Meet Olivia Franklin

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Olivia Franklin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Olivia with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I obtained my work ethic through God and my community of believers. My community has faith and belief that I will accomplish a task, whether big or small, passionately. Some of them believe in my work ethic more than I could believe it to be so. I have a lot of challengers of self in my community that SEE the humanity in me but SEEK the best version of myself. Life has taught me that either you are a person that dives deeper into self or puts up a fight with self; as I have learned this valuable lesson, I have also learned that if a person leans more into self, the possibility of outcomes are endless. I am so grateful for my commUNITY of doers, thinkers, mover and shakers that have allowed me to mess up but continue to push me and see my greatness along with myself. Their resilience and strength, through observation and absorbing, pushes me to go harder and to become hungrier for showing up and showing out every time I speak life into what I do. Whether its curating events or speaking life into the younger generation, I always aim for my best and then reach for the stars. As my community exists, I know they are an extension from God and that he is the source of everything and the willpower of my work ethic and theirs, extends from them.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

My name is Olivia Franklin and I am newly writing collective founder called Thesouthsidewrites. We focus on curating events specifically on the South Side of Chicago that are black owned to encourage community to creatively write. I just creating this collective this summer as I was out of a career for a couple of months and wanted something to curate for myself and others to cultivate community in creative writing. I have been a poet since high school and have been growing artistically over the years, especially with my time in Chicago. I do believe that it is my calling to create this collective, moreover, to create poetry.

My love for poetry truly came from my love from hiphop-rap lyciricsm. I am such a fanatic for word play and conscious rap and it always fascinated me how people could say something so profound but have a double entendre for something completely different. I do believe that rap has evolved from the intellectualism unfortunately but I do see how its slowly reverting back and getting back to the core of what it means to be an artist in the rap game and to care about it as a true art form. Shoutout to these past couple of years with hiphop, some dope projects dropped including Clipse, Doechii, Tyler, the Creator, Kendrick and more. I am not saying that rap cant evolve but what I am saying is don’t forget the root of it all.

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 believe that being open-minded, curious and independent are key skills to being an artist. I feel like artists are open-minded because, quite literally, have open mind theirselves. A true artist is not confined to any label and always is open to understanding more about self and others. So if thats the case, they are going to be naturally curious to understanding something on a deeper level. Curiosity brings an infinite wave of knowledge; something that no one can take away from someone. In a time where people believe what others say just off the pure fact they have a platform and not citing sources or stating things genuinely, hurts people more than they are even aware. Being a curious individual means you can have an independent way of thinking. Independent thinkers are the challengers and trend setters of the world. They believe and say what they of facts are often a threat to people that follow trends, rules. Thus all of these qualities describe an artist genuinely and have impacted and rewarded me the most on my journey as an artist.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

I would say my commitment to honoring self (self-respect) has been my biggest area of growth these past few months. Its impact has affected my life in all aspects (career, physically, artistically, romantically) and just choosing not to compromise over my value has been such a blessing. Honestly, praise God for seeing me through and taking me through the trials and tribulations so I could learn this very valuable lesson. I now know my worth and what I deserve and will not compromise on my standards to life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesouthsidewrites/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/olivia.writess/# – Poetry page