North Bay Woman

40 NORTH BAY WOMAN F A L L 2 0 2 0 Above: Oshalla Diana Marcus in the backyard garden at the Sekhmet wellness collective and dance studio in Richmond. Below: Marcus in her Mardi Gras mask in front of the Marin City Arts Gallery. – Photos by Stuart Lirette clear she burns with a raging fire for creativity that allows her to wear so many hats and have them all fit success- fully. "For me, creation can mean so much," said Marcus in a telephone interview. "It's all the things you do. Where you're coming from, what you're creating, what's the life that you are creating with the time that you have. I identify as an African born in America. And I also refer to myself as a Black person. That's why I launched the Marin City Arts and Culture collective. Its membership is a network of Black artists and entrepreneurs from the African diaspora. We will have our grand opening this month (October) with a masked Mardi Gras ball outside to honor the current need to mask, and also honor Mardi Gras' Black roots. "Creating this space feels like the synthesis of all that I have ever done," she continued. "We launched the website and now we will manage 2000 square feet of art gallery and retail store in Marin City, in the shopping center where the flea market used to be. We feel we can revitalize this area by bringing people in to enjoy a variety of Black arts and culture." Born Diana Marcus to parents who traced their history back to great grandparents enslaved in the American South, Marcus went to Africa in the late 1980s to find out more about her deeper roots. (She did a DNA test and found that her origins were in West Africa.) There, she met a Yoruba priest who helped her research and choose an African name that represented the many passions that were blooming inside this always-curious woman: the name Oshalla. She took the name in Africa through what she described as a powerful naming ceremony. "Oshalla, in Brazil, is a Yoruba deity, a creation deity," Marcus explained. "It's androgynous. It's all about creation energy. I so completely respond to that." She was already studying healing arts as well as theater arts (she has a degree from the California Institute of Integral Studies plus credentials as a pilates mat instructor; she also became a yoga instructor following certification earned in Bangalore, India). Choosing the name Oshalla and adding it to her given American name upped the ante on what she wanted — and believed — she could achieve. "The shoes I stepped into with the name Oshalla were much bigger when I found out all the meanings of the name. Oshalla refers to the Creator of all, and that's where I ultimately get my strength. Taking on that name brought me closer to that inner part of myself which is where the arts and movement come from. Before I do anything, I get in touch with my deepest self, I get in touch with the creation spirit." What Marcus calls her natural tendency

• Cover