Finding balance is her art. Meet Melani Douglas an artist, educator, and curator who focuses on socially engaged art and bringing artists together. She founded the Family Art Museum, a nomadic non-collecting institution focusing on family as fine art, home as curated space and community as gallery, and is the Director of Public Programs at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She sees everything in her life as part of her art practice, including being a mother and friend. 

In this episode learn how Melani is cultivating peace during the pandemic, her experience as a black woman in a white institution, and exciting new projects she’s working on, including one with artist Halim Flowers called Art as the Answer.

Melani talks about:

• How she’s been doing during this pandemic and what motherhood means to her.

Links in this episode:

Melani Douglas Instagram

Melani Douglas

Family Art Museum

Halim Flowers

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Kindred Creatives Collective

This week on the podcast, I go rogue to share the story of how I overcame my fears to start and launch the Creatives Making Moves podcast. This episode is raw and vulnerable, and just me.

Until recently, I was the queen of doing extensive planning for months in a google doc before making a single move towards my dreams. One day I realized I had to stop thinking, and start doing.

In this episode, I unpack why we ghost on our genius because of fears. You'll also learn why you don't need to know every step of your dream right now, and why leaning into discomfort is actually a really good thing.

By the end of the episode you'll realize that while starting before you're ready isn't easy, it's necessary.

Because everything you dream of becoming exists in your fears. 

Links mentioned in this episode:

From Fear to Freedom: Artist Collective

Kindred Creatives Collective

Instagram

Facebook

Rachel Rogers

A.J. McClenon is a badass originally from D.C. “proper,” and currently based in Chicago. They’ve been making moves as Newcity’s 2020 Breakout Artist, a 2020 Spark Grant Recipient, and a 3ARTS Make A Wave recipient. A.J. is also co-founder of F4F, and co-organizer of Beauty Breaks, an intergenerational beauty and wellness series for black people along the spectrum of femininity. 

1. work is grounded in storytelling weaving writing, performance, sound, and video arts to share experiences living in a black body. They believe telling the stories and histories of black people should be told and retold again so that they aren’t forgotten. 

In this episode we talk about the importance of artists telling their stories, and why A.J. wants to combat political and cultural amnesia of black people, bringing to the surface our experiences and histories through their art. 

Find out how stories their ancestors told them drives their work and more!

In this episode A.J. shares:

• The story of a high school yearbook project that started their journey to knowing that they wanted to be an artist.

AJ McClennon

Beauty Breaks

VEGA

3Arts

Spark Grant

Kindred Creatives

MoNique LeRoux believes that we should all focus on what we’re really good at, and forget about the rest.

After several changes in careers, including the military and firefighting, and going through depression, MoNique is now a full time successful artist and podcaster. She is best known for her resin and fire painting technique. Based in Houston, Texas, MoNique runs Mo LeRoux Art where she takes commissions and sells her art and merchandise online.

MoNique inspires artists with her movement and motto Stop Doing Things You Don’t Like. Over the years she has mastered diversifying her art practice and using marketing tools to grow her business, while doing only what makes her happy every day.

 In this episode, we talk about how MoNique took a leap of faith to become a full time artist, and her journey of teaching herself how to grow her business doing what she loves.

In this episode Monique shares:

• How MoNique went from being a firefighter to a full-time artist selling out $11,000 in her first big art opening.

Links in this episode:

Escapist Art Mentorship

MoNique LeRoux Art

Perspective as an Artist

Kindred Creatives Collection

Toni Taylor has taken many different paths as an artist. 

Her art spans mixed media wire sculptures, scenic painting, and Afro futuristic illustrations. Toni wants to touch people with her art; heal, inspire, and bring wonder. Her work travels through the visionary realms of fantasy, mysticism, and imaginative realism. 

With no formal training, Toni considers herself life taught. She began her career in 1985, with a cover for Heavy Metal Magazine, of which she was an avid collector. Since then, she has been commissioned as a cover Illustrator for Marvel Comics along with various book and album covers. 

With these wins, also came many challenges. 

Toni has reinvented her career several times, starting over, and finding a new path. Passion and determination keeps her going in hard times. In this episode we talk about why it's so important to understand your “why” and how creatives can push through difficult moments. 

Toni shares in this episode:

• The story of the wrong phone number that turned into an hour long conversation, and led to new possibilities and new gigs. 

Links in this episode:

Star Child Art

Star Child Art Instagram

Star Child Art Facebook

Kindred Creatives Collective

Lindsay Renea Benton grew up in a creative household with both parents, her grandmother, and eldest aunt as artists. Hearing stories as a young girl from strong creative women in her family propelled her imagination and expanded her realm of possibilities. 

In this week’s episode I dive into Lindsay Renea’s journey as a professional dancer, choreographer, and professor at Alabama State University. 

Lindsay Renea has stories to share and lives to bless! She started her career landing a principal dancer spot for the famous Garth Fagan Dance company in New York. Watching the choreography process of legends inspired her to later start her own dance company in her hometown Ohio, the Lindsay Renea Dance Theater. 

Things she witnessed and experienced always find their way into her practice, weaving together to build a beautiful texture that she shares with her students. Lindsay Renea is on a mission to expose young people who look like her to the arts through dance. 

