We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Justice Niara. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Justice below.
Justice, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
The moment I knew that I wanted to pursue my creative aspirations was the day I almost died. I’ve heard it be said, numerous times that it can sometimes take a traumatic experience for a person to finally gain a bit of clarity. I now understand what they mean. I lost my father at the age of three. He passed unexpectedly at the age of 29, from a pulmonary embolism. A pulmonary embolism is when a blood clot forms in a deep vein, breaks free, and travels to the lung. Once there, it disrupts blood flow which can eventually lead to the total collapse of lung and heart functions. Though pulmonary embolisms can be treated, it is known as a silent killer because most people never know they have clots until it is too late. Knowing this, my mother had always been very adament about my health and paid close attention any time I had an injury especially ones involving my legs.
Fast forward to adulthood, In August of 2020, I had just logged out of my WFH job and walked a few feet into the bathroom. I could not have taken more than 10-15 steps but my lungs felt like I had ran 3 marathons. I COULD NOT catch my breath! My lungs were tight and they felt like they were on fire, but I wasn’t panicking. A sense of calm came over me and I mustered up enough lung capacity to call my mom. I asked her what symptoms my father had before he passed and she began to rattle off alot of the same things that I was feeling. I then laid on the bathroom floor for 15 minutes trying to catch my breath so that i could go to the Emergency Room. I told my fiance’ that I was pretty sure I was having a Pulmonary Embolism and he sprang up to help me get dressed as i could not do much of anything for myself without feeling like I was going to pass out. We were able to get me into the car and arrived at the E.R within minutes. My fiance’ sprang out of the car to help me but he was stopped from entering the building due to COVID regulations. I was on my own. I mustered up all the energy I could and walked to the nearest seat I could find. There was a line at the front desk and I knew that i would not be able to stand and wait. After 15 minutes, I was finally able to walk up to the front desk and get signed in. Noticing my labored breathing, the front desk clerk called a nurse over and had me get an EKG. i told the nurse of my family history and what i suspected and before I knew it I was headed to the back on a stretcher.
If you are a spiritual person, then you know what “a presence” feels like. I could feel myself fading but this presence wasn’t going to let me go. As the doctors and nurses were taking all of these tests I was still adament about checking for a pulmonary embolism, and though i could tell that they weren’t convinced, they ordered the test to see. I waited in the hospital room, connected to an oxygen tank, with my lungs grateful for the help, when the doctor entered. “You have got to be one of the luckiest people on this planet girl!” he stated, and commenced to tell me their findings. I was wrong, it was not a pulmonary embolism. It was a bilateral pulmonary embolism, meaning both of my lungs had been compromised. My heart was already beginning to shut down and there was significant scarring in my lung and heart tissue. I was fading, but he wouldn’t let me go. My father was there.
As i sat there in disbelief at what I just heard, I started to think about what would have happened, had I died. Instead of a wedding in October, There would have been a funeral in August. I would have left my loved ones, before I ever got to show them who I was. I would have left this Earth before I ever discovered who I was! and for what?! I put all of my wants and aspirations on the backburner out of fear and to my surprise , I realized that i was most afraid of myself.
What if I am all those things that I dreamed I was as a child?
What if I AM meant for greatness?
What if I was never the delusional one?!
That day I vowed to see those what ifs through! Life is way too short to live your life based on how others think you should live. That day I decided to stop hiding behind others expectations for me and my life, and start forming my own.
That day I decided to be me, UNAPOLOGETICALLY. That day I became an Artist.
Rest in Peace Darren Holley
The Legacy continues
March is Blood Clot Awareness month.
Get involved STOP THE CLOT!
Justice, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Justice Niara. I was born and raised in Albany, Georgia and I am a singer and visual artist. I started singing, probably before I could walk. It’s just something that I have always done. I grew up listening to many of the greats like Whitney Houston, Patti Labelle, Beyonce’, Luther Vandross, Jamie Foxx, Tank, and the list could continue on for days, but my influence was deeply rooted in R&B and Soul. However, being the millennial that I am, I also grew up during a time when it was customary to wake up and get ready while watching Vh1 and MTV playing the top music videos in the country. This sparked an appreciation for many other genres of music and birthed the eclectic artist that I call myself today.
Though, I never questioned my talent, I struggled with imposter syndrome and feelings of not being good enough for many years, and i was so scared of being proven right, that i just decided it was best not to put myself or my music out there at all. That thought process carried on, until I met my future husband in 2018. With the help of his production, I was able to release “Lesson Learned”, the first song I ever wrote, in 2018 and “War” in 2019. We would then partner up again in 2020 with the release of “Hearsay” and though every song kept getting better, I felt like something needed to change. I had become too focused on the trends, and what labels and radio were looking for, you know, the business side of the music industry. In doing that, I realized that I wasn’t enjoying the process of making music anymore. I was not supposed to be trying to make myself fit into a box, i was supposed to be building my own. Once my husband and I came to that realization, we decided to conduct an experiment in which we would throw out all the rules when making music. Songs no longer had to have a particular structure, or sound, or subject matter. It was our job to create authentically, and that experiment birthed my Debut Album that is set to be released Winter 0f 2022, as well as my 2022 single “Better Me”, (which I even did the cover art for). At this point in my life I want to be the most genuine version of myself and i believe that you get a piece of that when you listen to a Justice Niara track. Ain’t no shame in my game, I put my wins and losses out there for people to see and hopefully learn from. I want to give you more than a Bop.
