Meet RAVINA | Spoken Word Poet, Published Author, & Mental Health Therapist

We had the good fortune of connecting with RAVINA and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi RAVINA, can you share the most important lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career?
Honestly, what I’ve learned the most from being a poet & author is that authenticity and vulnerability are VITAL. If you don’t believe your message, and you push out words that are inauthentic to your mission, vision, values and core, people will catch on & it won’t have as great of an impact as much as the words that pour out from the soul. Poetry is energy. It has been an outlet to embrace myself and the world around me fully. It has taught me that we can always create something rather than self destruct. In order to do that, we owe it to ourselves to hone in on the emotion, give it a voice, and to release it so that we’re not stuck with the things we really want to say festering inside of our guts. The whole experience of being a poet, from writing, to creating, to publishing, to performing, is all highly spiritual. This truth, that as poets, we are vessels for the messages that need to be said heard and understood, only fuels me to continue to push content and words out that hit on a soul level. All of my art comes from my truth, and it allows me to understand that we would be nothing without the lessons we learn from our pain, our joys, the rage, love, heartbreak, adventures, and the things we put our energy into, as well as the things that feed us in our core. For me, my career in poetry has taught me that vulnerability and being open with our truths, has a ripple effect, and in turn can allow us all to heal in a collective way.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art is rooted in the ideology that softness is strength and our openness with our experiences is what unites us and brings us together to heal collectively. I was born and raised in the US Virgin Islands, where art was present, but poetry spaces lacked physical form. I am also the daughter of South Asian immigrants who came to the US to pursue a life beyond what they could imagine. My art is a mirror of my journey of learning the world as a “first” . A first generation woman of color, the first in my immediate family to pursue higher education twice and the first to openly practice my creativity on a regular basis. My art is a vessel to explore the emotions we are so quick to hide from. My hope is that my art has been a safe space for others to find refuge in. I am super metaphorical in my writing so I use the images and textures of the elements (Earth, water, wind, fire, etc), because I believe the world around us, has all of the lessons we need in order to survive and thrive. I believe my career in mental health has also hugely defined my way of seeing the world in my poetry. You’ll find the themes of healing, being, accepting, loving, resiliency, and so many other micro journeys within the world of human experience. As a South Asian woman with Caribbean flavors, I want to spread the message that we exist in paradoxes, layers, textures, and all of these multidimensions. We are constantly learning, evolving, healing and growing, and my art mirrors those experiences.

Getting to where I am today was not easy, Quite frankly, I grew up in a place that sold us a dream of spreading our wings, and flying, but without the exact roadmap to doing so. Higher ed always was the dream for many of us since a very young age. However a creative route was always seen as “different” and “tough”.Meanwhile, my art is the one thing that I know I can turn to to help navigate this world. I overcame the challenges of this journey by finding community, and especially chosen family that have held me down through every mountain I have climbed.

I’ve learned that timelines and pressure from the outside world are powerful in the wrong ways. We’re told as women of color from immigrant families that we have to graduate, get a degree, if not multiple degrees, find someone, marry and commit to this linear life. Throughout the past few years I’ve had to learn to unlearn. My path is unique and different, and I know this because once I finished an educational route, I found that poetry ended up being even more fulfilling. That I didn’t have to be obedient to this world and their expectations. I could pursue the masters AND publish the book, which was quite frankly a more fulfilling and spiritual accomplishment because it aligned with my soul and I published my inner world for the rest of the physical world to read. I want the younger versions of me to know that life isn’t meant to be lived inside of a box or on a path that is defined for you. You’re allowed to go beyond the norm, beyond cultural and familial expectations, you’re allowed to be soft and strong, and fierce, and broken all at once. There is not one way. You’re allowed to be weird, and quirky and your voice matters. Your spirit and your soul need to shine in order to grow, and for me, art has been my outlet to find myself and align with some of the most beautiful experiences to date. It was mostly a process of giving myself permission to speak up, which took years of unlearning what I was taught about “how to show up in this world.” and learning to defeat imposter syndrome & embrace my words. My mentor Hiram Sims once said to me “Write that piece like nobody is watching, then let them hear it and watch it anyway”.

