Flourish Digital Magazine - Summer 2022

SUMMER 2022 ISSUE 4 VOLUME 3

VISIT CAFÉ I AM thecafeiam.com FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 2

CAFFÈ DANESI The quality of true Italian espresso.

Each cup of Danesi coffee contains the love and the care of those who give their best to create a unique product, every day.

Café I Am.

Photographer: Wesley Lartey

@wesleylartey

CHLOÉ TAYLOR BROWN I'm in awe, ladies and gentlemen. All I can say now is, but God! You know what I mean? I once had a random, inspirational thought—that I could start a magazine. It soon turned into an alluring, fun, sexy feeling. Remember this: How we feel is what we're praying.

Within four months it had morphed into a vision for a real thing—called Flourish Digital Magazine. This is our third Summer issue, and I am thrilled to share every page with you as we enjoy the breezes of Summer.

First, allow me to be the one to announce some exciting global news. FDM has signed on as a marketing partner with Prudential Financial Inc., a multi-trillion-dollar global company, starting in September 2022. We are so excited and proud to partner with such an esteemed company. It is truly a major accomplishment and a dream come true. In addition, we have a new international Arts & Entertainment Editor from Johannesburg, South Africa, Clive Mathibe. In this issue, Clive conducts lively interviews with three outstanding, diverse talents—in music, film and art, and interior design—to paint an exquisite portrait of the modern African narrative.

Editor's Note

ALL I CAN SAY NOW IS, BUT GOD!

My conversation with our cover model, Sara Wom, has truly inspired me. Her story demonstrates determination and vulnerability within courage—how to stick with a vision, and how to obtain emotional and mental help along the way. I know you'll get into the vibe of our musical conversation with Chanda Leigh as you read about her journey from classical/jazz pianist and vocalist to lead singer in the new pop fitness group, 3D Chloé Taylor Brown The Boss. Learn about Greg Winston's Minority Market Maker, and revel in the many Editor-in-Chief inspirational contributions from all our wonderful writers in this Summer's issue.

Enjoy the Summer breeze!

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chloe@flourishdigitalmagazine.com @flourishdigitalmagazine @chloetaylorbrown @chloetaylorbrown

Every

Summer has a story @flourishdigitalmagazine @sadiyah_adams FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 5

JASMINE IN MY MIND Laurie Renfro

28

FROM THE 60s TO MY 60s

17

Janis Hunt Johnson

32

THE UNION

35

hey, mamas!

55

saprea.org

90

married to the mantra

Paula G. Voice talks about faith and communication in marriage Make the most of Summer with Elena Taylor-Bagger

Liberating society from sexual abuse

A relationship program for couples

cover story: SARA WOM Living "the soft life"

09

CHANDA LEIGH

Lead singer of 3D The Boss: pop music at the cutting edge of health and fitness

creating YOUR authentic IMAGE

Chloé Taylor Brown presents Madison's Personification

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56

managing & maintaning your image

60

READY, SET, GO!

Getting Ready Chloé-Style

Professional make-up tips from Shari Perkins

AND PLAY CLOTHES 62 SPORTS Summer fashion with Chloé Taylor Brown

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globalizing the modern african narrative a series of interviews hosted by Clive Mathibe

66

zoË modiga

74

mmabatho montsho

82

donald nxumalo

HE'S GOT FLAVOR!

Miguel Global's family recipes, with the best sauce

64

Making new worlds in music—the soundtrack to our lives

Meet this innovative filmmaker, activist and painter

Celebrity interior designer extraordinaire

49 02

CAFÉ I AM

The ultimate cup of coffee

MINORITY MARKET MAKER Greg Winston

CORPORATE SAVVY Chloé Taylor Brown

37 42

SHARI PERKINS

45

KIM SCOULLER

92

On social media and building an empire

Title IX: Celebrating 50 years

BECOME A

Flourish Digital Magazine PARTNER

ADVERTISE & PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS, PRODUCT, SERVICE OR YOURSELF WITH FLOURISH DIGITAL MAGAZINE Contact +1 770-653-7883

FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 8

In conversation with Chloé Taylor Brown It was a beautiful sunny day with a nice tropical breeze, so we choose to dine outside, to best enjoy ourselves and the experience. She sat very near to us, chatting it up with her guy friend. I tried my best not to stare—but her beauty, poise and easy way of laughing was captivating. At the end of our meal, and as I stood up to leave, she glanced my way, and I couldn’t help myself. "Hello there. I’m Chloé— the publisher of Flourish Digital Magazine. I would like to know you." > Cover Photographer: Sam Hooke

@_mrhooke FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 9

Chloé: Sara, tell me about yourself. How did you get to where you are today?

Sara: That's an excellent question. I was born in Sudan, Africa many moons ago, and during that time, there was a lot of political strife and conflict happening. Lots of people were moving because we were being displaced, and there was also a war. So, my family left Sudan to go to Egypt to seek refuge.

Eventually we found our way to the United States. So, I grew up here in America. I came here when I was eight, and I grew up in Iowa. I went to school there, starting with elementary school, middle school, high school, and college —everything. And being here, I've had the fortunate opportunity to be a nomad, because prior to coming here, I was a nomad in the sense that I was fleeing something.

I was always in a defense mode— because you're moving from strife, and that is just very tumultuous. I kept that energy up my whole life, until literally about three years ago. I was so used to being on the defensive constantly— being paranoid, and always alert, expecting harm of some kind.

Chloé: What happened three years ago, that gave you the capacity to change— or even to realize, "Hey, I have this negative energy and I need to let it go"?

Sara: It was moments of self-realization that came together. I was actually trying to see where I wanted myself to be in the future. I saw the future me, the woman that I have in my mind—of me in the future. And the way she moved was not based on how I was doing things—friendships, relationships, work, and so on. There was a lack of drive, a lack of confidence, insecurities.

I saw all of the things that were not coherent and congruent with the woman that I wanted to be. >

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Photographer: Precious Kwakye

@thatsopre

Sara, continued: Also, because of experiencing trauma—that greatly affects a young child growing up. It can be very detrimental. So, in reconciling with that aspect of my past, I was able to get therapy. And in therapy, I was able to reconcile with my beginnings, and then also to look forward to the new me—the woman that I did—and do—want to be.

Chloé: I love the word you've used, "reconcile." I like that a lot, and I like how you've used it regarding your past. Please share more about that.

Sara: Absolutely. So, reconciliation is recognizing where I've come from, and the reasons as to why, and understanding that I don't have to have the answers for what those events were. But it's just knowing from that moment on that moving forward, I don't want that heaviness. I don't want to be weighted down. I don't want to be strong. I just want to cry and be held. I want to explore different things that I've never explored before. I want to be open to love.

I have plants now. I've never had plants before.

I have plants now. I've never had plants before. Many things had to came through with reconciling that part of my life, and then beginning a new journey. And in that time frame, one of those things, once you clear your mind of just a lot of clutter, no matter what it is, then you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And that was the journey for me. It took three years to just sit back, take therapy, and rewire and recondition myself. Because many things that I was taught were not the best for me. Well, it wasn't so much that I'd been formally taught. But there were things that I'd learned along the way that were not beneficial for me.

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Chloé: When you discovered that, Sara, and you decided, "OK, I'm going to get some therapy," what did you do to discover the woman that you wanted to be? And then what did you do to get in alignment—to get on the path of being her?

Sara: I love that question. Prior to the therapy, I told myself that I wanted to do better. I would constantly speak to myself, asking myself questions like, “What do you want out of yourself?

What do you want out of your life? What are you ready for? What are you not ready for? What's keeping you down?” And I think that's what helped me through the process. >

Chloé: I sincerely like this conversation, Sara. Because we are all capable of finding our own answers. That's called self-processing. You're processing yourself, asking yourself some great questions—being introspective and intuitive in a loving, kind, nonjudgmental way. And you're being present to listen for the answers. Tell me, when you got your answers, how did you get into action to start applying the new thinking and behaviors?

WHAT WAS THE

Sara: What was helpful is just having my girlfriends, who were also on the same path. We were able to keep each other in check—sort of through checks and balances. Really! They would encourage me when I was feeling low, whenever I didn't have enough confidence at that moment. They would encourage me to do better and tell me that I got it. They would give me very kind words to keep me pushing. So that was a huge part of it—just having that support system with my girlfriends. The big part of it was just within my mind. I was shifting my mindset, and moving forward with how I wanted things to go.

What does that look like? Well, I got plans, right? I changed my bed linens from gray to white. I got white towels.

Things that make me feel good. And I don't like clutter, so I decluttered everything. Everything is just simple now. So those are the kinds of things that helped me to get into and stay in my new lane.

Chloé: Oh, I love that. I remember when I first met you. There was this beautiful, glowing woman, sitting in the sun with such poise. And you were so regal, confident, and elegant. I do have a good eye, right?

Sara: Yes. You do.

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BIG PART?

The big part of it was just within my mind.

I was shifting my mindset, and moving forward with how I wanted things to go.

Chloé: Then, I went to your Instagram page, and I was like, oh, my goodness, I really do have a good eye! I asked if you are a model, and you said no. But you did work at a modeling agency, in New York.

Tell me how you got to New York, and how you got to work with the modeling agency. And what modeling agency was that?

Sara: The New York move was very calculated. Growing up in Iowa—well, there's nothing there. There's not a lot of excitement. It's a great place to raise children, but for a young adult, there's not much happening. So, I thought to myself, after graduating, of course, "What kind of job do I want to be in?" I decided I wanted to be in global health work. And in my mind, New York City has everybody and everything. All the big organizations are there. If it's not in DC, it must be in New York, right? So, I skipped over Chicago, and I went to New York to try to pursue and get my dream job, working in global health. And at the time, while I was there looking for the perfect job that I'm just crazy about, I found other opportunities—work contract positions in the city. >

Sara, continued: And randomly, out of nowhere, after just getting laid off from a big ad tech company, when I was just chilling at home for about three weeks —literally freaking out because I didn’t know what to do—out of the blue this woman reached out who worked for a staffing agency. She reached out to me about a position for a "cool company" she said. She asked if I could be at the interview the next day. I accepted. The next day was a Thursday. I had my meeting with the CFO at Wilhelmina Models at 11:00 in the morning.

I met with the CFO, I met with some of the staff members, and by that afternoon, I had landed the position of Executive Assistant for the Accounting team. So I was part of the staff, not the talent. Of course, people often mistake me for being a model in photographs, with my features. But I'm also an anomaly—because I'm quite petite, which is unusual considering my people are from Sudan, Africa, and they're generally very tall. So, I worked on the staff at Wilhelmina Models.

I was in New York living my best life, and those experiences helped shape my vision, and then put me in a space where I saw myself maybe five years from that time.

I asked myself a lot of questions. What did I want my life to look like? What kind of job did I want to have? Where did I want to live? I just started having these mental thoughts of what my life would look like in the future.

I WAS IN NEW YORK LIVING MY BEST LIFE.

Chloé: Is that where you learned about grace, style, and elegance—how to pose and carry your body? Or did your mom teach you that?

Sara: Actually, at that point in my life, I was not the most graceful person. It was a learning process—just watching the models as they came in every day. I watched how they moved and how they spoke. That was part of it. My mother is a sweet woman too. So I will say yes, there are some parts of her demeanor that I have also been able to grasp from her when I was growing up. She's a very kind and soft-spoken woman, which I tend to be as well. So that helped me to morph into the kind of woman that I had in my mind. But at the time, I was not there yet, because I still had a lot of self-work to do, because this was before I did therapy.

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Chloé: Is that what brought you to Atlanta?

Sara: I came to Atlanta in the hopes of finding a job in global health. So, yes, all these moves were strategic—trying to put myself in a space that I really wanted to be in. And I worked super hard to get into those places. And I'm very happy about that now—that I'm actually in this place.

I'm now in the field of global health, doing the work that I've strived for over the past ten years. It took a long time, but I do believe that coming to Atlanta was part of making that all come to fruition.

Chloé: You’re now working in global health with the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. What do you do and what do you like best about your work there? >

THE WORK THAT I DO IS

VERY SELFLESS. I work for the Trachoma Control Program.

Trachoma is a preventable eye disease that is oftentimes contracted through repeated infections. > Photographer: Sam Hooke FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 14

@_mrhooke

THE SOFT LIFE: It's the idea of "Why suffer?

Why stress out? Why not take it easy?"

Sara, continued: Trachoma is found in poor areas that lack adequate sanitation measures. These unhealthy environments create the disease and keep it going if it's not prevented at an earlier stage. So, giving back to certain spaces in the world that are inundated with this illness is meaningful—because it's very preventable. It's a type of blindness that no one has to get, but people do get it. And I think what the Carter Center does for me is the fact that they also work in my country. As I said, I was born in Sudan, and The Carter Center has lots of wonderful programs happening in Sudan and South Sudan.

Chloé: What you've done is phenomenal. You’ve given us a very beautiful description of how you observed yourself and your life, and said to yourself, "I'm not where I want to be. I'm not showing up as the woman I want to be, and can become." And you asked yourself a series of meaningful questions, which you answered from within yourself. You were able to perceive and decide—and then communicate to yourself and others— that you really wanted to be in global health. You went to New York, and you followed your heart there. Then, your heart brought you to Atlanta, and here you are now in global health with the Carter Center.

In a spiritual way and in a scientific way, what you did was to use the most beautiful gift that God has given to men and women: and that is your mind to think and your mouth to speak—to declare, “This is who I am, and this is what I'm going to do.” You created FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 15

your life—you put that vision and energy out there, and you've been very intentional. I am very proud of you, Sara Wom. And I'm excited that you are being authentic, brave, savvy, clever, sagacious, and fun, as a young woman!

You've taught me a new concept, living "the soft life." Tell us, what is the soft life?

Sara: The soft life is the idea of “Why suffer? Why stress out? Why not take it easy?” And it's different for everybody.

Because everyone has different interests, different things that they like to do, different ideologies, different lifestyles, and careers. So, it's very personal—it's subjective to each person. But for me, I am very cognitive of living life with less stress.

So, what does that look like for me? If I'm stressed at work, what do I do? I want to get my nails done—that's soothing for me. If I want to go for a walk, in nature, I do that, whatever it is that I can do to reduce that stress. And so it looks different for everybody. If you like traveling, that's part of living the soft life from your own space. Now, for me, my plants have become part of my living the soft life. If it's changing my bed linens from a different color to white, living in a much freer way, and in a brighter space—it's beautiful. I love flowers, so I buy myself flowers every time I go to the grocery store. I treat myself to dinner by myself. Or I go to the movies just so I can feel relieved, happy, and content with my own life.

Stress is always going to be there in some way, shape or form—work, family, even things that you don't have control over. But living the soft life is deciding what you can do in that space—to just lessen that stress, to make yourself feel good in any small way. >

Chloé: I love it, Sara. I love the whole expression and now I'm aspiring to live “the soft life” even more, Darling. What golden nugget would you like to leave with our readers?

Sara: Part of living the soft life is looking inward—to assess, manifest, and put it into action. We can manifest, but how would that work if we're not putting those new thoughts into action? We need to balance both aspects for things to come into fruition.

