The Rainbow Pride Center invites a stilt-walking motivational speaker for a mental health workshop.
By Kenya Harris
A nonbinary stilt-walking performer and motivational speaker by the name of BrandElsa Pereira ran a free mental health workshop to empower and foster hope among queer students. The Rainbow Pride Center hosted the workshop and provided food and drinks for attendees during the event inside the Unity Center.
Pereira began the workshop with a dance performance to Beyonce’s “Cozy” followed by a breathing exercise and an icebreaker activity.
Elsa encouraged shy attendees to join in on the conversation.
“Showing up as your true self is brave,” said Elsa.
As a nonbinary performer, BrandElsa has faced scrutiny from people about how they should fit into the gender binary. Although Brand came out at 17, not everyone in their family was okay with that.
“My mother’s world was shattered,” said Elsa.
Pereira first began performing in 2008, as a theater arts major. They learned stilt-walking and performed over several years as a cast member for both Disney parks and the Sesame Workshop. Their costume and stilt-walking has evolved into a motivational performance over the pandemic.
“I found a group of people who showed me it’s okay to be myself and create my own expectations,” says Elsa.
Pereira took a moment to purposefully stumble on their stilts and used that to teach students that getting up from a fall is like getting back up again in life: the fall may be scary, but it does not have to be the defining moment.
“Embrace risk, conquer fear, and step onto the stilts of life,” Brand said.
They emphasized the importance of building community and connections to remind students of their strengths and then touched on how control and choice can affect mental health. Brand closed the presentation with their six pillars of resilience: growth mindset, emotional intelligence, community connections, self-expression, embodiment, and choice/control.
“It’s okay not to be okay, but understand that there are people around you ready to lift you up. You just have to look for them,” said Brand.
After the applause, students flooded Brand with appreciation following the end of the presentation.
“This event was the best part of my day. It was inspirational to see someone stepping out of the box and to be so confident. That energy rubbed off on everyone in the room. We’re very lucky to have seen this today,” said business major Nicole Shadi.