Who Am I
Born in the 70s to a Puerto Rican revolutionary and a hippie farm girl, I was raised on a steady diet of art, science fiction, social justice and the occasional tiger’s milk carob bar. My whole life has been about stories, beliefs, questioning, and creating. I attended NYC public school, majoring in studio art at LaGuardia High School, then got a bachelors degree in English/Creative Writing and a masters in progressive teaching, specializing in integrating the arts into education. I went back to the NYC school system to teach the same kids I had once been. I taught English, Humanities and Art to teens in the alternative school district and developed workshops and classes for both teens and adults in creative writing, poetry, art, and empowerment. I developed a workshop called WE: Women Empowered Through Creativity and Reflection, that was truly transformational for all the women and teen girls who took it.
In the years since then, I’ve focused on my personal art and writing and also on raising my two kids. We now live in the country in the middle of Florida, where I can focus on my personal work in my studio at the edge of a tiny farm town. I have multiple science fiction and fantasy novels in varying stages, and a whole heap of art, as well as a nonfiction Art and Transformation book about writer's block.
I’ve been keeping a blog now for almost 15 years, starting with essays, moving into creativity, parenting, crafting, art, sliding along with life into science fiction and fandom for a while, and now coming back to creativity and writing in specific. Warriorgirl chronicles my journey as a new mom as I dove into creativity again. On Pinterest, I keep boards for all sorts of inspiration, with over 1.5 million followers. And over on tumblr, I answer a lot of questions about fandom, tv shows, science fiction, story telling, writing, creativity and life.
This is what I do. I create. I use art to empower. I help others to find their voice and power. I use my own journey as lessons to help others through their journeys.
Born in the 70s to a Puerto Rican revolutionary and a hippie farm girl, I was raised on a steady diet of art, science fiction, social justice and the occasional tiger’s milk carob bar. My whole life has been about stories, beliefs, questioning, and creating. I attended NYC public school, majoring in studio art at LaGuardia High School, then got a bachelors degree in English/Creative Writing and a masters in progressive teaching, specializing in integrating the arts into education. I went back to the NYC school system to teach the same kids I had once been. I taught English, Humanities and Art to teens in the alternative school district and developed workshops and classes for both teens and adults in creative writing, poetry, art, and empowerment. I developed a workshop called WE: Women Empowered Through Creativity and Reflection, that was truly transformational for all the women and teen girls who took it.
In the years since then, I’ve focused on my personal art and writing and also on raising my two kids. We now live in the country in the middle of Florida, where I can focus on my personal work in my studio at the edge of a tiny farm town. I have multiple science fiction and fantasy novels in varying stages, and a whole heap of art, as well as a nonfiction Art and Transformation book about writer's block.
I’ve been keeping a blog now for almost 15 years, starting with essays, moving into creativity, parenting, crafting, art, sliding along with life into science fiction and fandom for a while, and now coming back to creativity and writing in specific. Warriorgirl chronicles my journey as a new mom as I dove into creativity again. On Pinterest, I keep boards for all sorts of inspiration, with over 1.5 million followers. And over on tumblr, I answer a lot of questions about fandom, tv shows, science fiction, story telling, writing, creativity and life.
This is what I do. I create. I use art to empower. I help others to find their voice and power. I use my own journey as lessons to help others through their journeys.
Rowena Murillo grew up poor in The Bronx. It informed who she was, a mixed race Latina who read books and drew pictures and imagined dragons. Dragons freed her. Dragons saved her. She learned to dream and she put those dreams on paper. She went to LaGuardia School of the Arts, where she studied Studio art, and then got a scholarship to William Smith College, where she achieved a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing.
She returned to downtown NYC to live a writer’s life… which meant waiting tables in Greenwich Village cafes and starting writers’ workshops and talking a lot about creativity and writing furiously and unstoppably in her journal. She never stopped learning, or writing, or painting, but there came a time when she thought just writing for herself was “selfish,” so she returned to The New School to get a Master’s of Science in Teaching. She wasn’t in grad school for two days before she remembered how books and reading had saved her life, offering her a way out of the ghetto, goals to aim for, and something better from life. She was DETERMINED to return to the NYC public schools and give other kids like her the same hope.
She wrote her thesis on Integrating the Arts into Education and taught High School English, Humanities, and Art, where she discovered a passion for helping other people discover their own voices.
Rowena has taught workshops on poetry, art, fiction writing, and co developed a workshop called Women Empowered Through Creativity and Reflection, to both teen girls and women. After 9/11, she left the public school system to focus on her own writing and art, and has since freelanced and blogged about creativity, the arts and writing across multiple platforms.
Now she lives in the middle of the country in Florida with her two children, where she reads tarot, does freelance art, writing and marketing and continues to write, both the creativity and self esteem work that is her calling, and the science fiction and fantasy that is her first love.
She returned to downtown NYC to live a writer’s life… which meant waiting tables in Greenwich Village cafes and starting writers’ workshops and talking a lot about creativity and writing furiously and unstoppably in her journal. She never stopped learning, or writing, or painting, but there came a time when she thought just writing for herself was “selfish,” so she returned to The New School to get a Master’s of Science in Teaching. She wasn’t in grad school for two days before she remembered how books and reading had saved her life, offering her a way out of the ghetto, goals to aim for, and something better from life. She was DETERMINED to return to the NYC public schools and give other kids like her the same hope.
She wrote her thesis on Integrating the Arts into Education and taught High School English, Humanities, and Art, where she discovered a passion for helping other people discover their own voices.
Rowena has taught workshops on poetry, art, fiction writing, and co developed a workshop called Women Empowered Through Creativity and Reflection, to both teen girls and women. After 9/11, she left the public school system to focus on her own writing and art, and has since freelanced and blogged about creativity, the arts and writing across multiple platforms.
Now she lives in the middle of the country in Florida with her two children, where she reads tarot, does freelance art, writing and marketing and continues to write, both the creativity and self esteem work that is her calling, and the science fiction and fantasy that is her first love.
As a life long artist, raised by an artist, creativity has always been essential to my thought process and productivity. After being a traditional student of both art and writing, I then turned to self study, and continued my education and practice of understanding my creativity and process, with workshops and BILLIONS of words written. Okay, I haven't counted, but if you consider my journals alone, we're talking, lots. My thesis for my masters in teaching was about integrating the arts into education and I taught for five years using the philosophies and practices I developed, teaching others ways to use art, writing, music, theater and other creative pursuits in their own teaching practice.
Leaving the public schools was a big decisions, but with the conservative political environment that advocated teaching to the test rather than to the child, and teaching how to answer multiple choice questions rather than how to critically think, I moved to pursue my personal calling of helping others to find their voices, embrace their own identities, and be creative and empowered.
Along with Patty Kennelly, I developed a workshop called Women Empowered through Reflection and Creativity after 911 and worked with both adult women and teen girls on developing self esteem, understanding where we came from, what we wanted and how we could get there.
Leaving the public schools was a big decisions, but with the conservative political environment that advocated teaching to the test rather than to the child, and teaching how to answer multiple choice questions rather than how to critically think, I moved to pursue my personal calling of helping others to find their voices, embrace their own identities, and be creative and empowered.
Along with Patty Kennelly, I developed a workshop called Women Empowered through Reflection and Creativity after 911 and worked with both adult women and teen girls on developing self esteem, understanding where we came from, what we wanted and how we could get there.