Joél Leon
WRITER
“I bring my culture everywhere with me.
I bring my Blackness everywhere with me.
I bring the Bronx and New York everywhere with me.”
What have you been working on? Gas yourself!
Well, the big thing is my debut essay collection, "What Kind Of Black Are You?" to be published by Holt/MacMillian (original publishers of the 🐐 and my fave writer of all-time Toni Morrisons debut novel, "The Bluest Eye". Between that, just building community out here in Bedstuy, leading and facilitating workshops and conversations online and in-person. I dropped a spoken word album "the kids are listening" late this summer. I've been loving my girls and my partner, exploring the widening capacity of my heart and love, and celebrated a year at the New York Times as a Creative Director at their T Brand Studios (where I am also part of the steering committee of our Black@NYT ERG.)Oh, and currently working on rewrites for my one-man show now being turned into a potential audio play.
How does your culture inform your creative work?
I bring my culture everywhere with me. I bring my Blackness everywhere with me. I bring the Bronx and New York everywhere with me. I wear my chains out. Sometimes I paint my nails. Sometimes it's the voice in the room advocating for those who don't have the privilege of being able to freely advocate for themselves. Sometimes it's plugging the homies in a deck, in a Slack channel, or on a call.
What is your greatest struggle/challenge these days?
My greatest challenge nowadays is trusting myself even more for this next level up. It can easily fall into the trap of "why wasn't I invited here" or "why wasn't I given that opportunity?" but that does a disservice to the blessings I'm receiving in the here and now. What is for me will be for me. Everyone's journey is uniquely different. Envy doesn't honor that. Love does.
What does community mean for you as a creative?
Community is everything to me. It is literally the tagline for a capsule collab I did with the mental health non profit ScatterJoy Project. Community, both physically and via social media, has held me down, has helped me trust my voice and purpose, and has filled my art and heart with immense joy. Everything I create is about community, the very real and physical act of bringing people together. It's not my brand—it's my purpose.
What inspires you in your creative process?
Risk taking. I love trying new things and seeing if and how they stick. Blackness inspires me. In one of my essays I write that we are inherently, as Black creatives and humans, risk takers. We have never been risk averse. Our people were stolen from ships and ade a way when there was none. There is nothing more riskier than that.
Is there anything happening in your community that you'd like to shed some light on?
Cierra Britton is a 26 year young sister from Baltimore currently based in NYC making waves in the art world as the owner of the Cierra Britton Gallery in the Lower East Side. If you are not writing about her, talking about her, or inviting her to your panels, you're already too late. Also, Ashley Simpo as the Managing Editor at CRWN is doing some really phenomenal, groundbreaking things for the brand and I really hope folks are paying attenion. Oh and shout-out to Kaya Nova. If you don't know who she is, catch-up. You'll thank me later, I promise. Oh and shout-out to Frederick Joseph, Michell Clark, Rob Hill Sr., Jamira Burley, Michael Tonge and others who are using their voices to move the needle and change the world.