Listen to how Lindsay Renea expertly balances running her nonprofit, the Lyndsay Renea Foundation, and being a full time professor, while also the Founder and Artistic Director of the Lindsay Renae Dance Theater. 

Here’s a snippet of what you’ll hear in this episode:

• Lindsay Renea’s full circle moment that started from her traveling the world in a black dance company and attending Howard University. 

Links in this episode:

Lindsay Renea

Red Clay Dance

Garth Fagan Dance

Joyce Theater Foundation

Kindred Creatives Collective

Black women and the magic we create when we hit rock bottom is the inspiration for this week’s podcast episode. 

When most people hit rock bottom, they get stuck. They tell themselves that this is it. They start doubting that they can have an abundant, free, and happy life.

Sasha-Loreine is living proof that’s not the case. 

When she hit rock bottom after another rejection letter from a galley, a failed relationship, and being in a job that was affecting her mental health, she decided in that moment that she wasn’t going to let anything else control her happiness. Today, Sasha-Loriene is the Founder and CEO of the successful platform Black Girls Who Paint. 

On today’s podcast episode we explore how to get unstuck by shifting your beliefs.

If you’ve ever struggled with feeling trapped by your current situation, or afraid to take the leap to starting a business, you won't want to miss this episode.

This is a “tell all’ kind of episode where we dig deep into:

• Sasha-Loriene’s brainchild Black Girls Who Paint. She pulls back the curtains of her business to reveal why and how she started. 

Black Girls Who Paint

BGWP

Sasha-Loriene

Kindred Creatives Collective

You don't have to be a starving artist. Secure the bag, and keep the bag. 

That’s what Myesha Francis believes, and I’m here for it.

Myesha is passionate about seeing artists grow, develop, and be successful. She is an accomplished painter, educator, and business owner of House of Women and Wine NOLA. Besides being a boss and receiving numerous awards, including Arts Entrepreneurship and Excellence from Essence, she is just a really kind soul.

In this week’s episode, we go behind the scenes of her life as a creative entrepreneur to talk about the start of her career opening a gallery. 

What started as a little studio, eventually grew into a thriving gallery in the heart of the arts district in New Orleans for over seven years. Myesha shares her strategies for building a sustainable creative practice, struggles, and how burnout eventually made her pivot and start a new chapter. 

If you are suffering alone right now, trying to figure it out, always broke, and crying in the dark, this episode is for you. You’re not alone.

So take the next step, and have faith that you’re on the right path. People will help you along the way, and doors will start to open. 

In this episode Myesha shares:

• How artists can be creative in thinking about different revenue streams. 

M Francis Gallery 

Myesha Francis Chanel

Women and Wine Nola

KIndred Creatives Collective

Empowered Creatives Retreat

What are you deeply interested in exploring right now? Is it a social issue? Is it how to twerk without breaking your back? Whatever it is, your next big creative idea is probably in that exploration. When you start that journey, everything will magically fall into place. 

On this week's episode of Creatives Making Moves, I interviewed the lovely Kenyatta Forbes. She is a native Chicagoan who uses humor and her own experience as a black woman to have challenging conversations about race and identity. She is a multi-talented creative who does it all from macrame, film, performance, game design, consulting, and community activations. She is also the founder of her widely successful brain child Trading Races, a trading card game for blackness.

The idea for Trading Races was sparked from Kenyatta’s personal desire to have conversations about the complexities of being a black person. She knew that there were three access points to have these conversations; with self, with your community, and folks outside your community. She thought about a tool to visually present the complexity of race that would be accessible in all three spaces, and the rest is history.

Kenyatta shows that a great starting point for your next big idea, that can lead to a thriving business, starts with your deep need to know more about something. By the end of this episode, you’ll understand the power of staying committed to projects that interest you.

Here’s what we discussed in this episode:

• What Kenyatta does for a work life balance that allows her to show up fully.

• Why Kenyatta created Trading Races, and how she knew instinctively when it was the right time to bring it out into the world.

• How Kenyatta facilitates safe space in Trading Races in order to have real conversations about race with a mixed crowd.

• Why open dialogue about race and identity must be had, and why it's important to allow people to get it wrong.

• Kenyatta’s greatest accomplishment, that has nothing to do with her work or a product.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Trading Races

Kenyatta Forbes

Marwen

Kindred Creatives Collective

Imagine running a business and still having time for your creativity.

If you ever wondered how to balance time for your creative gifts and sanity, while running a business, then this episode is for you.

I interviewed Ayo Lasisi, an actor, youth program coordinator for FATE, and entrepreneur who turned her passion for African dance and health into the fitness company EWA Fitness. Ayo is a boss trailblazing her own path.

A common misconception that I hear from artists who want to turn their passions into a business is a belief that all their time and energy will be sucked away with boring administrative tasks.

In this episode, Ayo dispels this belief by sharing her system to stay on track, self care routine, and why it's crucial to make time to continue being creative. 

Here’s what we discuss in this episode:

• How Ayo’s love for african dance and music was sparked at a young age, and what event eventually led her to be a founding member of Fehinty African Theater company for 15 years. 

By the end of this episode you’re going to walk away knowing how to balance your business, and still have time for what matters most.

Click here to listen!

Links mentioned in this episode:

EWA Fitness

Fehinty African Theatre

The Cake Village

Yoruba Basics

Score

Kindred Creatives Collective