Changing
Lanes New York’s
Downtown Sweetheart Emerges as Jack of All Trades
By Leesa Davis
New
York City hipster Vashtie Kola is full of surprises.
One day Kola could be writing the outline for a film,
or directing music videos for such artists as R&B
singer Solange and Cleveland rapper Kid Cudi. Other
days, Kola switches gears to become a fashion designer
for her trendy t-shirt line Violette.
Kola admits she’s not yet sure of her ultimate
goals, having already accomplished several career
milestones. “I don’t really know what
I want to do,” she says. “I’ve found
myself doing so many things. Life just takes you through
these different places.”
The 28 year-old Albany, NY native of Trinidadian descent
has made her mark in several roles in the music, fashion
and film industries. With her tomboyish style, multiple
career endeavors and fixed motivation, Kola has been
known to march to the beat of her own drum.
After a year as a creative director for Island Def
Jam records, Kola says she wanted to pursue her passion
in directing and designing.
“I
had to make a decision,” says Kola, who is a
graduate of New York University’s School of
the Arts. “Do I continue down this path of working
the corporate ladder and going further in this direction
or do I jump out of the nest basically and fly on
my own? And that was pretty difficult.”
Ultimately,
Kola left Def Jam to pursue other opportunities. Now,
she has a full roster of projects she’s juggling
as New York City’s “Downtown Sweetheart”
as she’s called in the industry. Her current
activities include hosting a weekly party at New York’s
Santos Party House with rapper/producer/DJ Q-Tip and
DJ Rich Medina.
She’s also making an entry into acting, having
been tapped for the role of Tanuja in the documentary-style
short film, “A Night at the Opera,” directed
by friend Nemo Librizzi, who chronicled the history
of the Bloods and Crips gangs in the 2005 documentary
“Lay Down Old Men.”
The film follows Librizzi, who in real-life has been
a fixture on New York’s art scene for decades,
as he dates women of different nationalities in hopes
of choosing the right girl to bring to an upcoming
opera. In what appears to be a fitting role, Kola
says she plays an East Indian girl that is in touch
with the black community.
“It
was comfortable for me because I didn’t really
have to go out of my own self to play this part,”
Kola says, noting the ease to which she moved in front
of the camera to act.
Of all her activities, Kola says her primary focus
is expanding her fashion line Violette. She chose
its name out of fondness for how the color purple
has been symbolized in some cultures. The color has
been known to represent royalty, strength, nobility
and power in some cultures, she says. “I didn't
want the name to be clichéd or obvious, but
rather something a bit hidden,” Kola says.
The name was also fitting, Kola says, because of an
old photograph that she cherishes of her mother wearing
a violet colored sari in Trinidad.
“The
entire image itself seems to have a violet hue,”
she says. “It sits on my desk everyday and reminds
me of how blessed I am to have the opportunities my
mother never had.”
