Exhibition: "The Goddess Within" Featuring Botswele Mogotlane and Jelani Cleghorne

• The Goddess Within •

Sometimes we collapse. 

Sometimes we crumble. 

This is not our destruction.

This is our Birth.

Our Growth is Infinite.

Our (Re)Birth is Inevitable.

f e a t u r i n g 

Jelani Cleghorne @jetsavvy
Botswele Mogotlane @botswele

m u s e s
Monique Sypkens @sunflowrrchild
Linda Tembe @miss_lee_leila

I love the woman I am. I love the way I'm so comfortable in my own skin. 
I love my hair, eyes, nose, my big ears , breast every part that makes me, me. 
I love how my imperfection doesn't define me but makes me unique. 
I love that I can be myself in any situation but still adapt in my environment. 
I love the fact that even after all I've been through and still going through 
I can still keep a positive spirit. I love that I dream bigger than my failures. 
I love that I always go for the things I want because I believe in myself. 
Well mostly I love me because after God the only person I have to push is me. 
And I can only do my best when I am myself.

Linda Tembe captured by Botswele Mogotlane

"My birthday is January 15th, Martin Luther Kings birthday, I am the dream." 

I recited this before I even understood what it meant. Sharing a birthday with MLK 

and being half black and half white just gave me a sense of importance and purpose 

at a young age... I've always been someone to think very highly of others and their abilities. 

I just want people to understand how valuable and important they are.

Monique Sypkens, captured by Jelani Cleghorne

I cry every year on my birthday, tears of joy, humbled by God's grace,  

giving me yet another year to breathe, to live, to learn, to share.

Linda Tembe captured by Botswele Mogotlane

 

I've probably been camping 12 times in the past 4 years. 
I feel the most at ease and "at home" when I'm disconnected 

from technology, climbing trees, and swimming in some 

random lake in the middle of a forest. 

Monique Sypkens, captured by Jelani Cleghorne

I have a very beautiful and unique smile... It's a smile that is warm and welcoming. 

It's a smile that is contentious. When you're young and different, you are made to feel 

like what you have is wrong or you don't belong.  I  have a wide smile and for a long 

time I felt like it was the wrong way to smile. But I soon learned that your smile should 

come from the heart. And the things that make me smile are the things my girlfriend 

does for me like telling me how beautiful I am and what I mean to her she is a woman 

of little words but when she does share it, it makes me smile.

Linda Tembe and Brownie Karabo captured by Botswele Mogotlane

 

According to me, the purpose of life is to stay connected 

and worship our Creator and navigate your life based on Her ordained guidance...

To love others with abandon whether that be through your art, your service, your 

friendship, your honesty...And through doing that, you get as close as possible to 

holiness, to Jesus, and to heaven right before you actually make it there.

Monique Sypkens, captured by Jelani Cleghorne

For me life is simply a gift from God. 

I believe that it is given to us for a reason beyond our control, 

hearing my heart beat scares me at times more then it makes me happy,

knowing that it's the only thing keeping me alive is heart warming.

The purpose of life is to live. Be present in your own soul , spirit , mind , body... 

be present in your life and be who you believe you want to be 

and do that to the fullest.

Linda Tembe captured by Botswele Mogotlane

Nice to Meet You Monique Sypkens • Dare to DREAM Series

I just hope to exhaust every potential and talent that I have, which will 

hopefully make people more generous, empathetic and connected. 

- Monique Sypkens, 916, city of trees! Sacramento
Photo, courtesy of Jelani Cleghorne

• T H E   I N T E R V I E W • 

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If there was a movie produced about your life, who would play you and why?

I would play me. hahahaa. psshh that'd be a great movie I wouldn't want to pass up that opportunity. 

What do you love about yourself?

That I can be real with myself about the things I don't like about myself and actively change them. 

Name two people who influenced your journey thus far 

I'm going to take the unforeseen route because I could write a book about how much my parents influenced and blessed my life so far....So instead, I was born on January 15th and when I was a child, my mom taught me to reply to the question "How old are you?" with "I am ___years old. My birthday is January 15th, Martin Luther Kings birthday, I am the dream." I recited this before I even understood what it meant. Sharing a birthday with MLK and being half black and half white just gave me a sense of importance and purpose at a young age.

Another person, would be Maria, or Julie Andrews in The Sounds of Music. The song "Confidence" taught me A LOT as a young girl, to keep treading forward no matter the circumstance. I wrote a whole essay about this once...But also, I think watching musicals, this one in particular, made me love acting, television and theatre. I would act out the scenes with my brothers and I guess I never stopped.

Captured by Jelani Cleghorne

What have you been reading lately?

"True Notebooks" by Mark Salzman and "The Wait" by Devon Franklin & Meagan Good. "True Notebooks" is super dope, my boyfriend recommended to me and it reminded me of a book that I love "Tattoos on the Heart" by Greg Boyle (founder of Homeboy Industries) and I just really have a heart for the injustices in our prison system, being able to read from the mouths of kids inside the juvenile facilities is a special privilege, it makes me happy books like this give them a voice. And "The Wait" is interesting, being a Jesus loving woman, its definitely an encouraging read and I think helpful in my walk with Christ. Also picked it up because Devon Franklin's "Produced by Faith" still encourages me today as I navigate the film industry. 

What are the three destinations of your dreams?

Galapagos Islands. Tree Houses and rain forests in Costa Rica. Holland/Switzerland because my family crest is in a church window there. 

How would you describe your fashion style?

Well. I shopped at goodwill for the past 10 years of my life, against my will at first, and then it became "the thing to do"...so I like to wear things that I don't think other people have, but I also like to be comfortable so I don't know...depends on the day. 

Captured by Jelani Cleghorne

Tell us two things that make you smile.

1) Camping. I've probably been camping 12 times in the past 4 years. I feel the most at ease and "at home" when I'm disconnected from technology, climbing trees, and swimming in some random lake in the middle of a forest. 

2) Helping people realize their potential. I've always been someone to think very highly of others and their abilities. That wasn't the best attribute to my dating life at first, haha, but now I teach middle schoolers and this one girl was totally checked out because I asked her to write some poetry for me. She was complaining that she didn't know how and didn't want to sound stupid etc etc....After working with her on some poetry for a mere 15 minutes, she was boasting with joy and telling me how happy it made her to be able to write poetry, that she had butterflies because she never realized she was capable... I just want people to understand how valuable and important they are.

What are your two favorite quotes of the moment?
"I know who I am and I know Whose I am"

 "Being vulnerable doesn't make you weak, it makes you true" 

Tell us one pleasant thing people would be surprised to know about you. 

Well...about a year ago I got accepting into Harvard's MFA program (laugh) and didn't go. No regrets. But really, what an accomplishment and compliment right?

For you, Art is...

...necessary. Therapy. Revolutionary. Vulnerable. Freeing. Art has to cost you something.  

According to you, what is the purpose of life?

To stay connected and worship our Creator and navigate your life based on Her ordained guidance...To love others with abandon whether that be through your art, your service, your friendship, your honesty...And through doing that, you get as close as possible to holiness, to Jesus, and to heaven right before you actually make it there.

Connect with Monique Sypkens here: @sunflowrrchild
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The Nice to Meet You Interview is Aile Rėve's signature. It is our way to soulfully connect with the artist and visionary. The NTMY allows us to take off for a voyage into the furthest reaches of their mind, with love, humility, and poetry.

Anaëlle Naná Moon Oyå
Mermaid-in-Chief @AileReve