We do both the manifesting (the allowing) and the work (the visualizing and acting).

Chloé: Thank you so much, Sara.

Look inward, assess, manifest, and put it into action.

Photographer: Ayan Ahmed

@Ayanzodo FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 16

<

JASMINE IN MY MIND

I grew up on California’s Central Coast, my hometown about a two-hour drive south from San Francisco and a six-hour drive north from Los Angeles. You likely know the place when you hear about the city of Carmel—it's where Clint Eastwood was once mayor. And you may remember the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where Tiger Woods took the victory in 2000. Or, most recently, it was the filming location of Big Little Lies starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Zoë Kravitz. The Monterey Peninsula climate is mild— meaning the temperature generally tops out at sixty-nine degrees Fahrenheit during the summer months. And, except for the date on the calendar, any distinction between the four seasons is barely discernible.

F

or people who have suffered boiling hot summers, my hometown may sound like an oasis.

But for me, the weather pattern felt unnatural, and I was cold almost every day of my young life.

So when I moved to Georgia and woke up that first day of a hot, steamy, humid, Summer, I knew I was home.

Living in the South taught me more than a few new things about Summer. Among them was the fact that I palpably came to understand the vibe that inspired the reflective chill of the DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince hit, Summertime. “Summer madness” is real in Atlanta.

People gather in outdoor spaces—ranging from the driveway at the house, to neighborhood parks to sexy rooftop bars. Wardrobes shift to shorts, short skirts, and sandals and shirts that reveal color and form.

Grilling is the way we escape kitchen heat. And, from time to time, the cool spray of a fire hydrant is unleashed into the street by sweaty, crafty kids.

The alternating soaring temperatures and relieving summer rains create a mood that elicits exhale, equilibrium and enchantment.

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I think that’s what Seals and Crofts, the American softrock duo, wanted us to feel whenever we listen to their song, Summer Breeze. With a similar title but a much different vibe from the Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince hit, Summer Breeze calls to our spiritual nature. It became a timeless anthem in the Black community when The Isley Brothers' version came out. The instantly recognizable sound of Ronald Isley’s lead and younger brother Ernie’s matchless guitar aroused something of the “jasmine” in our own minds. This was somatic recognition, a visceral response that quickened our connection to yet another aspect of our spiritual birthright.

We felt it for sure. Like the thrill that moves through the body upon happy surprise, or the ache the settles in the belly when we are visited by loss.

Indeed, we felt it. But did we understand it? Did we have any real idea what Jim Seals meant when he wrote, “blowing through the jasmine in my mind"?

>

See the curtains hangin' in the window In the evening on a Friday night A little light a-shinin' through the window Lets me know everything's all right....

See the paper layin' on the sidewalk A little music from the house next door So I walk on up to the doorstep Through the screen and across the floor

See what I mean? Nothing spectacular happens. The lyrics describe regular, familiar things that most often go unnoticed.

But through musical allegory we are invited to recognize the sacred: the simple, the discoverable sweetness and beauty that—like the scent of jasmine—can inhabit and expand our minds.

Yeah, it’s all in the mind. It’s all in your head. What we think, what we have come to believe, is what rewards or punishes. A mindset can reveal beauty or obscure it. Your perspective and attitude will make you either free or imprisoned. If our desire is to flourish, then, like the mother caught on video as she’s beckoned by her toddler to stomp in a big puddle, we only have to choose the beauty set before us.

Just watch the TikTok posted by @wellnes.mindset >

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(www.tiktok.com/t/ZTd78HdhH/?k=1), and you’ll see a rule-bound mother melt into the freedom to play and to joyfully experience her daughter. The baby girl has no worries about wet feet, ruined shoes or catching a cold.

As she calls to her mom, “Come here. Come here. Hold my hand.” She intuitively knows the puddle is divine, a gift available for the choosing.

I can now see the long string between the chilly coastal woes of my childhood and my realized appreciation for “the jasmine in my mind.” My discontent with the mild climate of my hometown was not true suffering but a positive driving force. It made me just uncomfortable enough to consider something new.

I found a new way of being. A new way of thinking.

And, without a doubt, my real adult journey began with that cross-country drive toward a warmer climate. Hints of sweet-smelling “jasmine” lured me to a new thought, a new possibility, an opportunity of choice.

I chose and was wowed by the beauty set before me.

Simple beauty like what I found sitting on a pine deck, listening to tiny wrens singing big songs; watching a peculiar old dog engage in life; and, yes, feeling the goodness of a Summer breeze.

Each of these things and countless more are available for us to notice—available for our choice. And make no mistake, choice is available to everyone. Even those constrained by a difficult situation or circumstance.

Choice is the ultimate emancipator. Choosing is the only way to engage the “jasmine” that has always been in your mind. <

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LAURIE RENFRO is a writer and spiritual seeker with a Master's degree in Spiritual Psychology from Sofia University in Palo Alto, California (formerly the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology).

@routineinterrupted

Laurie Renfro

THE BOSS IN 3D Meet Chanda Leigh: a celebrated musician who is currently the lead singer of 3D The Boss—the health and fitness pop group based in Atlanta, Georgia—and the spokesperson for the YourDay Balance Game.

She studied jazz piano with Dr. Geoff Hayden, then left the program early to play in the allfemale house band of The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show in Los Angeles. > PERFORMING ARTIST, MUSICIAN, SONGWRITER, PIANO/VOCAL COACH

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Chloé: To my delight, my girlfriend, Vanda Teixeira invited me to visit her consciously aware and European- inspired healthful eatery and espresso bar, Café I Am (see page 2), in Metro Atlanta. She assured me that I would love the experience—and was she ever so correct! It was a Thursday night, and the café had been transformed into a piano lounge, with great cocktails and delicious light bits. That evening my husband and I had the best time and felt right at home because we were treated with love and care.

There I met the most talented and charming woman, Chanda Leigh, who was performing. I was instantly energized by her jazz musical style and her easy way of mixing classical and jazz notes, and I wanted to know more about her and her music. So I asked to feature her in the magazine.

When I asked Chanda when she first "felt" the piano, this is what she said.

Chanda: "Well, the feeling came later than when I actually started playing. My pastor at the church I grew up in told my parents that I needed to be the next pianist—that they needed to start grooming me so I could play for the church. I was seven, and he said I had long fingers. That was the beginning of my lessons, and at the time I didn't really care for it a whole lot. I wasn't passionate about it. But, when I started to feel the instrument, and be like, "Oh, this is my jam!" I was fourteen. So it took a minute.

Chloé: So, you were playing all along and then eventually you started to really feel it?

Chanda: Right? Yes! That's when I said, "This can take me places."

Chloé: So, was the feeling and revelation creative, intellectual, sensuous, worldly—as in travel? Or was it like, "Hey, I could be a star here"?

Chanda: That's a great question, Chloé. At fourteen, I wasn't nearly that savvy. But if I had to say, because it was very connected to who this guy was—he was a classmate at school— so I would say it was sensual. Just having his big ole body sitting next to me playing music. He was a football guy and six foot four! So whatever that exchange was energetically was great.

And he was so impressed with me, like, "Oh, my God." Because he could play by ear, but he couldn't read music. And I could read. That's when I saw music as a possibility. Not necessarily to perform professionally, but something that could bring me places. Because also he was from Jamaica, and that was some place I hadn't ever been.

FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 21

Chloé: I read that you went to Spelman College. Is that where you started to get your real feel, and craft your first brand and sound?

Chanda: Yeah, Spelman was a very integral part of my whole musical experience, even though I certainly had many experiences before Spelman. I did some stuff in high school.

But it all became clear when I said, "Oh, man, this might be what I need to be doing." When I was freshman, I went to see the jazz band perform, and I was really inspired. There were all these beautiful women playing all these different instruments, sounding great, and looking pretty, but serious at the same time. I thought, this is not a joke. Because at that time, women who played instruments I don't think got the respect they deserved. A lot of times it was caricatured or treated as if they were less than professional.

So I saw real professional women. And after the show I walked up to the stage and just congratulated the guitarist, who ended up becoming one of my closest friends. She asked if I played piano, and invited me to try out that next semester, which I did. And that's when the bug really bit me.

I started playing with these ladies, and just feeling it, even though I was very new—and a novice at that style of music. It was an intense and enriching experience just to play jazz music and understand that a lot of the composers and greats were women. And we were honoring the tradition by playing this music.

Chloé: At Spelman, you discovered the joy of playing music with women who were your peers, and you were learning about the history of female jazz artists.

Chanda: Exactly. It was very enlightening. And that's when everything shifted. Prior to that experience, I wanted to be a newscaster or a traveling journalist. I knew I was a great writer, and I could communicate well, so I figured that would be my thing.

Chloé: So, where did you get your style from--your beauty, your physical way of entering the room and holding your position?

Chanda: From you! Because you are one classy woman! I came from a small town in Massachusetts--Worcester, Massachusetts, and eventually Springfield, Massachusetts.

That's where my family is now. If there were 200,000 people there, the percentage of the black population might have been ten to fifteen percent. So, my point is, I grew up not seeing a whole lot of people who look like me. But when I got to Spelman College, everybody looked like me and beyond.

They were from other countries, and they spoke different languages. I had no idea that Brown and Black women had such a diaspora. There, I saw many examples of that >

Chanda, continued: regal, coiffed, elegant, graceful way of being—in women my age who were just so much more cultured, so much more exposed. And I just wanted to be like them. They were just sliding and gliding across the floor. How do they do that? How do they enter the room and you don't hear anything? How does your hair lay ever just so? How does that work?

It's been a journey. In college, I didn't have the income and stuff to do a lot of things I wanted to do. But that's where it started with me. Just becoming aware that being a woman of color had a huge array of possibilities—that there was no limit at all!

Chloé: Now, what I want to know is, how did you go from being a jazz pianist to this pop, rock, R&B, funk workout artist?

Chanda: Well, I love that question because it is the question that I get asked probably the most. And what I can tell you is, I still have a love for all the different music that I've played, including gospel music. My dad is a Baptist pastor, and so I grew up playing in church like they planned. And I did that for a long time—from age seven to seventeen—and then even beyond in college as well. I worked for a few churches in Atlanta. And I still work with the Episcopal Church from time to time—ongoing. Anyway, to your point, I always enjoyed listening to Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Prince, Tina Marie, and Rick James—to mention a few.

Those are more like late 70s, early 80s. But then in the 90s, all the new jack swing artists like Guy, and Brownstone, and all these different artists that had such a swag and a lilt, if you will, to their sound. I appreciated jazz because of the culture, because of the richness, and the legacy of the music, and the intricacy of playing the music. It's not easy music to play.

It sounds like it is, but it really takes a lot to learn. And I studied classical as well as my background, so I always honored that. But I also always admired how somebody could cut up their shorts, put on some boots in a baseball cap and just kill it, and be like, oh, man, kill it. So, I always knew that that was something I enjoyed and loved, and I thought about the possibility of it for myself. But I had no idea what that really looked like.

So fast forward to about five years, six years ago—and I have a lot of colleagues here in Atlanta. And during that time, several of my colleagues passed away. And that was really upsetting. People who were in their early to mid-40s >

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Chanda, continued: who were amazing musicians, composers, and singers—but they had lifestyles that didn't support their amazing art. In fact, their art was so amazing that it came at the expense of their very life. That's what I saw. So, I started really paying attention to the lifestyle of the common musician. And I had been that too. But I had already gotten to my own health and fitness years ago.

Still, I was up late eating poorly sometimes or whatever. And I saw that the lifestyle was a lot of things that don't promote health. So, it was now being brought to my attention in a big and immediate way, because a lot of people started dying. It just seemed like it was back to back people dying—people I toured with, people I composed with, people I had performed with. And I was devastated. I said to myself, "Wow." Chloé: Why were they dying?

Chanda: A lot of it has to do with the lifestyle. So just to give you a quick example. In a jazz club, you don't go on stage until 9:00 or 9:30. You have terrible posture while you're playing, the whole time. You're drinking, you're smoking, maybe between sets. You don't eat the whole time. So, then your blood sugar is going up and down while you're performing and making all these demands on your body. The show might end at midnight. You hang out, you drink some more, you smoke some more, maybe you eat, then. After that you go home, and you sleep on all of that in your body.

You wake up at noon and you start the whole process again.

Inside of that, is there a time when you go for a walk and push some weights? No. Because you're too doggone tired, or you don't have the energy. Because you're not even fueling your body in a way that could give you that energy.

That's all physical. But we won't even talk about what's going on with your relationships. A lot of my colleagues weren't in relationships. They were divorced or they had two and a possible. Or they just had a lot of drama. Children by different people, for example. Just a lot of things that can undermine your emotional health.

So, the kind of things that I was seeing in my colleagues were heart attacks, diabetes, cancer, brain tumor. It's crazy, Chloé, but you go in hard. You come out of college and for twenty years, you go in hard. So, by the time you're forty-five, you've put a lot of miles on that body—especially if you're touring.

Chloé: So that lifestyle seems challenging, to say the least— on families, relationships, and not to mention on the person who's experiencing all this.

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Chanda: I can't speak for all women musicians, although I do think there's some commonalities with us. But for me, if we are dating men, there's those things that come up. Who are you at the club with? Or who was that guy that came to hug you at the end of the show? Or who's calling you at one in the morning? Any of it can be a problem—especially with your co-workers and colleagues, which tend to be mostly men. It can be an intimate relationship. Because you're making music and you're doing it at late hours, and sometimes that can turn into a sexual relationship. And that can cause problems at home.

Chloé: Well, yes, I would think that any outside sexual relationship would cause a problem if you had someone at home.

Chanda: Yes, it's a huge gap. Let me tell you about that— because I never really put them together—so you can understand it fully. So, seeing all of that—experiencing it myself and seeing it—made me say "I love myself, and I love my life. And my life is more important than my music." And I asked myself, "Is there a way that I can honor my lifestyle and my life more, and still play music?" And so that question birthed my new way. And as I say this, the truth is, I was not the only one who sat down and came up with this. I have a whole team. But out of that inquiry came a way to play music that promotes movement and makes you want to dance. You see, jazz music, typically, doesn't >

Chanda, continued: make you dance. Its intellectual music. It makes you feel nice. You might sway, but you're not going to get up and do the running, man. But, pop music, typically when you hear it on the radio or blasting in the mall, you want to dance.

That's the way it goes. Then, add the complexity of the composition of jazz music—and my music has that in it.

So, I'm not selling out, and playing stuff that you don't really care about. I'm combining the love of the music with the love of movement and fitness. And I'm also shifting lyrics from "This is the last time you're going to break my heart; this is the last time"--all those kinds of lyrics—to "I'm still standing," or "Having a paradise is you."

Just the lyrics alone have raised consciousness. I couldn't even go back to the same clubs anymore, because the energy was too low. I couldn't breathe. I want to be outside, in the sun, to be in the daylight. I wanted to go home and take care of my kids.

Chloé: When you made your decision to make that transition, did you start doing something differently for yourself in addition to transforming the kind of music you wanted to play?

