We recently connected with Frewuhn and have shared our conversation below.

Frewuhn , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Being a full-time artist is like taking a can of paint and spattering it on wall, it can be both a masterpiece and mess. My path has come with seasons of plenty and some dry ones, but I think I’m still designing what that living means. My practice in education whether as a teacher or student, has been crucial to my creative work. I have come to find the right balance of work that feels like play keeps the curiosity for more learning, and trusting that your process is yours keeps it steady.

Collaboration, team building, business literacy and more information on how to maximize opportunity are all major steps toward a more efficient process but I don’t know if it would have sped up the process. I think I have been able to experience what I was ready for.

I think partnering with folks who have shared vision and value for the work created is essential to it’s ability to get where it needs to be. Having a team of early adapters (collaborators who clearly see your value even when its raw and undeveloped) can help you define what wins look like for you and you can help bring shared visions to life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Frewuhn is a multidisciplinary performing artist who activate spaces through music, poetry, performance, teaching and movement. She earned a B.A. in History from Fisk University, and a Master of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Her vocational work began during a residency at the Campus for Human Development in Nashville, TN, where she was a Creative Expression Coordinator.

Frewuhn is both a sonic and scholarly artist whose work draws primarily on Liberatory practice, a term in which bell hooks points to as a form of healing practice, “an opportunity for someone to make sense of what’s going on in their life.” She experiments with sonic and literary voice to reimagine devotional practice, anthems, hymns, spirituals and blues as portals of transformation. Frewuhn has written The Color of Frequency and developed a literary curriculum piloted at The Campus for Human Development, Nashville, TN, Fisk University, and Chattanooga State Community College Bond Lecture Series. Her recent work Nuhymns, was a protest lab developed in conversation with her work at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston as inaugural Camhlab artist and August Wilson African American Cultural Center.

Frewuhn is currently at work on her next release Side Be-ing, voice coaching, as well as collaborative work with other artists. Frewuhn is most proud of the work of developing devotional tools that use self as the site of emancipation.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

On a collective level I think artists should be more integrated into the everyday ecosystem, all the systems. Many artists are innovators and can have greater impact when they overlap worlds with other types of thinkers. More centering and less othering- which can also create more sustainable infrastructure for creatives to move with and alongside the communities they serve creatively.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is building a life based on freedom and creating pathways for what it means to embody freedom in a practical way for others.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.frewuhn.com
• Instagram: @frewuhn
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/frewuhn

Image Credits
Deja Lytle Caleb Bedford Frank Dilan Emmai Alquiva XX1Off Black Arts District