We were lucky to catch up with Joanne Louis-paul recently and have shared our conversation below.

Joanne, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I took the leap into entrepreneurism and freelancing in the spring of 2021. I had no clear plan, I just knew I wanted the freedom to pursue things that spoke to my heart. The last three-and-a-half years have been an interesting journey of trial and error, highs and lows.

I found that I had to try lots of different things to learn what I did and did not want to invest my time and creativity into. Things are still unfolding and taking shape, however I would say my most meaningful project so far as been my involvement in Hudson Valley Sustainable Fashion Week.

While working as a community manager for a virtual business incubator, I became friends with an ambitious upcycle fashion designer, Kaitlyn Murray. I knew nothing of sustainable fashion before meeting her, but appreciated her passion and drive. In the fall of 2022, right on the heels of New York Fashion Week, Kaitlyn mentioned her dream to create a sustainable counterpart. I immediately saw the potential in her vision and jumped on board to help launch it the following year.

2023 saw a few events culminating in our inaugural organic runway show almost a year to the day from our first conversation. Roughly 300 folks came out and people still gush over their experience. This year has seen more growth with the addition of a third board member, designer Annie McCurdy, and our official incorporation as a 501(c)3.

Our mission is to support a thriving circular fashion economy by bringing awareness to the fashion industry’s impact on the planet; highlighting designers in the Hudson Valley working to disrupt these patterns; and inspiring the public to adopt a sustainable lifestyle, one choice at a time.

The movement continues to spread and I’m very excited to see what the future holds for us!

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

I am a Hudson Valley native and resident, proudly repping my hometown of Spring Valley in Rockland County. I would consider myself a renaissance woman with several passions that blend together and feed into each other. I’m a writer, musician, amateur photographer, event production specialist, and sales and marketing professional.

My earliest gift was creative writing. I can remember being seven years old, discovering my mother’s typewriter and recreating common children’s stories with my own twist. I’ve loved language for as long as I can remember. Never really visually-inclined, words have always been the colors I use to paint the pictures in my head. Written communication comes naturally to me and I use it to serve the missions and small businesses I believe in.

At the age of nine, I began playing the violin. My connection to stringed instruments has followed me the last 30 years. I’ve been playing the bass guitar since 2017 and have just began dabbling in the acoustic guitar again. I sing the songs that come to my heart and uplift my spirit. The tug to revive my first musical project Jazz Ingénue + the Gurus has been strong and I’m having fun reworking my old tunes with others. I look forward to presenting that in the near future.

I use my varied skills to serve my core drive – building community. I love people and the cultures they create. I believe we humans are stronger when we work together and support each other. I’m “anti-big” and “pro-small.” I want to reimagine what success means in this country and inspire more folks to pursue the callings their natural talents and abilities point to. I believe all work should be a vocation and not just a way to make money to buy things.

I recently became a Climate Justice Fellow for Sustainable Hudson Valley, a regional nonprofit that partners with municipalities, community-based organizations, and other nonprofits to address the issues of climate change on a local level with scalable solutions. This new path is rich with possibilities to support communities in becoming more resilient in many different ways and I sense my ministry forming before me.

What I’m most grateful for is the freedom my choice to leave the structure of traditional work has afforded me. It isn’t always easy, but I’ve learned to let go of the need to have a perfect plan and just enjoy the ride as I’m led towards my purpose. I encourage folks to follow my journey on my personal and musical Instagram pages, @joanneabouttown and @jazzingenue, to see where I go next!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

This is a topic that weighs heavy on my mind. As a musician, I see how difficult it is to make a decent living doing nothing but one’s craft. I believe society can best support artists and other creatives by showing their appreciation with their dollars. Venue owners, please pay musicians fairly. Audiences, please buy music and other works directly from the artists when possible. Most third party apps and streaming services give virtually nothing to the artists.

Attend more shows, art openings, and other events, and share the work of the artists you genuinely connect with.

Lastly, I’d say there needs to be a paradigm shift in what work is. I believe the arts are undervalued because our society doesn’t consider them legitimate career choices, but rather hobbies. When more people get in touch with their own creative side and pursue meaningful work that incorporates it, they will value the creativity of others in a different way and support them accordingly.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I’ve built my audience over social media slowly and organically. There are a million and one social media gurus ready to sell you bootcamps and books, but honestly, if you have the patience, you only need to be consistent and sincere. I share what I care about. I share the behind-the-scenes of whatever project I’m working on. And I try to be consistent (and don’t beat myself up when I can’t be or don’t feel like it).

I have a FB group of 2500 Hudson Valley-based freelancers and entrepreneurs that blew up because it was needed. That’s another way to build a strong audience and presence: offer something people actually need. Building your page around a topic you’re passionate about is also very helpful. Think of your account as a place for likeminded folks to connect with each other and less of a platform to bolster yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joanneabouttown.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joanneabouttown
• Facebook: https://www.fb.com/groups.hvufe
• Other: Personal FB – www.fb.com/joanne.louispaul
  Musical Insta – www.instagram.com/jazzingenue
  HV Sustainable Fashion Week Insta – www.instagram.com/hv_sfw