CL022: Maya Azucena on advocating for art as power

Maya Azucena is an award-winning singer, songwriter and social activist. Brooklyn based Maya describes herself as sounding like "The Roots if fronted by a singer with 4-octaves" or a "female Bruno Mars" and Billboard, The Washington Post and the Village Voice have all praised her mesmerizing stage shows. As a music artist she has collaborated with Marcus Miller, Eminem, Roberta Flack, and Vernon Reid, while as a social activist Maya campaigns on the issues of domestic violence, empowering women and sustainability. Maya tells us about her new album, which took 2 years to create and releasing the new single. She shares with us how singing chose her and having music as her superpower. Maya also talks about pursuing music as a calling and helping the world. "We have to accept our limitations and accept our greatness and know which is which." "If you don't mean it, don't play it." - Maya Azucena Maya Azucena  Show Notes: The impact of September 11th on Maya's music (6:20) Being an advocate for art as power (8:37) Empowering people (11:30) Navigating between two different worlds. Music and helping the community (13:23) The need of having team players (18:00) Spiritual guidance (19:40) Releasing your work (22:58) Creating a list of priorities (24:37) Favorite Book:  The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Favorite Record: Aladdin Sane by Davie Bowie Join James's Facebook fans: https://www.facebook.com/jamestaylordotme LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jameskirktaylor This is The Creative Life, James Taylor's weekly YouTube show. -------------------- ABOUT JAMES -------------------- As a creativity expert Taylor is a frequent guest speaker at universities and international conferences. He has given keynotes and talks at Apple, Subscription Site Summit in San Francisco, the British Music Show in the UK and at several universities across Europe including University of Dundee in Scotland and University of Macerata in Italy. He is often called upon by media outlets to give his views on trends in creativity and innovation. He has been quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Columbus Dispatch, STV, Business Insider and San Jose Mercury News as well as featured on BBC TV and being the subject of a 30minute program on his life for BBC Radio Scotland. As a host on shows about creativity and innovation he has interviewed legendary investor Maynard Webb (Yahoo.com, eBay.com & Salesforce.com board member) and New York Times best-selling writers Chris Guillebeau ($100 Startup), Rolf Potts (Vagabonding), Brand Cooper (The Lean Entrepreneur) and Ryan Holiday (Trust Me I'm Lying). James is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA). Meet James at http://www.JamesTaylor.me -------------------- ABOUT THE CREATIVE LIFE -------------------- The Creative Life is a weekly self-improvement show full of #motivation, #inspiration, and #creativity strategies with creativity speaker and author James Taylor. The Creative Life blog can be read at: http://www.jamestaylor.me -------------------- SUBSCRIBE -------------------- Never miss a video, and join the Youtube self-help community living the fully creative life: http://www.youtube.com/jamestaylorme