Chanda: Yes, Chloé. But first, let me say that your spirit is very youthful and familiar, like, maybe we played in a different life together or something. Because when I met you, I was like, "She seems like somebody I know." And this is a great segue into my relationship with Day Adeogba, my partner. We've been together for eleven years. I was a newly divorced person. I knew Day already from mutual friends. I started working with some of his trainers at that time, and I talked with him sometimes to understand where I had derailed.

I was always into fitness, but I didn't understand the connection of the consciousness part. So that was helpful, and that was the beginning of me becoming aware of how I was choosing and creating my life. Then I had my daughter, Issa.

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The reason I brought Day up, is because he's been an integral part of this whole thing that I'm talking about here. And your question was just about what happened in the interim—between going from the jazz into creating a cardio pop type of music and cardio concerts. That's what we call them: cardio concerts. A lot happened in that gap, but most of it was transformation, within me.

Because that was the main thing that needed to happen.

I can talk about what I saw going on with my colleagues.

But really, what was important was what was going on with me. >

Chanda, continued: My relationship with my ex was really a difficult one at that time. And co-parenting was difficult, and there were some other things that were personal challenges— where I just lacked faith in myself in certain areas. In 2011, Day and a friend of his, Ona Brown, came to a show that I did. You might know her. She also does transformational work. She is an inspirational speaker. Her dad is Les Brown. So, the show was a lot like the one I did the other night, but it was in a recording studio. Afterwards, Ona came up to me, and she's like, "Why aren't you signed? What's going on here?" She was almost mad, she was so sure of my talent.

So, that led to a meeting with her, a couple of other musicians, Day, and me. We came to an understanding that we wanted to support each other, by combining our talents and becoming a team. And so we came together and created what eventually became 3D The Boss. It has had several iterations, but over the years we've tweaked it to where it is now—which is a cardio concert presentation.

Imagine a Zumba festival where they all get together in Miami and do the big things. Imagine that. And there's a live band on the stage. So it's a concert—live band, singer, choreographer, and dancers, with big jumbotrons, and no DJ necessary because it's all live, original music. So, I'm singing, talking to you, and just exchanging. You all are out there on the sand in your sweat clothes, bikinis, whatever—and you're dancing along with the choreography.

So it's like all the things came together. Because, Chloé, I get to be the jazz musician in terms of the quality of the music, and, at the same time, I'm free from being behind the piano because I like to move. And I like fitness a whole lot. And then it's supported by all these other musicians and singers and dancers. And you all get to burn 800 calories. Not even realizing that that's what's going on.

I gave you a brief overview, but the transition happened mainly inside of me—through working with Day as my life coach at the time, and then eventually as my partner.

Chloé: Your body that you have now, is that what you've maintained, or did you create that once you started working out with Day? Because it is hot and just rocking!

Chanda: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. I will say I was always into health and fitness from college on, and I was an athlete in high school. So I had a leg up in that way. It was about being aware. I was always lifting and training.

However, when I first got married, I turned into a Michelin tire for a little bit. And it's interesting. Because then after I got divorced, I went into some really deep fasting to release a lot of things. I got down to what we call my "play weight." I have been training since 2008 consistently. I stopped to have my baby in 2009–2010. I came back when she was three months old, and I haven't stopped since. So now that's coming up on eleven years.

Chloé: That's amazing. Congratulations on that. Fast forward to right now, and then project us into the future based on everything that you believe and perceive yourself to be. What do you want for yourself—your ideal self, and your ideal life?

Chanda: I told my mom a while back, "Mom, I'm going to be famous." And I told her, "You're going to be interviewed." She's looking at me like, "What are you talking about?" I said, "It’s not for the reason you think. It's not the music. I know you probably were thinking it's because of the music, but here's the thing that I want to share." I said to her, "I've learned over the many experiences I've had up to this point in my life what it is to be a divine goddess. And how I understand that is that I'm tuned in and tapped into Source. And you can call that whatever you want.

"You can call it Jesus, God, Jehovah—it's all the same to me. The point is, I understand what it feels like when I'm connected to that Source, and from that I can create anything." So I said, "Right now, I used to think my music was the greatest contribution I could give the world. But it's the least of it now." I said, "I understand that there are so many people out there, especially women, but just so many people who could really benefit from me sharing the tools that I understand about how to live a powerful life."

So, what I want to do, the legacy I want to leave, is multifaceted. It's sharing that information using the YourDay Balance Game, which is a health and fitness game that's inspired by love and balance. It teaches people how to live a more powerful life using their health and fitness as the litmus test. It's asking, "How am I doing?

Am I going up? Am I going down? Am I flattening out?

What's happening?" So that's the first thing. And then there's the second thing: What it is to be a divine goddess.

And that's for men and women. Everybody has a feminine side, and many of us have muted it in the name of getting it done.

Let's just get through life. So, I want to share with people my own journey, moving through that, especially as a musician in a male-dominated industry. Through all of >

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Chanda, continued: that, come into this very watery and beautiful place where I can navigate through all those tricky moments in life. Then the third thing I want to share is the music and my creativity. I write poetry as well, and I tell short stories. And I also write erotic fiction. These are all like, "Oh, by the way, I've got a couple more!"

Chloé: But it's not just by the way, because we are so multifaceted, extremely talented, even brilliant. And when we come to think about it, we love many things. All those things come through us, through our authentic self. And we can take the things that we love about ourselves, and the list of things that we really want to be up to is endless. We can recreate it, but at the same time, it's always us.

Chanda: Yes, thank you for saying it that way. When you're at a certain age in high school, everyone wants to know: What do you want to be when you grow up? And it's supposed to be one thing.

Chloé: I want to be everything I want to be.

Chanda: And how do you know to even say that, when you're at that age? Who gives you permission to say that, if you don't have that mom or that dad who's on that wavelength?

When do you learn that that's really what it's all about?

Chloé: So many women need what you have, more now than ever. Because no one has told us that we can choose multiple things. You and I are women who are wanting to inspire and empower other women—to say to them, "OK, maybe you didn't get that right, but it's OK, because you can get it now. What are your talents? What are your gifts?

What do you want to develop? How do you want to put all that together? How do you want to show up and be sexy in it?" But I'm getting off point.

Chanda: No, no, Chloé. You're right. This is my jam, right here. You're my jam right now! I love it.

Chloé: What is the one thing that you would like to leave with our readers? And who are you speaking to specifically?

Chanda: Know how important it is to love yourself—not just get pretty and put on perfume. Not that kind of love, but really deeply and truly understand who you are as a child of God—as a child of the Universe, whatever you want to call that. Know your divine nature. Know that because of that, you are so worthy of all of it. Everything you can imagine for yourself, you're worthy of it.

That's what I want to leave with you. If I don't say another word, and if this is my last breath, that's the last thing I'd like to say. And that's for everybody. <

ChandaLeigh ChandaLeigh ChandaLeigh

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FROM FROM THE THE TO TO MY MY

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60 60ss

A child of the 1960s

Born in 1960, I turned 60 in 2020. The sixties—a long time ago. And now: my sixties.

In sixth grade, I was sent home one day for wearing a miniskirt. The principal called me “Missy,” and told me my dress was way too short for school.

In junior high, I wore peace signs and bell-bottoms, and listened to Jesus Rock. Some called me a Jesus Freak. I played Beatles and John Denver on my guitar.

I was a straight-A student in high school. On a career aptitude test, I was shown to be well-suited for a job in writing, editing, music, or religion—and my top three “manifest needs” were listed as autonomy, variety, and heterosexuality.

None of the questions I answered had anything remotely to do with sex. But that is what the test results actually said. Not kidding.

Perhaps my obvious lack of daintiness, and the fact that most of my friends were guys put me in a more so-called “masculine” category.

Back then, “women’s liberation” was a thing. I subscribed to a brand-new magazine called Ms.

Predicting the Future

When I was a girl, I remember dreaming about the year 2000. Wow. Two thousand! “That will be the year I turn 40. I’ll be so old!” I wrote my predictions for 2000 in my diary on January 1, 1970: “Cars will fly” (like in The Jetsons), “pay phones will have TV screens” (like in 2001: A Space Odyssey), “and I will make ten thousand dollars a year as a writer.”

Yeah, I was pretty close.

The truth is, I don’t even feel old now. What is “old,” anyhow? How can anyone “grow old”? If you ask me, that’s an oxymoron. Really, if we’re always growing—then of course we can only grow new. When I hear the phrase "advancing years," I give it the power it deserves. I am always advancing—moving forward, learning, making progress.

Changing—I can only hope—for the better.

Now this ain’t always easy. If you had told my teenage self that I would be married and divorced by 25; a singer-songwriter and recording artist at 30; remarried and a mother with a toddler at 40; recovering from a financial crisis at 50; and an orphan at 60—I wouldn’t have believed you. I would’ve cringed at the words marriage, mortgage, and motherhood.

I do admit, those few years of popularity on the music scene in Chicago and L.A. were pretty magical. >

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A SECOND YOUTH Am I a senior citizen? Yes, I suppose so, thank you very much. It’s a lot better than being a senior in high school, I’ll tell you that. But retired?

I don’t even know what that means. I am just getting started!

Sometimes that scares me. But I pretend. I act as if. Just like every other grown-up does.

Our daughter has graduated from college and landed her first job— she’s left the nest for good. As I watch her settling in to her new adult life filled with promise, I’ve found myself reentering the uncertainty of my own adolescence. Who am I? Where am I going? What am I doing? Why am I doing it? What will I be when I grow up?

I have countless options in front of me. And yet, unlike decades ago, the possibilities don’t seem so endless. Common opinion says I have about 20 years or so left on this plane of existence. So I want to choose wisely.

Without our daughter in the house, I will finally be free to be me again. But what will this redefinition mean? Thank God Almighty I don’t menstruate anymore, but I do suffer from hot flashes, which fill me with despair every time one hits. Each time, for about a minute or so, all I want to do is peel my skin off. I heat up to a simmer from scalp to toe, and beads of sweat form on my forehead. But I make do.

A mini-fan is always within reach. As soon as the boiling ends, I distract myself with the coolness that descends, and laugh off the false narrative that condemns me to suffer. Over the years, their frequency has lessened. Sometimes I’m mindful enough to see one as an opportunity to slow down, breathe deeply, to be grateful. To stop taking myself so seriously.

But I digress.

As I explore the empty nest, identify the new me, and see where a new direction takes me, I’ve been trying to recapture that heterosexual vibe I supposedly possessed back in the day. >

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DATE NIGHTS

Not too long ago, my husband and I spent a rare night out at a bar to see some musician friends perform. I even joined the guys to sing a Joni Mitchell tune. A little later, when the band got into a funky groove, I got up and danced.

My husband watched as a cute guy less than half my age gave me a look, reached out, and took my hands. He told me I was a good dancer. (Not true in the least.) He said, “I don’t even know you, but I love you.”

Granted, he was drunk.

My husband and I gave each other knowing glances the entire time.

I gingerly kept the guy from feeling me up. From kissing my neck.

Needless to say, I was all smiles for the rest of the night. Still smiling, every time I think about it.

Just as my teenage years turned into the salad days of my twenties, these days I can feel my confidence level building. So maybe, just maybe, our empty nest will become a love nest (in between the hot flashes, that is). After all, I don’t have to settle for awkward sex in the back of my first boyfriend’s Chevy anymore. My husband knows what he’s doing.

If only I knew what I’m doing. Give me a few more days. I’ll figure it out. And here’s to the next adventure. <

Janis Janis Hunt Hunt Johnson Johnson Flourish Digital Magazine Copyeditor | Spiritual Author/Prayer Coach/Healer Editing Editing

www.askjanis.com Blog Blog

www.CSRenewal.medium.com Music Music

www.SoundCloud.com/Janisongs

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Union THE

It is always such a wonderful experience to chat with couples who have been together for decades—thirty, forty, and some even sixty years! How do two people stay together that long? The two common reasons mentioned are their faith, and communication.

Faith in God and the belief that keeps Him at the center of the relationship sets the foundation for longevity. There is a verse in the Bible that speaks to a three-strand cord that is not easily broken. If you braid three strands, the result is one strong stand that cannot be severed. Many of these couples start and end their day in prayer— together! Many of these couples have agreed not to go to bed angry. Now this has also resulted in some sleepless nights as they work to resolve whatever the issue is on the table! They all say it is worth losing a little sleep for the sake of their marriage.

How many relationships might have been saved if more couples made that same vow?

To not lay their heads on the pillow until conflicts are resolved.

When two human beings come together as one, there will be disagreements and conflicts. The love for each other and the relationship has to be the driving force in doing what it takes to overcome the obstacles.

Then there is communication. This is a close second to faith when it comes to keeping people together. Couples have shared how they give each other the space to express their feelings about a particular matter.

Couples have told me how they have allowed each other to share their experiences that have caused them to respond or react a certain way. Sometimes the response or reaction is a result of some life trauma or experience.

A wife has a traumatic experience in her childhood. The husband makes a gesture that he thinks shows how much he loves his wife. However, that same gesture triggers some past traumatic experience in the wife and therefore her response to his kindness is negative. Once he understands the reason behind her reaction, he is compassionate and chooses another path to show his love. A husband internalizes certain feelings based on his past experiences.

The wife feels as though he does not communicate with her, or she may interpret it as him not loving her. Both scenarios are far from the truth. Again, once he reveals what or why he internalizes, the wife can then meet him at a point that is comfortable and reassuring to him.

This is not rocket science. It's just the genuine desire to meet each other at a point of transparency—to grow into being each other’s safe space—which is a beautiful space to be in.

Faith and communication: They're two ingredients that, when mixed together properly, can lead to many decades of a loving relationship. > FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 32

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PAULA G VOICE

I am Paula G. Voice, AKA Lady Wisdom—a sagacious independent lifestyle influencer, embracing my journey. I influence dreamers to do the same by breathing life into their vision and ultimately the manifestation of the same. It is never too late to embrace your journey and live your dream. Flourish!

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I Am Dreaming A NEW DREAM, SETTING NEW GOALS AND STEPPING INTO THE NEW ME.

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E ZE EZ EE RE B BR

ELENA TAYLOR-BAGGER Founder of The Innovative Mom, and single mom to five young adults www.theinnovativemom.com @theinnovativemom

.

the innovative mom

"Summer breeze makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind"! This song will always make me think of my family and our vacations. Usually it played while we were headed to the beach—and I can remember being at my happiest. Everyone stuffed into our station wagon, me sitting up front between my mom and dad and all of us eagerly waiting to get to the hotel to swim, walk in the sand and watch The Flintstones. What a simple but exciting life it was!

We can all agree that there's so much going on in the world; we could use some simplicity: talking with neighbors outside, children running and playing, hanging out, and just having a good time with friends and family.

Well we don’t have to travel back to the 70s to create a bit of simplicity in our lives. We can take on Summertime with the full intention to create joy, peace, adventure and happiness.

Whether we are work-from-home moms, stay-at-home moms, or working moms outside of the home, here are a couple of ideas for making memories this Summer.

. . . . . . ..

The first thing on the list is taking some time out for yourself.

Think about what you love to do, spend an entire day with just you, exploring what it is you need and want. If you can’t take the entire day, by all means create moments here and there where you can just be .

