Words by Kamrin Baker
Photos by Carley Scott Fields
November 14, 2019
feat. in Issue 2
The Magic of Maria
Issue 2 : The second issue has exclusive content you won’t see here.
It would be easy to call Maria Corpuz a public speaker, an activist, a performer, or even a stand-up comedian, but simply put, she grew up wanting to be a “professional friend.”
Leaving high school, Corpuz thought that desire to care for others and take people under her wing manifested itself in a nursing degree, and after a year of coming to the realization that was not how she was “meant to serve,” she pursued journalism and public relations at Creighton University.
Now in her mid-20’s, Corpuz looks back at her undergraduate education fondly, most specifically a “Backpack Journalism” documentary program that ignited a fire for compassion through conversation.
This program took her to Nogales, Arizona and Mexico, a border town where she told deeply human stories of immigrants from countries like the Dominican Republic and Honduras in the film El Deportado. Corpuz explained the people she met were preyed on by police, drug cartels and poverty, as they attempted to become U.S. citizens and pave better futures for their families.
“When I got back, all I could think was ‘how do I keep doing this? How do I continue what I learned on this trip back in Omaha-- or wherever?’” she said.
Corpuz then dove head-first into a publication called NOISE, with her dear friend Dawaune Hayes, channeling her journalism skills with her desire to help the community.
However, Corpuz’s love for interviews and conversations overtook her love of the written word, and drawn to the style of political comedian Samantha Bee, the lightbulb electrified.
“It was after the 2016 election, and I was already canvassing and stuff, and I just needed to figure out what I could do with what I had,” Corpuz said. “I’m not a singer so I’m not throwing a benefit concert, and I’m not a comedian by any means, but I can talk off the cuff and make it work.”
Enter: Nite Caps with Maria Corpuz.
“It’s this beautiful bouquet of thought flowers, from different people, different pollinators, Everyone comes from these different spaces, and we don’t want an echo chamber. I want to invite panelists who are from completely different experiences.”
Nite Caps is Corpuz’s monthly talk show based out of OutrSpaces in Little Bohemia, where she takes a topic (most often taboo, or political, or just difficult to talk about), invites a panel to speak with her, and finds a musical guest to round out the fun.
“When you look at culture, you see two movements pushing it. It’s art and politics,” Corpuz said. “Politics push the legislation we work under and our state of being, our living habits, etc. But, musicians and artists push culture in a different way.”
She rattles off a list of intersections of politics and art-- Beyonce’s advocacy for Beto O’Rourke’s Senate campaign, Taylor Swift’s sudden involvement in Tennessee’s politics and voting rates, a talk show that schedules an interview with Michelle Obama alongside a performance by Billie Eilish.
Nite Caps topics have ranged from sex education, criminal justice reform, domestic violence and mental health to spirituality, voting, cancel culture and toxic masculinity. If that feels like a complete list, she has more where that comes from.
“We’re talking about where those things intersect,” Corpuz said. “Can you make these topics non-partisan? These are states of life and facts that we live in-- how do we push everything on both ends-- or in a whole new direction? What would happen if we brought those two things [art and politics] together? Even at a microscopic level, which it totally is right now, what if we changed those things?”
The way she speaks is bold; her eyes glitter with excitement, her voice arches in question as she begs for more of her community, and she jots ideas down in a reporter’s notebook that she says she brings everywhere.
While Nite Caps may seem microscopic to her at this moment, as she explains her long list of goals to accompany life’s most intimate conversations, it’s clear she’s only just getting started.
“The biggest challenge has been learning the balance of being confident enough to put my name on it but not making it about me,” Corpuz said. “I’m much better at the latter, but you watch Jimmy Fallon, you watch Trevor Noah, and it’s MY show, but I just feel so vain. I’m working on being more confident with it.”
Her reservations-- and her strengths-- lie within the unique setting of Nite Caps.
“It’s hard to explain it because nothing is really quite like it. It’s not like a late night show, it’s not just me doing bits or interviewing people-- it’s just a live late-night conversation.”
Although Maria invites a sense of radical vulnerability-- and potentially, radical politics--into her evening conversations, she says every event has always ended positively.
“It’s really warm. I don’t know if it’s OutrSpaces, or if it’s the way I feel about it, but it’s a really warm energy,” Corpuz said. “It’s really humbling because people are there to want to learn, and I think that’s a really beautiful thing. It’s this beautiful bouquet of thought flowers, from different people, different pollinators. Everyone comes from these different spaces, and we don’t want an echo chamber. I want to invite panelists who are from completely different experiences.”
As for making the space welcoming and inclusive to all? Corpuz has a trick up her sleeve.
“I usually say the first cuss word of the night so people know what they’re in for,” Corpuz said. “I need to make it organic; that’s really important. The doors are open a half hour early so people can get comfortable and interact. The goal, too, is to meet someone you don’t know. We spend time with like-people so branching out is what makes us grow. ”
In terms of her own growth, Corpuz has plans to turn her conversations into podcasts-- she has them all archived for this purpose-- and she wants to fundraise and gather sponsorships to pay herself for the work she is doing, and to develop ownership over equipment and merchandise.
Organizing her many thought flowers into a vast garden, Corpuz has plans to take this show on the road. She has connections in New York City, Portland, Kansas City-- and probably after a few more talks-- just about the whole world.
“I want to prove that you can do it anywhere, that I could take it on tour, and that it doesn’t just have to be me,” Corpuz said. “I need to have a contingency plan and a uniform format.”
Corpuz includes herself in every lesson plan, as she studies the topics she discusses, as well as her performance and influence in this sacred space. Her learning curve doesn’t stop at organizing and hosting a conversation but in the dialogue itself.
“If you hear something that doesn’t align with what you believe--but it starts to kind of make sense-- you think, like, ‘have I been wrong my entire life?’ But it’s super beautiful and we need to start to do that with each other,” she said. “I’m always trying to learn, I’ve said things that I didn’t know about, you know? Ignorance isn’t all the time negative. It’s about what are you going to do once you learn this information.”
The spotlight broadens as she connects each person in her vicinity. Her reaction to learning more about the Omaha community-- the global community--is to expand her circle of friends just a little wider every day. One might even say she’s a pro.
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