We were lucky to catch up with Tyanna Watts recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tyanna, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
Creativity is one of those things that many people think you either have or don’t have. I think there’s creativity in all of us. Some aren’t sure how to express it, they may not understand what that looks like for them, or they find themselves so consumed in the day-to-day minutiae of things that they forget they ever had creativity at all. I often find myself falling into that last crowd, which may be pretty shocking if you’ve ever met me, because I kind of ooze creativity. It’s a pillar of my personality and a core tenet of my spirituality. I love my creative self, I’ve built my business on it, I retreat to it when I feel overwhelmed, and try to surround myself with it every day. A life without creativity isn’t living for me — it’s death. Dramatic, I’m aware: I know it’s dramatic, but I’ve lived that hueless life and I existed in what I considered as close to hell as I could get, which totally changed my perspective on work culture, society, money, happiness, dreams and aspirations, and yes, creativity.
In 2018 I just started a new job as an overnight phone representative for a call center. It wasn’t glamorous work, and I wasn’t expecting it to be. I also wasn’t expecting how much I’d loathe my experience there. If you’ve ever worked in a call center you know the drill, sad grey cubicles, yellow-washed white walls, dingy carpet from the 80’s, and dusty computers with fuzzy idle screens. This is ultimately where my creativity would go to die, but I didn’t know that yet. In the beginning, I was relatively optimistic. I had worked overnight before and I had worked unglamorous jobs before, so this was nothing new. Previously, I worked overnight at a gas station, and even though it was pretty fancy, it was still a gas station. There, I was able to keep myself productive and busy relatively easily, either by harmonizing with the same 15 pop songs that played over the loudspeaker or by decorating drinking cups when I had time to spare. I just had to find my brain buzz in the call center. And when I started, I did just that! It was a paperless environment for security reasons so I couldn’t read or draw, but I could I could write little stories or poems in my notes app on my PC. I was allowed to bring in yarn, so I did finger crochet and decorated my headset and my coworker’s headset when we had downtime. I could make anything entertaining if you let me. Well, they stopped letting me.
My department was dissolved and I was moved to the day shift. Which didn’t bother me initially, until I got into the new routine. My work was always top-notch, but I was distracting others with my crazy headset, so I had to swap it out for a plain one. The yarn was too distracting, so I had to leave it at home. Even my little stories and poems were put to an end because that was time that could be dedicated to calls. In a little over a week, my shift at the office became very bleak. I got that it was work and a corporate job, and you have to be productive, and it was never my intention to distract anyone. I was only there for a paycheck. I could knit and write at home. I could be creative at home.
I sold that lie to myself for a long time. 4 more years to be exact. It felt like I never had enough time to myself. Work starts at 9 am, so I commute about 30 minutes every day. I need to be up at 7:30 to give myself time to get dressed and get to work. I work 8 hours a day (on the days I’m not doing overtime) and I get off at 5:30, and I still need to commute home, which after rush hour means I’d make it home around 7ish. I need to shower and feed myself, walk my dog, and maybe catch up with the family. By the time all that’s done it’s 10 pm, which means I really just need to wind down for bed so I get enough sleep for work tomorrow. From 7:30 am to 10 pm, Monday through Friday, my time is literally bought and accounted for. I’d squeeze in TV time in her and an occasional project there, but there was never really enough time for me.
I tried to create time on my weekends and my breaks at work, on my commute to work. I still never had enough time. Covid hit in 2020 and I brought my work home! Surely now, in my own home, surrounded by creativity, I’d have enough time, but worked more at home than I did in the office. I took on more responsibility, and I had more personal issues. I needed more hours. My mom lost her job so I needed even more hours. If I was at home I was on that computer 12 hours a day. I had no escape. As I rounded nearly 5 years at this job, and 2022 rolled around I realized I wasn’t doing anything I loved. I was cramming my passions into one day a week on Sundays for 9 hours. I was miserable. So I did the absolutely illogical thing and quit.
