Image Description: Sisters Aiyana and Narieka are standing outside on a sunny day, laughing. Both of them look as if they weren't expecting to have their picture taken. Aiyana has brown hair piled on her head, and is scrunching up her face as she leans towards the camara and points at whoever is taking the picture. She is wearing a black top and purple skirt. Narieka stands upright, next to her, with curly blond hair also on top of her head, and is turning towards the camera but slightly profiled. She is wearing a blue top and black skirt with a colorful belt. They are beneath an apple tree which is speckling them in shade and sunlight. Behind them is a bright green lawn and more trees.
Who We Are
SisterStories is a sister-founded storytelling and performance company.
* We create original performances that weave together storytelling, physical theater, movement, music and audience engagement.
* We write and illustrate children's books.
* We offer artist residencies and workshops in schools, libraries and community organizations.
We are actually sisters! As family, we have played, sang, told stories, laughed and created together our whole lives. Both of us are multidisciplinary artists, educators and people who love to play. SisterStories is a collaboration born from our many years of artistic training as well as our natural, powerful sister chemistry. Through our creative work, dedication to social justice and environmental stewardship, collaboration with other artists and community leaders, we share the commitment to awaken the imagination and build communities of care.
Our Mission
To spark care, connection and the imagination. We strive to cultivate personal, global and environmental stewardship through storytelling, performance art and children's books. We are dedicated to accessible, connective and interactive artistic platforms for all ages.
Narieka Rose Masla is a multidisciplinary artist. She is a storyteller, dancer, actor and clown, writer, arts educator and yoga practitioner. When she’s not making up stories or moving her body in some way, Narieka loves singing, playing the violin, spending time in nature, practicing languages and clowning around. Her experience of growing up between the US and Mexico informs much of Narieka’s work and shapes the way she creates and teaches. Narieka is committed to the work of connecting across difference and creating communities of care. She is passionate about catalyzing social and ecological stewardship through cultivating joy, embodied mindfulness and the imagination. Narieka attended Naropa University before receiving her BA in Performance Art and Critical Social Inquiry from Hampshire College. She holds her 200hrYTT from Yoga Veda and has trained with places such as The Theater Resource Center, Soma Source and Patch Adams and The Gesundheit Institute. Narieka has worked as a performer, teaching artist and facilitator with schools and organizations such as Karen Peterson & Dancers, The Miami Children's Museum Theater Troupe, The Embodied Leadership Project, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Hampshire College, and Jerusalem Peace Builders. She currently lives in Miami where she is grateful to swim in the ocean nearly everyday.
Aiyana Masla is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. She is an Illustrator, storyteller, painter, curriculum writer, certified sex educator, published poet, musician & singer. She thrives in collaboration, and is a co-author and illustrator of Liberatory Education Tool’s (LET’s) original curriculum, Teach Affirm Learn Know (T.A.L.K.) Gender, Consent and Sexuality for elementary school, as well as an associate with Alma Partners consulting, working with schools and organizations across the US and Canada. Aiyana studied Contemplative Education and Liberatory, Anti-bias Curriculum for Early Childhood, receiving her BA from Naropa University. Growing up cross-culturally between the US and Mexico (due to her family’s work), shaped her to be passionate about the value of cross-cultural exchange, intersectionality, difference, and belonging. As a bilingual artist and educator, she has worked and performed both across the US and internationally for the last 14 years, including study, residencies, facilitation, and performances at Double Edge Theater, the Theater Resource Center, Jerusalem Peace Builders, the Royal Frog Ballet, and the Ex-Carcel Parque Cultural. She also loves to laugh, to play dress up, to drink tea, to dance and to garden.