built by my father. Despite my parent’s efforts in providing us with an education, the system was against those efforts as the school quality was way below a minimum quality level. Growing up in our culture, people of color were subjected to only two options: become a domestic worker or construction worker. From a very early age, I was determined to become neither. But the big problem was, I didn’t know how or what to pursue. By the age of 15, I decided to move to the big city, where I realized my 7th grade education was worth nothing. But at this point, I could attend a better school, get a better job and send money back home. Once I got that, I decided to pursue bigger dreams and pursue a career in the arts field. After an audition, I went to a better school, got a better job as an acrobat in a circus. In a week, I was making more money than my parents combined in a month. I was happy I was able to support myself and be able to help my family as an artist. The artist was born. That was the beginning of my artistic journey that later on morphed into other forms of art as I began to explore different art’s fields.

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

There is a lack of understanding in the division of resources for the arts. It is crucial that much more attention and resources should be destined to underprivileged up and coming artists and for the arts in general; that’s a notorious fact. It is of paramount importance to develop the sensibility and ability of those in position of power in order to recognize the importance of the arts and when I say the arts, I am referring to all kinds of art, popular or erudite. Encouraging the importance of sponsoring the arts in the development of our society would be a nice first step.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vjunior2009.wixsite.com/brothersou1980
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brothersou1980/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/klehotas.tshyre.3
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-vauban-j%C3%BAnior-3b17201a5/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrotherSou
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=victor+vauban+junior

Image Credits
Headshot first image, fourth (family) and 8 image (three women) by David Bonfim