Black History Makers
Aquarius Ester Alegria
"In case no one has ever told you, mental health recovery is possible. Life does not end after diagnosis. If you seek out a healthy community, establish firm goals, and hold yourself accountable to the spirit of balance, you will see a difference. Keep at it.”
-Aquarius Ester Alegria
Aquarius Ester Alegria is a recovery support specialist, clinical massage therapist, filmmaker, and performance artist using her lived experience with chronic pain and mental health challenges to create unique tools for trauma recovery.
Over the past 13 years, she has used film, poetry, dance, journalism and performance art as a vehicle to process heavy emotions and manage the symptoms of my mental and physical health diagnoses, leading to a level of stability that supports clients at a Chicago-based mental health organization.
In 2015, Aquarius' former performance group, Zo//Ra recorded and released an album, Indigenous Black, featuring music for Honey Pot Performance’s Ma(s)king Her which was released in 2016. My first film, Ambivert debuted with OTV in 2017, leading to an academic review and development of audio descriptions at New York's New School in the Disability in Media Arts program. In 2018, Aquarius began performing with the Participatory Music Coalition and danced in several live and recorded compositions by Angel Bat Dawid in 2019 and was a featured performer in ETHOS by Ayako Kato.
In 2020, Aquarius became an OTV Film Fellow, developing her scriptwriting and directorial skills. In 2021, her script for Second Sunday was accepted into Full Spectrum Features Producers Lab. In 2022 and 2023, Aquarius obtained a Clinical Massage license as well as trained to become a Recovery Support Specialist in order to deepen her understanding of the physical manifestations of trauma. In 2024, Aquarius completed the short film, New Hire which, to date, has nine festival/screening acceptances, won best Cinematography at Flex Obscura Film Festival, and completed a nationwide film tour called, Our Right to Gaze powered by Full Spectrum Features and OTV. New Hire can currently be streamed on the Pixquid app.
In 2023, Aquarius partnered with The Healing Academy to present two iterations of
Ancestor Fest, Chicago's first grief support festival and workshop series.
In the Summer of 2024, Aquarius completed the Production Lab - Digital Storyteller’s Initiative supported by University of Chicago and the Community Film Workshop where she directed her third short film, Second Sunday–a proof of concept for an upcoming series.
During the day, Aquarius teaches clients how to build mental health tools using their own natural skills, interests and experiences. Aquarius' film work is where she visualizes the journey of trauma identification, addressing difficult-to-discuss topics, and present tools to manage symptoms.
Aquarius' goal is to provide creative and empathetic mental health care as well as create experimental artwork that tells surrealistic stories about everyday Chicagoans, providing examples of how the creativity of the human mind can create myriad pathways to recovery.
Website: https://www.aquariusester.com