Visit your state tourism site and find attractions for day trips or overnight trips.

Check your local county sites for free events. There is always something going on for free.

Be spontaneous. Nothing says memories like a 24-hour vacation Go glamping! (the fancy version of camping) Camp out in your backyard, invite friends and family over Be adventurous! Try activities that you wouldn’t normally try (dancing,, skating,, hiking, etc.)

Explore surrounding towns and cities.

Learn a new language. Discover different cultures

The beauty in finding things to do is that they can be done alone (your "me time"), with your kids and family , as well as with your friends.

Most importantly though, is to have fun, enjoy life, eat good food, spend time with great people, and be grateful daily.

Happy Summer 2022, Mamas! Enjoy! < FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 35

— WA R R E N B U F F E T

MINORITY MARKET MAKER FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 37

My journey began as a sales rep at the Xerox Corporation. As a new recruit, I won a few sales contests and even got the big annual award. One of those contests earned me a trip to Mexico for the company's top reps.

An explanation and demonstration of tools to help us access our limitless potential. We have all had what's known as a "good day." What would your life be like if you had a methodology that helped you to create and have a consistent string of "good days," with a reduction in bad days?

Sales could take me places.

Sales nurtured my sense of adventure. It was a sense of adventure that led me to pursue a better life for my family—a better life as a minority, insulated from a system designed to hold me back.

I learned many lessons that helped me—from my beginning at Xerox to CBS broadcasting and Warner Bros. television. Every step of the way, I paid attention to actions and thought processes that helped me sell. I also watched decision-makers who were not minorities.

What is the exact date that minorities will become the majority? We have all heard that day is coming, but until then our progress has to have a unique strategy.

As minorities, we know that we are different. We intuitively know that things in the world hit us differently. And somehow we have never stopped to consider the idea that when selling to the rest of the world, we must sell differently. This document is written and presented to demonstrate how we must sell to overcome obstacles the rest of the world doesn't have to consider.

During the pandemic, we were hit disproportionately hard. The path back from the impact of the last three years is rooted in selling ourselves, our products, and our concepts better. Introducing the Minority Market Maker selling curriculum, known as M3. If you practice the elements of this format and change these printed words into habits, your sales skills will grow, and your business along with you.

Don't think of this as another training program. Think of M3 as the only curriculum written specifically for you. And it's the only program available that will teach you strategies to pass on to your children and to their children. We all know that critical life tools will not be taught in school.

Here's what M3 offers:

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What should you do to start each day? What is the budget you should follow for optimum financial growth? And how does anyone learn in a way that allows personal growth and the ability to teach loved ones?

Prospect without cold calls; the only questions that matter; power presentations; elevator speeches that sell you; and positioning for the future. >

Let's begin with the first step toward scaling your personal development and business. The launch of all great inventions, songs, and businesses boiled down to one thing: insight. Those leaders saw something the rest of the world didn't see. History supports this concept time and time again.

Dale Carnegie saw a tradesman making flatware out of iron and saw how iron could help him build bridges, then buildings and railroad systems.

Aristotle Onassis saw the use of tankers under a little-known rule called "flags of convenience."

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By doing so, he took advantage of relaxed laws and paid lower wages. He searched for and ignored the standards his competitors abided by—allowing him to become wealthy.

Here's the big one: Steve Jobs. Jobs didn't invent anything and yet he is widely considered a genius. There were personal computers before the Mac, a Walkman before the iPod, and even the iPad is a copy of earlier tablets. So what was it that Steve Jobs had that helped him create one of the world's largest and most profitable companies? Jobs along with other masterminds had the absence of a scotoma.

Using everyday language, a scotoma is a blind spot. But what about a "learned blind spot"? What about when we can't see things that are right in front of us? In medical terms, it's explained this way:

The older we become, the less we see.

But I'm not talking about our actual eyesight being weakened. I'm saying it's because we stop looking.

For example, when we see anything we have seen on a regular basis, we stop looking and only glance at it.

Due to this habit of quick glances, we miss the opportunity to see things that cause success. Without looking at your watch, tell me the color of the face, and if the name is written in cursive letters or block letters.

Does it have a second hand?

Does it have a calendar? And is that calendar correct? When I do this exercise in my seminars, only one percent of the time does someone get them all correct!

And we look at our watches fifty times a day. Isn't it possible, then, that we don't see things daily that could improve our lives, and our businesses? >

Robert Smalls was a Black slave who worked on a Confederate ship as a wheelman. One night, Smalls stole the ship, sailed into Union army territory, and became a free man. His success was based on him seeing how the Confederate sailors addressed each other for passage on the waterways. Due to the dark of night, no one could see his color. They focused only on the signals, and let Smalls sail to freedom.

He went on to serve five terms in Congress.

We can’t see because we have developed a learned blind spot in the one area where we spend most of our time: our business. This blindness has become the science of pain and lost revenue. Professionals work constantly on the principles of success, but they miss the alpha principle of them all. Without the ability to see we are confined to more hours, limited resources, and serving a sentence of limited achievement.

Sacagawea, a Native American of the Lemhi Shoshone tribe, stepped into the limelight when she joined the Lewis and Clark expedition in April 1805.

Along with serving as a translator for negotiations with the Shoshones, the teenage mother contributed to the mission's success with her knowledge of vegetation and geographical checkpoints. Without her view of the territories both Lewis and Clark would have greatly struggled.

Over the years, our bouts with this blindness have changed. Noted psychologists from Albert Bandura to Martin Seligman have explored many of these limiting aspects. Nowadays, many inspired leaders use various techniques to avoid lapses in vision.

Francis Drake explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579, landing north of the future city of San Francisco.

In each of these cases, our ancestors saw something the rest of the world did not see. Your success and a big part of this training will depend on your ability to look at the world differently - and see things your competition doesn't see. You have been blessed with the same ability to see – thank the Lord!

Business, good business is made of ideas, implementations, staffing, and most importantly Leadership. It’s about danger – risking time and money and family. The biggest element of ongoing success is to avoid scotomas. To avoid the inability to see items large and small that will help your business to grow. Is this a silly article? I mean, really . . . who can’t see things they look at every day?

The answer to who can’t see, in short, is – most of us. Most of us can’t see accurately. Not because our vision has declined due to age.

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Look below, and count the number of F's:

Did you see three? Maybe you are one of the lucky ones, and you actually saw four. Or maybe you saw. . .

If we're going to benefit from this article, we must start with a belief that it is entirely possible that our eyesight is failing. Not failing due to age—but failing because each time we see something that looks vaguely familiar, we stop looking. Immediately, we go into a thought process that’s based on history.

What we see at that point is all memory muscles.

Fresh from similar experiences myself, I began to look for safeguards:

I purposely tried to slow my pace—and not rush when presented with a new situation.

Why didn’t you notice all six the first time? Well, it’s easy to say that F’s actually have a “v” sound when used with the word of. Or you could reason from the idea that we all read too fast.

The real question is: Are there things we overlook in our business every day?

I’ve spoken to and consulted with companies since 2001. During those years, there has been one constant.

I see things in those businesses that the leaders don’t see. In fact, I have come to believe that the knowledge of sales and marketing that helps me the most is my ability to look deeply at a problem.

There is a powerful strain of dereliction of duty, and it’s called lack of focus. Simply looking is no good in today's market. No longer, can we just glance. Today we need a non-blinking, reptilian-like stare to even begin to help our business.

Let’s say it’s a busy Monday morning, and, as usual, the office is really buzzing. One of your employees needs a moment of your time. This person presents two options to solve a customer’s concern. You have a couple of options: You can respond based on your history.

You can look at the two situations based on what’s new in the market.

Or, you can spend the same time really looking at the options to see if you truly understand the problem. Maybe you will see something new, which your first glance didn’t deliver.

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I allowed myself to extend the time I spent looking at the problem.

I looked at situations as if I were going to draw or paint them ("the artist's way").

If possible, I would step away and come back for a second look And finally, I would describe the situation mentally before I spoke

I hope you can see the impact of what I’m saying about our ability to see. Learned blind spots have an impact on every aspect of our businesses. More importantly, they have an impact on our lives. The upcoming training will teach you how to see what others don’t! <

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CORPORATE S A V V Y TRAINING

Let's Dialogue

Be the leader who offers the best.

Your people deserve it.

CLIENTS HAVE INCLUDED:

CHLOE@CHLOETAYLORBROWN.COM CHLOETAYLORBROWN.COM +1 770-653-7883 FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 43

An Authentic Way To Level Up Your Personal Excellence & Power

Personal Excellence Profile The world's most innovative self-awareness and personal excellence assessment tool.

CHLOETAYLORBROWN.COM

FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 44

TALKS SOCIAL MEDIA AND BUILDS HER EMPIRE

Our stunning beauty guru—Shari Perkins—spills the tea on how she became an all-around beauty expert and self-made boss, and how she built her empire with various forms of digital marketing. >

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Perkins says her love for making herself feel beautiful is what ultimately led her to starting her beauty brand. It's what prompted her to begin teaching other women about beauty techniques. If you visit her YouTube channel—Shari’s Life of Luxxury—and scroll all the way back to videos that she uploaded over six years ago, you can see that her consistent passion for make-up is the foundation on which she built her brand’s social media presence.

The now twenty-six-year-old beauty guru says, “I just wanted to find an outlet while living in Mississippi, and make-up was my escape.” This escape led her to broader content including travel videos and fashion hauls. But Shari always found a way to incorporate beauty into her videos.

She declares, “Even when I go on vacation, I set up my camera (that is, my iPhone) and record myself getting ready to go out—make-up, hair and outfit.”

At the tender age of nineteen, Perkins found her love for professional make-up artistry while in cosmetology school.

She went on to be the head make-up artist in a natural hair salon in Jackson, Mississippi, where she attributes her love for providing beauty services, building clientele, and offering beauty products.

At age twenty-two, Shari moved to the buzzing outskirts of the Georgia capital (North Atlanta/Marietta) and began offering her beauty services and products. She coined her work Traveling Luxxury, which is where her company name comes from. “I wanted women to know, beauty is so important to me, that I will get up at the wee hours in the morning and travel to them—and even stay late at night— just to provide the best possible experience.”

She goes on to explain, “If a bride-to-be needs me at her wedding I am there with no hesitation. If she needs me to do her mom’s, daughter’s, and all of the bridesmaids' makeup, I will be there early and stay through the ceremony, just to make sure everyone stays slayed for the reception. It’s all a part of the job in making the bride happy.”

Perkins, who loves to rock a blazer or blazer dress, is sole owner and CEO of The Luxxury Collection, LLC. She is the head of every department in her e-commerce and beauty service business. As a matter of fact, she is the graphic designer, social media manager, sales manager, website designer, order fulfillment team, professional make-up artist, product manager, customer service representative, lash technician, bookkeeper, marketing expert, hair stylist, human resources manager and even the instructor of various beauty classes.

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She prides herself on being a one-woman show but she also admits, “It can be overwhelming sometimes, but I hold myself accountable by creating a schedule and sticking to it to make sure everything gets done.

Sometimes you have to do it yourself to make sure it gets done right.”

After gaining over 14K followers on her Instagram accounts combined, hundreds of subscribers on YouTube, and over 38.2K views on her YouTube videos, Perkins believes that her success comes from more than just the quality content she puts out on her platforms. It is her consistency and willingness to teach that makes her successful.

She states, “When I ask my followers and viewers what they liked most about a video I recently released they always say something like, ‘I like how I can always learn something from your videos,’ or ‘I like how you really went into detail and you spoke confidently.’”

Shari goes on to tell us more about her philosophy of success by quoting an American author:

Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and our abilities were used in a way that served others.

—Marianne Williamson >

The self-proclaimed fashionista and solopreneur is known for posting on Instagram and tagging her outfit and beauty details so that “the girls can go cop the looks, too.” She shares that her following and engagement grew through her efforts to get brand deals and sponsorships. She feels that the followers and subscribers who have stuck around for many years and continue to support her both online and offline have found a connection with her because they can relate to her personality and style.

Shari asserts, “The girls who get it, get it; and the girls who don’t, don't.” Her followers and subscribers frequently comment on her posts and videos and oftentimes DM her to show their admiration—which helps her to know what content is most valuable and appreciated. Perkins has landed a number of brand collaborations and features, including Amazon, KrownMe LLC, Shade Like Shanti and Kindred Trends, just to name a few.

The Atlanta Technical College graduate and Marketing Specialist recently completed her Marketing Management AAS degree as well as her certifications in Entrepreneurship, Small Business Marketing Management, and Professional Sales.

Shari is sure that this is only the beginning for her. She plans to make her brand a household name within the next five years.

Her long-term goals include—but are not limited to—owning a mobile beauty studio; owning and operating a brick-andmortar beauty studio and boutique; and owning a physical warehouse for inventory, meetings, and order fulfillment. She plans to increase her high-profile clientele, and hopes to start a digital marketing agency.

Our beautiful and talented beauty guru leaves us with this bit of advice:

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Keep up with her personal journey on: @LUXXSHARI_ SHARI’S LIFE OF LUXXURY

Keep up with her business endeavors and brand: @THELUXXURYCOLLECTION THELUXXURYCOLLECTION.COM

We have To eat. . .

Why Not

dine,

Darling?

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The He's Got Flavor Bourbon Chicken Sauce brings you that elevated, yet original and authentic food-court flavor, made with REAL Bourbon and fresh ingredients for a delicious, smooth taste! Millions have seen the videos on TikTok and IG, and now you can take home this special sauce for a limited time!

Use HGF Bourbon Chicken Sauce to add outstanding flavor to steak, pork, turkey, fish and vegetables. >

WWW.HESGOTFLAVOR.COM FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 49

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CREATING YOUR AUTHENTIC IMAGE

by Chloé Taylor Brown Madison is a twenty-two-year-old eccentric lover of everything art.

She often travels to exotic places— where she collects exquisite paintings, drawings, sculptures and other fine art. She has worked as an art dealer since age nineteen, closing five-figure art deals for her grandparents’ art gallery and business.

Madison lives in a Midtown loft near her family’s business. She is confident, strong, beautiful, focused and opinionated. She does not want her age, slender body and girlish looks to get in the way of being taken seriously in the competitive world of art. Her challenge is to look more poised and professional while negotiating amazing art deals. On the other hand, she wants to maintain her authenticity and self-expression.

Going to art exhibits and gallery openings is part of Madison’s work, and she loves every minute of it. Photography is what she shines in personally. She loves sharing it with middleschool children through an after-school program, which she created. She also provides its funding. Madison is admired by many—the children she empowers, her parents and friends, and professionals in the art world. My job is to create a professional look for Madison—one that gives curves to her slender body type, incorporates her Bohemian fashion personality, maintains her youth and adds a level of professionalism as a representative of her grandparents’ art gallery and business.

Check out Madison’s Personification and let's review the necessary information it takes to design, create and perfect an empowering image which maintains her authenticity. > FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 52

MADISON'S PERSONIFICATION Age / Height / Weight 22 / 5’2” / 108

Size Frame 2–4 Small Body Type / Body Shape Ectomorphic / Slender

Challenge Looks sixteen—wants to be more polished

Career Choice Art Dealer

Lifestyle Madison is an energetic, healthy and fit, single, urban, minimalist who loves laughing, quality living and international experiences.

