By Tim Wassberg | tim@newpelican.com

Fort Lauderdale – After many years of trying to find her own voice and confidence, songwriter/filmmaker Dana DellaCamera is blossoming.

Now, she’s using her non-profit Arts Accelerator to encourage others and living her best life in the Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts community.

“When I moved into Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts, it was life-changing for me. I’m inspired constantly. Every morning when I wake up, I see art. That’s why there’s so much art in the downtown area.”

She founded Arts Accelerator to help filmmakers accelerate their careers by providing workshops, masterclasses and networking events that unite the community in South Florida.

DellaCamera said that urban sprawl impacted the artist community. The Lofts with subsidized rent awarded through a heavily curated application process by Artspace Fort Lauderdale brings affordable housing into downtown. “This brings artists back into the downtown to get that creativity flowing again. It’s so powerful,” she said.

South Florida, she says, is underrated.

“There is so much talent here. But it comes down to dollar signs.”

In her mind, the creatives here can stand shoulder to shoulder next to Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles. “It’s just a different atmosphere. We really have a huge opportunity in South Florida. Number one, we’re probably the most diverse culturally and we really can tell diverse, inclusive stories that are representative of our community.”

DellaCamera does this through her recordings and works with local filmmakers. She recently did a Facebook Watch symposium to bring focus to art in the downtown area, especially now when  artists are even more isolated.

“Always with my art, I want to make a statement. I want to leave people with something that is helpful, even if it’s a thought, a conversation, or just something that people can relate to. Or even if it’s to laugh,” DellaCamera said.

She says she always asks artists who want her opinions on scripts, films and creative endeavors: “What do you want to leave the audience with?”

She wrote her first single “Rise Up” three years ago. “I was put on a writing team with a producer who put seven of us songwriters and singers together. They gave us like 20 beats and were like, “Okay, we want you to write music to all of these beats and we’re going to pitch these to artists.”

The beat for the song, she says, was actually called “Black Youth.”

Sitting at her house she started hearing the lyrics and wrote the song in two hours. “Everybody loved it and at first I was a little concerned, because I am caucasian and the song is really about diversity and celebrating diversity and equality, but just because I’m caucasian doesn’t mean that I can’t speak up, rise up and have a voice and a stand for equality,” she said.

DellaCamera had never done this particular style of music before, which was kind of like a trip-reggae fusion. “It was my first time tippy-toeing” because she had mostly done alternative rock and jazz standards.

The rapper Jei Club, who also performs on the song, was someone DellaCamera met through SongFest, which is an initiative of the Broward Cultural Division.

“They put us together in a boot camp for two weeks. And every Tuesday and Thursday, we would meet with music producers and publishers. And then, we all wrote one song together as a team, all 11 of us.” Through Songfest as well as Jacob, she also met “bbywng,” the artist on her new single “Hunch Punch” which releases this month.

But being a creative is about growing and that is what the area is allowing her to do. When she was first doing alternative rock with her band, she “didn’t feel like it was a true representation of myself. The music that I’m putting out now feels like me. I listen and I smile and I’m proud of it. And I’m like, ‘That’s me.’”

DellaCamera says, for artists, it is not about being perfect. It is more about: “There I am. I’m right there.” She says “for most of my life I was afraid for people to see me because I was afraid that if they did, I would get rejected. So, I would hide, hide, hide, hide between a lot of different coping mechanisms.”

Visit danadellacamera.com for more about DellaCamera’s work.