Today we’d like to introduce you to Wi-Moto Nyoka.
Hi Wi-Moto, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
This story begins with a teenage Afromexicana feeling stuck in her hometown of Portland, OR. She was an explorer and had a never-ending appetite for adventure. At seventeen she left home. By then she had already performed with Latin Jazz legends Eddie Palmieri and Thera Memory. She had been a principal dancer in the touring company of her performing arts high school which landed her a fellowship at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
But this was not the path I ended up taking.
Having decided to go to college a year early I trained in music theater at The University of the Arts. By the time I graduated I had already begun working in regional theater, specifically in new works. Being a working actor is no small feat and for a time my restlessness was sated. However, when I began to compose my own music with indie Hip Hop producers in Philly restlessness found me again. The move to New York was motivated by theater, I would tell people, but that wasn’t the truth. New York was where I continued to make music, collaborate with international producers, and eventually leave for Germany.
In Europe I composed and performed with a Funk/Soul/Hip Hop collective before stepping out on my own with a superhero alter ego of my creation, Dusky Diana. Hero How To was the concept album that led to the interdisciplinary project The Last Days of Kartika, which explored rebellion, liberation, and war through a web series, a graphic musical, and a motion comic installation. We journey with Dusky Diana, an underfunded vigilante, as she fights to rescue her kid sister from the sinister clutches of Phercy Corporation, and witness her transformation from lone avenger to an enemy of the state and a key figure in a citywide justice movement. The project garnered the support of international and U.S. based organizations such as: Tanzhaus NRW, the Puffin Foundation, and A.R.T New York.
Stepping forward as an interdisciplinary artist, I wove theater, film, music and activism into the bilingual story world of my dreams. Using community building strategies rooted in my cultures I collaborated with like minded small businesses and independent artists to build my immersive worlds filled with magic and justice. My return to the U.S. was marked by a return to school, and graduate study at Brooklyn College in Performance and Interactive Media set me on a new path as a writer and producer. In this new era I wrote plays, prose, and screenplays and produced immersive theater, mixed media films, and audio works all in the genre of horror, scifi, and magic realism. Awards and honors include: Ignyte Award Winner for Best Fiction Podcast, Stowe Story Labs selected project, Independent Public Media Foundation grant recipient, Nightmares Film Festival Best Short Screenplay Award Winner, 13 Horror Screenplay Award Winner, Oregon Short Film Festival Best Horror Teleplay Award Winner and more. My published works can be found in Midnight & Indigo’s Speculative Fiction collection, Dread Central, NightTide Magazine, Terror Unleashed: Volume 2, The Last Girls Club magazine, and Latin American Shared Stories from Flame Tree Publishing.
Embracing my visions and dreams for creating intercultural hybrid projects I am now the founder of Dusky Projects, named after my rebellious alter ego. With my production company I continue to build story worlds and design programming that includes showcases, storytelling events, educational workshops, and performances for adult, young adult, and intergenerational audiences. I believe in art and autonomy and invite audiences to hold hands in the dark with me and face the monsters together.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s never a smooth road, I think, no matter what field you’re in. The biggest struggle for me has been transformation. It took me a while to understand that artists must grow, change, and expand because adaptability is essential to survival. Everybody wants a sure thing and that doesn’t leave room for innovation. In the arts, who gets to be a ‘visionary’ or ‘innovator’ is political and industry structures support that politic. Many of my struggles, unfortunately, came down to how to navigate misogynoir and how to continue to believe in myself. I feel as though I’ve found my voice now and that involved unlearning some of the things that my arts training had conditioned me to do in order to embrace new possibilities.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am an interdisciplinary artist working in horror, sci-fi, and magic realism. I make immersive theater, audio works, and film. I would say what sets me apart is that I’m an AfroMexicana that builds bilingual story worlds to explore liberation. I believe that genre work is more than jump scares, gore and guts. It can shape how we define monsters and influence who we fear and why. In sharing what scares us it also gives us a chance to be in community and face the monsters together. The work I do is a series of opportunities to come together and hold each other’s hands in the dark, created through the simple art of telling you a scary story.
What matters most to you? Why?
The stories I tell speak to my lived experience as an AfroLatina in the Americas. Through Speculative Fiction I explore new worlds as a means of facing what scares us and deepening our belief in our capacity for good. Right now, I want to grow in a direction of sustainability, compassion, and healing for myself and my communities. I want to work with other independent artists and organizations that are building ecosystems to move us towards equitable futures. I also want to have fun and be silly while I’m doing all of this because, to paraphrase Adrienne Marie Brown, liberation should be irresistible.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wi-motonyoka.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duskyprojects
