We recently connected with Monday Blue and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Monday thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

Several years ago as I was packing up my equipment after playing a set in a day long lineup, a longtime DJ colleague camp up to me, gave me a hug and said, “I don’t care what anyone says, you’re a dope DJ.” While I managed to say “Thank you!” internally my Gemini mind started whirling… I had so many questions: “So, there are people who don’t care for my deejaying?” “What am I doing or not doing that warranted *that* statement?” “Is everyone who ever booked me just humoring me??”

It took me a few days of sitting with the emotions that statement evoked to get my heart and mind back to a place of stillness and clarity. My longtime DJ colleague paid me a compliment. Whatever “anyone” thought of my work (or me), I continued to get bookings and had more that a few return clients. And, most important, I realized that there are as many opinions as there are people in the world; what matters is that I be fully present and do my best in any moment, whatever the event, and elevate the energy of the gathering… external validation is secondary (and not even that, truly). Making the shift to focusing on internal validation and being fully engaged in and present for my creative process has really expanded my tolerance for being misunderstood.

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.

I’ve loved music since I can remember being aware of myself and the world. My brother, 14 years older than me, used to play his records when he was babysitting me… Cameo, Brick, Rick James, and the Fatback Band. My Dad (now an ancestor) used to play our town’s AM radio station when we rode around… now I know I was listening to Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Hall & Oates… and I love those groups and that era still. And of course, there was the music I heard on Sundays when I went to church with my Mom; soul lifting spirituals, old hymns with the Church Mothers crooning and moaning some of the words, organ and piano punctuations. While I left the church years ago, that music always touches and is lives in my heart. All of my early musical exposure was foundational and it informs what I’m drawn to and play today.

When I was a student at Spelman College in Atlanta, I worked at Tower Records my senior year. That was amazing and transformative for me because I was exposed to and learned SO much about different artists and genres; back then the buyers for the sections (based upon genre) were basically experts regarding their area. I also started to get a rudimentary understanding of how a musical product moves from artist to consumer… and this was before smartphones and social media, at the early stages of the internet, so there was a lot more involved in spreading the world about a release. Working at Tower was my favorite job, until becoming a deejay of course (lol). It was the first time I glimpsed that something I truly enjoyed could be a conduit for my benefit in the material aspects of the world.

And dancing… always dancing. I’ve always loved it and think that drove or is entwined with my love of music. It helped me through so many iterations of my life and myself. For about 7-8 years I was a group fitness instructor; used to teach 6-10 classes a week. A couple of years ago it dawned on me that my life had kind of come back to a similar point… when I was teaching fitness classes, I was using music and movement to help folks elevate and transform the/their energy. And that’s what I do as physical therapist (very part-time currently) and as a DJ and creative conduit (much more of my focus currently).

I’m a vinyl and digital DJ and play at nightclubs, performance/event venues, and for corporate and non-profit clients. I craft custom DJ mixes and create researched, themed playlists as well. Additionally, I’ve worked onstage with actors and performers for theater pieces. I’ll be in an off-Broadway production this fall. I’m the creator and resident DJ for an all-vinyl party featuring women selectors called Doyennes of Disc. For three years, I was the host of an internet radio show which I also streamed on Twitch called Follow Your Bliss with Monday Blue.

One of the things that sets me apart is my life’s journey… I’m part of the Southern Diaspora. I grew up in a town in coastal North Carolina, spent a number if years in Atlanta, and have been a resident of Brooklyn for almost two decades. I’ve been an adult in both the analog and digital worlds. I have been and am a part of varying cultures and communities; and it’s been such fertile ground for blending, deconstructing, melding, and creating so many sonic landscapes.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

My parents both grew up under Jim Crow laws in the United States. My father’s experience of segregation was different from my mother’s because grew up in Washington, D.C. whose population was majority Black American when he was a child and adolescent. He also had more access to cultural activities. Conversely, I was raised in my mother’s hometown in which there was one school for all the Black students, kindergarten through twelfth grade, in the county. On the morning of my mother’s high school graduation in 1967, a bomb went off early in the morning, destroying the school. It was eventually discovered that the bomb was meant to go off during the ceremony and was planted by white supremacists who were protesting the national order to desegregate schools in the South.

By the time I was born, de facto segregation had been over for a decade-and-a-half but that energy and the accompanying attitudes were just under the surface. Both of my parents were adamant that I do well in school so that I could go to college and be able to “stand on my own two feet.” They were vocal about that… frequently. I also grew up being told that the only way to do well in life was to work and work hard. And I absolutely understand why they told me those things. If you didn’t work hard (twice as hard) and do your best, the institutions and structures in which we operated and lived would be quick to push you back to what “your place” in said institutions and structures was thought to be.

So, I worked hard for many years, doing what I thought I was supposed to do. And it worked to an extent. I became very independent and was able to “stand on my own two.” But I wasn’t fulfilled or happy… some days/months/years felt like drudgery.

That began to change when I began taking DJ classes and started getting paid to do that work… work that didn’t feel like drudgery and obligation and trying to outrun someone trying to put be back where they thought I should be. And it really shifted after my Dad transitioned, 11 days after my birthday, nine years ago. He had always been my emotional anchor; his passing made me realize that I really had to show up for myself in ways I hadn’t before. And so I began a journey of shedding all the “shoulds” and “have tos” I grew up with and had been allowing to dictate my actions and learning how to live based upon “called to” and “I desire.” I had to review, analyze, discern, and intuit what from my upbringing was helping me in this moment/current iteration and what was no longer serving me. That was quite the process, lol! And now I know it’s an ongoing, upward spiraling journey. It’s like one of my favorite Toni Morrison quotes from her novel Song of Solomon: “Can’t nobody fly with all that sh*t. Wanna fly, you got to give up the sh*t that weighs you down.” The first time I read that I comprehended the words. Now, I understand and embody those words.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Reading books and documentaries about women who have blazed trails strengthens my resolve and helps shape how I approach my creative and entrepreneurial work. Most recently, I find myself returning to Grace Jones’ memoir “I’ll Never Write My Memoirs” and documentary “Bloodlight and Bam” for inspiration. I randomly found an interview (60 Minutes?) of Millie Jackson from the early 1980s that really inspired me to focus on taking the business side of my creative work more seriously. Also, there’s a series of interviews of Soul Train Dancers on YouTube that I find very instructive and vitalizing. Oh, I’ve also been watching a lot of documentaries about music scenes and musicians on the Night Flight streaming app. I remember watching it on USA when I was growing up and was curious when an ad for the app popped up on one of my social timelines earlier this year. I decided to subscribe (nostalgia at work, lol) and was pleasantly surprised by their content. It’s fascinating to get more insight into artists’ processes and to see just how pop cultural moments and waves were seeded and nourished on the margins and moved to the center.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.djmondayblue.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djmondayblue/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DJMondayBlue/
• Twitter: https://x.com/DJMondayBlue
• Other: https://www.mixcloud.com/DJMondayBlue/

  https://www.twitch.tv/djmondayblue

Image Credits

Personal Photo: Self-Portrait
Additional Photos: 1) Nyeri Moulterie, 2) Charifa Smith, 3) ShoShots, 4) Nyeri Moulterie, 5) Shani J. O’Neal, 6, 7) David Noble