We recently connected with Jerry Grimes and have shared our conversation below.

Jerry, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

I am the beneficiary of the kindness, grace, and consideration of so many people that it is nearly impossible to identify one single incident that surpasses others. Certainly, one of the most consequential acts of kindness I was ever shown was the opportunity to work alongside renowned scholar Yaakov S. Ariel, a professor of Religious Studies and History at the
University of North Carolina. Our first conversation resulted from an email I sent him in 2020. I had long admired his work in the areas of American Religion and Jewish Studies. I was residing in the Chicago southland and leading a congregation at the time, and like many people, I was trying to adjust to the challenges that 2020 presented while encouraging those I served. I was also in a challenging place personally and professionally as my life’s purpose shifted to teaching and an eventual return to the creative arts. I never imagined my short email to him with inquiries into the graduate program at UNC would result in a delightful phone conversation minutes later. From the outset of the first conversation, he explained to me how competitive and challenging the application process would be but offered to support my application should I choose to seek acceptance. He encouraged and mentored me throughout my application process, which also acquainted me with the incredible faculty at the university, who are now my mentors and colleagues. While at one of the lowest points of my life, personally and professionally, Yaakov’s kindness and authentic encouragement renewed my sense of purpose for teaching and learning. Similarly, my newest mentors, Brandon L. Bayne, Youssef J. Carter, Randall Styers, Jerma A. Jackson, and my longtime confident James Henry Harris, continue to be gracious and encourage my development as a burgeoning scholar and instructor. From parents to my incredible friends, my accomplishments are the direct result of countless acts of kindness and graciousness.

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

My life is a symphony of incongruencies. My creative passions are comic books, filmmaking, and hip-hop, and the first half of my life was dedicated to building a production company with my lifelong friends Luther Truesdell, Marc Thompson, and Aaron P. Clark. We started a production company in 1999 called the CAVE Enterprise, and we produced dozens of music videos, short films, documentaries, and, eventually, independent features that made their rounds on the festival circuit and regional retail distribution. I simultaneously had a passion for higher education both as a student and an aspiring instructor. I never foresaw, nor intended, for my studies in ancient religious texts and ancient cultures to lead me down the path of practical theology and pastoral leadership, but my father, a lifelong pastor, would, on occasion, enlist my help. Those occasions culminated in my eventual leadership of a parish in North Carolina and then a larger congregation in Chicago. While still developing creative projects as a member of CAVE, I earned graduate degrees at Virginia Union University, Fuller Seminary, Union Presbyterian Seminary, and Liberty University while teaching at Shaw University and North Carolina Wesleyan University. I have always been intrigued by the effort to be as multifaceted as possible in my pursuits. I consider myself an aspiring polymath. My primary focus now is completing doctoral studies at the University of North Carolina with the intent to publish my research in the area of American Religion with a focus on the interplay of race, gender, and capitalism in postbellum North Carolina.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

As someone whose primary identity is that of an instructor and educator but derives ideas from the arts, there sometimes exists a gap between the mindsets that creatively generate solutions and those that only pursue conventional approaches to solving problems. Historically, varying degrees of unconventional approaches and artistry helped establish the very norms that suppress even newer ideas from emerging. This history is important, and these conversations should be held more regularly. What is often viewed as “disruption” has ironically been one of the most conventional approaches to improving various situations. The “weirdest” and least common strategies today will become so conventional later that the thought of those conventions having never existed will be laughable. Perhaps a great approach creatives can use to explain their innovations to a team or group more comfortable with conventional ways of doing things is to reverse engineer a historical example of an everyday norm, such as smartphone usage, to illustrate how something that was once a novelty on the periphery of everyday life has become integral to our lives. Such historical examples can then be paralleled with the new ideas that creative individuals hope to introduce to areas and teams that often see conventions as immovable frameworks for doing business or solving problems. History teaches us that there is always a better way to do something. Normalizing those historical precedents in our everyday conversations can make innovations be viewed less like peculiar ideas and more like a continuing tradition of advancement in our businesses, communities, and the larger society at large.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Several foci drive me. Primarily, I would like to normalize intellectual and creative pursuits among populations that have often viewed such pursuits as pointless luxuries. My passion for comic books, hip-hop, and filmmaking is what conditioned me to read, write, and think as an extension of my existence and not as a requirement for school. The same young learners who may dread memorizing a speech unwittingly memorize entire albums by their favorite artists and dialogue from their favorite viral clips, demonstrating how framing a task as an “assignment” or an “activity” can yield very different results. While my background was not an economically impoverished one, it also was not an economically privileged one. Encouragement supplemented my interests where economics could not. I loved the public library and was encouraged to read about things of interest to me. I want to cultivate and help spearhead a pro-intellectualism movement that is genreless in its design. Humankind has only begun to do some of its greatest work. A consistent push must exist to further humanize and intersect our work so that our world advances more constructively. At the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy, I would like to make it as cool as possible for people to be as smart and creative as possible without apology. I have lived in Southern California, Chicago, and Virginia and worked in communities nationwide that have given me a substantial understanding of how difficult a movement like this would be to develop. Anti-intellectualism and the “need” for young people to apologize for their gifts and abilities are the most detrimental realities permeating certain communities worldwide. As an educational theorist, researcher, creator, and, most importantly, parent, I am deeply concerned with how a sense of genuine joy and excitement can be infused into the learning enterprise.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jerrygrimes.com

Image Credits

The second image: Jae Jacob

The fifth image: Jerry Grimes, @mieart

The sixth image: Jerry Grimes, Hyaacin. @hridoyakhon1