Overcoming Obstacles: Embracing Self-Belief with Aria Elan

Swell AI Transcript: fe40f2185e41250c784efbfcb9daa371.mp3

Deneen L. Garrett: 00:06 01:42 Welcome to An Intimate Conversation with Women of Color. This podcast provides women of color, LGBTQ+, and allies a platform to use their voices. Join us as we share our personal journeys. I am your host, Deneen L. Garrett. Hello and welcome to another week of an intimate conversation with women of color. Today's guest is an attorney, entertainment attorney, and a singer-songwriter. She and I were connected on Instagram and have stayed connected ever since. I so appreciate her flexibility in pivoting to today's recording. So I hope you enjoy my conversation with Aria Elan just as much as I did. And that you, in addition to hearing about how to use your voice as a woman of color, really as anyone, we also talked about the extreme importance of voting. So we did spend some time there. We talked about some history. So it's important that you hear that as well. So I just want to thank you again for continuing to come back to hear what my guests and I have to say and sit back and listen to today's episode. Ari, Ilan, hello and welcome to an intimate conversation with women of color. How are you?
Aria Elan: 01:42 01:48 Hello, Deneen. I am doing wonderful. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.

Deneen L. Garrett: 01:49 02:29 No, I thank you so much for your flexibility. We were supposed to talk in January. I had a last minute cancellation, and you said yes. So I always believe things happen for a reason, and it's timing. And also to let you know, this is episode number 20. Oh, OK. I am so excited about that. And the reason why I point that out is because when I launched on Good Friday this year, I confirmed or plan to only do one per month. And I've done one every week since. So thank you again for saying yes to keep me on that track.

Aria Elan: 02:29 02:30 Oh, it's my pleasure.

Deneen L. Garrett: 02:31 02:46 So I want to introduce you to our listeners. So Aria Ilan is an entertainment attorney and songwriter, singer at Sisi. And we connected on Instagram, the power of social media.

Aria Elan: 02:46 02:53 I love living in the 21st century because we're able to connect with people all over Mother Earth.

Deneen L. Garrett: 02:53 04:21 Oh, we absolutely are. And also, Aria was the first person to provide content for the website. So on my website, someone had reached out to me on Instagram, asked about submitting content. And I said, hey, this is a podcast. And I thought about it. I said, you know what? Here's one of those catch up to the vision moments. So I said yes to her. I created a page on my website. Aria was actually the first person to submit her content. However, I was waiting for the other person to send me hers because she was the reason, the catalyst for me creating that space. So for our listeners, check out Aria's content on the website in addition to listening to the podcast. So let's go ahead and get into it. So there's so much we can talk about right I looked at some of your pictures to prepare for the podcast for the marketing piece of it. And I saw so many different sides of you. I saw that you're vegan. I've already announced that you're an entertainment attorney and a songwriter and a singer. What you've also shared with me is that you've done work with youth and some of those youth have been LGBTQ+. So Aria, why is it important for women of color, youth, LGBTQ plus youth of color to have a platform to use their voices?

Aria Elan: 04:22 05:34 Well, there's so many young people, LGBTQ and women of color who have been told to shut up, to be seen and not heard. So I think that it's very important for them to be able to express their ideas, their goals, their dreams, their complaints about injustice, just like any other member of society. In other words, you do not have to be somebody in the traditional position of power to have access to these freedoms, freedom of speech. So that's why I am an advocate for young people, people who are the voiceless, who are left out. They are so many times seen as victims, but you don't have to be a victim just because somebody has portrayed you or stereotyped you as such. So definitely, that's why I believe it's important.

Deneen L. Garrett: 05:36 06:25 And it's interesting that you say that as far as being seen and not heard. I was on a call today and afterwards I provided feedback and the feedback was that I felt seen. Because even as a woman, a professional, 20 years with my company, sometimes I don't even feel seen. and then sometimes my voice isn't heard. So this definitely resonates with me about what you're saying and the work that you're doing in this particular space. So I thank you for that. So other than singing, which you do so well. Thank you. You're welcome. How are you using your voice for this demographic, for the youth, for the LGBTQ plus and the women of color?

