We recently connected with Johari Mitchell and have shared our conversation below.
Johari, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
The foundation for my sense of good writing has been life–being a lifelong learner and avid writer is a part of the package that is me. I also was the beneficiary of a whole skill set around children’s literature that I didn’t fully appreciate until it came time to produce children’s lit myself. In my professional training, I spent hours upon hours studying the anatomy of quality children’s literature as a literacy interventionist and literary coach, which included responsibility for research and acquisition of $120,000 in books for my school. This involved intimate knowledge of authors, books and characteristics of quality literature. I also sought out learning through The Highlights Foundation and Courage to Create and other communities, which help me to study the craft of writing. For example, I just recently completed an online course on character development, at the end of which was professional feedback on a manuscript in progress. These kinds of opportunities for feedback are priceless to me and help me refine my writing practice.
Knowing what I now know, if I could go back in time, first I would have majored in English as an undergraduate. Secondly, I would have been formally studying the writer’s craft through coursework long before I knew what first book I would produce. I would have been growing my practice all along the way–not in a project-based manner, but for its own sake. I wish I had learned to do this earlier.
I would say that the biggest obstacle in the way of learning more was my embracing of the quiet culture in public education that suggests you are not loyal to your work if you pursue parallel interests. It took me a long time to realize the true fallacy of this thinking. I now understand this: everything I do to become a better thinker and writer enhances my work in the workplace. All of the parts of me make the other parts better!
Johari, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
What people say makes me stand out is the ability to ask just-right questions that uncover solutions. I activate answers. This shows up through providing thought partnership services that include scribal strategy sessions in which a client simply has to show up and be willing to be guided through a process of strategic questions and writing that can help create a structured written map for the work they are trying to accomplish. I am a speaker, as well, and delivered my first TEDx speech, called “Failure Can Fuel Us: A Case for Stamina Stories” in 2022. Finally, I am also working to build online courses to help writers to grow their competence and confidence.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My daughter was the inspiration for a picture book I created called Sweet Fire about girls owning their voice and value. In the midst of life’s busyness, I worked over 4-1/2 years to produce this book, through family sickness, grief and loss, and demanding work and family life. I used my funds to pay the illustrator and also hired a designer to help me produce a quality product. Knowing I would need some crowdfunding support to finance the first offset print run, though, I finally mustered the courage to launch a Kickstarter campaign on my birthday in January 2023. The campaign raised only 48% of its goal, which in the all-or-nothing world of Kickstarter meant that I received nothing. I had a choice to make.
Encouraged and emboldened by the requests of supporters who wanted to still give, I decided to reimagine this crowdfunding campaign through a direct model. I set up a Google form and a process for receiving contributions, sending them into my business account as they came. I had a limited window of time to proceed with my printer, as this particular printer enters its peak season in March was only available to me if I delivered files to them by mid-February. In a faith move, I opted to proceed. Thankfully, my community came through and I was able to complete my first print run! it was truly, as my TEDx talk discusses, a stamina story. I want my children and those who follow my journey to understand that hunger–our passion, fire and sense of purpose–can produce incredible things even against the odds. I think we’ve done just that.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist and creative is this idea that one can take any circumstance in life and turn it into material. This lights me up inside! I have experienced creativity to be a lifeline. I believe creative ventures give us a blueprint for how to reframe and give voice to the human experiences that could knock us down if we let them. For example, I have come to believe that the world’s most successful songwriters are not just gifted, but they have paid a price for their gifting through pain. I believe that in some ways it is impossible to be a powerful artist without some form of resistance in life to push back up against. As we push back, we are choosing to make beauty out of chaos. Of course this is not to say that I believe a chaotic life is required to make great art!! This is not my message. I simply mean that creativity gives humans language–with and without words–for what life means. That’s powerful to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ohsweetfire.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jpmitchellwrites/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JPMitchellwrites
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jpmitchellwrites/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JPMitch90526845
Image Credits
TEDx KLB