Biography
Xelinda Yancy loves the journey called her life because it has been remarkably unconventional, right down to her name. Even as a child Xelinda played with Tonka Trucks, Transformers and GI Joe, along with Barbie. "I just didn't have any notion of something being a girl toy verses a boy toy (PUN!), so I got to play with everything," she says. This kind of "play with any toy you want" attitude followed her into adulthood as Xelinda decided in her early teens that she would become a film writer, director and producer. Little did she know, this path wasn't the only unconventional one that would contribute to the adventure that is her life.
After graduating from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts in Film, Xelinda gained needed experience to pursue her dreams in a myriad of ways including, working in the world of finance on corporate budgets and tax filings, producing for a live television news show, working on Hollywood blockbuster films, traveling domestically and internationally and producing award-winning shorts including one of her own that she also wrote and directed.
Xelinda continues to develop and write material intended for the big screen, including producing a documentary called Stewards of the Land, a first person account, in which she takes the viewer on a journey to answer one question, "If we give personhood to corporations, why not the environment?" Also she has researched, developed and written Syracuse 8: A True Story, a screenplay about a group of football players who boycott the 1970 season during a tumultuous time at Syracuse University. "It is a great story that shows unyielding athletes standing up for what they believe in to change a 20-year old, outdated athletic system. That's some powerful stuff!"
However, it was the events in Xelinda's personal life that really made the most impact on her. In 2010, she underwent a great shift, a massive, transformative experience which unleashed a creative wisdom and placed her on the nomadic path of the "Arty Hobo." As a hodgepodge of literary meanderings about the human condition, food, film, music and the road to inner peace, The Arty Hobo: A gastropub for the soul, is Xelinda's attempt to share her experiences by allowing a space to aid in illuminating world, or maybe just Brooklyn, NY.
Xelinda resides in the United States and splits her time between the east and the west coast and everywhere in between.