Fashion Personality Type Bohemian and Casual

Color Season Cool winter—porcelain skin, dark brown eyes and black hair. >

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MADISON WITH A BUSINESS CASUAL LOOK Madison's self expression in fashion is Bohemian and relaxed. Because of her slender, petite body, she often makes the mistake of wearing oversized jackets and tops with long flowing sleeves, which makes her petite body appear even shorter and disheveled.

Her goal is to create the illusion of extra inches and curves for her, while allowing her first fashion personality to peek through as she projects a professional authentic image for career advancement—one that is acceptable in dealing with the more mature, snobby individuals of the high-end art business.

First, Madison wants to wear clothes that fit her petite body.

She loves colors and patterns but noticed she closes more deals when she tones her authentic style down for work so she has selected a black ALine skirt with a light blue button down that fits her shoulders well.

The mid-rise skirt gives the illusion of a waistline. This polished, simple, easygoing look serves Madison well and will help her to close many more five-figure art deals. < FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 5 44

Saprea.org

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M

ANAGING AND AINTAINING YOUR IMAGE

by Chloé Taylor Brown

After putting in the necessary work to create your authentic image, you’ll want to create a strategic plan to maintain it.

Keep this in mind throughout the entire process: No matter what society says or the media dictates about your body, body image and beauty, you must understand that it’s all superficial—it’s not real.

If you choose to embrace the uniqueness of your body, your personality and the individuality of your being, you’ll have incredible personal power.

If you determine that you are going to be your best self— your genuine, real self in all that you do, you’ll increase your personal power.

If you determine your ideal, and set daily goals to reach it, let it become your way of life, your lifestyle and your work, you’ll increase your personal power and empower the world.

If you enhance or design your personal image to harmonize with your ideal and who you want to be in the world, always connected honestly and harmoniously with your body type and shape, you’ll perfect your authentic image.

My goal is to sell you on yourself so that you can perfect your authentic image and project it to the world. Your good looks and polished image will need an effective and efficient maintenance plan that starts right where you are. >

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M

AINTAINING IMAGE POWER Eat properly by including lots of fresh live foods in your daily diet.

Drink lots of water.

Follow a wellness program and get your beauty rest.

Keep your teeth clean and white.

Smile big.

Laugh out loud—often.

Learn how to apply beautiful, natural-looking make-up— quick.

Keep a haircut and style that will minimize bad hair days.

Keep cute, natural-looking hair pieces, wigs and/or hair accessories if you’re prone to having too many bad hair days (even with a great cut and style).

Maintain a pleasing personality—it will attract others to you in a positive way.

Take care of your body and dress like you are proud of it (this does not mean exposing your body in any way less than a lady would).

Maintain your wardrobe by keeping your closet organized and clutter-free. <

To find out more about perfecting your image, fashion and style, visit www.chloetaylorbrown.com to read her wonderful book:

Getting Ready Chloé-Style.

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t r Sta g n i p p e t S

! m a e r r u d o into y

That's your intention, your goal, your target, your mission, your purpose, your vibe—your future.

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First, if you want to be READY to slay this Summer, you need to have a plan of action— before even stepping outside or applying your first make-up product. Before you apply your make-up and cosmetics you will definitely need to apply a good primer. Primer will help your make-up last longer and will prevent your make-up from moving around and sweating off of your face easily. I suggest the Maybelline Master Prime Primer + Base. This product will not only help your make-up stay in place but it will also blur and smooth your skin underneath your make-up. It acts as a barrier on the skin to protect your make-up from the secretion of natural oils, and it also acts as a natural filter because of its blurring properties.

Next to SET it all in place, you will need a bomb setting spray. My suggestion is the Morphe Continuous Setting Mist because not only does it set your make-up for the day, preventing it from moving, it also makes your powder settle into your skin so flawlessly that it appears you are not wearing any make-up at all. Many make-up artists like myself swear by this product! It makes our make-up and our clients’ make-up look so incredibly smooth—it's the perfect finishing touch!

Lastly, while you are on the GO, your best friend will be a hand-held fan! Not only is this great for the excruciating temperatures that are outside, it is also great for our ladies who have warm spells throughout the day. The hand-held fans are trending now all over the web! You can find influencers, models, and make-up lovers all over the world toting their hand-helds around on vacation—and even while out on the night scene in crowded venues.

Protect your hard work and your make-up investments by implementing these three tips and tools, and you'll thank us later! Now, we are READY and SET to GO flourish together!

BY SHARI PERKINS FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 60

@LUXXSHARI_

I am

choosing,

visualizing,

feeling & speaking WHAT I WANT AND ACTING LIKE IT'S ALREADY MINE.

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I'm not faking it.

It's called stepping into being.

SPORTS & PLAY CLOTHES ACTIVE CASUAL, SPORTY CASUAL SPORTY CHIC, & URBAN CASUAL

SUMMER FASHION

by Chloé Taylor Brown

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ACTIVE CASUAL Active Casual allows you to get your cardiovascular health up to speed and look good while you’re doing it. These are clothes worn for active sports, working out and playing—jogging suits, sweat suits, tennis skirts, workout clothes, running shorts and leggings are all appropriate in the gym or at the coffee shop and running quick errands.

SPORTY CASUAL

Sporty Casual is not about you playing a sport; it’s about you choosing the look of a spectator, just hanging out or running extended errands. This look includes jeans, cotton pants, shorts, a button-down, T-shirts and polo-style shirts to name a few—and don’t forget the appropriate casual shoes.

SPORTY CHIC

Sporty Chic is cool and simple. You look like you’re headed to or leaving the country club all the time—but you never sweat. The tops are light-colored and fitted, polo style. Skirts are short and pants are cropped. The shoes are light-weight stylish sneakers or simple, well-made leather thongs, always showing that perfect pedicure. Accessories include oversized sunglasses, canvas totes and any discreet hi-tech gadget.

URBAN CASUAL

Urban Casual is trendy, casual street glamour for the younger crowd. It’s mixing designer high-fashion pieces with athletic and sports wear. It’s hip hop starlets setting street trends that soon show up in night clubs and stores across America. <

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My name is

CLIVE MATHIBE and I am honored to be joining the Flourish Digital Magazine family as the Arts & Lifestyle Editor. When I was approached by the Editorin-Chief, Chloé Taylor Brown, to become a contributor to this important publication, I was elated at first. But as the news sunk in, I couldn’t help but consider the prestige of this responsibility.

As a South African storyteller and appreciator of the arts, I believe in the power of the creative industry to shape societies and change perceptions. Whether it is through painting, song, dance, theater or design, the creative industry is closely interwoven with the human experience, with the ability to capture hearts and minds in a way that matters most.

It has therefore become important for me to use this feature as a platform not only to celebrate artists across various disciplines, but also to inspire a world of endless possibilities that can only be imagined through interfacing with the arts. Through this feature, we aim to introduce you to a new perspective. We encourage you to revisit your old perspectives with a revived energy.

Art and how it is intimately intertwined with our lives is something I will endeavor to explore with each feature. I invite you to come with me on this journey of discovery, truth and creativity!

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This first Arts & Lifestyle feature is a mouthful, boasting a multi-disciplinary class of contemporary South African artists who are using their craft to take the modern African narrative across the globe. Beloved readers, let us unearth what it means to Globalize The African Modern Narrative—with singer/composer and storyteller Zoë Modiga, filmmaker, activist and visual artist Mmabatho Montsho and interior designer extraordinaire Donald Nxumalo. >

Zoë Modiga, a true observer of the human experience, is a storyteller, a singer/songwriter, and a performer.

She is deeply in love with music and its ability to be the soundtrack to our lives.

"I really feel like I have a calling, in that I am able to reflect life back to people," Zoë explains. "I reflect the times, using music as the vehicle. I am grateful to be able to do that whilst still telling the modern African story—to every kind of person from all over the world. So that's who I am, in a nutshell." >

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Clive: That's amazing, Zoë. I love how you call it "the modern African story," because I find that it's so important for us as contemporary art makers and contemporary voices to keep shaping or reshaping what this modern African story means.

We're seeing that in our fashion, our films, even in conversations—that we're able to contribute to the rest of the world. Simply the idea of the consciousness of ourselves as well, gets to be important—gets to be aspirational and inspiring to the world.

For you, what is the modern African story? And how important is it to tell that story to the world?

I think we are in a position where we are recognizing who we are as Africans and that we've always been the heartbeat. And we're taking up those spaces. The world is embracing that because they've been waiting for it. It’s exciting to see storytellers and the different forms that they take—being able to showcase what it is that we have in the plethora of stories that we are telling. It’s a beautiful time to for us to be alive.

Zoë: I would say the modern African story is really the culture of people, which is something that is constantly evolving.

We know that the African dashboard has always been associated with certain music—certain sounds, languages, fashions and ways of looking at life. The beauty of us is that we are an evolving story that is constantly influencing and impacting the world. We're trying to find new ways to exist so we don't look or sound only one kind of way.

We take on so many different shapes and forms and interesting stories, you know, so really when I talk about the modern African story, it really is a story from my own perspective—to the world about what we are. But it's definitely not the only story. Because there are so many other stories that we have to share—that need to be embraced as well.

Clive: So true—it's not just one story, right? It's so many different stories. In the past it seemed to be only one type of interpretation of who we are.

Zoë: One accent, one dashiki.

Clive: You are no stranger to an international audience.

What have been some of your most memorable international performances and storytelling experiences, and why?

Zoë: Oh, my goodness. I've had the pleasure of being able to perform in so many different spaces.

Choosing just one highlight is always such a tricky thing for me. What gets to be fascinating about being on international platforms is being able to immerse in the culture of the people who are there—the music, the food, the fashion—and being one with them.

I've never been a person who likes to stick out. I love to blend in. And so being able to travel around the world gives me the opportunity to immerse in other people's stories and ways of living, and actually take up space as one of them.

Clive: And now it's evolving. So for you, as a storyteller through music, where do you think the South African narrative—or the African narrative—is in the world? Where do you think its place and its significance is in the world?

And do you think we are getting the kind of right platforms or the kind of ears and attention that the story deserves?

I enjoy performing for any kind of person, people who don't have the background that I have. And it is very affirming to perform for people of color. There’s something beautiful where we find ourselves in spaces around the world. There's vibe. It's a ceremony. It's enlightening. It's beautiful.

Zoë: It really has always been the heartbeat of the planet. There's always been the engine. It's always been the fuel. It’s constantly been the resource of the entire world. And this is something that existed even before our times right now, which continues to prove itself to be true. We are in many ways, the essence—and that continues to contribute so beautifully to the global markets and its people. Now is also a very interesting time because we are seeing a lot of excitement when it comes to the continent—whether that is through storytelling or through music.

Clive: I love that. Isn’t it interesting how people of color always just kind of find each other? No matter where in the world. I find that when I'm traveling. I spent some time in Toronto a couple of years back. I was there for three months, and just walking down the streets of Toronto, whenever you see somebody of color, there’s this recognition, there's this, “How are you? Sawubona [I see you]!" It kind of lingers a little bit longer than just a simple hello. And even if it's not vocalized, there is that moment of recognition, which I find so beautiful. >

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Zoë: We would meet up and have jam sessions. I think personally the jam sessions were a rebellious act, because institutions are about learning certain kinds of material and being prepared for schooling and lessons.

But we would have a session, even though we were doing our work as well, where it was just a safe space and a soft landing for us to express ourselves with each other and write songs.

It gave a lot of joy performing for us even in that space. Sebastian ended up saying, “Hey man, I think we need to form a band and make it official, and tell our stories, which is exactly what happened.

It wasn't very long, he had to leave and go back to Germany. And we followed him at some point and, so we started doing tours around Germany and in Europe, and we started writing songs and came to be known as Seba Kaapstad. And we followed a more traditional live band set-up with our first album.

Then with our second album, we met Phil, who does production and has a lot of compositional value that he puts in now. So Phil is from Germany, too, but he added a very awesome modern undertone to what our sound was, because it was two songwriters and a composer—but now we had some beat. And we got to come together. It speaks to the power of what music is and the fact that people seemingly unrelated can come together to make beautiful things. So it's like a melting pot of a music family, who just want to share the music and have that global culture that we are contributing to.

Clive: I love that global culture, because I feel like that's where we need to be moving. To have that international kind of footing, like with American Hollywood.

We don't say, "Jay-Z from America." We just say "JayZ." But when it's Thandiswa Mazwai, well, she's a South African artist! So for me, being a global citizen in your artistry is where we need to move to—which is why I'm so excited about your band, Seba Kaapstad, because it represents the possibilities of the world. And how exciting it is to be able to collaborate and do art with people who are outside of your borders.

Are you interested in collaborating with other artists outside of South Africa—in other continents or even beyond the continent?

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Zoë: Absolutely. When it comes to my personal work and calling as an artist, it has always been important to keep a global perspective. We're just only now seeing the manifestations of that. It's because it was the heartbeat of the reason why— being able to interact with people and reflect the times, and the human experience. And the human experience doesn't just happen to us here, but of course it happens globally. So there are a lot of things that are inspiration for the work.

It definitely is a conversation that I have actively participated in. I think it's quite prevalent with my sophomore album, which was an album that featured a lot of different artists from a lot of different parts of the world.

There’s a lot of coming together of worlds in the music industry.

And the joy is being able to see that take flight, even in other parts of the continent and other parts of the world. It really has always been a world vision, and a world view, and a world goal —because that's what music is.

MUSIC DOESN'T HAVE THE BORDERS THAT OUR MAPS DO. It is something that is able to infiltrate people. For the first time we realized that language is not a divisive thing. We actually understand a lot of good—it is that we are deeply connected. Even when people are speaking in their own languages that we've never spoken, we are sharing their instruments and the ways that they look at the world. Music has no borders. The map is something that someone drew. It isn't a reflection of what life actually is. We're a lot more connected than we give ourselves credit for. >

Clive: Are there any plans to release a new album?

Your debut album, Yellow: The Novel was so incredible.

And your sophomore album was very different from that, right? It was like, “What kind of Zoë is this?” It was still you, and still feeling very authentic. And then you've got Seba Kaapstad, where again we experience a different you. What I've really enjoyed about a Zoë Modiga experience, and just watching your career and how you express as an artist, is that you haven't been contained by boxes at all. It's so easy for people to say, "You're just a jazz artist," or "Why is she doing R&B now? She's not supposed to be doing that." Many artists say that they must stay within a box because they think if they explore outside of it, and color outside the lines, then their audiences are not going to resonate with them anymore.

Is it something that you are even conscious about? You seem to be able to move from one Zoë to the next, and still be Zoë! And you are not contained by these boxes and expectations of who Zoë is supposed to be.

I just always really related to the music as the soundtrack to our lives. So it got to be very frustrating to see all these boxes. For me it was never these structured limitations of putting anything on the artist. As musicians we are able to just take all of them up as they are, in whatever way we want—which is contributing to the human experience and reflecting the times. I see myself just as a singer, a songwriter and a performer.

