11/02/2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXlzr6PIlnA&t
On Halloween night—my birthday, the day of River Phoenix’s passing, and the threshold between death and rebirth, and the full moon coming very soon—I lit a fire to transmute everything I have survived. After nine years of trafficking, exploitation, and systemic entrapment, I felt called to reclaim my body, my art, and my freedom through ritual. The house was silent. My friend was away. The night held that particular stillness that invites transformation.
I began in low energy, uncertain if I had the strength. My body hurt from neurological strain and dysautonomia, and my confidence was fragile. But I dressed up anyway—symbolically reclaiming beauty, presence, and power. I stretched and breathed through the pain. I began to dance. I sang softly at first, then louder, until my voice became a declaration.
With every movement, I felt myself returning. My body, my instrument, became the altar. Each gesture released the residue of control, humiliation, and fear that had been layered into my nervous system for years. This was not performance—it was *alchemy*. The dancing, the singing, the firelight, and the costuming became portals through which I moved energy from stagnation into creation.
This is what I call **Neurodiverse Expressionism**: the act of expressing the full range of neurological and emotional experience through spontaneous, embodied art. It is the fusion of movement, sound, emotion, and sensory awareness as a therapeutic ritual—particularly for those of us whose nervous systems do not conform to standard expectations. It is art not as entertainment but as *transmutation*.
As I moved, I spoke to the camera about my new project—**The Escape Goats Project**—born from the very fire that freed me. I explained what labor trafficking truly is: not only about physical captivity but about *circumstantial entrapment*. It is being economically and socially coerced into situations where one has no viable path to autonomy. It is the invisible slavery of modern society—where survival is exchanged for servitude, and “help” often comes with hidden chains.
Through this ritual, I birthed the intention for Escape Goats to help survivors like myself find tangible ways to escape, recover, and rebuild their lives. It begins with awareness—showing that human trafficking is not a distant crime but something woven into our daily systems. Around 77% of human trafficking is labor trafficking, hidden behind “work-trade” arrangements that exploit desperation and lack of choice.
The name *Escape Goats* carries layered meaning. It reclaims the symbol of the scapegoat—the one blamed, exiled, or sacrificed by society—and transforms it into the *escape goat*, the one who *finds the way out*. It is a project about liberation through transformation, visibility, and mutual aid.
That night, I felt the convergence of many timelines: my birthday, River’s spirit, the thinning of the veil between worlds, and the seasonal energy of death and renewal. It was the perfect moment to transform pain into purpose. I felt something shift as I sang—the fire responding, my body lighter, my energy expanding. The act of ritualized self-expression rewired something inside me.
This moment marked the first episode of **Ascent Phoenix**, my ongoing chronicle of resurrection and advocacy—a series that blends art, healing, and activism. The ritual was both personal and universal. It demonstrated how embodied creation can transmute trauma into vision, how art can become a survival tool, and how the neurodiverse body can be a living oracle of transformation.
Even though I will need rest after this night, I know the ritual worked. A new timeline has opened. I gave birth to a project that will help others escape, as I continue escaping the aftermath myself. The fire bears witness to this initiation: the moment I reclaimed my voice, my body, my sovereignty, and my purpose.
*The Escape Goats Project* is now alive—a living expression of the truth that freedom begins within the body and expands outward through creative self-actualization. This is not just advocacy. It is living resurrection. It is the embodiment of the Phoenix archetype, rising from captivity into conscious creation.
Through **Neurodiverse Expressionism**, I show that healing is not linear, and art is not a luxury—it is the medicine of transformation. Each dance, each song, each breath is a refusal to be erased, a declaration that even those who have been enslaved by circumstance can become creators of their own new world.
**The Birth of the Escape Goats Project***A Shamanic Act of Neurodiverse Expressionism*On Halloween night—my birthday, the day of River Phoenix’s passing, an...
