We recently had the chance to connect with Amaranthia Sepia & Claire Jones and have shared our conversation below.
Amaranthia & Claire , so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
Amaranthia:
So I’ve been on SSI for about six years. I got on it when I was 19, and I just recently turned 26. I’ve been looking for disability-accessible part-time work for a long time. I found this disability podcast job randomly via Crip News. I did my interview pretty quickly and got it! This has been a goal of mine for so long: taking baby steps towards independence and being able to live off my passion for disability justice work, especially in the arts. Sista Creatives Rising has been a way for us to bring in gig work, and thanks to the experience from this project, I was able to apply for a job like this.
Claire:
When I learned that Amaranthia got her first part-time job, she yelled for me at six in the morning, “Mommy, I got the job!” I was still lying in bed and I shot up like an arrow, and ran straight across the room and circled the living room and the kitchen for more than, I think, 10 minutes. We were shocked at how I jumped up because that was unimaginable back when I went through neuro-spine surgery for a lymphoma tumor in 2022, and I was nearly paralyzed. It took me seven months to walk again, and each year I’ve improved. Amaranthia joined me, and we were just so joyful. We ran around in circles like that, just laughing, jumping up, feeling so happy, hugging each other, because it was the first time she got a part-time job! We ran upstairs to tell her father, but he was still asleep, so we ran back downstairs. It was just a good day. I looked at her and she had a massive smile on her face. I can’t remember feeling such pride for so long without stopping. It’s still that way today, and it’s almost five days later. I felt that pride when we created SCR, but it was just a different category, so there’s no comparison. Yes, SCR brought my life vision together. My daughter was by my side, but just seeing her achieve something like this, knowing how difficult it has been for her as a neurodivergent person who had to finish school virtually, who fought every single day to make a space for herself in the world through SCR’s virtual platform, just her getting this small part-time gig is a massive achievement.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
We’re Amaranthia Sepia & Claire Jones of Sista Creatives Rising, a Black, disabled, mother-daughter org founded by us! We’re not a non-profit or LLC, but we are fiscally sponsored by Black Womxn In NH Collective (BWINHC). We help marginalized women and marginalized genders gain accessibility and visibility in the arts to facilitate personal healing. SCR seeks to strengthen our community through virtual engagements, including our disability-accessible event, “Art & Mind.” Through documentaries, short films, 3D virtual galleries, speaking engagements, and free resources led by therapists and disability activists, “Art & Mind” highlights these artists while community fundraising at each event for our microgrant program, The Sistas Uprising Fund. Our first show occurred in 2021, leading to the creation of SCR in 2023.
We pride ourselves on working with primarily homebound and disabled artists who are BIPOC, disabled, and queer. While these artists pull from various art forms ranging from visual arts like painting, drawing & animation to performance art like music and drag, these practices come together under the art of traditional oral storytelling. These traditions, inherently practiced in ethnic and marginalized communities, keep us connected to our ancestors and nurture community connection through healing and fostering pride in our identities. We are creating a platform to keep wisdom and life lessons alive for the next generation by archiving these stories through film and virtual communal gatherings.
All “Art & Mind” events are free, but donations can be made to The Sistas Uprising Fund. We believe that virtual content has value and can provide audiences with innovative solutions for the often-overlooked disabled community. As a Black-disabled mother-daughter duo, our work is founded on intersectionality. We hold virtual accessible events, including accessibility tools such as ASL, open and closed captioning, self-identification and pronouns, image descriptions, and alt text. “Art & Mind” works to combat the lack of diversity, accessibility, and inclusion in the arts while compensating collaborators.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
Claire:
I’m a different kind of person after cancer. Before cancer, I was unmindful, not very confident, and self-indulgent, and that day when I was hospitalized and learned that I had a 50% chance of paralysis, I had to make decisions really quickly. All those broken/rejected parts of me that had been hiding for so long, I had to face them. This was the most significant push ever, and I decided to go to surgery for the first time in my life. I had to talk to my family to let them know there’s a chance I might not come back the same person. I was scared of getting a COVID infection, which I’ve avoided by not taking off my mask since the beginning of COVID, protecting my family. I had to trust the process of life to take care of me. I suddenly decided that’s it. I’m doing it. I release everything to the universe. I was scared as hell, but I knew that I couldn’t go forward like this anymore, and I had to trust that the universe was taking care of me, that my Buddhist practice, guides, ancestors, angels, and my Mom were all there with me. I asked the universe to at least let me come back so that I can be here for my daughter, because she still needed me. Five hours later, I came out, and she was the first call I made. I said, “I am back!” while still groggy. She could hardly understand me, but I was a different person.