Aria Elan: 06:26 09:52 Well, I've always used my position as an entertainment attorney and a songwriter singer to mentor and motivate young people, you know, to believe in themselves. work hard, focus and overcome obstacles to achieve their goals and dreams. And that work has led me to working with the California Youth Authority, which is just a name for jail for youth. And a lot of times, you know, the I found that disproportionately they were people of color. you know, they were definitely young people there. Some of them had gotten put out, you know, by their parents because they came out. You know, some of them just had like, just hard stories, you know, about their, environment, you know, the home life that they lived in with parents themselves being addicts or, you know, like a violent situation. And, you know, I just always wanted to mentor and encourage them, you know, to just break the cycle, you know, to go ahead and you know, to not feel that where they were born or what that situation is, that it's unchangeable because everything in life changes. You know, you just have to really, really, really, you know, work hard, like swimming against the current sometimes, you know, when you start in the race way behind the finish line, you know, everybody's halfway around the track. and then the whistle blows for you. But it doesn't mean that you just fall down and give up. Another volunteering information that was just very, the information that I gave out, in other words, when I volunteered for an organization when I lived in New York called Volunteer Attorneys for the Arts, led me to meet so many creative, talented, you know, young people. It was just so wonderful, such a great part of my life. And I was being mentored by older attorneys, you know, in terms of entertainment law. And then they would connect me and pair me with clients who were in the business, whether it was theater or music, you know, or film that needed help. So yeah, that's how I have used my voice and the present where I am actually, it seems like all the time, you know, I'm just creating more feel-good, inspirational songs because we really need it in these challenging times. And as I said at the top of the show, you know, it really allows me through my original music to connect with people all over the world.

Deneen L. Garrett: 09:54 11:09 Yeah, and so what I heard as far as what you were doing in New York, you know, you were being mentored and therefore you paid it forward by mentoring others. And that's such a beautiful thing to be able to do that. And then what you talked about as far as with the youth, as far as the disproportionate number of youth of color being in the system, that's all systemic. And that's what we're talking about and that's what we're fighting about today. That's how a lot of us are using our voices and say, hey, we recognize this and we need you to recognize it and we need you to do something about it. You know, the recent events are not recent to us. They're daily occurrences for us. And I tell people often, I'm like, I can go on social media at any point and see something that has been done against us. It may not be a murder, but it's something. And as a matter of fact, today it was a man, a black man in an affluent neighborhood. He was just outside of his house and the police felt that was suspicious. and stopped to ask him what he was doing there. Wow. Because him just walking around his property appeared to be suspicious.

Aria Elan: 11:11 15:00 That is just so disheartening when you think of this happening on a daily basis to Black people in this country. And it may, as you said, be news to some people who experience white privilege. But it is not news to us, this virus of systemic racism. you know, and all the different ways it can manifest itself. So I am in total agreement with you. And then the issue becomes, how do we respond to this? That's where we are right now. With everything that's happening, the protests in the streets, the actual legislation that's happening from a local level all the way up. to Congress. It's everything happening in this election year. Now, I was just talking to another creative person yesterday because we're going to be releasing a video for my daughter, Eden, is a composer. She's 18 years old, a college freshman. And, you know, she plays, she's a concert pianist. And after watching that traumatizing video of the police murdering George Floyd, she sat down at her piano and improvised and played a song that she called I Can't Breathe. and I actually was honored to be a featured artist on there and we're having dancers from all over, interpretive dancers, who are going to be submitting videos of themselves and then our editor We'll put it all together into one amazing video. But what we have to think of during these times is the combination. It's almost like a boxer with a combination. This is what's happening to us. The combination punch is coming from all directions. And this is how we have to be defensive, you know, in terms of surviving and thriving in this environment and bringing about change, bringing about positive change. There would never have been a Voting Rights Act in 1965 if Dr. King, you know, the late Congressman John Lewis, all these unsung heroes did not hit the street and get dog sicked on them, get jailed, get killed, all of that, we still would not have the right to vote. As President Obama eloquently stated during the last night during the Democratic Convention, during his speech, that the powers that be are still trying to take away our right to vote in 2020. When people tell me that it's meaningless, it doesn't matter, then I always ask them, why do you think that they work so hard, pass so many laws, you know, KKK, the sheriffs, the politicians, all the way up, fought so hard to keep you from voting if it didn't matter, if it wasn't any power in that.