There are a lot of parts to a human being, very much like us having a conversation. You will relate with me in a certain kind of way, but it doesn't mean that that is the only way that I am. Someone else might relate to me in a completely different kind of way. But I'm still the essence of who Zoë is, and that gets to be realized in many facets. I just love the freedom of being able to create in that way. I try to be patient with my audience and give them time in between work—so that when the new work comes, they've experienced so much of the previous one that they're ready to get into a new world.

I never wanted to create the same world twice.

Zoë: I always say that I am a lady from KwaZulu Natal, from Pietermaritzburg. Really, my first idea, what music was for me, is that it was never in a box. These are the things that we ran into when people try to make sense of it, but kind of limit what music is, and what it can be.

I was first just listening to neighbors who were playing music at the highest volume. There was a tavern opposite where I go home, and they would play their own kind of music there. I'll call it "hangover music."

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I always say music is similar to what life is. As human beings, we’re onions. Maybe your family doesn't get exposed to the parts of you that your friends do. Maybe your friends don't get exposed to the parts of you that your partner will.

The album is not mine anymore after it's released, you know?

I'm the artist that doesn't necessarily want to release the same album twice. It helps for people to just be consumed by that new world—knowing that something completely different is going to be coming out next when it is ready to. >

Zoë, continued: I tell you one thing. There's a sound, a feeling—and the soundscape has been coming to me, since about 2020. It's baking, it's definitely baking. So I think new work is going to be entering sooner than later.

I think enough time has been spent in the previous work to introduce a new world and see how people relate to it.

Clive: It's coming, It's coming world. It's coming! I'm really excited to receive it, dive into it and explore it—because that's what your music does. I remember there was one night that we were here at my house and I was hosting a couple of friends.

Lebo, my partner, was here. And it started playing. We started playing your album, and the song Isegazini came on.

And he started getting so emotional. It’s such a process to create an album which then causes a listener to be moved that deeply. How you approach one work is not necessarily going to be how you're going to approach the next work.

This particular body of work was very emotive, very spiritual.

What does it take to go there? What happens to create that?

Zoë: I would describe the creative process as a world falling apart. It's like this heart breaking, denying of self.

And this is with my own particular work, because it's different. It really takes what feels like everything coming apart to come back together. It’s something that is bigger than myself being ushered in and taking its place. And me simply being described.

I'm never fully aware of the creative space, so it puts me in a position where I experience the work, the same way that my music lovers do.

I think it is definitely a depth to solve and adapt yourself with my work. It’s always very humble. It is not as romantic as it sounds, either—although it's a very challenging space— but extremely beautiful. By the time we perform the music live, it just takes on a world of its own. It takes on a fulfilment that is very difficult to explain and describe— where you feel like you are doing something that you are born to do. So it's almost like that feeling of being pregnant and expecting, and then having the rebirth on the other side. And just when you're done with the rebirth on the other side, then it's time to be pregnant and expect again—all those groanings and all the pains that come. In the end, it's another beautiful thing again. And it's very special.

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Clive: It also sounds like a lonely space. I know as a writer, writing can be very lonely. I can identify with that surrender, and how important it is for you to take yourself out of it. Your ego, everything—and just surrender yourself to the work.

Zoë, as we near the close of our time together, I want to ask you: What is important to you as an artist? What matters to you about your craft and about the world?

What other things move you? What is significant to you?

Zoë: I find significant and very seemingly insignificant spaces. I always say that for me, it's not the big things. It's the little things that make the big things. It's the nuances of life that are very meaningful for me—and the big things come as a result of that. For me, being an artist is leaning into things that are uncomfortable to me, and being vulnerable enough to share it. And then realizing that now that I've shared it, it's no longer uncomfortable. It's become comfortable.

So I'm constantly in the mindset of looking for uncomfortable and vulnerable spaces. I think that's where honesty is. I know that I'm a brilliant artist. It is something that I'm aware of. It's something that I've spent the years and the time with. I know my instrument. I know my strengths. I know my weaknesses. I know my genius. I know my gifts. But what happens with discomfort and vulnerability is that they wash away the knowing—allowing the work to take up the space instead. This allows the work to use the things that I've worked on, without having to deal with the ego that comes with that sense of knowingness.

So, I would say that's the kind of artist I am. I'm just a person who's deeply in love with music. I'm deeply in love with being able to tell an evolving story and to document the times as they are.

I have a very great reverence for people and for our human experiences. I think that one of the bravest things to do is to be alive. And that's something that really rings true to me, because of the kinds of experiences we go through as people. So I just want to continue to be earnest to that. To be honest, and to reflect honestly. And that's me.

I am just deeply in love with music, with people, and with their stories. It's my calling to be deeply in love with being an observer, being a scholar of life. And learning from people more than giving. And the funny thing to me is, when you're a scholar of life—which I think a lot of artists are—it can look like you're the teacher. >

Zoë, continued: But really, you're simply just reflecting your teaching back to you—which is such a beautiful thing. It's such a beautiful ecosystem, a wonderful way of existing. I love what I do. It's a privilege.

You just amaze me. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for the music, and for the gift that you are sharing so selflessly. We look forward to tomorrow. We look forward tomorrow!

It's a challenge, but it's also such a joy, and such a fulfilment. I'm grateful that I am able to experience that. I wish that, for every kind of person—whether you're an artist, an architect, a doctor, or a janitor—to just exist in the space where you're able to respect and express the truest part of who you are. And feel the fulfilment that comes from that. Because we all have gifts to share.

Zoë: Thank you, love. And I am thankful that you are such a spectacular storyteller. It's so beautiful that you get to be a part of telling our story.

So, I'm trying to do the best I can to receive that and to share it.

Clive: Thank you so much, Zoë. This has been beautiful. I mean, I always have the joy and pleasure of having these conversations with you. And not one conversation is the same. I always feel like you are growing every single time.

It’s so meaningful, when people who document your story are such great storytellers who have their own story to tell. It's all just this wonderfully interwoven world. Or just vibes, you know? I really appreciate it.

Clive: Yes, it's a vibe. It's a vibe.

Zoë: Oh, yes. Every day. Every day.

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@ZOEMODIGA WWW.ZOEMODIGA.COM

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Clive: Who is Mmabatho Montsho? How do you express yourself as an artist? What has your journey been like leading up to this point?

Mmabatho: Primarily I'm a filmmaker but if I had to include everything that I do, I would say I'm a multidisciplinary storyteller.

My approach to all my storytelling is that I come there first and foremost as an activist—a feminist, and somebody who is about empowering Black people. So that is my approach to all my storytelling, even if I'm in the room as a writer or a director or whatever in somebody else's project. Those are the sorts of the qualities that I bring to the room.

I’m looking for an opportunity to emancipate women, and an opportunity to empower and emancipate Black people through stories. That's my gig. >

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Clive: I love the gig. It's very focused. I find that a lot of us, especially when we are artists who are trying to shape ourselves and our voices, we can be all over the place, and not really be clear about what we want to do with our craft.

Has it always been like this for you? Have you always known that you want to empower Black people—through storytelling and with the various platforms that you express your art in?

Mmabatho: I've always felt strongly about those topics But I wasn't always clear about how they can work in my different mediums. In my personal life, there were always strong convictions. They kind of slipped through, into my work anyway, even when I was not aware.

When I started out, I knew what I didn't want and what I don't believe in. I had that clarity. And then slowly, I started to see how my convictions could work hand in hand, limb by limb. And I realized that, to a great extent, I've already been doing it anyway—even though there were some terrible mistakes along the way. I can say at least most of my work has been close to my convictions.

Clive: When you were introduced to South Africa, or at least to the majority of South Africans, you were an actress in a major soap, on a commercial television station. Do you have plans of going back to performing?

Mmabatho: If the right project arises, yes. There are much more important things that I want to do. I love performers. I love actors, and that's why I'm able to work with them.

But I'm not writing and directing with a secret craving to be on the screen. I can already see, who's gonna kill this thing. When I'm directing, I'm excited by the choices that the actors make.

For example, I wrote and directed the short film Joko Ya Hao. And when I was auditioning people, there were a lot of good auditions, and some exceptional ones. But what differentiated Simphiwe Dana for me was that she surprised me. She interpreted a lot of things differently from how I saw them in my head. That's why I knew she was the right actor for the role. So that's how much I love watching performers and actors bringing a story to life. So that love, for me, is much bigger than my own desire to perform. I haven't yet found an exceptional script since probably uNomalanga and the Witch, written and directed by Palesa Nomanzi Shongwe.

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Clive: I want to talk about the work that you're doing internationally. Desmond’s Not Here Anymore, with S. Epatha Merkerson, is doing things, and with some awards behind it as well. How did that journey start? How did you land yourself that gig and find yourself in that particular director's seat?

That's an international platform but at the same time when one looks at you there, it feels very intentional as well. So how did that come about?

Mmabatho: When you are clear about what your convictions are and what your work is about, the right kind of projects align themselves with you. A career body of work is already communicating that. So if people are asking who's going to tell a certain type of story, and when your name comes up in the room, then they look at your work. It makes sense. So Lindiwe Suttle Müller-Westernhagen, who wrote the script, had always wanted to collaborate with me one day. And of course, I was like, "Sure!"

So she wrote the script, and won an award for best screenplay at the HollyShorts Film Festival Screenplay Contest. And she sent me a whole package with the treatment and everything. So I'm like, "Girl, this is your story to tell. You've already done the treatment, you've done everything around with it." But she insisted, "Once you're done reading it, tell me if you can do it."

So when I read the story, at first, I thought it was very personal to her, because it was inspired by personal story to her. But I saw that it's a story about family secrets. It's a story about healing. It's a story about forgetting, struggling to forget, and struggling to remember.

I think those are things many of us can identify with—a memory you'd rather forget. You struggle to remember things like that.

There is this mother and daughter relationship, with the mother who has dementia and the daughter who's taking care of her.

There are so many things that a person can relate to in that.

Looking after a person who might not possibly ever get better.

So I think I can tell that story.

I have a strong belief that even if you're talented, not every story is yours to tell. You must know when to say—even if the opportunity looks amazing—you must know when to say, “Hey, thank you, but this is not my story to tell." So, reading it deeply, I was like, "OK, yes, this is my story to tell." And that's how I ended up with the project. And I started doing a new treatment and seeing it from my own point of view. >

Clive: Where did you guys shoot this?

Mmabatho: In Seattle, well, a remote quiet place that was about maybe forty-five minutes to an hour's drive from Seattle. We were in a small town. The cinematographer was from Berlin. And then there was me from South Africa. There was our costume designer who was from Ethiopia and France.

There was just all of us from different parts of the world—and even the people who were from the States were all from different cities. The editor was based in Berlin as well. So we edited on Zoom. It was the vibe.

Clive: Oh, my God. This amazing coming together of different women from all over. It was a creative team of designers who were women. Was that something that was intentional?

Mmabatho: Absolutely. Lindiwe was very intentional. That's how she wanted to put the thing together.

Clive: How was that experience? Were there language barriers?

Mmabatho: Yes, there were huge language barriers— even about silly little things. But I think we dealt with a lot of things quite smoothly, surprisingly. There were also different

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cinematic language barriers. Different departments mean different things in different parts of the world. So of course, all those things also came into play. But that's where a strong vision comes in. Eventually you are on the same page. Even if you called something by a different name, you are realizing it’s the same thing.

The script was very strong. It was quite a powerful script. I think it would take a lot to mess it up. The visual vision and the script's vision—everything came together. All the confusion just kind of resolves itself.

Clive: For you as a director, you shot this in some small town, just outside of Seattle. You have to do a treatment.

How did that process happen? For instance, did you look at pictures of small towns?

Mmabatho: I already knew the house that we were gonna shoot in. Because the house was one of the producer's houses. So that was one of the things that was already there. We had to use it. You know how it goes, when the budgets aren't created. There are certain concessions you have to make, which we have to go with, no matter what. >

Mmabatho, continued: But I loved the house. It fit my vision, which was to make the approach of the story from a horror point of view. Because these things that happen in our lives—we treat them as normal, but really they're horrific.

It’s not normal. It's actually quite horrific. The horrors are these things that happen in so-called city places.

We worked with a short list of many things, including references, measurements, shot for shot, and on Zoom. We were gonna land and shoot. We were not gonna have time to sort of walk around the house, and decide.

So we worked from just picture references. We even did a table read with the actors over Zoom. And we were in quarantine because of covid-19, so I almost didn't make it there, because it was hard to get out of South Africa. I thought, "I'm gonna direct this thing on Zoom?" But I finally made it, and we landed. And we started shooting.

One of the locations we found that morning, so we had to find an alternative location on that day, which actually worked out great. It fit the pallet better than our original location.

So we overcommunicated. We even knew how to edit the thing. So we did a short list for the cuts of the shots—the complete planning, the wardrobe, every single outfit. I had to see it all before I ever landed there. We basically knew every last detail of what we were going to do. The joys of the internet, man!

Clive: It just sounds so incredible. The joys of the internet.

The way we are doing things has just completely changed.

It made the world so much smaller as well.

It's not the first time you were in those spaces—those international spaces. Your work is there. Is it even important for you, now that you're on this Desmond journey, and it's doing so well internationally? How important is it for your voice to be expressed in the South African and African narrative—to have a place in the world?

Mmabatho: I think the quality of the work is important. We can't demand a place in the world that we haven't worked for. And when the work is brilliant, it's very hard to get this kind of storyteller or that kind of story. So for me, the dream for us is to creatively break, and we need to pioneer a style.

When you're studying film—there's French New Wave, German Expressionism, Hollywood, and so on. So, I mean, when you say Hollywood, you are saying American. They may not say "American actors." But they'll say, "Hollywood."

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So if you study film, truly, they do put everyone in contact out because of the different styles and languages that emerged from that area, from that space. I mean, when you think about some of the African filmmakers, they were onto something. And we didn't take that baton and really run with it. So we have to earn that space—of everybody looking at us to say, “Hey, what are they doing?” It has to be creatively superior. I'm interested in discovering at what point can we pioneer a style. At what point do we create work?

Look at an example, Blood and Water. Everyone around the world watched that TV show. They didn't watch it as a South African series. They simply watched a series. So we know we can do it. I don't think we must come with unwarranted pride based on what—it's an uncomfortable thing to have to talk about or to say. But if we take ourselves seriously, we must be able to have that conversation—to ask, “Is our work doing that?” And there are many reasons why it may struggle to do that.

I think the only way we're gonna get to that high level, where we are leading and pioneering things, is if we're able to have honest conversations with ourselves about where we are. Even just creatively.

When you look at that script, in the end, do you think it's a script that can be worked by everybody in the world? Have you done the work—the necessary work to get to that point?

You just want to land in the critically acclaimed, but you didn't do the work to get there.

Clive: It's such an uncomfortable conversation to have, because I think we have an expectation, a sense of entitlement. I think for us as South Africans in particular, we are still holding onto a legacy of previous iconic artists who come from past times—you know, like Miriam Makeba and Bra Hugh Masekela. And just because you come from that lineage of great craftspeople and artists, there's the idea that automatically, you must be given a platform.

