Meet Anwar Jr.

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anwar Jr.. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anwar below.

Anwar, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

One of the main things is my mental health journey, and how far I’ve come from that. Also it comes from keeping the faith in God to guide me when there’re so many times where I didn’t even feel in my body at moments. I’m resilient because of my family, they’re the reason why I’m still here doing what I do best, believing in myself.

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

I always say “artist”, let’s get more technical; designer/seamstress is more like it. I’ve been stressing that seam and designing since I was 16. The journey from paper to real life is what I really enjoy the most about it. Sometimes it’s the process and the music I play, but in reality seeing it come from a sketch to real life makes me feel like Juni Cortez in Spy Kids 2 when they turned his sketch into his dad. I have two fashion shows coming this year: one, April 19th and another, August 30th, which I’ll post and talk about soon. I’m always open for consultations and clients in regards to making or tailoring a piece.

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?

I’ll give you one of each: self-awareness, innovation, and emotion. All three of those go hand in hand. Being self aware goes in hand with emotion because of criticism. There will be times when people aren’t rocking with your work, and it can be something you put a lot of time and emotion into. It’s up to you not to take anything personal. Not everyone shares the same mind creatively as me, that’s where the emotion comes in along with being aware of thyself, I must separate that because art is interpreted differently by people.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

I like the term “obstacle”, challenge puts the same pressure as the word struggle does on me. I’ve gotten through multiple obstacles which include mental health. Number one, every single day is a new one for me. It’s deeper than what’s being said by the public; it’s very psychological, and can be very hard at times. Everyday I: affirm myself, I play music, I always tell myself that I can do it. I pray, on my mama I get the urge to pray randomly throughout my day. I’ll leave y’all with this bible verse that I tell myself when I’m feeling discouraged, if you’re religious.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @freeanwar @1freearchive

Image Credits

Kayla Cheston @kaylacheston