Rashida Ashley: Creativity as an Ongoing Practice of Becoming

Rashida Ashley is a soprano, actress, recording artist, model, and upcoming novelist based in West Haverstraw. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU while training as a soprano, and continues to perform, act, write, and create locally and beyond.

Her work spans opera performances, original music, acting, fiction, and writing resources. She is currently completing a novel and has developed The Creative's Journey workbook. Across all of it, a single intention runs through: the pursuit and proliferation of unbiased love, with particular attention to creating space for Black women to be desired and whole.

"I would also like to share how I invite people into the creative process with softness, presence, and room for Black women to be desired and whole," she says. That framing extends outward as well. "Creativity is an ongoing practice of becoming, not a finished performance," she says. "I hope they feel invited into a room where they can pursue their own work, presence, and unbiased love without assigned roles."