MEMBERSHIP

ADRA BOO OF ‘FLY MOON ROYALTY’

SEATTLE WA: After the CATHEDRALS show back in June of last year at St Marks Cathedral,  I caught up with Adra Boo of Fly Moon Royalty. [Interview by Stephon Dorsey. Published 2/14/17]

Stephon Dorsey: How do you feel your art contributes to the landscape of creative expression?

Adra Boo: I think for the way that I like to put art out, just in general for myself, I want to convey all of the things I’m feeling. I can’t even think about it any deeper than, “I have a story,” and I want someone to see it like I see it. I’m not like a books kind of girl, I’m more into moving pictures — the way I write, the way I do everything, I want to be able to see it. So it forms the way that I deliver, the way I share. I guess at the bottom of it all I want the art that I’m creating to make people feel something, in general. The feeling that you don’t want to experience, the feelings that you do — the things you’ve felt, things you haven’t felt. I want people to see things that they didn’t notice before. It’s like when you’re in a space, and there’s white noise — sometimes you miss things and I want people to feel like I’m interrupting that a little, you know — I want people to take  a journey with me really quick and whatever you do after that, cool! If you build something, that’s good! If the spirit moved you then cool, I did my piece. I just wanna shake it up and plant seeds or at least help other people plant seeds and see what the forest looks like.

SD: Yeah, I feel like that is so important, especially for younger artists who are coming up — it’s a very hard journey to get to a point of being comfortable with yourself and even more difficult to get to a place where you have a platform to express your true self. I think it’s important to have those people who are established to spread seeds and share resources when possible.

AB: Yes, and it’s always cliche when we hear, “Just be yourself,” but the whole way I learned to get to this point was through trying to be someone else who wasn’t me. I have a lot of theatre training and not even Cornish, or some college — later on I got a little schooling, but I got into theatre because I was in a situation that was not good. I was able to find peace inside of theatre because it’s the easiest way to step into somebody else’s shoes and not be myself. And somewhere in there I learned to be in a different world and then it began to affect what was happening around me. Then at some point I think I began to find myself in these things and now — years upon years later, I’ve finally had a chance to apply everything — I’m in my late thirties, and I feel like I’m finally tapped into who I am. I’ve tapped into ‘who the real me is.’ The only thing I can do is tap into me —  and then you have to use the energy that is around you to feed that. So you definitely have to be yourself, but you also have to use the tools around you to figure out who that is. And that’s when idea of practicing your craft comes into play because in that you begin to discover things — the wheels start turning and you can’t believe it. All of a sudden it’s like, okay, I understand my purpose.

SD: Thank you Adra.