Keep the Folk Feeling Good
My conversation with the Mayor about Art, City Morale, and Gun Violence Prevention
What’s good everyone,
As Chicago and other cities heat up, the tourists come but sadly so do the bullets. My conversation with Mayor Johnson yesterday sobered me up to that jarring juxtaposition as we both got haircuts at the same barber shop on the West Side. He first told me to keep folk feeling good once I told him I was playing a show tonight. Later on he lamented that a good day for him is having reports of shootings but no homicides. He reminded me of the vital link between art and gun violence reduction. And to think he said that on National Gun Violence Prevention Day.
To that end, thank you for supporting art, mine and anyone else’s. I look forward to making the folk feel good on tonight at my show here in town, in-person and on livestream (8.30p at Constellation).
—
To live at the edge of one’s creativity constantly invites faith, because you don’t know what all is going to happen when you engage the new. I suspect that’s how Jesus' followers felt as He critiqued, healed, consoled, transgressed, and resurrected. The stories may seem predictable and logical now, but to have lived them would’ve been a good mix of exhilaration, intrigue, and bewilderment.
That’s where I sit today (though not that bewildered lol). Normally my group Circle of Trust has just been a trio, but tonight there are many hands that will help plow alongside Micah Collier on bass and James Russell Sims on drumkit: Tramaine Parker, Nick Peterson and Demond Read are on vocals; Isaiah Collier sitting in on sax; Myron Laban a visual artist (who will be painting a piece that we’ll auction off to raise funds for Palestine); and Keisha Janae a dancer who will be bringing to life my new joint “The Moans They Left Us.”
This creative outpour has come from marrying the questions “What If?” with “How Can?”. I daresay as creatives, Christians and/or folk of goodwill we must endeavor to routinely ask both. I know that historically I have downplayed the idealistic “what if?” for the sake of the practical “how can?”, but God has shown me the importance of holding the dream together with the plan.
Are you equally strong at asking “what if” and “how can,” or do you favor one over the other?
Robert Glasper, one of my main musical influences, released a beautiful meditative piano record yesterday on Apple Music called Let Go. (I love it!) He said that whenever he releases a new record he feels more like himself. I resonate with that concept deeply, because it captures how I feel about milestone musical moments like tonight. I feel more like Julian when I write new tunes and bring in new creative elements. May we all keep creating in ways that help us feel more like us. GCreator be praised.
abundantly,
Julian
What’s Next
Jun 14-15 Isaiah Collier and the Chosen Few (Winnipeg and Regina, Canada)
Jun 22 The JuJu Exchange at The BlkRoom (Chicago)
June 25 - July 9 Isaiah Collier and the Chosen Few Tour (Europe)
Have a great show!