From then till now, I spent several months of my life in a wheelchair, in a walker, learning how to walk again, learning to use my hands, learning how to stand and sit, re-learning things I took for granted, and looking at people who were walking and wishing that I could walk like that again. Every day within the first seven months, I made tremendous progress, so when I shot up out of my bed like an arrow when we got the job news, it was a proper release. I never thought I would be here like this, so fully alive and aware, living in “Clarity, Awareness, Presence, Acceptance & Gratititude,” a little system I developed to thrive and live by. I am walking, running, and jumping, still using a cane for long distances, but every day I see the new me. Nowadays, I only look back for reflection.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Amaranthia:
This year, we launched “Art & Mind 2025: COVID, Climate & Our Future,” our third “Art & Mind” event. We began working on it in August 2024, with the show happening in September of this year. We almost gave up because in November of last year, my Mom started preventative treatment for smoldering myeloma, which is a precursor to the blood cancer multiple myeloma. At the same time, my cat Meena was very sick. Meena had been my cat for five years, and we had the same birthday, October 19th. She got very ill from a paw condition called pillow paws. Both Meena and my Mom started immunosuppressants at the same time, and as my Mom improved, Meena declined, and ultimately, it was a really horrible experience ending in her passing away in March of this year. She died in the middle of us trying to develop this event. We always said that Meena was our third co-founder – our “Feel Good Ambassador,” because we launched Sista Creatives Rising in 2023, but we had our first “Art & Mind” in 2021, so she was there for all of it. She was there when my Mom had lymphoma and when I had several health issues happening, always comforting us while she was also chronically ill, so we wanted to give up when she passed. We dedicated this show to her.
We took a month off in April, and by then we had a team of about 15 people, including us. Within that month, we were fighting to secure grants and sponsors to pay us and the team, but by then, we had about 7 or 8 grant rejections and needed to raise over $10,000 to make the show happen. We felt everything was getting worse. Something told us to start writing organizations to make this happen. That’s how we got our fiscal sponsor, Black Womxn In New Hampshire Collective (BWINHC), plus some private sponsors and even a grant from the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation. Then our team came together and helped us with fundraisers for our own stipends and for the team as well.
By the time we launched the tickets in August, we had reached our $1500 goal for our Sistas Uprising Fund Microgrants only two weeks after launch. By the time we got to the show on September 25, we had hit nine microgrants, about 240+ supporters on our Givebutter page, and had about 95 attendees, which is the most we’ve ever had. We got over 15 testimonials, all excellent and positive. Just in November, we received our 10th microgrant. So it’s just been a whirlwind – it was the most successful event we’ve ever had. The ability to double our goal of five $300 microgrants to ten $300 microgrants is phenomenal. We’re so grateful that we ended on such a blessed note after such a tragic beginning to the year.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
Claire:
I believe in the law of karma – or cause and effect. I’m committed to this path no matter how long it takes. The law of cause and effect is central to my Buddhist practice, and it’s essential to me because it’s actually mindful living. You live consciously. You understand that if you put in something negative, you’re going to get negative back; if you put in something positive, you’re going to get positive back. So you live in constant awareness of the causes you create day to day. If you want to have positive outcomes on a day-to-day basis, you are conscious of the choices that you’re making in your life, and you are responsible for those choices.
This is an ongoing practice – once you commit to it, you commit to it. It is not an easy path, because it means you are conscious of your words, thoughts, and deeds. I always try to make decisions that are gonna have a good outcome. When I see something negative in my life, I know it comes from a cause I have created, because the causes you make in the past will surface at some point. As I get older, I find myself more committed than ever to this philosophy, because I hold myself accountable for my actions and live a responsible, humble life as a result of this path.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
Amaranthia:
That I never stopped fighting, even when things were complicated by having to fight racial trauma, ableism, misogynoir, and bullying. That I persevered, making sure I could create a legacy where artists like me can be nurtured, seen, heard, and paid. It’s been tough to build that in my 20s, and I hope that as I get older, I can keep building upon it with my Mom and with fellow artists from similar backgrounds and circumstances. I want to show people that anything is possible, even when you’re confined to your home. I think that’s very important to show disabled people in a time where a lot of us have been abandoned, especially since COVID, and have continued to lose our right to thrive.
Claire:
I hope people tell the story of my willingness to live authentically and my taking action to reflect and change to become a better person. I hope that is reflected in my life and that people see how hard I worked at becoming a better person when I’m no longer here.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sistacreativesrising.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sistacreativesrising
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sista-creatives-rising
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@artmindseries9207?si=RqsC163bG98p7xzd
- Other: Amaranthia’s Portfolio:
https://amaranthiasepiaartworks.art/Claire’s Portfolio:
https://clarityisjustsohip.art/
Image Credits
1: Art & Mind Event Poster: Art by Amaranthia Sepia and Chillusions
2: “Art & Mind Zoom” Screenshot by Veronica Lee
3: Meena-Serenity Memorial Graphic by Amaranthia Sepia
4: Documentary Artists Graphic by Nabila Nugroho/Crezi Creative & Amaranthia Sepia
5: Covid-Conscious Event Speakers Graphic by Nabila Nugroho/Crezi Creative & Amaranthia Sepia
6: Mask Fashion Honorable Mentions “Access = Love: Mask Up!” Collage by Amaranthia Sepia. Middle artwork by @Nanners_Art. Featuring:
@Drrckqvdo @PoeticOldSoul @AnnalisasLibrary @Mmmirandom @BasicMomDad @SyntheticKrome @Nerd_Gathering @M0rb1d__ @PonyTheft @McMomo91 @EmeraldBagelHead @Breathing_Paradox
@honeycomb_Jewelry @nickelpin @KingLotusBoy @Shellroch
7: “Thank You For A Successful Event” Graphic by Amaranthia Sepia & Nabila Nugroho/Crezi Creative
8: Aftershow Team Screenshot by Amaranthia Sepia. From left to right –
Top Row: Chi White / Chillusions, Amaranthia & Claire, Medicine Song Woman / Brenda Macintyre
Middle Row: Frankie Fingerling, Veronica Lee, Brittany Shropshire
Final Row: Keith Jones, Sarena Brown, Mondo Millions
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
