Draw Hope with Cloud Kent

We are highlighting a previous episode of the ¿Quién Tú Eres? podcast, where we explore the conflict we often face between "professionalism" & being our authentic selves.

Cloud Kent is a street POP artist who grew up in the streets of New York City and whose rough beginnings taught him how to survive in the concrete jungle. Among the many topics we go into in this conversation, Cloud Kent opens up about how the belittling he experienced in his early life led him to live a life that wasn’t truly his.

We also learn about his life-altering experience as he had to undergo an emergency open-heart surgery at the age of 25 and how this experience completely transformed his way of viewing life and propelled him to be what he always was - an ARTIST.

These are some of the episode highlights:

“We grew up in the streets of NYC. You were taught to have this heavy armor on and not to show emotions or feelings.” -Cloud Kent

From an early age, the exposure to the streets taught him to be tough to survive. That showing emotions or feelings would make him lose respect and give people reasons to put him down.

For Cloud Kent, this was not only the case in the streets but even in school or among friends, especially back when creating art was not as respected as getting into sports.

“I'm an older man and I'm realizing... damn, my whole life I've been living a lie as a life.” -Cloud Kent

Art was always part of his life, but because he was put down and belittled for his talents, he allowed other people's opinions to get in the way and steer him to live a life that felt like a lie.

Ultimately, going through an open-heart surgery became the catalyst for him to stop living by others and start truly living for himself. After that experience, Cloud Kent began to awaken to himself and realize who he was.

During his recovery, he saw life as a gift and a second chance to do the things he had kept himself from doing. His mindset shifted, and that was how he became the artist he always was meant to be.

“I feel like I broke a cycle and it's my job to be more vocal about it.” -Cloud Kent

Many of us grow up in a household with a strong security mentality, especially Latino families. And it is only understandable. Our parents want the best for us. They want to see us well and how they believe that can happen is by passing down the knowledge they have from their parents and their own experiences. But we don’t have to live this way. We can step out of the structured path and create one of our own. And this is what Cloud Kent decided to do after his surgery.

He decided to live life being genuine to himself and others as his authentic self and to be more open about his life and the transformation that took place.

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Cloud Kent is excited to continue to get to know himself and explore his creative mind. 

Listen to this episode to learn more about his journey: Spotify & Apple Podcasts

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