WANTING WITH VISUAL EDITOR SINIKIWE STEPHANIE DHLIWAYO

The visual editor and founder of Naaya on personal development for creative practice ☁️

THE 16 CREATIVE ARCHETYPES, DECODED

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Sinikiwe Stephanie Dhliwayo is a New York-based former cheerleader turned visual editor turned wellness enthusiast. She has a penchant for smiling, dancing, and bodies of water. Her affinity for visual storytelling stems from a desire to shift the perception of how Blackness and humanity are perceived.

SINIKIWE’S DIVERGENT CREATIVE STRATEGIES: ACTION/INACTION

• There’s no such thing as perfect motivation. Sometimes we’re inspired into action because of a bubbling cauldron of rage that overflows within us… sometimes it’s because we saw a nice flower. Motivation is morally neutral.

• Personal development is creative development. Sinikiwe keeps some ideas on the back burner because she knows she isn’t quite ready to tackle them, but she will be eventually.

• Honestly, take Instagram off your phone. We are powerless to the scroll, so remove the temptation and accept that you’re a browser girlie now.

What’s your metaphorical Adderall — something that slingshots you into an inspired creative tornado of action?

Meditation for sure. And not in the way where I am being guided by someone else, but in how I am still, alone with my mind. I learned to practice meditation under the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism, which has less of a focus on achieving Nirvana but a big emphasis on acquiring knowledge and wisdom. Which, “hi, me.” The ultimate nerdy girls’ dream, and following the tradition of acquiring knowledge for one’s awakening.

Through and through this is how I view my spiritual practice: How can I inquire about myself and the world and take those sumptuous teachings and share them with others in the hopes that we can all cultivate more love and ultimately, liberation?

What idea or concept are you chewing on? Has it shown up in your work yet?

Currently pondering the notion of wanting vs. needing in interpersonal relationships. My personal life has been a whirling dervish as of 2022, when my dad passed away very suddenly. In the process of grieving him, I started noticing how I was “wanted” in relationships — folks generally wanting to cultivate a relationship with me as human that they love and respect vs. relationships where folks wanted to be around me or “know me” because it would serve them. I’m also noticing how I can show up better in relationships by making people feeling wanted, especially when life personally and collectively can’t seem to let up.

The biggest way this dynamic has shown up in my work is by exercising the most discernment. I think that a lot of folks are really loose with the term “friend.” Like… we did a teacher training six years ago and while I have reverence and love for you, I don’t know that I personally would consider you a friend. But I would absolutely consider you someone that I am in community with! I am a Scorpio Sun after all — I like to go deep, and not everyone is meant to hold you when you’re falling apart.

I’m noticing how I can show up better in relationships by making people feeling wanted, especially when life personally and collectively can’t seem to let up.

How particular are you about your notebooks? Pens? What do you write in and with?

Oh, the most particular. I am not a big fan of pens but there is just something about a mechanical pencil that gets me going. I’ve tried so many notebooks but I always finding myself landing back on a trusty lined Moleskin.

What was going through your mind when you first decided to share your work?

I was in a space of both scintillating rage and desperately wanting to feel like I belonged. I was working in publishing as a visual editor and producer. I regularly dealt with superiors who told me I wasn’t good at what I did… but then on the flip side when I would be on set or communicating with creative partners, I would hear that they loved working with me. Clearly, something was amiss.

As an escape from work , I delved deeper into my yoga practice and subsequently did teacher training. When I started teaching in New York, I was often struck by the lack of diversity (racial, socioeconomic, physical ability) in most wellness spaces. When I’m put in spaces where I can’t thrive or where I am one of few, I look for ways to shake shit up. So, I started Naaya and it quickly became a respite from the harassment that I faced in my full-time job. I felt disoriented by how much positive feedback I was getting when folks were interacting with me through my work with Naaya.

Although I didn’t endeavor to turn Naaya into my “thing,” I had to quickly pivot after leaving my full-time job in February 2020 followed by the pandemic. I am glad the turmoil of that job propelled me to create something so beautiful and I will never fully recover from so many more people having the opportunity to perceive me and potentially judge me — eek.

What’s your media diet, at present?

Oh man, straight mainlining it to the dome. I try and keep the actual Instagram app deleted off my phone which forces me to use it in a browser window which tricks me into spending less time on there, but if I have the app on my phone I will go full tilt and just scroll. I’ve found myself going hard on Threads. It feels like the early days of Twitter and more social than a lot of other social media platforms.

To be creative and to make things in 2024 is objectively difficult. You have to square off with distractions, global anarchy, and perpetual haunting of the existential question: “why bother?” What keeps you coming back to the ring?

I keep coming back to the ring because there is no other way of being for me. In periods where I have put aside the creative in me, it never goes well. Unintentionally, this happened when my dad passed away so not only was I drowning in grief, I was also sad because I lacked the ability to make things. It is so surreal to me that my brain thinks about things and then takes action to make them. Talk about a religious experience.

It is so surreal to me that my brain thinks about things and then takes action to make them. Talk about a religious experience.

John Cage was inspired to develop his practice of composing via random chance and chaos after reading a book about the Chinese divining practice, The I-Ching. What influences or inspiration from outside of your field or profession have made the biggest impact on your work or process?

Being in my body really helps my creative process. The less heady I can get the better. Although don’t get it twisted — I am a lover of words and learning about new things, and I love nothing more than falling down a rabbit hole of discovering new tech. I find when I am doing some kind of movement practice — I’ve become a pilates gorl and not to be TMI but when I get regular D — I also find the downloads come fast and furious (pun intended).

What do you do “wrong” that makes your work successful?

Being fervently against the status quo whenever and wherever it shows up and refusing to give up my integrity are two things that have made me successful. In the fervor of the racial uprisings in 2020, the hot thing was to be anti-racist and to hire folks like myself to help your organization be “better” to people of color. I knew it wouldn’t last. I had two choices: allow myself to benefit financially, or continue to be in integrity, aiming for the long game instead, even if it came at the detriment of my finances. Reader, I took the hit to my finances. I knew that the cost of being in integrity wasn’t worth it to me.

You’ve been working on something and it just isn’t coming through the way you’d like — do you kill your darlings and scrap the whole thing? Do you compost the idea? Do you file it away in your cabinet of misfit concepts to review later?

Hmm, this is definitely something I could work on. I have the habit of holding on to things longer than I should, including ideas. I believe sometimes things aren’t meant to be as they currently are. Sometimes I’ll have an idea that isn’t ready to exist just yet, so I file it away for review later. Or maybe it’s not that IT isn’t ready, but maybe I am not ready. I don’t think if I had started Naaya before I did that it would have been able to be in the world as it is.

What’s a weird superstition you subscribe to?

I absolutely subscribe to the superstition that if you buy someone shoes it will be a catalyst for them to remove themselves from your life.

What’s your Creative Archetype?

The Star: Definitely tracks for me, especially the part about allowing other people to witness my work and process. Where I’ve landed with that is that there will be seasons where I am actively sharing my work. Then in the off season (ghost season) I will be lying low and just doing the thing.

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