Two Dreams. One Vision.

Two Two Dreams. Dreams. One Vision.

There are two sisters out here making some things happen in the creative world. Upon meeting these ladies you may have a preconceived notion of who they are. But there is definitely more than meets the eye with these two. These two are tons of laughs and full of dreams. Sit back and catch up with the founders of Creative Zone Magazine.

Meet the Founders

By: Ramona Ward Senior Creative Contributor

How did the creative zone come about?

Shanique: We were sitting around talking. What were we talking about? We just be talking.

Ayanna: We were just talking. Because we be talking.

Shanique: And we were talking about we wanted to do something. But we didn’t know what we wanted to do and were like just throwing stuff out there. And we wanted to do something in memory of our Dad.

Ayanna: YeaShanique: and then what…oh we decided on

doing a scholarshipAyanna: right

Shanique: and all the work looking into doing a scholarship was like yeah,

Ayanna: because everything kept saying we had to be connected to another entity, we couldn’t just be by ourselves. That’s not what we wanted. We didn’t want the scholarship to be connected to something else. We wanted it to stand on its on and be in memory of our dad and that it was to honor him fully.

Shanique: Yeah, and that was not working. Because we had to be attached to something else we had to come up with something else. So we decided to start a foundation. The work that actually goes into starting a foundation had us thinking we could do this, but we needed

thinking we could do this, but we needed something else in the meantime. And that would be when I came up with this magazine idea. (sigh) at the time I didn’t realize how much work it was. But I through the idea out there and was like let’s do a magazine and she was like yeah. And I was like alright, we’re going to do a magazine.

Shanique: we were talking about doing something bigger than ourselves

Ayanna: absolutely. I have always had a vision of working with the youth and doing a camp that dealt with any type of creativity and the arts. I wasn’t sure about how long the camp would be or where it would be held. But I did know I wanted this. And then we started talking about doing something for Dad and I thought this was perfect because that was him…The arts! Then we were like how are we gonna do that because we are big picture thinkers and we have to narrow it in.

Why did you decide to move forward with a magazine?

Shanique: I thought that a magazine would help build momentum. It would give us something to do while trying to get a foundation off the ground. Instead of starting a foundation and being like here I am and people saying who are you.

Ayanna: and it also helped us to put something out to honor our dad, which is what we wanted to do. Being able to put a digital magazine together was something that was doable.

Why did you choose the realm of creativity?Shanique: That is such an easy questions.The sisters laugh

Shanique: So our dad was the epitome of creativity.

Ayanna: absolutely

Shanique: He sang, he drew, he wrote, the man was like…put it this way there is no way anyone could say they knew him and didn’t know he was a singer. There’s no way. He would sing a recipe for something. He could sing the ingredients on a box of cereal. Everything was a song to him. So to go into the realm of creativity wasn’t hard because we are working on honoring him. That’s 1. But 2. All of us in our own right have something creative about us, that it’s just natural to us to be creative.

Ayanna: go with what you know

Shanique: So I didn’t think it was hard to go with creativity. (to ayanna) Did you think it was hard to go with creativity?

Ayanna: No, it did make sense. It was just one of those things that if it was going to honor dad it needed to consist of everything he was. I think of our dad and that’s what I think of. I think of how creative he could be with anything. You hear people say they can draw. But he could draw with a pen, pencil, charcoal. Not everyone can do that. He exuded creativity. So why not have a magazine that does the same thing.

What makes you want to do all of these things?

Shanique: I don’t really think it was a thought of I want to do all of these things. I have always wanted to have a foundation for something. I volunteer a lot, so it’s only natural for me to want to help. The scholarship and magazine just went hand in hand with each other, with us trying to do something in memory of our dad. So I don’t think it was I wanted to do all of these things. everything just kind of went together. As for the camp, I’m all in. It wasn’t my thing though.

Ayanna: Yes, the camp was all me. I am excited for when we start planning the camp out.

Shanique: The foundation would be like the umbrella for everything. So we could build on things coming up out of the foundation. So while we are working adjusting and putting the umbrella up we still have these other moving compartments that are still happening and we are just going with it.

How did you two come to working together, seeing how you want to do different things?

Shanique: I don’t know. I think it just happened. I don’t think we were like do you want to work together. We just decided we should do something and each of us took pieces of the project to look into. So I don’t think we thought we were working together. We just decided what we wanted to do and started. Working together wasn’t even a thought. For me anyways, I don’t know about her.

Ayanna: Yes,it was not planned. It was just a conversation that took a life of its own and became action.

