We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeanelle Toothbrush jesus a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jeanelle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Frayser Local Arts Festival at Arkwings Foundation. There I am a board member, organizing artist, and co-founder of our arts festival (FLAF). Four years ago Jana Wilson, Lurlynn Franklin, Devin Kirkland, and I came together and started an all inclusive arts festival for performers, visual artists and artisan vendors. Creating a space for Frayser to experience the local crafts and entertainment of Memphis people. Networking, community building, positive interactions, and a space for artists to grow are all available in this space. A chance for artists to make money from their craft. This project is meaningful to me because I am able to provide other performance based artists a platform in my neighborhood. We work hard every year to keep it going, next year will be our 5th annual!

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

As long as I can remember I have been coming up with storyline or trying to make a movie with whoever was around at the time. I have been onstage or in some sort of rehearsal since I was a child. I feel like what seriously got me into my discipline was my first step back into dance after I decided college wasn’t where I was supposed to be anymore. A lot of people do not know this but before I became Toothbrush jesus I tried to take my life. What kept me going after that was my different crafts. I was writing, dancing, and singing to keep myself grounded and cope through my depression. I am very emotional and that heavily directs where my stories come from. My deep self analysis of human interactions and relationships shape my stories as well. Existing as an emotionally sensitive being, I have had an interesting experience creating different types of relationships. Audiences have described my performances as raw, authentic, thought provoking, and ironic. Since I have had my daughter and I took my stage name I haven’t been what I would describe as depressed, but I still wear my emotions on stage and through my writings.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Being able to inspire people and open up their way of thinking. I have worked with the youth in many different ways, and it is always cool when I’m out at a grocery store or somewhere and a child remembers me from teaching or performing at their school. Also the young adults who let me know that I have inspired them to go out of their comfort zone when they create. I realize I am in my 30s now and I have had the opportunity to work with teens who have graduated now. I have also met some youth through friends and family who were lost and searching for a more positive purpose. In many of those instances they have later found me online and thanked me for helping them transfer their negative behaviors into a positive outlet.

Moments like these that happen in my free time away from the stage are honestly some of the best.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

As a dancer and an actor I wish I knew about the different types of intensives you could attend in either discipline. Knowing about these before I went to college would have been nice. I don’t regret going to school because a lot of people I worked with later I met initially through my time at university.

In college I also learned about dance and theater intensives and short term programs that were offered all over the country. These are programs you can apply to attend on a pre-professional, professional, or even high school levels. They introduce you to different choreographers, teachers, and styles of performance. They can be as short as a few days or as long as a few months.

I believe in my pre college years I would have been more ferocious and courageous in applying and attending.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/toothbrushjesus?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afrotense
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TBj_iMdatNegus?t=-kT5Bzhq5kdJ_fZX1NF07A&s=09
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCd6tQSZlAFobgJhATkUYcww
• Other: https://anchor.fm/havincommunion https://www.tiktok.com/@toothbrushjesus?_t=8WmIaY3UbVL&_r=1

Image Credits
Gregory Lopez, Demarcus Bowser and Anonymous art students