We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Quon J Helm a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Quon J, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
My first love was music , I remember all the car rides being such a monumental time because whoever I got in the car with I knew I would be listening to a different genre every time. With my mom it would be Rap and Neo soul. When with my grandmother it was gospel or her Luther Vandross, and when I was with my grandpa it would be the temptations or Etta James. Unknowingly this would build my passion to become a musician / vocalist/ and entertainer.
I would describe my childhood as eventful, love, and music. As a child I was always adventurous, and had a huge imagination. I was a huge talker as well, all of my teachers would say the same thing on my report cards and progress reports “she gets all of her work done but she is talkative”. As a child I didn’t think that was considered to be a bad thing, so I would go around and sit with the older folks to soak up as much knowledge as possible.
Quon J, 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 Quon J pronounced [kwon•jay] I am an RNB/operatic singer, and designer from Oxon hill Maryland. I currently just moved to California to work on my career in all things arts. I have been syncing my whole life, and got the pleasure of studying under a lot of talented vocal trainers and professors in my time at finger Lakes community college, in upstate, New York, as well as instructors from Suitland high school located in Forestville, Maryland.
As far as Clothing design, I studied under my mom. Her lifelong dream was to attend FIT in NYC, and with life challenges, she passed the torch to me. I am a self-taught seamstress, which is also another trade I can make a profit from. I am also a full-time student, Studying Business Administration, with this degree I am learning the ends and outs of what makes you a Business and what type of business you want to be known for.
Even though I am just now touching the surface I am super thankful that my perseverance outweighed any type of doubt in my mind that I can’t make my dreams come true. And I am super grateful for platforms, such as Canvas Rebel for interviewing me for this editorial piece.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
When I was around the age of 6 I experienced my first death of closeness, my grandmother passed away from colon cancer around the time I entered kindergarten. I didn’t know how to come to terms with it, I believe that this is what triggered early anxiety for me, Every time someone left the house too long or I got sick, I thought I was ill. A year after her passing I ended up getting diagnosed in first grade with Stage 4 Whilms Tumor ( a Kidney cancer). The doctors told my mom I had a 63% chance of making it, my tumor had grown the size of a football so they had to go in and take out my right kidney; which followed up with chemotherapy and radiation for about a year. At that time my mom held a lot of information from me, she was afraid it would frighten me and hinder me from getting better. For that whole year every room I would walk in my mom would walk in first and tell them to not use the word cancer around me because of my grandmother, she knew I would correspond it to death.
None of that stopped me from performing and creating art though, every opportunity presented to me to take the stage I would hop up and be there. To me performing and creating music helped me go to a place of safety, getting lost in every note that I hit correctly and feeding off of the happiness the audience would show after I was done performing. If I could do this as a career like Beyonce and all the greats I grew up listening to, life would feel so much better.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
In this life, I want to be remembered as a nice, talented, and extremely resilient person. Despite the obstacles that life threw my way I still succeeded and accomplished all of my dreams, I gave back to my community and the hospital that helped me get a second chance at living and I got to take care of my family. Losing people from cancer and just being a part of a family that is affected by this can break anyone. I want to show all of the children in the hospitals that can’t leave out of their rooms, that you can make it out and make your Wildest Dreams come true.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://g.co/kgs/dBtr18
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glitteringpisces/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Glitteringpisces/
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/pisces_sabotage
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqUx0QYgB-jEco2Q1KHzEhA
- Other: NBTA Interview Live https://www.instagram.com/tv/CcOuLbqIJyb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link SoundCloud ( older music) https://soundcloud.com/quonnie-pinder Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/artist/quon-j/1455445916 Soul Strutter Blog Article – Quon J -Stranger Again [Single] Review https://soulstrutter.blogspot.com/2022/01/quon-j-2022-strangers-again-self.html
Image Credits
All photos are taken by Quon J as well
Except for the ones of Quon J and Beyonce . Taken in 2006 in Los Angeles BET Awards, By unknown photographer (possible Getty Image)