We were lucky to catch up with Dante Lorenzo recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dante, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The Philly Journal Project. I ask local artist to install their original art on the front and back cover of a composition book. On the inside cover of the notebooks are three rules as followed: (1) write whatever you want (2) stay anonymous (3) reach out to @thephillyjournal on Instagram when the book is full so it can be replaced. The idea of this project came from my personal mental health journey to healing, which inspired me to give people a safe place to be themselves and say whatever they need to say. Because most of us experience shame from our life experiences I wanted to give people a chance to collaboratively combat the shame through story telling. Once the journals get full they will be digitized and put on a website for people to read and share. I also have a goal to use the first 100 journals that get full as an art installation in The Philly Art Museum.
My hope with this project is that people are able to connect with the stories that others share. The slogan for The Philly Journal is “Our Stories, Told by Us” which speaks to this symbiotic healing that happens when people who live around one another and do life with one another connect with one another.
With The Philly Journal Podcast I ask people are successfully living a creative life to come on the podcast to tell their story authentically. In the podcast you can expect a conversational exchange between me and my guests, as I ask questions that help pull out their story in an authentic way. I connect with their story also, as I slowly reveal the story of my life. sometimes, I’ll ask questions that will help me grow and other times I’ll laugh with my guests about childish thoughts and funny flashbacks. The Philly Journal Podcast aims to be a social platform that entertains and connects people to people.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Dante Lorenzo. I’m a storyteller. My story starts back in 2020, the year that the earth stood still. I’d been rejected in three ways that completely changed the trajectory of my life. I lost a meaningful romantic relationship, was kicked out of the military, and my dream school rejected me for not being “academically prepared.” All these things happened in a span of six months. It was one really unfortunate thing after another. At the time, I didn’t think much of the rejection because of course we are conditioned to move on and keep it pushing. To “be an adult” and keep paying the bills and smiling like nothing ever happened. The sad reality though, is that I was deeply hurt and didn’t have any language for the way I was feeling. Years would go by and I stopped recognizing myself. I didn’t exercise anymore, talk to friends as much as I used to or show interest in the one thing I thought was going to be my life’s calling, music. Having noticed that I wasn’t creating or being passionate about anything, I used my emotion as a steam to power my motivation to create something. I wrote a song called “Dreams Feel Real” which was released back in 2021. Even after having made something from start to finish and being affirmed by friends and family, I still felt like I wasn’t hitting the mark. I knew that the only way for me to get up and out of this place I’d fallen into after such a rough period of life, was going to be something driven by passion. Not by money, not by fame, not by anything other than passion. In those years from 2020-2023 I’ve tried to write more music, tried to write a script, tried to get back into personal training, tried to get back into selling cars and I even tried to open a coffee shop called “33 trees” in memory of my late mother. Clearly I was emotional and unclear about what I’d want my life to look like moving forward.
In September of 2023 Id been frozen in place from all my emotions and stress. The longer it took for me to get better, the deeper into my depression I fell. The catch is that I didn’t make an real progress to getting better. I was just surviving and living with no purpose. Eventually this would catch up with me and I made the choice to throw in the towel. So, I sold off everything that I owned, packed a carry-on suitcase and hopped a flight from Philly to Chicago and a train from Chicago to Sacremento. Once I got to Sacramento I lived off grid for two weeks doing a work exchange program. It’d been my final wish to see the California sunset. The grounds where I was living was 25 acres, situated on the edge of an almond water reserve, which had unobstructed views of the most beautiful sun i’d ever seen in my life. Just outside of the gate of the property along the water was a peak where there was an old oak tree that I was to use. Ultimately, I tried and I failed to take my own life. I was frustrated because I’d done so much planning to get to this point. I lied to all my friends and family that I was going to backpack across Europe for a year, but before I went overseas I would start in Cali. Everyone was buying it. No one suspected that I was going there to kill myself. At least that’s what I say to myself because it would suck to find out afterwards that they had a hunch.
I took a 54 hour long train ride through some of the most beautiful states in the country, hoping that would inspire me to not want to take my life. I was talking to any and everyone on the train because I’d hope someone would sense that I was hurting and do that thing that really strong emotional folks do when they see someone hurting. They tell a story that has intense meaning, that perhaps might speak directly to the person hurting. But, no one did it! Not one person. Perhaps I was too good at keeping it together. So, I was furious because I put so much effort into “going out” the right way and I didn’t work. Talk about your life’s work going to waste.