I felt so stupid and I started grilling myself for my mistake:
“Why are you so stupid”?
“You barely can make rent as it is.”
“How are you going to afford insurance?”
“You just moved out, what are you thinking?”
“How will you eat?”
“What will you do?”
I broke. I was so unhappy, so miserable. I started to get sick. I cried all the time. I was in a really tough place. I started thinking about where I was and asked myself the serious question: “When was the last time we did something creative?” So I decided to start writing again. It was kind of like chatting with an old friend. I forgot how much I loved writing. I hadn’t written anything that wasn’t a report or at this point a resume in so long, I kind of missed how good it felt to step into a fictional space for a while. Thinking back to that time, It’s night and day compared to my life right now. Even though some people won’t say it out loud, there is an expectation that you conform. To sit in that grey cubical, to stare at that fuzzy idle screen. Even when you’re surrounded by your passions you should choose the money and the work, because at least you’re stable. Work is only binary and black and white, there’s no time for crazy headsets and poetry even if your work and productivity excel when you have access to those things. Work only has one look.
I was being lied to. Work doesn’t look like anything in particular and productivity should include access to creativity. However, I would be remiss if not to mention that now working in the creative field that often people and industries try to turn creativity into that same black-and-white binary idea of work. Replacing cubicles with pretty page aesthetics, metrics with page analytics, and computer screens with phones. If given the opportunity, society, more specifically the society that we live in will try to turn your creativity into either a dollar sign or a grey cube to stack with others. I’m in a space that while, while I’m still working very hard I’m definitely not where I want to be overall, things are absolutely booming in my life. I prioritize myself in every part myself more and I don’t settle because it’s easy or expected. I set time aside for creativity it and surround myself with books, art, music, and communities who like art or being artistic in one form or fashion. I strive to be creative every day, and I’m creative not just because or simply because it makes me money or gives me notoriety; I’m creative because it makes me happy, brings me joy and peace, connects me to community, and brightens other people’s day.
Since I’ve prioritized my creativity, my life has been worlds better and I feel like I’m finally living a life that I love.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Well, My name is Tyanna. I go by Ty and I’m the creative force behind Blaque N’ Kulture and BN’K on Tour, where I have been creating pop culture content and covering pop culture events for the past 5 years. As Blaque N’ Kulture I create educational and/or entertainment videos, covering, analyzing, or reviewing nerdy media such as Marvel or DC, genres like horror, and niche subjects like mascot horror games. I also cover Eastern media such as Korean dramas, manga, and anime as well as the community culture surrounding these franchises called fandom. Also as Blaque N’ Kulture, I work as a comic book editor and writer, and I work alongside indie comic book companies and other independent sequential art creators. Sequential art is a term that covers comics, manga, webcomics, and ext.
Under BN’K on Tour, I operate as the Creative Director to provide press coverage of nerdy events local to Florida or the southeast of the states. We’re still a relatively small team, but I feel our team does fantastic work to highlight and uplift these amazing events.
I feel like I stand out in the crowd next to other creators in my unique approach to content creation. I approach making videos and any other creative venture I do as a sort of community connection. I want people to talk in the comments under my videos, ask me questions, prove me right or wrong, and create new videos or theories about the media we enjoy. The nerd and otaku communities (people who enjoy Western and Eastern nerd media and content; cartoons, comics, manga, and anime) thrive on our connectivity and collective love of our favorite franchises. Without the fandom community, the very movies, animations, and books we love cease to exist. I love my community and building community.
When I’m not being Blaque N’ Kulture, I’m typically working on stuff for my brand like editing, writing, scripting, or researching. When I am away from social media entirely, I have a few hobbies such as kitbashing (taking toys and other collectibles and turning them into something new), learning guitar, singing karaoke, listening to music, writing, or watching TV. I love learning new things so I’m typically watching something educational or adjacent. I really enjoy hanging out with my friends and I’m HUGE foodie so were always trying out new foods. I think my favorite think to do outside of Blaque N’ Kulture is exploring Orlando. I’ve lived here nearly my whole life and I swear I am still finding new things to do each week.
