S2 E6: Creators and Connectors with Hollis Wong-Wear

The Manic Episodes

Mary and Wyatt are pleased as punch to welcome Hollis Wong-Wear to the pod. Hollis is a songwriter, musician, speaker, creative generator and community advocate who lives between Los Angeles and Seattle, WA. She is the lead vocalist of the electronic R&B trio The Flavr Blue, and was GRAMMY nominated in 2014 for her work with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

With her roots in spoken word and slam poetry through the nationally recognized Youth Speaks program, Hollis is passionate about how creativity and the arts fuel and shape civic discourse, and is dedicated to lending her voice and capacities towards vibrant social equity.

Hollis has been a featured speaker at conferences, conventions and speaker series, sharing her spoken word poetry and her candid insights on her experience as an independent artist and engaged activist. She has performed and spoken for an array of organizations and schools, including KEXP, WrapWomen, Planned Parenthood, University of Washington, YWCA and the Eileen Fisher Leadership Institute, has been featured by TedX University of Washington, and has presented alongside such luminaries as Gloria Steinem, Kimberle Crenshaw and Eve Ensler.

A native of the Bay Area, Hollis graduated from Seattle University with a major in History and a minor in Global African Studies, and was recently named the recipient of Seattle University’s 2016 Outstanding Recent Alumna Award.

She is a Google Next Gen Policy Leader, an alumna of the Hedgebrook Residency, and is a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow. Hollis has been appointed to several boards and commissions, including the Board of Directors for 4Culture and the Seattle Center Advisory Commission, and is currently an ad-hoc commissioner on the Seattle Music Commission.

Hollis, Mary, and Wyatt talk about friendship, community, and solidarity in a brief but lovely chat. They discuss the perils of social media, especially for artists in the early stages of their careers, and how Hollis and Mary inspired each other when they first met. Also on the agenda: Mary’s stinky ballet flats, furniture made of silly putty, and poems by Jon Pineda and Aya Alzubaidy.