After my attempt I found professional help. I was admitted (voluntarily) to an impatient facility in Shawnee, Kansas where I stayed for just under 30 days. While I was there I saw clinicians who were able to give me the language that I needed to understand myself and my diagnosis. I was introduced to CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and DBT (Dialectic Behavioral Therapy) which allowed me to better understand how to get a hold on my emotions when they’d come up. While being in care I was able to learn more about why those first couple of years in Philly really rocked my world and perhaps come to terms with the way my life has played out. However, through that process the one thing that has healed me the most is hearing peoples stories.
There is something that happens to me when I hear a persons story. I’m able to acknowledge that I’m not the only person that is dealing with such painful human experiences and two the person telling the story also is able to get what they are feeling off their chest. It’s important to note that the spaces that I heard said stories was one that was created for healing, in a facility that was designed to do just that! However, since being back in Philly since late October of 2023 I’ve applied this practice to the work that I do with The Philly Journal.
I believe that the more we tell our stories the more we are able to connect. I also believe that the more authentic we are while telling our stories allows for deeper connection and less room for shame. So, this is what I do with The Philly Journal Project and The Philly Journal Podcast. I’ve created a platform where people are able to tell their stories authentically. This can be done in one of two ways. (1) The Philly Journal Project allows local artists to install their art on the cover of composition notebooks. On the inside cover of the notebooks are three rules: 1- write what you want 2- stay anonymous 3-reach out to the instagram page when the book is full so that I can replace it with a new one. The ultimate goal with this project is to create a discord where people can unapologetically be themselves and connect with other peoples stories. You might find a notebook at a Coffee Shop, Library, Office lobby. The opportunities are endless. So far there are over 200 entries with the journals that are out in the city. I hope to collect the first 100 journals and put them on display as an art piece somewhere in the city!
(2) The second way that I’ve create space for authentic story telling is on The Philly Journal Podcast. On the podcast I ask people who successfully live creative lives to come on and tell their stories authentically. Since starting in January, I’ve had on guests like Will Toms (REcPhilly), Suzann Christine (Grammy Academy Governor), and Imani Ellis (CEO of CultureCon) who all come on and tell their story in hopes to inspire others to keep living, and connect with the parts of their story that perhaps they may feel shame around. The Philly Journal Podcast is an open format conversational podcast where I ask thought provoking questions for my quests to answer. I also share some ideas around what I believe and in some cases learn on the spot through conversation. I find that my ability to tell a story through the collaboration of my curiosity, conviction and concern for those that deserve to hear said story, is also enabling me “the storyteller” to build out my own just how I want to.
The beauty of the work that I do is that I get to heal and connect all at the same time. The more people I meet, the more I learn and am exposed to. The more well rounded I become, and the more I get to reflect the world around me. When I think back to being on that peak overlooking the water and the sunset, I think about what would I have done if I knew other people could relate to the experience I was having. Perhaps I wouldn’t have committed to stepping forward from that rock. Perhaps I would be much further along in life than I am right now. Despite this idea that life would most definitely be different for me if I felt more connected, I now have the privilege to extend that gift to others.
So, what’s the goal? To make people feel seen and connect through the brave action of those that choose to tell their stories with no abound and full transparency.
Now by goals are to continue to expand the reach of both projects. I hope to one day build a team of individuals who also have a love for storytelling and build a storytelling agency where myself and my team are able to help businesses and individuals tell their story!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Creatives/artists are people that inspire the rest of the world. If we collectively can find ways that we can enable the work that creatives/artist do without barriers to entry, then I think we’d see an increase in human connection. I have a friend who believes that everyone is a creative, and I’m starting to believe that as well. The difference between the folks that live creative lives and those that live more traditional ones is the action of “answering the call.”
Human are inherently creative beings. We build things, we write things, we talk about things, we cook things, we grow things. We are all creators. Perhaps if our society were better at creating a cognitive expressway that says “creators are saving the world” then we might see a shift in how we connect with one another. There’s so much vetting and mitigation when it comes to whose art or creation is to be put out into the world. When we allow creativity to flow we as a “society” will experience that flow as well.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The lie that I believe sometimes is because I don’t know what I’m doing, I shouldn’t be doing it.
The truth is that no one knows what they are doing. From the executive that wears thousand dollars suits to the baby that can’t even hold their bottle to their mouth. We are all figuring it out as we go along.
Building a brand and business can leave you feeling like every decision you make is wrong, especially if you’re striving to make it to the top. The truth for me is knowing that where ever I am on my journey to building my business/brand, I’m going to be learning things I’ve never learned before.
Having it all together is boring and it’s actually not at all impressive. What’s impressive is a personal that is malleable and can pivot when they need to. Remember your why, have core values that you live by so you can stay on track and keep going. The only you need to figure out is the VERY NEXT STEP.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thephillyjournal/
Image Credits
Contigo Photos Films (Piano Shot)