Deneen L. Garrett: 15:00 15:05 Absolutely. And the things that's happening today, the whole fiasco with the postal system.

Aria Elan: 15:05 16:14 Yes, they're doing it, which they thankfully, because you cannot mess with the seasoned senior citizens. And that was the last straw because they're getting their medicines through the mail, you know? And he knows he's already alienated and talking about he, I'm talking about the current president. He's already alienated a lot of senior citizens who voted for him in 2016. So that's why they had to backtrack and say that they were going to put a halt to all of the obstruction. They didn't use that word, but that's my word, you know, of the defunding of the post office. But then we have to still keep pushing for them to put the high-tech machines back, I think it was like over 600, back into the post offices, you know, put the actual post off the boxes that you see on the street, you know, that you can just put your mail in. They were cutting those off.

Deneen L. Garrett: 16:14 16:36 Yeah, they were locking them up. Yes. And when they were leaving behind, they were locked. Exactly. I thought that was absolutely ridiculous because it's not just it's not just that people are using that mechanism to vote, but like you said, folks medicine, people's businesses, just sending a letter, you know, just small stuff.

Aria Elan: 16:36 17:32 This is big stuff. Some people are still getting checks through the mail. It's certain, especially during the midst of a pandemic, senior citizens who ordinarily might have gone to the pharmacy to pick up their medicines. They have moved everything to online and then having the post office delivered. So I believe that was one of the main reasons why they had to back away from that. because he saw that it was pretty transparent. The reasoning that he was doing, it is on a much wider scale than what happened in the gubernorial race in Georgia, with Kemp actually being the person to oversee the voting and disenfranchising all of these black people.

Deneen L. Garrett: 17:33 17:34 Yeah, absolutely.

Aria Elan: 17:34 19:18 A huge, huge chunk of it. So they're all kind of dirty tactics that are being used to keep people away. And there's Facebook is one of the main social media platforms where you have this propaganda machine going around amongst black people, youth and everything, telling them don't vote. So just beware that that's being put out there to take away a right that our ancestors fought and struggled and died, gave their lives for, for us to have. Because when you have the 13th Amendment, the 14th Amendment that were passed after the Civil War, these rights were only on paper. they, we had to fight for the whole, still fighting, but I'm saying for at least a hundred years after they were passed, you know, in the 1860s to gain the right to vote, you know, to gain any kind of semblance of equal protection of the law. So definitely just in my opinion, just out of respect for the struggle and the sacrifice of our ancestors, you know, I make sure that I vote and I encourage everybody, you know, to vote because it doesn't do you any good to whine and complain afterwards, you know, when you sat it out.

Deneen L. Garrett: 19:20 20:09 Yeah, so for sure, voting is critical at this time. It's definitely critical. And I do see a lot of people who are, you know, making moves to make sure that we do vote, that people, you know, just having those conversations and encouraging people and others who are like, oh, it doesn't mean anything. Yeah, like you said, they wouldn't go to all of the different tactics or use the different tactics to keep us from voting if it wasn't important. Vote, absolutely. So you talked about how you're using your voice, right? And I mean, you're literally using your voice, you're singing, you're singing songs and you're wanting to lift spirits and encourage people through your song. What would you like to tell those who perceive themselves to be voiceless?

Aria Elan: 20:09 21:49 Well, I actually have a song that is uh acapella and it is called voice of the voiceless and it is on my youtube channel aria elan and aria elan.com is my website with a link that takes you right there and it the song the whole message of the song is that you are important you are somebody You're shining like sunbursts. You just have to believe in yourself. And this is an old saying. This lyric is not in the song, but I thought of an old saying that I heard growing up in Charleston County, South Carolina. Just because somebody calls you a dog does not mean you have to get down on all fours and start barking. And that message is just because somebody calls you a thug, a super predator, or any of those derogatory negative words does not mean that you have to accept that and be that. You can reject that, you know, and you can actually have a voice. You can definitely express yourself and you can do the things that you want to do, you just have to focus and you have to just say that I am going to overcome these obstacles.

