Meet Kindred

 

We recently connected with Kindred and have shared our conversation below.

Kindred, 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?

When I think of my resilience and perseverance, I think of this phrase from Langston Hughes’ poem, ‘Mother To Son,’ “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.”
My life was full of ups and downs. My parents divorced when I was 6, and I watched my mother bust her ass to make sure we had. That birthed my by any means necessary attitude and my urge to hustle to make things happen. We were homeless living with family members and friends my junior and senior year of high school, and during that time there was this void of wanting the love and affection of my father. This void happened as I came out. This journey I was on ended up with me raped and diagnosed with HIV at the tender age of 17. I was diagnosed at a time where there was no PrEP and you were taking two to three pills a day to become undetectable. Even with all of this going on, I always had my Mom in my corner encouraging me to follow my dreams, even when I didn’t think they would ever come true. Growing up, I was in every choir in school and at church. When I graduated High School and started at Bowie State University, I was forced to find myself and who I wanted to be. After my diagnosis in High School, I stopped going to church and I was no longer singing in every choir I could find, but my love for music never left. In fact, it intensified. Music is what got me through a lot of life. It helped me to stay tuned in to my faith and find my own relationship with God outside of the church. Music helped me to express my feelings and emotions. Although I wasn’t singing with any groups or choirs, my dream of being a recording artist never wavered. I just had to find my voice outside of blending in with other voices. As I continued pushing through college, it was me and my love for music that got me through. The fall of my senior year, I found myself in the hospital with Myocarditis and thought I wouldn’t make it. When I got out of the hospital, I couldn’t go back to work right away, but had bills piled up and had to finish my last semester so I could graduate. I pushed against my doctor’s orders so I could get back on my feet figuratively and literally. As I walked across that stage to get my degree, I knew there was a reason God kept pushing me to keep going. I had a story to tell and testimony to share. As cliche as it may sound, my resilience comes from my mom, music, and my faith in God.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Professionally I am a grant manager for a public health agency providing services for Same-Gender-Loving Men and Transfolx of Color with HIV. In my spare time, my husband Ta’Shobe and I own Kingfinity. Kingfinity is our lifestyle brand with a focus on enriching our community with different services. Hubby focuses on his Hair Boutique, and I focus on our Novelty Apparel brand, Graphic Design Studio, and now my music. I just released my debut album Testimony which I call my villain origin story. It’s my autobiography in the form of music from about 2007 until about the summer of 2023.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in my journey were Faith, Resilience, and Perseverance. To be successful in this age of social media where everyone does everything and can market themselves as such, you have to have these three things to keep going. Faith is taking a step or leap when you can’t see where you’re going. Without faith, so many things in my life, including my marriage, would not exist how they do today. Resilience is your ability to take all the lemons life violently throws at you and make a beautiful Lemon Drop. I feel like life threw everything but the kitchen sink at my head, but I kept getting back up and going harder. Perseverance is continuing in the race even though it’s raining with hail and detours on your path. Even with all the resilience in the world, it means nothing if you just get back up from being knocked down. You gotta keep going and being persistent.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

When you listen to my debut album Testimony, you will realize I don’t just fit inside one box. I have songs that will remind you of your faith, I have songs that make you wanna fall in love, and I have songs you can throw that ass to. As I’m looking towards the future, I’m looking to collaborate with different instrumentalists and vocalist. I want to collaborate with producers and creatives that will help elevate my eclectic sound to new heights. I have a friend that asked me, “if I had an unlimited budget, who would I collaborate with?” The answer changes with my mood. I would love to have someone like Tank or Babyface write me a banger. I would love to sing with a Mykal Kilgore or a Davon Fleming or Ledisi or Avery Sunshine. I would love to collaborate with a Michael Korte or Teyanna Taylor to create visuals. I’m open to collaborating with creatives that let their personalities shine through their art. If anyone wants to collab with me, they can slide into my DMs on IG or X. My handle is JustKindr3d. They can also shoot me an email at [email protected]

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Reginald Sankey

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