Meet Miri (MJ) Hunter

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Miri (MJ) Hunter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Miri (MJ), appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes from those who came before me. How else could I be here? It is the same with my work ethnic. There have been setbacks, disappointments, and just blatant discrimination. I remember being a cheerleader when I was about twelve and our team lost the Championship game and I and the other chereleaders and probably some of the players cried. My mother told me it was a game and I didn’t have the luxury of crying, I needed to get on to the next “game” with a clear head. It was kinda harsh, but kinda realistic. One must keep going. A few tears, some depression, time off, are all necessary, but dawdling was not an acceptable reaction in her opinion. It was a privilege that I did not have time for. She was one of eight daughters that grew up in the segregated South. Those women (my aunts) were tough, and I know they got that resilience from their mother. So my strength/resilience is generational: part of a legacy. In her own way, my mother was telling me that there is so much to do, to accomplish in what really is not a very long time.

As I grow older I recognize that my resilience isn’t just about me. It is a story, in a long line of stories, to be told to those who come after me and a legacy to continue that respects the lives of those that came before. My band has been working on a cover of the Sly and Family Stone song called “Stand.” One of my favorite lyrics is
“Stand, in the end you will still be you
One who’s done all the things you set out to do”
I love that. It speaks to resilience, but really, every line of that song is awesome! Check it out!

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I run a small theatre company called Thought Theatre Morongo Basin. We not only do some of the classics like Williams and Shepard, but also new works. In addition, I front a band that does what we call Desert Country Rock. The band, Hunter and the Wick’d plays throughout California, Arizona and Nevada with some occasional gigs back east..

Currently, I am most excited about promoting the new play that I wrote, directed and star in. It is a one person show called “Musings of a Black Woman in a Brown Desert.” I have done it throughout the Hi Desert and in Palm Springs and I am currently looking to tour with it through other parts of California and beyond. It is about a Black woman who makes her way from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree in search of peace and solitude, but what she finds is something completely different.

Part fiction and part memoir, the play tells the story of an individual and her journey to understanding the importance of personal freedom, and its connection to societal healing.  On her journey she meets not only herself, but also a New Orleans obsessed spiritual teacher named Mable Ann, the Queen of Sheba and we learn the reason for the main character’s  fascination with dead German composers as well as other fascinating discoveries about adjusting to life in the Mojave.

It’s fun to do and it is receiving great feedback!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The most important thing that I have learned is not to forget those that came before you and to leave something of value for those that come after you. It’s obviously a theme for me right now.

Everything else, I believe, follows from that guiding principle. You may never know who, in this present moment of your life, is being influenced by the way you live, the way you conduct yourself, the way do “the work.” Live respectfully, fully, and creatively.

Keep learning. Learning, educating oneself is a lifelong process. And it is good for the brain.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

I can’t say that any one book is more important than any other. They all have some value. I mean, someone took time and life energy to write them. I don’t agree with everything I read, but I like to know what is out there….gotta continually educate oneself.

However, if I have to choose one…..
Temple of My Familiar, by Alice Walker
I have read and reread it. I fancy myself as the character Lissie, who is said to have lived many lifetimes.

Contact Info:

• Website: projectsheba.com
• Instagram: mirihunter, projectsheba

Image Credits

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