Hola familia! i’m Brandi 🤗

Hola! i’m Brandi. i’m a Sacred Leader(ship) mentor, artivist, and non-fiction author. i teach spiritual and witchy entrepreneurs and creatives how to lead through art, love, and (woke) magic so they can bring their mission and vision to life. When i’m not serving my gente, writing books, or being the change i wish to see, i can be found obsessing over all things Lisa Frank and Dallas Cowboys football. Or (if you’re lucky 😉) slaying the stage & bringing down the house as the flawless drag queen & performer that i am. *Two snaps & around the world*

Brandi Amara Skyy (she/they/we/us) is a soul leadership mentor, author, and artivist who believes we all have a Universe inside waiting to Big Bang its way out of us. 

She grew up under the South Texas Sun, rhinestone beaches, and full familia tamale-making kitchen table wisdom. As a double Leo, they have been everything performative under the Sun: Junior Olympic artistic roller-skating champion, cross-country touring belly dancer, and award-winning drag queen. 

Known as the “Queen of Firsts,” they were the first to publish books on female drag queens and spearhead the first haute drag magazine, GAG Magazine; have their neo-drag performance group open up for Lady Gaga; and win the first National Drag Pageant, Miss Diva USofA in 2014.

As a Queer, Indigenous, Mexica teacher and mentor, she teaches art, love, and (woke) magic as a pathway to liberating the sacred sovereign leader within. Through her lifestyle bodega and brand WOKE MAGIC, 1:1 and group mentorship programs, and online magical Sacred Creatrix Coven and Witchflix learning hub, they help folxs reclaim their magic, conjure their creatrix, and learn how to lead from their creativity, heart, and medicine so they can bring their mission and vision to life. 

As an Artivist, Brandi has been using her art as activism since 2005; has spoken on diversity inclusion to international companies like Southwest Airlines; lobbied Congress on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign while interning at the Women’s Institute of Public Policy and Research in DC; and has marched, led, and help organzine many street marches. They hold a BA in Dance and MA in Multicultural Women’s & Gender Studies from Texas Woman’s University.

They are the author of 7 books, including The Little Book of Drag (2022) and Be More Drag (forthcoming 2023) both published by Ryland Peters & Small, The WOKE MAGIC Grimoire (2020 to present), How To Be a Drag Queen (2017), and The Artivist (forthcoming 2023) all published by WOKE MAGIC Press with a combined readership of 9K and growing. Their work has been featured in BET, Curve Magazine, Global Grind, and Ofrenda Magazine; and as a journalist, op-ed writer, TV anchor, and columnist for The Dallas Voice. In 2014 she was named one of the Latino Leaders to watch by Latino Leaders Magazine and in 2017, their essay, On Gay Marriage, won Dallas’ Writers #ownvoice essay contest. 

When they’re not busy being the change they wish to see, Brandi can be found deepening her craft, on a cruise ship, and/or obsessing over all things Lisa Frank and Dallas Cowboys football. 

Brandi resides on her native lands, known as Wimberley, Tejas, with her wife Candace, and their spoiled, papaleta Maltese/Shih-Tzu rescue, June. 

Here are 10 obscurely fun facts about me 🤗

1.

i opened up for Lady Gaga in 2007 right before she hit it big. She was on an LGBTQ+ bar tour and performed at S4 in Dallas, TX. My group, SOMETHING FABULOUS!!! Dallas’ first queer performance troupe, was asked to open for her, we did, and it was EPPPPPPPPPICCCCC!

2.

i won Best Actress in our 8th-grade version of the Oscars. My shoe taste was on witchy fleek even back then #90s. (PS. My momma made my dress. She’s amazing. i love her. Hi mooooom!!)

3.

 i never wanted to go to college . . . until i did at 24. i made the decision to go when i figured out i could do college my way and i finally stopped listening to everyone else’s reasons why i “needed” to go and began to unearth why i wanted to go. It wasn’t so i could get a higher-paying job and join the capitalist ranks. It was because i wanted to relish in learning and the experiences that came with actively honing my craft and critically engaging with people, texts, and discourses that deepened and challenged my own. So in 2000, i got a BA in Dance with a minor in Women’s Studies. And in 2012, i received my MA in Multicultural Women and Gender Studies. This choice deeply rerouted the energy and course of my life.

5.

i reside on my native lands known to most as Texas. i am an indigenous and intersectional witch and i come from a family of healers. 

6.

i toured with the Bob Marley Festival in the late ’90s as a Polynesian/Tahitian dancer. As a 17-year-old, i got to travel the country spreading peace, unity, dance, and one love. BEST TIME EVER!!! 

7.

i came out to my parents the night George W. Bush won his reelection. (Side note: i thought the world was ending…little did i know that the 2016 election would have even worse in store.) i came out of my second closet—the spiritual one—after my animal soul companion, Simon, died on June 1, 2020. And i am deeply proud of both risings.

8.

i’ve been in love with the night sky since i was 5. My father and i would camp out in our backyard, set up the telescope, and he would teach me all about the constellations and planets. Those memories are stored in my bones—and it’s the root of why i love the moon, stars, and astrology so so much.

9.

i don’t own a pair of pants or jeans. In fact, i haven’t worn jeans since i was ooooh about 24. And the only ‘pants’ i own or wear are leggings or athletic wear. So you will pretty much ALWAYS find me in a dress. i find pants waaaaaay too constricting for me.

This might be the last known time (and pic!) of me in jeans. 

(This was part of a photo series by an MA student at TWU. i was 24? 25?)

And finally… 

10.

i officially became an author and publisher at age 14 when i self-publishing a book of poems, called Only A Dream Away. From cover to binding to the pages that housed the words, i created the entire thing from scratch by hand. i have been a publisher all my life—it just took me 30 years to call myself/path as such.

BONUS: i have always known i was different. Strange. “Abnormal.” Check out the “About The Author” section of the above self-published book. It tells you everything you will ever need to know about me and the heartroot of my work. 

All this page’s goodness to say that the best way to get to know me/really understand me is through my art and creations. Read an article i wrote. Watch a YouTube video i created. Listen to a podcast. Check out a performance. Go follow WOKE MAGIC (or me) on Insta. 

Because my eyes—or this page—aren’t the window to my soul. My work is. 

May i be witnessed in a light that serves the highest good of all—myself included. 

And so it is!

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! 🙏🏽🙏🏽 For being here. For taking the time to get to know my heart. And for doing the work to make this world more art-filled, magical, and equitable for all. 

in lak’ech
Mucho mas 🖤💡✊🏾
xo-b