Mmabatho: Exactly. Do they look at their whole body of work? Whichever body of work. Bra Hugh, for example. Can you compare? Or admit that my caliber of work is deserving to be on the same level as those people.

Clive: I want to speak about another form of expression and art discipline of yours: the painting and the fine art. For the benefit of our readers, I would like to talk about that.

How did that come about? I think I remember when it came about, and we were saying, "OK, there are these images that she's bringing out, and they are resonating with a country," and where the country was at the time. >

Clive, continued: And yet we didn't see that one coming. How did that happen?

Mmabatho: I also didn't see it coming! I was saying to my sister, "I couldn't have planned this." It just kind of happened. So I've always done art, since primary school. I think my first award was for both art and academics. So for me to get those two awards on the same day—it made me believe in the importance of art.

That it can be on the same platform as academics. I've always taken art as a subject. So it's something I've always done. But it was not something I wanted to do as a career.

So I wanted something where I can express myself to my satisfaction. I don't do commissions. I don't do things like that.

Cause I don't want any rules. I want to paint when I want to paint.

Now, how did that specific exhibition or that specific topic begin? I started sketching it, because I was having a constant vision of church women in prayer. It was really haunting me one night. So I sketched it, to kind of release it. Then I thought, "I'm gonna write a script about this thing one day." It needed me to draw it. It told me to put this on paper. So I did, and then I posted it on Instagram, as we often do.

And then I was shocked by the overwhelming response. For me, it was such a strong visual. You know, how it is, worshippers on Sundays. You have people dressed in their church clothes and all these things. So I always saw these people from the back, because I was always late to church and I was always running. So that's why I drew them from the back. And I get at the back, because I'm late. So that was the vision in my head: these Manyano Methodist church women, praying. I also saw my mom, FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 78

walking up ahead, purely. And we are chasing after her to be on time. So that's how these visions came to me. But I can't tell you why on that particular night it was haunting me the way it was. I still don't have an answer. I just kept doing more and more sketches, until then I started painting them. And the people from Constitution Hill approached me, asking, "Do you want to do an exhibition of these things?" So, OK, I started to take it seriously!

And there was a date set for a solo exhibition. I called it Manyano. And it was to celebrate Women’s Month. And so then I had to research these women. And I was quite moved by the story of these Manyano women of the 19th century—of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. These women were saying, "Why can't God have a message for us, as women?

Why can't God speak directly to us, as women?" These women put together a constitution for themselves in the beginning, and they would go out, and they left the community, and then they saw the British army. And they said, "We are the soldiers of God." So they were very militant about it. I liked the fact that it was not that these women had military outfits. They demanded that they could speak directly. "We're going there ourselves." I was so interested in it. And so I happily did the exhibition, because it's now got a much deeper meaning that speaks to my ideas in feminism.

We are telling our own stories.

Clive: When you have clarity of what you want to do, the things that are meant to come to you will come to you, even in spirit. You had a very spiritual experience, and you were chosen to be the vessel to communicate that message. >

Clive, continued: When Winnie Mandela passed away, then art can become like a vehicle that people can resonate with during that time. Take us back a little bit to that time, and how your art became that for a nation that was in mourning.

Like I have to be able to say, "This is a story about what it means to love," or "This is story about how to handle fear," and then I have to be able to write an essay explaining, "What does that one sentence mean?"

Mmabatho: When I did that painting I didn’t know its meaning at the time. I saw the image, and I painted it. But now I understood the meaning. It held a lot more weight.

And then, if I can't write a good reason or a good exploration of why this thing happened, then I discard it. I've written an entire script—like up to five drafts of a script—and then I threw it in the trash. Because when I interrogated it, it was nonsense, and the message was crap.

I was quite moved by how it resonated with so many people, because everybody knows they have that as their mother or as their grandmother, a close woman to them, or as a nation. It’s quite fitting that they can relate it to their own mothers, and then to the woman we consider to be a mother of the nation. So it was quite poetic for me. And it was a very humbling experience.

Clive: You did a whole series. You painted these Manyano women in their church regalia. And you continue to explore that. Was it because the visions kept on recurring? Or was it because you just wanted to see where this could go?

Clive: That takes a lot of honesty, and it’s painful.

Mmabatho: Yes. Still painful.

Clive: So you are one of those conscious creators. You said at the beginning of our conversation that you are passionate about Black people. And you're passionate about Black women. I want to ask you to get into those passions. >

Mmabatho: It was always a compelled sort of thing. That's why I haven't done any more. Because it eventually kind of resolved itself. It compelled itself into being, and I just submitted to the journey. Obviously, I'm a storyteller. So I must try to put certain images in context, and puzzle with them. So it was kind of like a collaborative experience, even though it was just with myself.

I mean, you are a producer, you know how it goes.

Sometimes you've got a whole thing prepared, whether it's an award ceremony or an episode of a live television show or whatever. There's a point at which the story enters the room—and then it's no longer just you, saying, "Let's do this."

There's now a thing driving itself. And then we are all kind of towing the line of this other energy.

Clive: What is your process for creating? Do you believe in that spiritual space, and that sacred space—especially when you work? How do you experience that?

Mmabatho: I think there is quite a strong spiritual element.

It's very hard to describe what an idea is like, because it kind of just happens to you, or it's triggered. I never tried to make it sacred. I always have to interrogate the idea. "Why now?

Why should people watch this? Is this relevant? What is it actually saying? What is its point?" There are many things that come to me but I discard them.

I wouldn't say I ever have a sacred kind of space or approach to it. If I'm about to write for the screen or direct something, I have to sit. And if I can't write an essay about it, then I have to ask what it is about.

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In case you're interested, here's an interview with Mmabatho Montsho about her paintings: https://www.enca.com/life/watch-filmaker-mmabathomontsho-talks-about-solo-exhibition-manyano

Clive, continued: Where do you think we are as a nation at this time—as a nation of collective Black people, in the diaspora, and in the continent? I think that's a conversation that is quite important. Blackness. What do you think we need most? Maybe I'm giving you too much of a responsibility to answer that question. But nevertheless, when you look at Black people all over, and the condition of us as people, what are your thoughts?

Mmabatho: Depressing, at the moment, from a personal level. I feel like, "Where can we hold onto hope?" I believe in collective action. I really do. I believe in a vision—that looking at a collective, you're able to say, "OK, I fit in here in this mission," right?

Mmabatho: And, Clive, you have to remember: If it's not happening across the board, then you are also not in the position you think you're in. For as long as there is some man who's deciding whether I can tell a story or not. As long as we collectively are not running our lives, then do not fool yourself into thinking you've made something. If people who are like you haven't made it, then you haven't made it.

If anything, they can use you as a tool to shut people up. So we must not allow ourselves to be used as those things, to get people to shut up.

I think we're in the time of recommitting. I think it's easy to feel like everything is fine because you found your own comfortable little spot. It could be easy for me to say, "Women are doing OK. I mean, look at me, I've got this and that," but I I know I'm the exception. I must remember that.

Clive: Oh, that pushed me into another space. The idea of a collective has always been an African thing. That we're a village, and a child is raised by a village. I feel like those are values that we are losing now. Just by the mere fact that you can't discipline somebody else's child. And you don't greet everybody in the streets anymore. We are losing our collective strength as a people. Is that something that you're noticing? Do you agree with that?

Our action toward where we want to be in the world—to be human. In the States, to be able to drive and be wherever we are without being afraid of being shot. A woman—she needs to be able to live in the world without having to be dependent on somebody or afraid of somebody.

Mmabatho: Everyone around the world has their own collectiveness. So it isn’t an African thing. We have to discuss what it means. And stop throwing it around as words that make us feel good and make us feel special and make us feel like we are doing something that nobody else does.

It goes back, to be honest, about what our action is about.

When I think about myself, I ask, "What am I doing? How am I contributing? What can I do more of? How can I put myself on the line?" We were all so scared. I think there's a sense of hopelessness in the air—which requires us to recommit to certain values.

We have to interrogate it, and see: "What does it mean?" And "Is it moving us forward?" If yes, then of course we must do it loud.

But we can’t just say things as faith.

And for me, these are radical values, radical feminism, radical politics.

Clive: I know as a queer man—there are so many things we are struggling with as a community. And for a long time as a gay man, I didn't even know what those struggles were. You know, because I didn't feel like I was affected by them. Only once when I took a conscious step into that world did I understand what a regular gay or trans human in the township goes through, and how much of the community is displaced.

They don't have homes, and they don't have work opportunities. And they don't have platforms, which I am necessarily able to enjoy. Then I understood what actually is not OK. And I thought to myself, "You're not doing enough."

You know?

Clive: You've managed to remove yourself. A commercialization of sorts. You are a true artist. It feels like when you are expressing, when you're doing something, you're doing it out of your own agency—which is very hard I can imagine. There's the economics of it all, you know? Is there anything for us to look forward to? What would you tell the people who are following you? I'm always excited to see what you're doing—in all your multidisciplinary ways of expressing.

Mmabatho: I'm writing something. It's a new genre for me. The project that I'm working on, it involves a lot of music.

Clive: I love that. I look forward to it! Thank you so much. You know, I've had countless conversations with you. But every time, it's always amazing talking to you. <

@MONTSHOTTHEBLACK MMABATHO MONTSHO FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 80

ASK YOURSELF

3

Questions DO I KNOW WHO I AM? DO I KNOW WHO I WANT TO BECOME?

DO I KNOW WHAT I WANT TO CREATE & CONTRIBUTE?

Answer boldly and truthfully, and unlock the magic inside yourself!

FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 81

Donald: From the outset, I don't know what told me that I needed to document every aspect of my journey and my career. Also to look at when I grew up. My parents didn't have a camera. When we did have a camera, it wasn't for very long. We had those cameras. But there's big chunks of information missing from my day to day.

I look at Netflix and I see Amy Winehouse's stories, and I can see how her life was documented. From its genesis to its exit. You know, that's what we need to do. And so with my work, I've documented every single house I've done. I've documented everything—all my favorite aspects of clients' homes. I believe that every space has a story to tell, because every human being has a story to tell. And when I create these things, these canvases, it's about layering on that story and creating beautiful moments in that story. Sometimes it's just about creating the more nuanced aspects of it—bringing focus to the good parts of it by way of family, portrait walls, using family heirlooms, things that really tell the story. A story that creates an emotional connection to the viewer or to anyone looking in from the outside.

They can really tell what type of person this is. That's what I aim for. When I walk into a space, I literally walk in there to tell a story.

It’s all about storytelling. Sometimes it's not even about telling a story of who the client is, but of who the client could be. > FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 82

Clive: Oh, wow. So, you show people their potential.

Donald: Just imagine, you're walking into this house: I'm doing a house right now for a woman who's an ex–Miss South Africa, and she has come back into the country and would like to begin her life. And just walking her through, I say "This is the kind of sheet you need to have on your bed. This is the kind of fabric you need to have." And "This is how you're going to tell a story about who you are, using art, and looking at art differently." Art is not an accessory. Art is an investment. So I'm taking her—I'm taking all my clients—on this journey. And we're embarking on this journey of acquiring—not buying—things of sentiment, that have value, and that are not disposable. The home is an investment. It's not an accessory to your life.

Clive: Tell us, who is Donald Nxumalo? For the benefit of our international readers.

Donald: My name is Donald. My father called me Donald. And I think people talk about how, in South Africa, we have a Christian name, and then we have our other names. So it's an interesting concept: Your English name is your "Christian name." My parents went for these regal names for myself and my brothers.

Clive: Do you have another name?

Donald: Yes. It's Dlaleni, which is Tsonga for "on a journey."

And I think that my second name, the African surname, best reflects how my life has turned out.

Clive: Wow. Because you are continuously on this journey.

Donald: I’m mentioning this because somebody asked, "Why are people still calling you a rising star?" I think, when you're at the top of one mountain, it's just the foot of another mountain. So I'm constantly ascending. I'm constantly trying to achieve the next thing, because my parents taught me that.

When I was eight years old, I grew up in a house with my mother and my father. My father worked for the post office—literally, the people you buy stamps from. My father was quite ambitious, so he worked his way up, to become a manager of a post office. Last week, I found his name tag that had set on his desk: George Nxumalo. My mother was a stay-at-home mom, so we didn't have much money. I once saw my mom literally taking five rand. Whilst growing up, five rand could buy tomatoes and onions, and you could make a cup of gravy.

I grew up in a home. A home was more than just a place to sleep. It was a refuge. I think that when we moved from Soshanguve, which was a township, to a town, it was then what they call now, "the urban poor."

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Clive: Would you say that the feeling you were chasing—have you captured it?

Donald: Yes, I have grown to embody it. I see people coming in here, and when they do really well, I'm the first person they think about. It's become a symbol of aspiration, a symbol of achievement. It says so much about someone to have a home— their space—desired by me. And I've grown to appreciate that. I need to be more jealous of the talent and very guarded in protecting it, because it means a lot for people to have me in their presence.

Clive: That's quite something that you've kind of become a symbol of someone saying, "When I've arrived in the world of commerce—when I have succeeded—I'm going to go to Donald and ask him to come and do my home." How do you feel when people entrust you with the embodiment of their success?

Donald: How does it feel? I feel that it's a huge honor—that people entrust you with the very apex of their emotions. I meet people at their most vulnerable. They've achieved something amazing with their lives. I've created homes that have a lot of meaning to people—people who've had their first baby, where they'd always been hoping for a child. One of my most special moments in this work that I'd been creating was for a lady who was retiring. She'd worked all her life. And she said, "What I want when I retire is to wake up in a beautiful home. And that home can only be done by Donald." So you realize the magnitude and the weight of what this feels like.

Being part of people's milestones. And they bring me into their lives. I also did a project for my own mother—renovating her house. Every magazine I'm featured in, I give it to her. So she knows the kind of work that I do. Also, my friends talk. And so, with this house, well, I always say, "My mother brought me into this world," but with this home for her, with this project for her, I brought my mother into my home—into my life.

Clive: That sounds like a son's heart, filled with gratitude. And it’s your gift back to everything that your mother has given you. It sounds like she was very pivotal—in gifting you this talent, and in opening your eyes to the fact that you had this talent. > FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 84

Donald: I did an interview on TV, and I was just talking about my mom, and all that she used to do and involve me in. So my mom said to me, "I don't know you. I don't remember all of that. I didn't know you were watching me." It wasn't what she said, but what she allowed. She allowed me into her world to see what she did. I was an attachment to my mom. I came with my mama everywhere. So now she sees that those moments were investments.

Clive: You're your mother's handbag.

Donald: Parenting is something else! I feel bad for those women. I think Black women in the township have created really beautiful homes. They have created beautiful moments and places of pride. I always have issues with how production designers depict Black township homes. Because the homes that I know are clean. They are beautiful.

But then there are things that we see on television. The walls are dirty, even shacks are neat, and things are done. Have you walked into a home and seen polish? When you use that, you need to get on your knees. And it's in a shack. It's beautiful. A shack, and the stoop is polished. The threshold.

They've got pieces of art on the walls.

So, we've been designing all along. We just didn't have a name for it.

Clive: That's all we had as Black people—especially during those times when Black people couldn't acquire a lot. They couldn't even climb up the corporate ladder. So the only solace they had was their home.

