Michelle Castillo is an interdisciplinary artist,
writer, educator, and community organizer living on Cahuilla Land,
also known as Coachella Valley, CA. Michelle founded the feminist
creative collective, Wyld Womxn and socially engaged food + art +
memory project, Lola's Kusina, and is one of the co-founders of
Bayanihan (buy-uh-nee-hahn) Desert. Through social practice,
alternative spaces, and meaningful exchanges, she uses the arts as
a tool to cultivate, bridge, and create more inclusive communities.
Michelle uses her leadership and voice to serve and uplift
marginalized communities.
In
2018 Michelle was honored as one of six female community leaders by
Palm Spring Life’s ‘Women Who Lead’, women who benefit the
community and serve as role models in business and
life.
In this
episode, Michelle talks about growing up close to extended in an
inter-generational household and how that inspired her Lola's
Kusina project. We also talk about the inspiration for Wyld Womxn,
which began when Michelle returned to the desert, having left to
grow and find an arts and culture community, as well as a community
where the leadership was more diverse. On returning to the desert
Michelle found many of her peers, who had also left for similar
reasons, seemed to also be finding their way back to the desert, to
give back to the community and make the spaces they'd experienced
that weren't yet available in Coachella Valley.
We
discuss the importance of honoring those who came before us in this
desert, the indigenous peoples whose land this was before the white
man came and colonized it and taking time to understand who those
people were and educating ourselves about their culture and
customs.
Michelle also provides some advice for folks who are
multi-passionate and shares suggestions on getting all those
projects in their heads and hearts up and running and out into the
world.