Danabelle
GUTIERREZ
P OE T, W R IT E R
29 Being asked to write and perform at the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s first anniversary was just the ‘icing on the cake’ of an exceptional year for artist Danabelle Gutierrez. With her continued push to hone her craft, she has become one of the emirate’s foremost homegrown talents in the arts. Two thousand eighteen was a very prolific year for Danabelle. The poetry collective she founded with ChristineJean Blain and Akousa Fox, performed “We Sat in Silence” at Sikka 18 – a
theatrical reading with songs and poetry centered on issues that are deemed taboo for women. She also won the best actress award at Emirates Short Film Festival for her role in Melon Quinzon Perez’s “The Girl Next Door.” In September, she was awarded by the Filipina Women’s Council as one of the most influential Filipina emerging leaders across the world and December saw her reading at Hekayah, at the NYU in Abu Dhabi. To top that, she is currently working on her third book.
ILLUSTRADO 55
Standing tall amidst the rising stars of the Middle East, Danabelle approaches her art with a professional edge and a lot of common sense. “Be a professional - even in the small things. It will speak volumes about your work ethic. Communicate well. Your grammar doesn’t have to be impeccable nor your vocabulary as large, though admittedly, it does help. What’s important is that your point comes across. So, speak up, but also listen. Be kind. If you can’t be anything else, at the very least, be kind to the people around you, yes, but also to yourself.”