“I am not a woman. I am a rainbow.”

Ericka Clevenger: What type of artist do you consider yourself?

Maya Songbird: I am [a] multidimensional artist, a one-woman show. I am self-taught, and I pick up quick. I am a magician and enjoy making magic with my hands. I am a healer and a born free thinker. I am an artist who uses all soul and no ego! I make music (write/produce/sing), direct and edit video, and love making cool, weird arts and crafts to fight back and express [myself]. It’s a portal for sure.

Ericka: How did you find art and decide to make a career out of it?

Maya: Well, I was introduced to art by my grandmother because she always had me with her, so she made me do lots of arts and crafts and was really strict about it getting messy. [We were really] hands-on with our creating. We would go to Mission Street in San Francisco and get lots of items to make art and create masterpieces… I saw magic come from her hands. My grandma was amazing—she could create anything. 

I have been singing my whole life. [I] wrote my first song at 12 and taught everyone in my summer program the song, and we performed it at our end-of-summer ceremony shindig. I started shooting and editing my own video back in 2011 because I couldn’t really afford to hire anyone, and discovered a hidden talent. I started producing my own music because I got tired of waiting on male-identifying producers to send me my completed songs or instrumentals. Got tired of pussy envy.

Ericka: Is there an underlying reason you make art?

Maya: I make art to share joy. Art is so universal and literally helps all who dive into it. I make art to create an independent living for myself with hopes to one day achieve that goal where I can at least make $60k a year. It doesn’t take much money for me to survive or make me happy, but to be a successful, humble, private artist loved by just enough people feels great. It feels good that people who purchase my work purchase a bit of my soul. Something directly from my DNA. My planet and origin.

Ericka: Tell me about your witch shop.

Maya: I have been Pagan/Wiccan since I was a teen. I literally knew after seeing The Craft in the ‘90s that I was indeed a witch. A natural witch. Not placed here to harm anyone. Witches have been getting a bad rap for ages, but literally every femme is a witch. It’s all in the way we bleed and the flick of the wrist… Actually, my grandma, to me, was a witch because her hair grayed completely at the age of 16. Witchy women are in my blood, but my mom absolutely does not agree with me about that because she is [a] devout Christian. Anyway, my very own witch shop, Maya’s Magic Shop, is my way [of helping] others embrace witch culture. 

Ericka: Tell me how you feel about being a woman.

Maya: I sometimes enjoy being a woman, but too often some male identifier can easily ruin the time I spend being comfortable with myself. Womanhood is amazing but too often women are mean to each other. I don’t like that, but that’s just how deep patriarchy runs. It’s deeply embedded in society all the way into marriage ideas and everybody wanting and needing a man. It’s rare for me to love a man, but yet I find myself wanting to have this fairytale romance patriarchy wrote about and has been pumping into every femme’s brain since birth. But I question what being a woman is really worth if I am subservient in all ways to a man. Where I have to be Eve and not Lilith.

I like my period but hate when I bleed for months on end and have to get blood transfusions to live. I know the power of free bleeding, and I’m not embarrassed when people can visually see blood on my pants. Yes, I embrace my bloody panties. Depends on the day. Everyone got mad at me when I denounced being a cis woman and [said] that I identified mostly as a gender of rainbows. Ideally, one day gender won’t even exist anymore. Yeah, I am literally not a woman—I am a rainbow.

Ericka: What does your power mean to you?

Maya: My power means helping others get theirs. If I’m not liberating and helping others unconditionally, why am I alive? I help with my power, and that is a gift. I hope I empower every person that [I] come across. I just don’t like when people get jealous of me for no reason. It’s like, hey, I don’t deserve when people are jealous or mean or hateful. The universe always tests you, but the reward is protection and higher evolution. All good power.

Ericka: How can the planet support you?

Maya: Watch, listen, and share. Express and embrace [your] individuality. Donate to my PayPal or Venmo @mayasongbird. Come to a show and dance and believe in magic. Shop Maya’s Magic Shop at www.mayasmagicshop.com and in stores worldwide. Stay in the loop with Facebook!

I’m really hoping to get backed by a major indie label after being independent over the last eight years. I have some musical projects to share with the world. I’m still alive.