Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1995), Dhayana Alejandrina is a creative force to be reckoned with. Just google her name and you’ll see what I mean. She’s a successfully published author, poet, speaker, writing mentor, founder of The Creative Writing Hour (a virtual co-working space for writers and creatives), Lead Poetry and Cultural Collaborator for Afrique Noire Magazine—the list goes on. But she’s not concerned with the many titles she holds as much as she is with the work she’s able to do through those titles holding her. She’s grounded in making sure that she can use her craft to walk hand-in-hand with the people who meet with her work, thoughtfully and creatively moving through some of the hardest emotions and using it to reconnect with ever-buried innocence and joy.

I chose Dhayana to be my Co-director, along with Kai, for the first project of my rotating artist collective, “TLWI…”. We directed a romantic drama that was mainly portrayed through a music album titled, “…THE DARK WOMB.” I taught myself the basics of script writing for the sonic film and utilised it as a basis for guiding the cohort in the improvisation of skits narratively positioned throughout the album’s songs. The cohort that worked on this project was comprised of two other artists, Morelys Urbano and Amour Jacobs, in addition to myself and the Co-directors. Directing and artistically developing a team of four artists that work in different disciplines—with some overlap—sharpened my ability to reimagine perspective and the many creative tones in which a story can be told. What emerged from leaning into this experience was an authentic and cohesive narrative of eclectic voices and backgrounds that magnified each other in metaphysical, musical, and testimonial brilliance.

Executed entirely virtual, I used collaborative Apple Notes’ to organise our meetings, curate structure of the album, and strategise our progress on the project; scheduled regular Zoom calls for team check-ins and FaceTime calls for individual check-ins; consistently built morale and connection through group iMessage (one for the entire team and one for Co-directors); and sound engineered the album and skits in iOS Garageband from shared voice memos and audio messages. As a self-funded, low-to-zero budget endeavour, choosing to collaborate with a digital, app-based approach supported a craft-focused outlook that enabled us to enjoy experimentation and full creative control.

As writing partners, Dhayana and I have worked as co-writers on six songs so far — four from …THE DARK WOMB. [OPENINGPROSETRY. (intro), SCORPION. (caught), RIGHTNOW. (middle), and CLOSINGPROSETRY. (outro)] and two as singular songs of their own [sometimes happiness is jarring… (rough demo) and You too? Even you? (2020 Brut de Noirs)]. The former of the two singular songs is an unfinished and unreleased track exclusively available to my subscribers on Bandcamp, while the latter involved more consulting or editing from Dhayana than co-writing. Pending in our evolving catalogue of work is a co-authored poetry and prose chapbook collection about our most life-changing, heartfelt experiences of joy and pain alike.

For …THE DARK WOMB., we engaged with our audience through social media assets, a TikTok discussion, artist talks held through Instagram Live, Amazon Music Spotlight messages, an Instagram and YouTube-exclusive visual, and print publishing that introduced both the album and a conceptual dating app based on the ethos of the album.