Deneen L. Garrett: 21:49 22:12 That's wonderful. I like that. Cause you're right. We can do it. You know, it's just a matter of, you know, mind, um, making a decision that, that you want a different life, that you want to reach this goal and to go ahead and make it happen for yourself. So as we wrap up, What else would you like to tell the youth, LGBTQ youth, women of color?

Aria Elan: 22:12 26:39 I want to tell them to please listen to my songs, Smile. That was my first single, which is like a totally soulful, inspirational song. And my new song, I Feel You, which is a soulful, love song, you know, because love is the only thing that can heal wounded spirits. We must end the cycle of violence, abuse, abandonment, ignorance, poverty by choosing to be there for our kids, even if one or both of our parents were not there for us. we can't just keep holding beef. And this is one of my things to myself is just like no excuses. You know, I have always been into sports and, you know, athletic, and that just gives you a certain frame of mind. You know, I mean, I just want to be able to tell them that they can get over that finish line, but do not expect it to be easy. They are going to have to work twice as hard to achieve half as much as people who benefit from white privilege. I'm not going to sugarcoat that. That's just a fact of life. And to that end, number two, after love, is get your education. That's something that nobody can take away from you. You have to sacrifice. Other people may be out there partying or they may be working, you know, and you are a struggling, broke student, you know, but you have to visualize of what your life is going to look like over the whole course of your life. You don't know how many years God has for you, you know, to be here, you know, in this time and space, you know, on Earth. And it is just a fact that those who have education, their earning capacity is greater than those who don't. And thirdly, you have to really, really focus. I can't understate that or overstate it enough because there's so many things and people to distract you from your goal for all kinds of different reasons. But if you develop that ability to write down what it is that you want and just three things, even three things of what will help you to achieve those. you know, and to work on them, you will definitely see the difference. And the other F word, in addition to focus, is fun. remember to always take time. You know, everybody who knows me knows that I work hard and I believe in also playing hard. For me, that is being out in nature. You know, I love the ocean. I love organic gardening and, you know, whatever it is for you, but to find that the healthy, I love that whole healthy thing. That's why I have a plant-based vegan lifestyle because it just energizes me and I feel like even while I am running, you know, it clears my head and I'm able to think. And I want to leave them with a saying that Willie Nelson told me. I hung out with him when I was living on Maui, Hawaii at a mutual friend's birthday party. And he is definitely a character. I love his songwriting, and he's a philosopher. And he said, to live each day like it's your last, and one day you'll be right.

Deneen L. Garrett: 26:42 27:31 Well, all righty then. So fun. You know what? The fun is key, right? Because we do, we forget that. Well, we're so busy living that we forget to take that time to have fun and to actually enjoy it. So I, I thank you for adding that additional F to your, your three points. So Aria, Elan, I thank you so much for your time. I thank you so much for your wisdom, for sharing your gifts. Thank you again for pivoting, being flexible and showing up for me for episode number 20. Your contact information will be in the description of the episode. So I wanna again, thank you for coming on an intimate conversation with women of color and enjoy the rest of your day.

Aria Elan: 27:32 27:51 Thank you so much, Sister Janine. And I really appreciate you giving me this opportunity. And you enjoy the rest of your day also. Goodbye. Bye.

Deneen L. Garrett: 27:51 29:02 Wow. What a conversation. I am so appreciative of speaking with Aria Ilan today. we got into it. You know, we got deep into how black people have been treated, how we continue to be treated, and how it's important for us to vote as well as to use our voices. So I want to thank my listeners for continue to come back every week to hear what my listeners and what my guests and I have to say. You make it so well worth it. Again, doing this every week. Thank you so much for being committed listeners to an intimate conversation with women of color. Please continue to listen. Subscribe if you haven't and make sure you share with others because the goal and the vision is to elevate the voices of women of color throughout the world. And in order to do that, we have to reach them. So thank you again. I am your host, Deneen L. Garrett.