We recently had the chance to connect with Ananda Prioleau and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ananda, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
In the essence of getting to the root of an issue, the heart, the core, the center of one’s being, our anatomy is rarely viewed by audiences. As we began the journey of uncovering all the layers that create this vessel, we find SOURCE. The spark that ignites our heart and consciousness. Beyond pride, we are grateful to discover our most untamed, uninhibited and purposeful self. Our essence is that of faith and with our name being a prayer, a mantra and a chant, we are energetically and spiritually charged to trust in self.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
We are an experience. We, being me, Ananda Prioleau, is a Mixed Media Muse & Mechanic dedicated to community based holistic health and wellness. Hosting this mission through our company, Afro Apothecary, that provides spiritual software, events and excursions all meant to guide participants towards enlightenment. Our current efforts are localized on a film and fashion festival, Cyclical Ceremonies. An evening of interactive installations lead by practitioners and performers alike. Cyclical Ceremonies is an opportunity to ground, reflect and reconnect to the wild thang within you. Premiering December 2025, the night’s theme provokes its participants to take off their mask and discover self.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
Hard head as in a hard shell, it can be difficult connecting with people when one’s guard is up. Though we need to protect ourselves we learned that vulnerability is a superpower and our art is an expression of that. Taking off the mask, unveiling who we are at our core is freeing beyond reproach. Understanding our full spectrum and overflowing beyond capacity allowed our creativity to world build. We now comprehend that the only one holding us back is the limitations we put on ourselves.
When did you last change your mind about something important?
Being community oriented can be mystifying at times. Access to so many stories, lifetimes, and cultures blurs the line between presence and pressure. The weight of flesh inside and out, the me in we. Shifting back into an independent experience of loving, creating and experiencing self fully. We went outside and had fun, played in the grass, partied until the sun joined us then rested. Gave ourselves some grace, forgave the painful memories, wept, and started the day, every day. We showed up for ourselves first and foremost because we are the only one living this lifetime.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. How do you differentiate between fads and real foundational shifts?
Time always repeats itself. Whether through numbers on the clock or lessons learned and lovers lost. Each layer of our existence is a layer of time. Fads are fast, quickly rushing through the market but the foundation is the structure that is time itself. Fads fall through time so when the foundation shifts, so does the fad. Cave paintings become hieroglyphics; ancient storybooks telling a tale now told on the silver screen. As a species, we are blessed to repeat ourselves, yet our choices have consequence, positive or negative, our actions always have an outcome.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
For a moment, consider that nothing ever truly settles. Cells are never still and matter is always moving. Even the core of the Earth is spinning, and the sun has a path. Life is change, expansion, motion, and transformation. Yes, I’ve been dissatisfied but the point is to continue creating. We are generating our reality, and the possibilities are only as endless as one’s imagination.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nnanggaa?igsh=MWdlc3h5cWgxMGhldA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ananda-prioleau-9a6312163
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UmOfwjwFZc
Image Credits
V’Ari Moss for V’Ari Visuals
David Haddon for The Artful Portrait
Vivica Satterwhite for Pottymouf Studios
James Robinson, Ajha Dean-Phillips & Onastee Evans
