By Dean M. Shapiro “As a writer and artist, you have to keep going. You can never really stop. If you were born to be a creator then create you must.” With these words, Mid-City resident Christy “C.M.” Soto sums up a personal success story that, given the circumstances of her childhood upbringing, could have easily turned out worse. Growing up in the small southern Oregon city of Klamath Falls with a drug-addicted mother and surrounded by other addicts and people her mother called “LOPs” (losers on parade), Christy, through determination and a powerful creative drive, overcame tremendous adversity and carved out a successful niche in the New Orleans arts community. A gifted performance artist who MAKING Lemonade OUT OF LEMONS Christy Soto Overcomes Adversity to Reap Creative Success creates her own material – much of which stems from journals recounting her “School of Hard Knocks” personal experiences – Christy is also a talented graphic designer and photographer. In addition, she is a published author, a produced playwright and a poet whose works have been accepted into nearly fifty publications. As an event organizer, Christy is the founder and driving force behind the three popular annual “pub crawls” sponsored by her nonprofit, The Creativity Collective. The 5th annual Bridal Crawl, coming up on September 23, is expected to draw hundreds of participants (including men!) donning bridal gowns or other wedding-related apparel and walking en masse through the Central Business District and the French Quarter. This event, plus a Corset Crawl and Leprecrawl in the spring, raises thousands of dollars for The Collective’s operating budget and its in-school “Gradeuxity” life skills teaching program. Much of that money goes into the printing of an informative booklet, Gradeuxity Lifeskills Guidebook, which offers young people who are preparing to enter the adult world helpful tips on topics ranging from budgeting, banking and credit-building to writing a resume and preparing for a job interview and more. So how does one person juggle all of these skills and activities and still manage to hold down a fulltime job in a law office? “Patience, persistence and, above all, maintaining a vision and having good people around you to make that vision a reality,” Christy explains. “I oversee a small but dedicated group of community-focused artists who make up the staff of The Creativity Collective,” she added. “I couldn’t sustain The Collective without their help and I sincerely appreciate all that they do.” 20 | BREAKTHRU MEDIA | breakthrumediamagazine.com S E P T E M B E R / O C TOB E R 2 0 1 7
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