When it comes to what’s next for Blaque N’ Kulture and BN’K on Tour, we have so many things ahead of us. Starting in April, as Blaque N’ Kulture, I will be resuming my live podcast series called the Blaque Koffee Morning Show (BKMS) that streams on Twitch. On BKMS, I interview other content creators as well as industry professionals to introduce my audience to the many faces in the nerd, otaku, and fandom. Also as Blaque N’ Kulture, I’ll be regularly uploading to my Youtube channel on some interesting and unique topics starting in June! Youtube is a tough platform to produce for so I’ve been prepping this for a while. As far as BN’K on Tour, we’ll be continuing our press tour providing coverage to central Florida local events as well as the amazing MomoCon in Atlanta, Georgia. The team is ecstatic to provide coverage of such a well-loved event.
As far as what’s ahead personally, I just released a comic book with my dad and sister called Birth of a Bahshen! the story follows two prodigies, Tamriq Amaechi, and Saxa Bernon, who take on their first patrol as soldiers, where they anticipate an ordinary mission: gather intel, eliminate the enemy, and go home. Yet, fate takes a gripping turn, thrusting them into a whirlwind of betrayal, unforeseen challenges, and a legacy they never imagined, forcing them to redefine their destinies. The book is available digitally on Novatoons, but we are working on a physical release as well as gearing up for our Kickstarter for our other books that are in post-production. Additionally, I’m working on a new project that will involve my kitbashing hobby so I highly encourage you to follow me if you’re interested in that. lastly, I’m working on writing my own comic books and manga in the background that I’ll be releasing the titles for at the end of this year. Overall a very busy and productive year ahead!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
My three most valuable qualities and skills are: Knowing when to quit, always having a plan, and staying creative.
There’s this stigma around quitting, which I get. Don’t give up on your dreams or stop pushing for the life you want, but sometimes, you have to know when to let something go. Sometimes, the situation or thing you’re fussing over cannot be fixed, helped, or made better and you should “leave good enough alone, and leave well enough tried“. That’s something I picked from my mentor recently. Sometimes dropping one thing will give you the time and energy to pursue something better.
If you can, have a plan. Having or creating a plan of action, even if it doesn’t go the way you plan it, is so important. You may not end up where you thought you would, but you may find you’ll end up exactly where you need to be.
Staying creative is so important to me. Having an outlet for yourself, but also using that creativity to strategize, work, and, live in a unique way that works for you.
My advice to anyone getting into creative or freelance work is to invest in yourself. Invest in your craft, your skills, and continual education as well as self-care, your mental and physical health, and your peace. You are the most important person in your world, nothing starts and finishes until you close or open your eyes. So prioritize yourself. Also, as cliche as it is, you are your biggest competitor. Do what you do best and don’t compare your best to someone who’s been in the game for years. You’ll miss every time because you’re not focused on your own thing.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
My ideal client is someone who either knows what they want but is flexible and open to unique execution OR has an idea of what they want and will allow me free reign to create as I’d like (staying on brand, of course).
Contact Info:
- Website: blaquenkulture.com
- Instagram: @blaquenkulture
- Facebook: @blaquenkulture
- Twitter: @blaquenkulture
- Youtube: @blaquenkulture
- SoundCloud: @blaquenkulture
- Other: Tiktok: @blaquenkulture
BN’K on Tour: https://bnkontour.com/ |
My Comic book/Manga: https://novatoons.com/content/detail/-1709047869
Image Credits
BN’K on Tour (https://www.instagram.com/bnkontour/), Larry J. Photos (https://www.instagram.com/larryjphotos187/), Pixlarchon (https://www.instagram.com/pixlarchon/)
