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Mitzy Sky shares her journey through writing, spoken word, and videography. She’s consciously unlearning messages that prevented her from living wholeheartedly. Her children, and young people experiencing adversities, have been the motivations to share the human resilience spirit of rising above difficult life circumstances. She is grateful to have friends that are supportive, hold her accountable to do her best, and believe in her. She uses the gifts she received from her grandmother, the life lessons that she learned, and being a voracious reader of books from people who have gone through great adversity but find their way through, and shares with others to never give up. She also enjoys the occasional reading of mystery, crime drama, and sci-fi.
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Growing up without television and mostly living outdoors, she saw her first movie True Grit with John Wayne on the big screen as a child in Jamaica and became fascinated on how it came to be. After much curiosity, she learned how to film and video edit at the Soundview public television station in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She did an on-job-training with Emmy Award winning producer Frank Borres at American View Productions. She created the Beyond the Story workshop that she facilitates at conferences, and developed the Compassionate Activism training at Advocacy Unlimited (AU), where she works in advocacy education and outreach. Her writing has been published at Mad in America online website, the Inner-City News, and she writes a blog for the AU newsletter. Her life experiences have guided her to write I Am Not Your Mental Patient: A Glimpse at What Forgiveness Can Do, and start a video and writing blog www.mitzysky.com. |
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Top of the Zinc Roof:
poems observed from behind the veil
with a glimpse of the light
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Mitzy Sky's debut collection of poetry takes the reader on a journey through her life—from her childhood growing up on the island of Jamaica, her tumultuous move to the United States, and her struggles and self-reflection as an adult and parent. Tackling universal experiences such as faith and body image, mental health and motherhood, racism and love, her collection of deeply revealing and emotional rhymed and freestyle verse will touch a place in every reader's heart. |
Awards
Mitzy Sky's screenplay "All Mind: The Influencers," published in Imagining Monsters: A Collection of Short Stories Inspired by Frankenstein, was a Quarter-Finalist for the Bridgeport Film Fest.
Mitzy Sky's poem "Who's the Boss" won third place in the category of "single poem" in the CT Press Club Awards.
3-Question Interview with Mitzy Sky
about her screenplay "All Mind: The Influencers"
published in
Imagining Monsters: A Collection of Short Stories Inspired by Frankenstein
"All Mind: The Influencers" - A screenplay about Mary Shelley's spiritual and psychological struggle with a nefarious, shadowy group intent on subverting her writing in order to take over the world.
Aside from Frankenstein, where did you draw inspiration for your story?
The primary place where I drew inspiration is from my experience of “working to live” over the last eight years. Before that I worked sporadically and most of it spent on my couch while raising my children. My work in behavioral health services I am constantly learning about myself, and teaching people how to treat me because we all have our worldviews, preconceived ideas, judgment of a person’s worth due to titles, color of skin, genders, education status, zip codes, anything that causes group-think. That phenomenon has cost toxic work environments to exist and I have found my job is to stay aware and not be overwhelmed due to moral injury.
It has made working to live very difficult and most times I want to “go back on the couch” so to speak. However, I am encouraged by people who are supportive of me, and my personal responsibility to keep moving forward. I’ve experienced working in a really great creative environment so I know the possibilities for connection, support, comradery, creativity, innovation, play and joy in doing work and having the goal for progress for the company while respecting the individual person’s growth.
I’m reminded of this Hellen Keller quote, “All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.” For a while I focused only on the world’s suffering, and I pretty much got what I focused on. I am now motivated to “overcome.” For me it’s been continuously learning, having gratitude, being okay with not knowing, and remaining flexibile. It’s enabled me to persevere through failure, which isn’t really failure at all but, rather, an opportunity to grow in awareness, learn something new, grow, and move forward more effectively. Ultimately, I drew inspiration from never giving up.
All the proceeds from Imagining Monsters anthology sales are going to the WestportWRITES program at the Westport Library, which is a true haven for local writers in Fairfield County, Connecticut. As a writer, where is your haven - where do you write, and what do you need to help you write?
My needed space depends on what I’m writing. A blog post on life lessons learned? I can write that anywhere. A fictional piece on a nefarious shadowy group? I need a quiet space, typically on weekends outside work hours. Lately, I’ve been working to find more balance during the work days to write, but the demands of my day job make consistency difficult.
When I do get the chance to write fiction, I can spend three to six hours at least just letting it flow. I have my favorite house chair near the bedroom window overlooking the neighborhood. Across is a smaller chair pulled up close for my legs with two pillows under my knee and feet to provide the same comfort as a recliner. I put the laptop on a pillow in my lap, a cup of coffee, usually mint flavor and a bottle of water next to me. That’s when I can start the process and “go in,” as I like to say.
The primary place where I drew inspiration is from my experience of “working to live” over the last eight years. Before that I worked sporadically and most of it spent on my couch while raising my children. My work in behavioral health services I am constantly learning about myself, and teaching people how to treat me because we all have our worldviews, preconceived ideas, judgment of a person’s worth due to titles, color of skin, genders, education status, zip codes, anything that causes group-think. That phenomenon has cost toxic work environments to exist and I have found my job is to stay aware and not be overwhelmed due to moral injury.
It has made working to live very difficult and most times I want to “go back on the couch” so to speak. However, I am encouraged by people who are supportive of me, and my personal responsibility to keep moving forward. I’ve experienced working in a really great creative environment so I know the possibilities for connection, support, comradery, creativity, innovation, play and joy in doing work and having the goal for progress for the company while respecting the individual person’s growth.
I’m reminded of this Hellen Keller quote, “All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.” For a while I focused only on the world’s suffering, and I pretty much got what I focused on. I am now motivated to “overcome.” For me it’s been continuously learning, having gratitude, being okay with not knowing, and remaining flexibile. It’s enabled me to persevere through failure, which isn’t really failure at all but, rather, an opportunity to grow in awareness, learn something new, grow, and move forward more effectively. Ultimately, I drew inspiration from never giving up.
All the proceeds from Imagining Monsters anthology sales are going to the WestportWRITES program at the Westport Library, which is a true haven for local writers in Fairfield County, Connecticut. As a writer, where is your haven - where do you write, and what do you need to help you write?
My needed space depends on what I’m writing. A blog post on life lessons learned? I can write that anywhere. A fictional piece on a nefarious shadowy group? I need a quiet space, typically on weekends outside work hours. Lately, I’ve been working to find more balance during the work days to write, but the demands of my day job make consistency difficult.
When I do get the chance to write fiction, I can spend three to six hours at least just letting it flow. I have my favorite house chair near the bedroom window overlooking the neighborhood. Across is a smaller chair pulled up close for my legs with two pillows under my knee and feet to provide the same comfort as a recliner. I put the laptop on a pillow in my lap, a cup of coffee, usually mint flavor and a bottle of water next to me. That’s when I can start the process and “go in,” as I like to say.
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What's next on the horizon for you?
Currently, I’m finishing the writing for my book, I Am Not Your Mental Patient: A Glimpse at What Forgiveness Can Do (#IAmNYMP), in which I share some of the adversities I’ve had to persevere through in my life and how I move forward. I’m looking to self-publish this year, but I’m creating a query letter to pitch the book as well with all of the information I learn from WestportWRITES and support I receive from an excellent writing community. I look forward to developing the website #IAmNYMP and do more writing and videos on it. At the 2018 Saugatuck StoryFest I got the opportunity to pitch another book I’ve been working on, and received great feedback to submit it when I am done. I like open mics, poetry and writing groups, so I will continue participating when I get opportunities. |
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