Today we’d like to introduce you to Sardis Disla
Hi Sardis, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started as a child of immigrant parents who left everything behind to chase the American dream. My Father is Dominican and my mother is Venezuelan, my father’s family moved to Venezuela and that’s where they met. Although this was before Venezuela was in complete turmoil, they had already started seeing the signs and knew they had to leave. My parents, alongside my 3 aunts and grandmother, landed in New York (my family is a Matriarchy). We lived in small run-down crappy apartments throughout New York while they rebuilt their lives. We lived in cramped rooms with many other family members, sometimes sharing a one-bedroom apartment with multiple adults and children running around. In 4th grade I started having issues at school, the Bronx public school system is a difficult environment to grow up in. There was a lot of violence amongst the kids, even in 4th grade. Because of this, my mom started homeschooling me until they saved up enough to move us out to a home in Pennsylvania. We were essentially starting over again, leaving our extended family, church support, and jobs behind, and yet there was more hope in the air this time. Going from roach-infested apartments and a less-than-perfect school to my own bedroom in a house with a yard and a school where everyone wore Hollister and Uggs was the American Dream.
This was essential to how I perceive myself and the world, my parents had nothing and built their lives from the ground up to their liking. This is how I live my life today, if I am unhappy I move, I change, I adapt. It’s why I am where I am today.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Sometimes I wish it had been a smooth road to get here, but I am also grateful for the struggles I faced. I don’t think I would have achieved as much if it weren’t for the struggles. You see, even though I am grateful for my parent’s sacrifice, the stresses that they went through were often passed down to me. I had to grow up fast as the first-born daughter of 4 younger siblings. I was placed into parental roles from a young age, and as I got older and realized I was queer I had to parent myself as well. My parents, although not traditional, were very conservative. Especially when it came to the queer community. I had to learn to love myself unconditionally when I wasn’t receiving love from them. This is still a challenge I face today, but now I have a community of people all over the country who support me. I don’t know what I would do without the friends and community that I have found in nightlife.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My story as a DJ and event curator started recently when I moved to Miami 3 years ago. I’ve always been an artist, but after trying every traditional form of art I began to feel lost in which direction to go in. I have a degree in graphic design but it is not my passion. I also couldn’t visualize myself as someone with artwork in a gallery, that world is not for me. I didn’t think music was where I would end up, but as soon as I started it all started to make sense, and I realized this was exactly what I was meant to be doing. The rest of Miami agreed as well. Since my first DJ gig, it has been nonstop opportunities, both in my DJ and event organizer career.
I am most proud of staying true to the core of who I am while having success in a state like Florida. There are a lot of anti-queer and anti-trans rhetorics here, and even within nightlife, you can feel it. I’m very proud and humbled to be able to provide spaces for other people like myself, who don’t always feel comfortable in traditional nightlife spaces. Nightlife has always been essential to the queer community and in Miami, it’s no exception To be able to contribute to it via my event series Corruption and my Djing is incredibly fulfilling.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
In general, one of the most important lessons that I’ve learned is that you have to work on yourself first to be able to give to others. I spent years being miserable and mad at the world for the life it had given me, that anger got me nowewhere and just continued the downward cycle. Once I started to work on myself and changed my outlook on life, things started coming my way without me even having to try. In nightlife, social capital is everything, and to build genuine connections with people you have to be in a good place with yourself. And in general, as an artist, you also have to be comfortable enough with yourself to be able to express yourself genuinely. If you’re in the public eye people can sense if you’re being genuine or not and respond to that. Even though I just started my career in nightlife I have already played on some of Miami’s biggest stages with some of the world’s biggest artists and I believe it is because I have been genuine throughout the entire process.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quetamine.png/
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/quetamine
