Student Spotlight: Nakia Gibbs

Although Nakia Gibbs ’17 is now a senior majoring in Theatre Performance and Theatre Studies, three years ago, she wasn’t even sure if she would be going to Saint Mary’s. “My first choice was to be down in Los Angeles,” recalled Gibbs. However, there were numerous forces at play (including the gentle nudging of her mother) that got her interested in SMC and ultimately brought her to campus. “When I was applying to colleges my senior year, at first I had never heard of Saint Mary’s, I didn’t know that it existed. My mom told me about SMC and then I heard two other girls from my high school were applying. As my high school graduation day kept rolling round, Saint Mary’s started to feel more like home, as I didn’t want to go far away,” said Gibbs.

Having grown up in San Leandro, Gibbs realized she wanted to stay in the Bay Area and that being a student at SMC meant that home was only “a few stops away on the BART.” According to Gibbs, the signs for her to become a Gael were all around her. “I was seeing ads for Saint Mary’s everywhere. On the BART which I took to and from school, and ads on my Facebook. It was as if it was destiny.” Gibbs also knew she was destined to be in the performing arts. When she was younger, Gibbs was involved in dance. She sang in her high school choir, and it was her high school choir director who first got her interested in acting.

“I remember being extremely nervous for my first audition [in high school] and I was so nervous that I started crying and I went up to the director and I told her, I couldn’t audition anymore. I couldn’t really give her a reason, I was just really nervous, and I didn’t want to do it anymore. She stopped me and said ‘No, you’re auditioning. You were meant to be onstage,’” Gibbs recalled. “At that point, I thought to myself—this must be something I am called to do. If someone can see potential in me, maybe I should give it a shot. So I did and I ended up loving it. People started taking notice that it was actually where I belong, and I started to take notice, too. I found that it was really thrilling and it became second nature to me to take center stage and bring a character to life.” By the end of her high school career, Gibbs had performed in three spring musicals and a fall play.

Gibbs auditioned for a performing arts scholarship through the Theatre Program, and got it. The scholarships offer up to $13,000 of tuition remission per year and are renewable for up to four years. “I felt that if I was awarded a scholarship; if somebody thought I deserved it because of my talent, then this is the school I need to go to,” said Gibbs. “I always knew that I wanted to go to college, and that I wanted to pursue theatre. I knew I wanted to be on stage. I knew I wanted to be in front of the camera. Being awarded a scholarship made it seem like it was possible. It made it seem like I could do anything. Really. college is expensive. If it weren’t for my scholarship I wouldn’t be attending Saint Mary’s College.”

Over the last three years Gibbs has fallen in love with the Theatre Program and the Performing Arts Department at SMC. She says that the students really make the department, and that the performing arts students are constantly pushing for greatness. “We want to be great. We are great. We push for our voices to be heard, for our talents to be displayed in the right way,” said Gibbs. Some of her favorite courses she has taken so far including a class on playwriting and one on monologues for acting. “I’m truly invested in becoming a better actor because of the monologue for acting class. My playwriting course made me strive to be a better playwright and a better storyteller in general.

Her passion for playwriting brought her to CSU Summer Arts for a two-week intensive on writing for television. Gibbs said that her scenes and plays seemed to be geared towards TV. “In my playwriting class at SMC, the professor would often say ‘Wow this would be a great dialogue for television’ or ‘How can we change this so that it works on stage?’” CSU Summer Arts is by application only, and so Gibbs submitted a play she had written in her playwriting course and was accepted. “I got to work with some of the writers who work on The Big Bang Theory, a writer from BET, a writer from Disney—and it was a really awesome experience. I didn’t think that I could learn so much about writing for television in two weeks. It was really eye-opening to see what goes on in the writers’ room,” said Gibbs.

After her time at the CSU program this summer, she then went to work with Reid Davis at his new summer arts camp in Berkeley. Davis was a longtime adjunct faculty member in the performing arts at Saint Mary’s. At the camp, she taught hip-hop theater to kids. Her students ranged between 5-13 years old. On this experience, Gibbs mentioned that “I can definitely see myself teaching the performing arts in the future.”

While at Saint Mary’s Gibbs has developed her artistic voice. Gibbs claims that her voice is a reflection of “How I see the world, the things I’ve experienced, the things that have shaped who I’ve become—all of that is why I am an artist, and why I think my story needs to be told, and why I think I want to tell stories and perform.” She stresses that especially in the 21st century, there are plenty of people who are going to try to take ownership of your work. “You have to stick up for, and be dedicated to your work.”

Last year, Gibbs used her voice to write, direct, produce, choreograph, and edit a video she titled Dear Little Black Girl. Each year the Intercultural Center sponsors or produces a cultural night. One of these nights is called Expressions of Blackness, for students who identify as black and/or African-American. “I wanted to produce a video that went all out and that hit hard, and I felt it was important for others to see,” said Gibbs. She began writing and choreographing in the fall of 2015, and she filmed the video the weekend before the Expressions of Blackness night in February 2016.

“There are messages from society and the media telling black girls that we’re not the standard,” says Gibbs. “I wanted to start a movement with help from people from the Black Student Union and my friends to say that ‘Dear little black girl. You can do this. You can do that. You can wear your hair like that. You can do whatever you put your mind to without any type of doubt. There should be no doubt in your mind that you can’t do this, because of the color of your skin.’”

Gibbs asked her dancers to say something they would have liked to hear from someone when they were younger. This section opens the video. “It was really emotional for everyone who was on set and who was watching behind the scenes. It was raw, it was real, it was authentic. I take so much pride in the project because I did that, with the help of others, I didn’t know it could touch so many hearts,” said Gibbs. She also mentioned that there is definitely another video in the works.

Gibbs doesn’t quite know what she is going to do after graduation. She has many interests, but knows she definitely wants to be in the entertainment industry in some capacity. “I see myself hosting my own radio show, being a TV writer, being an actress, being a producer. Right after graduation, I’m going to stick with acting—and audition for roles either on stage or behind the camera. I’m just going to dive in.”

Her advice to prospective or incoming students is to “Use your voice!” Gibbs pointed out, “What truly makes a great actor or performer is authenticity. There is no other way to find that than by listening to your voice. I found my authenticity by speaking, by saying what I believe, by following through with what I believe. Keep that authenticity, hone in on it, and treasure it. It is what makes you so unique. Stay true to yourself. Stay authentic.”

You can view Dear Little Black Girl below.

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