Jill Scott & Johnnetta B. Cole
Photo taken by Reina Johnson
There’s something about Jill Scott’s presence…her energy that you want to bathe in it. I’ve seen her perform live a few times, but those performances don’t compare to her talk Friday night at the Museum of the American Indian. While she can put on a marvelous show complete with a bad ass band and the flexing of her vocal abilities, last night felt good to just sit and listen to her talk and pick up any jewels that she was willing to hand out. The discussion was presented by the National Museum of African Art, with its Director, Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, leading the discussion. The intimate setting and no frills was very Inside The Actor’s Studio, even down to a bare stage with nothing more than a table separating two comfy red chairs.
The discussion began with her reflections about her time in Botswana (pronounced/sounds like Boots-wana). It was in Botswana where the three time Grammy award winning singer/songwriter lived for seven months while filming the short lived hit cable series The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. She talked about how before getting off the plane to touch African soil for the first time, she was advised to humble herself and “let Africa introduce herself to you.” She further dispelled any stereotypical thoughts about Botswana and Africa as a whole. She slept in presidential suites and in shacks. She was a guest at elite parties and even found herself in the hood drinking a beer on a stoop. She explained that over time she walked different, felt different and smelled different.
“I kept running into myself, ” she told the audience.
She kept running into the familiar thousands of miles from home. Later on, the Ambassador of Botswana to the U.S., Her Excellency Ms. Tebelelo Seretse, gave some closing thoughts and expressed how Jill is a good spokes model for the country. She really is. By the time we were done I was ready to pack up my belongings, get passports rolling for my daughter and I and start a new life in Bostwana.
Aside from talks of Botswana, Jill reflected on her bottom to the “top” journey. She describes herself a writer. She’s a writer that happens to sing and have all these other artistic dimensions. I knew she grew up Jehovah’s Witness. I knew she went to Temple University. What I didn’t know, until Friday evening, was that her mom would rush out of service from the Kingdom Hall and head straight to the African museum in Philly. Jill couldn’t remember the name of the artwork, but there was a piece that her mom would weep over – sob even – every time. It was then that Jill realized that art is more than just the value of the name it carries. In so many words, Jill described art as an extension of who you are. The artwork you collect ultimately tells a story about you.
While at Temple she was working on becoming an English teacher. Yet, she quit the same day she started to work. She entered into the school where she was suppose to teach. The vibe was off from the beginning.
“Everything looked grim. The walls, the lockers. I know if I felt this sense of doom I can only imagine what the students must have felt like. I went to the principal and asked for some paper…some magazine covers, anything. I was like ‘lets put some color on these walls.’ I was told I was too idealistic,” says Jill.
She quit. She kept reading her poetry for $15 a night at a local poetry spot. She had been approached by a film director who told her she is an actor. Over time he told her about a small local theater company. She took on an apprenticeship that paid $150 a week and although the deal included healthcare insurance and free acting classes, she had to literally build stage sets, sew costumes and other acts of manual labor. After the apprenticeship, she was able to do a full on fellowship that was basically the same deal as the apprenticeship, sans the intense manual labor. By the end of it all she was able to join an actors union. She disclosed her feelings about the success of her first album when she became THE Jill Scott we know her as. Suddenly, folks she had known for years, but may not have had that much interaction with, were claiming her.
“It hurt my feelings more than anything, that NOW I’m special to you…the same girl that swept your front, that waved to you…” says Jill.
The success of the first album felt awkward to her. She’s the girl that likes to ride the bus, observe the riders and write in a quiet corner. Now people are recognizing her. With that awkwardness, being placed on the pedestal was not for her. So she retreated. When it came time to record her second album, Beautifully Human: Words & Sounds Vol. 2, she told herself that she wasn’t going to do as well so it wouldn’t garner so much success. She literally tried to sabotage her gift by creating, what she thought was, mediocre work. I found myself letting tears flow, even as make up was running into my eyeballs and making them burn for a few seconds at a time.
You see, I’ve been feeling that way lately; awkward. I feel this sense of retreat coming on. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you may have speculated, along with a few family members and some of my friends, that this is a break out year for me. With the last story I did, a few of my friends have already predicted a success I haven’t even thought about in its aftermath. As I told one friend, I honestly never thought about what writing that particular piece meant for me. I honestly approached it with the fact that I had some burning questions about the topic at hand, I was able to get through to the person I needed to talk to and share his point of view with the masses. If it gets noticed by the right people to help further propel me…GREAT! If not, I’m cool. I still press on. Outside of this blog, I literally feel weird in settings when people inquire about what I do and my accomplishments. Family and friends continuously nudge me on to speak on it in detail.
It’s like…I want my due accolades, but I want to remain in the background doing what I do. I don’t want pedestal treatment; should I attain such a status. For Jill, she doesn’t mess with the paparazzi. She has her celebrity status, but she has her life – her grounded and normal life – and this is how I want my life to continuously flow.
The whole ordeal of my last story as left me a bit on edge. I feel myself getting into position for something bigger, but the scary thing is I feel like I don’t know what that “bigger” is. I ponder if I’m ready for it…whatever it is. So, I’ve retreated in my own way of looking for the safety net of 9 to 5. Not that I stopped looking, but I had slowed down tremendously as freelance opportunities roll in. The past week, I was back on the job of looking for a job in full force, maybe trying to sabotage my own journey with my journalism trek and my creative writing. The thing is, with this economy and how I finished school way past my “supposed” graduation date, I feel like I’ve been forced into this cobble class life I live. As I’ve written before, this lifestyle isn’t glamorous and it’s all guts and the glory eventually comes. It’s emotionally taxing and challenges whatever faith you have, but I’m here for ALL OF IT. Why, because I realize what I do is bigger than me.
“Then ‘Golden’ was on that album….,” Jill pauses in talking about her self sabotaging and smiles. The audience erupts in laughter and applause.
Like many artists, she’s the kind that regards anything she writes or sings as sacred. There’s a space in which you create the work but in that space it feels good to you. It feels good to release. There’s no thought to if someone will like it or hate it. It just feels good. For her, “Golden” was in part about her divorce and this newly found freedom in life. Yet, we adopted it as the spiritual anthem that it has become.
Mahoganie in her 20s
Jill Scott came on the music scene in the midst of my twenties. As I sported natural hair dos – curls and twists – I became accustomed to co-workers, classmates and strangers stopping me to say “you look like Jill Scott.” I took the compliment and kept it moving. However, the more I heard it and was in tuned to her artistry I began to feel this distant kinship to Jill. Her work has seen me through the joys and pains of my relationships. Her inspiring poetry she recited at the White House two years ago, encouraged me further. Her talk affirmed a few things for me;:
1. Continue to walk in the path meant for you – even in the midst of trying to retreat – ultimately it’s a responsibility bigger than you
2. Humility goes a long way
3. You can be in this world and not off it.
4. You have to be open to what is out there for you – receive it.
As Jill came full circle, she acknowledged that everything about her journey goes back to when her mother wept at the work of art. My journey? I have have a few things to attribute to it, but first and foremost it started with my grandparents on my father side, who before I came on the scene were local artists sharing their gifts. My grandfather the educator by day and playwright off hours and my grandmother, secretary by day and local singer and violinist in her husband’s plays.
Mahoganie: Musings East of the Anacostia River 
Koren
September 5, 2013
how did you know that Jill Scott was even in town? I need to reengage with the social scene in DC.