Artist Spotlight: Camila Aguilar

“Poetry is like my little corner of the universe.” - Camila Aguilar

For Bay Area Creative teaching artist Camila Aguirre Aguilar, spoken word is more than an act of expression. “Poetry is like my little corner of the universe,” she explains. As a poet, performer, and teacher, her journey with writing dives deeper than words on a page; it is a bridge to salvation and community.

Sacramento-born and raised in Vista, Aguirre Aguilar’s upbringing was wrapped in the lyricism of music and word. Between her mother’s reading and her father’s music-playing, the young artist quickly grasped the beauty of speech, how one could pin rhythm to a sentence to form something larger than language itself. The idea that these same words could also hold the weight in truth, story, and conviction, however, did not present itself until her teen years, when hardship and trauma ushered her into the world of performance.

At age 15, Aguirre Aguilar attended her first slam. Here, she witnessed Alfred Howard perform, and how his pieces carried far more than lines of poetry; he spoke of war, empire, family, and vulnerability. From this moment, Aguirre Aguilar understood how deep the range of possibilities lay; how far she could dive to express herself and reach out to others. She would return to the La Paloma Theater a year later, her pieces focused on matters of oppression and justice, including the war in Iraq, sex-trafficking, and the effects of climate change on her local community. Being only 16, she captured the crowd and ultimately won 1st place. “My voice mattered,” she recalls on the shock of the win, the first success still leaving a lasting imprint.

Hardship, however, would continue to chase her. Amidst struggles at home and in her personal life, addiction became a crutch. Support from other institutions also began to fail her, the artist’s teachers and peers writing her off as incapable and unscholarly – an experience not uncommon for other underserved youths of color. Despite all of this, however, Aguirre Aguilar continued to find salvation in the arts; slams and community events received her with respect, her words rippling across a resonating audience that understood and felt. As the poet explains, “I had a little spot of healthy soil I could root myself in on the Earth.” Aguirre Aguilar’s relationship with art became a symbiotic one in which both grew alongside one another, poet tending to word, word tending to poet.

Aguirre Aguilar first began mentoring public speaking at Miracosta Community College in Oceanside, where she attended class after high school. She assisted with the school’s Performance Writers Club, who showed great interest in slam poetry, allowing Aguirre Aguilar to begin to share her passions through mentorship. She eventually transferred to UC Berkeley, where her continued poetry performances caught the attention of Bay Area Creative; from here, she realized the call to teach and share this “little corner of the universe” with others who may have struggled like her.

Since then, Aguirre Aguilar has taught at several middle schools and high schools throughout the East Bay, and continues to help students through Bay Area Creative and RYSE Center in Richmond. Looking forward, she plans to also begin teaching at community colleges, prisons, and juvenile detention centers, hoping to support underserved communities to find empowerment in art the way she did. According to Aguirre Aguilar, mentorship is not a one-way service. Rather, it is a mutual exchange of knowledge, experience, and opportunity: “I want to continue to be a student of my students and a teacher for my students,” she expresses. “These are also spaces I need right back.”

"I want to continue to be a student of my students and a teacher for my students. There are also spaces I need right back."

Using her own hardships as guidance, the poet roots her heart deeply in community and healing, hoping to be the figure she was missing as a struggling youth. Aguirre Aguilar presents poetry as a form of therapy, expression, and rebellion, demonstrating its ability to carry a range of truths, from personal to global. “The youth are always a reflection to us where our broken bones are as a society,” Aguirre Aguilar states on the power of art and community, and how her current goals connect both. “I’m exploring where I can be in community, where we can empower each other…where we can inspire each other, and laugh with each other, and heal with each other.”