Shanique: Us working together is not complicated. We play to our strengths. We are not both trying to be the boss. We just do what we do and make it happen.

Are you working on anything else together?

Ayanna: you never know with us. This is how this work, she is very good at throwing out ideas. No matter how crazy they may sound to anyone else, I will try to come up with a way to make it happen. And most of the time she will be like no this can’t happen, but sometimes she’s like okay we can do this. So you never know with us.

Shanique: Ummm…I don’t know. I think that the good thing about us is that we bounce ideas off of each other. So while we may not be working on something together for everyone else to see. We are always working on stuff. So you really never know. We could come out with a clothing line tomorrow. You just never know. And you’ll be like when did they start doing clothes. And we’ll be like we’ve been working on this for a minute and folks will be trying to figure out when we were working on it. So I would say yes we are working on stuff together, you just don’t know we are working on stuff. So the short answer is yes, the other answer is no.

You just don’t know. So just stay tuned. Keep peeking in. We might be running a B&B tomorrow. You just don’t know. That’s how constant we are working though things.

What is creativity to you?Ayanna: Wow!Shanique: To me creativity is freedom.Ayanna: I like that.

Shanique: I think that if you can just be. We walk around everything is creative…from the way you dress to how you do your hair. So if we could just walk in whomever they are with their creativity that is freedom.

Ayanna: Creativity to me is fearlessness. Being able to just to give out all that you have. This is what I have and here it is. Like she said changing your hair. I am constantly changing my hair. so just take all of you and put it out there.

What do you think your dad would think of the magazine and all that you two are trying to accomplish?

They laugh.Ayanna: That’s a loaded question.Shanique: Let’s have a moment of silence. lolAyanna: you want to tackle this one first?

Shanique: I think he would be involved in some capacity. For the magazine I think he would be in every issue. Some way some how he would make sure he is in every issue. With the camp I’m so sure he would be teaching music. Under the foundation he would probably be the face of the foundation. He was so into being creative. Yes he had a regular job, but in his off hours he was in creative mode. I doubt he walked around his job and didn’t sing. I’m so sure he was walking around the halls belting out a song, because that’s just who he was. So I think he would be uber proud and would be super involved. He would probably be calling us asking us what we are working on and telling us what he got. Like I feel like my phone would be blowing up from him trying to feed us his ideas. And I could see me saying that’s not going to work with my schedule and he probably wouldn’t care. We always say he would have made us a singing group if he could have. So he is and would be proud.

Ayanna: I definitely agree that he would be all over it. You wouldn’t see something that said Creative Zone and not see him. I definitely think he is extremely proud that we are working together and that we are doing something that involves creativity. Also the fact that we are trying to do something that is not for us. Humility is one of the things he taught us.

What are your hopes for the future of the magazine?

Shanique: I would like to see a foundation that takes a life of its own. To where its like something we didn’t even think of. Like right now we are sitting here talking about a scholarship and a camp. We have this magazine but i’m sure there are things we are not even thinking of that are waiting for us to step into. so I would love to see the foundation take a life of its own. I would love to see the magazine in print and have a subscription for it. My big thing is just building momentum. Getting the foundation started.

Getting the scholarships out to those who need them. I think a lot of times we stop doing what comes natural to us because of funds. So the scholarship is going to dead that. So whoever you are you are going to go be creative and do whatever you do in your creative zone. The camp I think is going to be phenomenal. I mean I used to love camp and with camp you learn something that you can take with you forever. This camp is going to represent something that people carry with them forever. I want the 12 year old today that attends to remember when they turn 36 with a 12 year old to send their child to this camp. So I would like to see it be a generational camp. But outside of all of this I want to be able to look back and be like wow you see what happened. I want to experience that. So yes I may be sitting in it. But I want to be able to go into a meeting and be like "Yo did you see what happened last week, what was that, how did that happen?”

Ayanna: Yea, (laughs) Umm, i definitely 100% that’s where I'm at. The main goal for what we are doing is bigger than ourselves. We don’t want to just be able to say that we want that to be happening. We want to open doors for people we didn't think we were opening doors for. We want it to inspire others to do the same things, because there are so many things you could be doing. We want people to own their freedom and boldness. I’m so excited for what's going to happen. Especially with the two of us I foresee things happening. I know for sure that we have the blessing of our dad and he is right there with us in spirit and things are going to soar to new heights that we couldn't even dream of and it’s going to be an amazing ride to be in the mist of it and see what happens .