Donald: I now understand—after being in this industry for over ten years—I do get the fascination when it's tied to our history. Do you know the only thing as a Black person you were allowed to have was a four-room house? Only if you lived in Soweto. Otherwise, you were on the outskirts of economic hubs, and you could live in a shack or you could live in a madhouse. That's what you got as a Black person.

Now, you have a Black person who's bringing a grand piano to Black people's homes. So of course, it's a big deal. I get it.

Clive: How do you make sure that you continue that narrative. Is it even important for you to continue that narrative? To making Black people aware—whether it's your clients or the people who are following you—that what they admire so much is something that we've always had as Black people. All they need is elevation.

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Donald: I get so excited by people sending me pictures on Instagram, and they say, "This is my living room, inspired by the best that you've done." Those are the heartwarming moments, because that is an influence. Sometimes I get a message from someone saying, “Listen, dude, I can't afford >

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@DONALDNXUMALO WWW.DONALDNXUMALO.COM FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 88

I truly hope that the experience of these three interviews was as good for you as it was for me! I am enraptured at the notion of discovering with you—our beloved reader— more art in the future, as we meet the creatives behind the art. Together, may we go to places we never imagined existed.

Love and light to you! < FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 89

@CLIVEMATHIBE CLIVE MATHIBE

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FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 90

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FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 91

KIM SCOULLER Kim: You know, Chloé, there is this sense right now of hopelessness and helplessness—that we can't protect our children. Because this country hasn't done enough with respect to mental health, and because this country hasn't done enough for gun safety. And when I think about Title IX and what three women were able to accomplish—something profound in one generation—I guess it gives me hope.

It's hard, though, because we've tried so many times to bring resources and common sense to bear on mental health issues, and on gun safety issues. Mental health, I think, is a perception issue, and a resource issue. Gun safety is a purely political kind of issue. I was thinking yesterday that there are people out there at Walmart buying up the AK 47's because they're afraid that this massacre at a grade school in Texas is going to hinder their ability to buy machine guns in the future. I mean, there's just an insanity to that way of thinking.

Title IX is a federal law.

Chloé: Is this where we are?

Kim: This is where we are. And so, the only thing that we can do is to not give in to feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. We have to feel our power. We've got to raise our voice.

We've got to raise our hand. Every vote does count, and one person can make a difference.

Women showed that with Title Nine.

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TITLE IX Chloé: Let's talk about Title Nine. I want to hear your perspective, because you have all these wonderful ways of explaining things when it comes to women, opportunities, rights, money, and our livelihood. So, what is Title Nine?

Kim: Title Nine is a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on gender in school activities, educational activities, and educational programs—if that school or activity is receiving federal funding. I think it’s a natural extension of the Civil Rights Act, which eliminated discrimination based on race. This is aimed at eliminating discrimination based on gender. >

Chloé: And what year was that?

Kim: That was 1972. And in fact, the law passed on June 23rd.

Chloé: Amazing—on my birthday. And are you saying that any school that had athletics, now had to have athletics for girls and boys at the school?

Kim: Well, you know, what's interesting, Chloé, the law is only thirty-seven words long.

Nowhere in the statute does it mention sports or athletics. But that was what most people reacted to. And when you think about trying to prove that individuals are being discriminated against based on their gender, it's difficult to prove. But if you look at a school's budget for programs for boys' sports and then look at the programs for girls' sports, it's pretty easy to see the discrepancy, and show that discrimination is actually taking place. So, while the law was never aimed at sports in schools, that was the way that we showed that it was just glaringly obvious—how girls and women were being discriminated against in school.

Chloé: You know, that is amazing to me. A lot of times, when you're in the midst of something, you know that something is not correct, or that it doesn't feel right. But you don't know exactly what it is. And I'm sure a lot of that was going on. And this is what Title Nine was for. Like you say, they didn't call out any one thing, but it was to hold the schools and the school systems accountable in sharing their resources.

Kim: Exactly. I mean, when you look back to 1970, when I was in grade school, only fifty-nine percent of women in 1970 even graduated from high school. Only eight percent earned college degrees. There were schools that required women to have higher grades than men to be admitted to college. And there were schools that restricted the subjects that women could study. So, it was a time when women were not encouraged.

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Women were actively discouraged from pursuing higher education, and therefore, better-paying careers. Now, fifty years later, we're celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of Title Nine. Women now earn fiftyseven percent of all college degrees. So, in fifty years, we went from less than ten percent to more than fifty percent. A huge change in one generation—the generation that came after me.

Chloé: And do you believe that was all because of Title Nine, Kim? Kim: Yes. Title Nine and the amazing efforts of a lot of women—women speaking up and raising their hands and making their voices heard.

Chloé: Kim, are you saying that by focusing on sports, the viewfinder of discrimination grew, or that the lack of support for women was exposed? This reminds me of what the women's American soccer team went through.

Kim: Yes. Exactly. We've talked about the gender pay gap for women and men in a lot of conversations, Chloé. Because as you know, outside of sports, women make $0.82 for every dollar earned by a man. It is worse for female professional athletes. If you look at the pay gap between male and female golf pros, it's around $1.25 million in 2021. For example, Serena Williams, who is my hero, and Naomi Osaka— they earned $46 million and $57.3 million, respectively; but Roger Federer earned $84 million. Now I will watch Serena Williams over Roger Federer. No disrespect, but I will totally watch her over him any day. When you look at basketball, the average male NBA player earns over $5 million a year, while a female WNBA player earns an average of $130,000 a year— with the highest paid players earning around $230,000 a year. The basketball pay gap is so wide that many women players have to go overseas in order to make more money. >

Women now earn 57% of all college degrees.

Chloé: And that leads me to the young lady who's in Russia being held hostage, Britney Griner—who only went there to make more money.

Kim: That's exactly right. Because even though it's basketball—a sport that was created in America and one of the most American sports outside of baseball—she can't make a decent living playing that sport in her own home country. At least, not compared to what male professional players can earn. It's crazy.

Chloé: Yes. It's sad. It's very unfortunate that she's caught up in this political situation. And it breaks my heart that she's there. Alone.

Kim: Oh, I know. I just can't even imagine what she, her wife, and her family are going through.

But these are the unintended consequences of the gender pay gap—whether it's in non-sportsrelated careers or in sports-related careers.

But there's good news on the horizon! You mentioned the US women's soccer team. In May, just this Spring, they signed a landmark settlement that called for equal pay for men and women professional soccer players. The pay disparity for soccer was really glaring. In 2013, female players earned $15,000 from making the World Cup team, while men earned $55,000 for making the team in 2014 and almost $69,000 in 2018. The women have won the World Cup title four times, while the men in the United States have never won the World Cup. And yet they earn so much less than men earn in that sport while playing more games— because they were winning! But no more, thanks to the women's soccer team, their coaches, and their supporters standing up and saying, "Hey, this is not fair!” The hope is that we'll see this in many more sports where women actively participate—and that we will continue to fight the good fight for non-sportsrelated careers as well. We hope that we will see gender pay equity in our lifetime. >

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The women have won the World Cup title four times, while the men in the United States have never won the World Cup. And yet they earn so much less than men earn in that sport while playing more games—because they were winning!

Chloé: I have seen unequal treatment in NCAA sports first-hand—by watching the distinctions between my daughter, an All-American volleyball player for the University of Maryland, and my son, who played NCAA basketball for Bradley University. Indeed, the distinctions were glaring and blatantly unfair.

Kim: And even today, Chloé, we see discrepancies, unequal treatment, and unequal conditions. We have come a long way since 1972, when the law was passed. Right now, programs for women represent about forty percent of athletic budgets. In fifty years, we went from zero to forty percent. But we still have a long way to go. As you point out—with your daughter's experience not being equal to your son’s— in my day, there were no sports programs for girls in high school other than cheerleading. But the next generation had opportunities, including my nieces, who played soccer and lacrosse, and also ran track in high school. Because of Title Nine, women have more college scholarship opportunities. It may be unequal, but at least we have the opportunity. Because of Title Nine, we have the amazing WNBA. Because of Title Nine, young girls in school are encouraged to play, and they're given the resources to play soccer and other sports.

So, today we have this world champion US women's soccer team that won the World Cup four times, and six Olympic gold medals—the most recent being that they won the bronze in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. And in fact, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are considered the first gender-equal Olympic Games, with women comprising a groundbreaking forty-nine percent of the participants! So, yes, we've come a long way, but we've still got a long way to go.

Chloé: Yes, I remember President Obama congratulating the US Soccer team at that time, and he said they were "badasses"—and I'm thinking, “That certainly has proven to be fitting for them!”

Kim: Yes, exactly. They stood up. They stood up and said, "This is not fair. We are World Champions, so this is not fair. One of my favorite quotes is from Megan Rapano, who's one of the star forwards on the team. She said, "One cannot simply outperform inequality or be excellent enough to escape discrimination of any kind," meaning they were the best in the world, and even then they could not escape discrimination—until they spoke up, and they fought for what they were entitled to.

Chloé: I like that quote, and I like the fight. I love it all! That was a very wonderful explanation. You know I'm drawn to badasses, right?

Kim: Yes. You are! And there's one other thing that I'm going to point out. You said your daughter earned the volleyball scholarship to the University of Maryland, right?

Chloé: Yes, she did. Her life-size image is still on the wall there, and so are her stats.

Kim: The University of Maryland is actually an important touch point for Title Nine. Bernice Resnick Sandler is known as the Godmother of Title Nine, as she was instrumental in its creation. She earned her doctorate in Education in 1969 from the University of Maryland.

Chloé: Oh, wow!

Kim: She was told that she would never be hired as a full-time teacher because she was "too strong" for a woman. She was "too vocal," and just "too strong."

So she looked around at the state of the law and asked, "Is it legal? Can people legally say this to me— that I am too strong for a woman and that I cannot be hired for that reason?" And she found that there was no law on the books preventing that, except an executive order that was signed by President Johnson. So, she took example after example of inequality in educational programs to Congresswoman Edith Green of Oregon. >

Women earn 82 cents for every dollar made by a man.

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Kim, continued: And Congresswoman Green, along with Congresswoman Patsy Mink from Hawaii co-authored what we now know as Title Nine. And then the legislation was introduced

by Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana. When I think of that, if you ever think that one person can't make a difference, you think of Bernice Sandler from the University of Maryland. And if you ever think that the person you vote for can't make a difference, or that your vote doesn't make a difference, then stop, and remember Representatives Green and Mink! In 1972, when the law passed, there were only fifteen women in Congress. Just fifteen. Today, there are 145 women proudly serving in Congress.

Chloé: Now that is something to talk about, and celebrate.

Kim: Yes, for sure. Title Nine is considered one of the most important civil rights pieces of legislation for women, other than the right to vote.

Chloé: That's amazing. At the time, do you think there was a lot of pushback from men?

Kim: The law was passed a couple of years later and the regulations were actually proposed for enforcing this thirty-seven-word statute. There were more than 10,000 comments from the public against the regulations, and most of them had to do with sports. Most were arguing that, if programs have to provide equal access and equal budgets for male and female sports, then that will just kill men's sports. Fortunately, not a lot of people feel the same way today; but it was a huge obstacle to overcome. And I'm so proud of our legislatures and the regulators that were charged with enforcing the law—that they did not buckle to that popular opinion that girls don't belong in sports, or that it would somehow affect men's sports. It's not a zerosum game: If women win, then men lose, or if men win, then women lose. No, it's not a zerosum game at all. We all win and benefit, when both men and women are treated equally and paid equally.

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Chloé: Equal rights certainly does pay—for men and for women. And we must enforce it. And "we" does not mean women only. It is men and women together—men who stand with us, men who know it's the right thing to do. We have to continue to uphold these laws because considering some recent pushbacks and changes to landmark laws, I'm convinced that nothing is sacred to certain people. I'm convinced that even with Title Nine, with the wrong people in power, they may try to say, "Well, that's enough for the women." We must continue using our voices, and make sure to vote.

And we have to keep on being badasses.

Kim: That's exactly right, Chloé. Because as we've said, it took just three women—Bernice Sandler, Congresswoman Edith Green, and Congresswoman Patsy Mink—to make a profound change for women, and we've seen the incredible benefits of it, in one generation. And so, we've got to fight the good fight. We've got to stand up for fairness.

It's not to beat down men. I don't think men are our oppressors. I think our voices just need to be heard, and we really need to stand up for what's right—for ourselves, for our daughters, for our sisters, for our nieces. And we've got to stand side by side with the men who are our fathers and brothers and uncles —to really talk about this and stand up for what's right. We've seen that with Title Nine. There are so many other things that we see regarding gender inequality, and other forms of inequality. We simply must keep speaking up.

Chloé: So, it's vital that we continue speaking up— bringing our voices, our resources, and our power together, and certainly not giving in.

Kim: Yes, Chloé. Look at what women accomplished with Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. They changed the whole perception about drinking and driving. It's one of the main reasons Uber was created. There's a whole industry right there, that was created because of what women started talking about and raising their voices and hands about—in my generation, in our generation. And because of that, we have seen a significant change in the perception of drunk driving and its consequences. >

TITLE

IX

Kim, continued: It's true, Title Nine is something that is near and dear to my heart.

And I'm actually going to be co-hosting a program with female professional athletes, coaches, and owners to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Title Nine. We'll also be talking about the remaining inequalities—and how female professional athletes need to know how money works. We're going to have women from the WNBA, female Olympic gold medal winners, female sports broadcasters, and female sports owners in our office, recording the program.

Chloé: Thank you, Kim, for sharing your knowledge with us about women and the vital importance of Title Nine. <

Kim Scouller has been an attorney for more than thirty years, having served as an adjunct professor at the Brandeis School of Law and at the University of Louisville. She was also an in-house attorney for one of the largest financial services companies in the world. During her tenure at Transamerica, Kim served in several executive roles for the company’s insurance affiliates, broker-dealers, and mutual funds and investment advisers. In her last four years there, she served as the president of the Transamerica broker-dealers, with the largest number of registered representatives.

As one of the few women broker-dealer presidents in America, she traveled around the country talking with people—especially women—about investments and financial goals. In 2014, Kim launched the WealthWave Women’s Program, focused on making financial education and the financial profession more accessible to women. Believing in the power of financial education, Kim continues speaking to women about identifying the red flags of financial abuse, actively participating in their own informed financial decisions and joining the financial services industry to help educate other women.

https://wealthwave.com/kimscouller FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 97

GLOW AND FLOW WITH THE SUMMER BREEZE

Hey there, beautiful people!

It's Summer!

Hop into those shorts and flip-flops, ride the waves that ease your mind and flourish into the sun that shines over everyone.

I hope you took my advice last issue and blossomed. I hope you've been out with family, and that you're staying safe.

I pray that you and your loved ones are well, and that you are gearing up to be the best you can be.

Remember: When the sun is shining, you can do anything; no mountain is too high, and no trouble is too difficult to overcome.

Take good care, and keep glowing!

Best wishes,

@flourishdigitalmagazine @sadiyah_adams FLOURISHDIGITALMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2022 | 98

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