When I dove into poetry and especially being on stages, I realized how powerful it was to be in front of a mic and spit your truth no matter how delicate, vulnerable, taboo, or risque the topic was. Growing up in the communities I did (people of color, immigrant, South Asian and Caribbean communities), we didn’t speak on most of the issues we needed to including mental health, loss, and embracing our power as women. The mic became my church because it really allows me to feel the vibration in a room of people who may resonate with your work. It is where I grew, found my voice, and learned to stand by my truths and to honor my voice no matter the preconceptions the world may have of you. I mean, don’t we all just strive to be heard, seen and loved for all that we are? Poetry did that for me. My book did that for me. I am just the messenger.

I’ve also learned to go where I am celebrated. The people that love you will really love you for who you are and what you bring. They won’t feel sneaky, or in a spirit of malice and if they do, you must get out of there so that you can find the communities that really allow you to grow, evolve, and do the damn thing without judgment. They are the people that built my foundation as a poet, especially when I moved to LA in 2018.

My brand and purpose as an artist is emotion-focused, deep and highly personal and vulnerable. For those reasons, I just want people to know that their words have power. Their being in this world matters. Most of the time, you don’t know who is reading your words, watching from afar, supporting quietly, or listening to your words, ready to commit to loving themselves more. You don’t always know who is speaking your name in rooms you aren’t even in. These ideas have shaped my faith in my journey as an artist, and that it isn’t about 10000 people hearing your work. It’s about the people who have resonated with your heart, and have felt supported, seen and valued just by the words you bring to the table. This in itself is so magical to me.

The most important things I have learned is to invest in yourself, your time, your energy and the quality of your art. Don’t settle for anything less than putting something out there that truly mirrors YOU.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Man, I would first take them to Simply Wholesome on Slauson or the food and juice joints in Leimert Park. in LA. It’s the closest I’ve had to food from the islands where I grew up. I’d also take them to the Pioneer strip in Artesia to get authentic Indian food. I was raised on food and community, so after that I would hit up an open mic in Long Beach whether it be the Definitive Soapbox. Never Speak Long Beach, or go to the Da Poetry Lounge in LA. I like discovering the hole in the wall spots, so I would also take them to this Boba spot right near my house in Long Beach. Dessert at a cafe or a glass of wine is my ideal night cap. I also love views, so I would take them to San Pedro for the ocean views and hikes!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would be nothing without the communities that have given myself and my art a home. AIM4theHeart is an organization that found me when it needed to. AIM’s mission is to use arts as a way to increase emotional literacy so that we can use our self awareness to create, and not destruct. Leila Steinberg & Marisol Ibanez are two of my greatest mentors. Leila’s work carrying on Pac’s mission has allowed me to embrace the interconnectedness of it all. All art is connected and all beings are too. Marisol was one of the first people that really motivated me to continue my writing and to own exactly who I am. AIM has led me to some of the most creative, loving family of artists of all kinds. Magic happens in this space. I also would like to shoutout Never Speak Long Beach for choosing me to be part of their crew of performance poets, writers, and talented individuals who spread the magic of the word throughout Long Beach. They were truly my first artistic home on the West Coast. The Community Literature Initiative community as well as World Stage Press and the Sims Library of Poetry, are a connected group of folks who have simply let me be myself: the greatest gift of all. Through them, I was able to publish my first collection of poetry titled Yellow. Now that I have had the opportunity to teach for their poetry publishing program, I am truly humbled to help raise a village of books, waiting to enter the world.

Website: www.ravinacreative.com

Instagram: @ravina.340

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravinadwadhwani/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rwadhwani20/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiB-581t7wN9m1S3T5BCsSQ

Image Credits
@zboyspov @nextlevelshutter