This thinking also bleeds over into my visual art. As a mixed media artist that specializes in textured elements, I like to say that I create art that you can feel, and the pun is definitely intended. Much like most of the world, I went through a lot of changes during the pandemic and those changes led to the emergence of Justice Niara, “The Painter”, in 2021. I had always been a doodler, and although some teachers thought it was a nuisance growing up, drawing things on scrap paper and many times, my own skin, had a way of calming me down and allowing me to focus. Though, I didn’t consider myself a visual artist back then, I was well aware of the impact visual art had on me, and I continued to use it when I felt compelled. So when I was introduced to oil paint in 2021 something just clicked. My first painting was a small 8×8 canvas and i elected to paint an abstract depiction of an elephant. By the time the piece was complete, everyone had thought that i had been hiding a talent all this time, and I was just as surprised as they were! Now, my second year of painting is coming to a close and I have accomplished more and learned more about business and myself then I could have ever imagined. I have designed my own website, found awesome vendors for my art inspired apparel , fine art prints and other trinkets, sold all of my 2020 originals and I have even had the pleasure of showcasing my art. I have learned that I am capable of much more than i gave myself credit for and that’s the lesson that I want to spread with my art, no matter what the type. Yes, life can get a little messy, but we have been shown through history over and over again, that we are CAPABLE. My arts’ purpose is to unlock those core memories so that others can remember who they are and were meant to be. “We ain’t sleeping on ourselves no more!” It’s time to wake up!
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
We should re-evaluate our values. As a society, we have been conditioned to value quantity over quality. We have been conditioned to value large companies over smaller ones. We have been conditioned to patronize strangers’ businesses before we ever patronize someone we know. We have been conditioned to judge individuals harshly meanwhile, big companies have to mess up again and again before we even leave a negative review. We have been conditioned to hold corporations as the standard.
Now, that doesn’t seem like a horrible thing at first, however, when you start to dig a bit deeper, you realize that we have been conditioned to value a “Figurehead”.
The definition of a figurehead, in this instance, is a person or organization who holds an important title or office, yet has little actual power.
Most of the companies that we idolize, and continue to support, profit off of the backs of INDIVIDUAL creatives. That company or brand would be absolutely nothing without each individual creative’s contribution. However, most of these creatives are not compensated fairly for the impact that their art makes. what is any brand without its designers? The designers hold the power, and the companies market it and get all of the credit. Figureheads!
Now how do we reverse this thinking?
Well, I believe the answer lies in the reprogramming of our youth and the systems that we allow to teach them.
For most of my life growing up in the south, art and creativity of any kind were always pushed on the back burner. It was never made to seem important, even though that could not have been the furthest thing from the truth.
We were taught to see art as a pastime only enjoyed after we did what was really important and that your true strengths lay in how well you follow instructions. We were taught to be the opposite of creators. However, creation is the only thing that progresses our society forward. It is time to cultivate a new generation of innovators that understand where their true power lies because once they know what they are capable of they will go through hell and high water to show the rest of society that they are just as capable too.
See, we love art, we just don’t value artists. However, once we learn to value the IDEA along with the execution, we would think twice about WHO and WHAT we support!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
There are so many lessons to choose from, so it’s hard to choose just one! However, I would have to say the biggest lesson I’ve had to unlearn thus far, is that “things need to be perfect before they can be admired.””. I have always been very hard on myself because I was raised to have very high expectations, and I think that is something that a lot of people can relate to. See, I used to pride myself on being a perfectionist until I realized that being a perfectionist was becoming a hindrance in my life, more than a help. Waiting on something to be “perfect” had left me, literally, WAITING. I found myself buried under years worth of empty promises to myself and my supporters, posting things like “Stay tuned new music dropping soon” then *crickets* on the release date, or overworking canvas after canvas lengthening the process. This carried on for awhile because I didn’t understand that the perfectionism I prided myself on was really just my little “Invisible hater” that lived on the inside of me. I had been living a life where I allowed the most critical and hateful version of myself to be my guide and then had the audacity to be shocked when I failed or fell short.
Perfectionism’s power comes from its disposition. It seems to come from a place of love and concern; You think you are just wanting the best for yourself. However, what you tend to find when you begin to break free from this thinking, is that perfection is one BIG gaslight! There is no such thing as Perfection and you will NEVER be FULLY happy with anything that you create because we are ever-evolving beings. We have the ability to wake up “better” than we were the previous day, and because of that, perfection will always be an illusion. This is why you can love something one day and hate it the next!
Once I realized these things, I vowed to myself that in 2022 I would NOT keep “sleeping on myself”
I am good enough!
I am worthy enough!
I am pretty enough!
I am talented enough!
I AM ENOUGH!
This entire year has been about reminding myself of that, and then delivering it! It’s been a tiring and rewarding journey thus far! one in which I’ve been able to discover who I am and caught glimpses of what I can ultimately do!
I’m learning to love EVERY imperfection!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thelastblkmermaid.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelastblkmermaid/ | https://www.instagram.com/justiceniara/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JusticeNiara | https://www.facebook.com/TheLastBlkMermaidArt
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelastblkmermaid/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKCo9fobVHMUlXO-DdpdCVg
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@justiceniara
Image Credits
RZ Vizions LLC