Meet Julian Davis Reid

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Julian Davis Reid a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Julian Davis, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
My confidence and self-esteem need constant protection and tending. As an artist-theologian who lives between the music industry, the local church, and postsecondary theological education, I am constantly aware that I am in precarious waters. My ministry and my artistry are both projects I am constantly creating as I go along. On the one hand, this is constantly exciting: I get to build the ship at sea! On the other hand, this can be equally terrifying: I have to build the ship at sea! I draw my confidence from God and from the community God has placed around me. I trust my group of advisors – chief among them being my wife and parents – to tell me if I’m not in the right lane. That helps keep me level-headed.

Honesty also bolsters my confidence and self-esteem. You have to be honest with yourself about where you are being affirmed. For professional creatives this can be tough; we want (and to some extent need) to ignore others’ affirmation while at the same time need to be monetarily affirmed enough in order to make a living. Having a wife and now a daughter helps me strike the balance between idealism and realism. Without dreams about what could be, I will not grow in my confidence. But I also am aware that bills aren’t paid on confidence. Bills are paid by monetized affirmation and consistency in the market, both of which feed confidence and self-esteem.

Last, my self-esteem continues to grow as I see people encouraged and blessed by my ministry. When people come up to me after a show of music or after a session of contemplation and ministry, I can see in their eyes the impact I’m making. “I needed this – thank you,” is one of the deepest affirmations I receive in this work. Let affirmation from self and from those you impact become your fuel.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am an artist-theologian who uses words and music to invite people into the restful lives we were created to live. I do this through my ministry Notes of Rest and my original musical projects. I am honored to do this work in Chicago, where I live and worship with my wife and daughter.

Notes of Rest® is a Spirit-led ministry that invites the weary to practice God’s gifts of rest played in the Bible and Black music. Through workshops and writings I interweave the theological themes (“notes”) of Shekinah, Salvation, Sabbath, Sleep, Stillness, Slowness, & Sanctuary with the playing and history of Black American music. Braiding these notes encourages participants to listen for the Holy Spirit’s leading, share in the journey with one another, and embrace God, neighbor, and self more fully. As Jesus’ restful New Creation emerges out of this restless world, Notes of Rest® provides hospitable space to discern our participation in it. You can join my online community at juliandavisreid.substack.com and learn more at juliandavisreid.com/notesofrest.

In addition to Notes of Rest, I create music with various projects, including my own work with my ensemble Circle of Trust, The JuJu Exchange, and Isaiah Collier. I love making music in these various ensembles that stretches my imagination and that of the listener. I am so thankful for the long, rich tradition of Black American music that I can stand in, particularly the offerings of Jazz and Black Church music (i.e., spirituals, gospel blues, contemporary gospel). You can hear all of my music on my Spotify at Julian Davis Reid or The JuJu Exchange. My newest personal project is Candid, out now, and my most recent collaboration is with Isaiah Collier on his two projects The Almighty and Parallel Universe. The JuJu Exchange’s most recent release is JazzRx, sonic medicine that scores your life.

In all of these projects, I’m most excited to give people space to rest, contemplate, delight, behold, and pray.

Beyond what I do, I am thankful to be a husband, father, son, brother, and child of God.

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?
Faithfulness: Before Notes of Rest was getting going as a ministry project, I was struggling during the pandemic. I really had a hard time figuring out how to hold together my interests in playing, speaking, and writing. I knew there was something I had to create, but didn’t know how. So I prayed mightily. I prayed honestly. I prayed to God just asking for help. Those were some very, very special prayers. I was faithful to not give into false notions of what I really wanted to do, and, more importantly, God was faithful in connecting all of the dots of my life. Along this journey, I’m still doing just that.

Listening: I listen in every situation. I try to never treat a moment as dull or needless or irrelevant. I learn from all kinds of people, including the trees and squirrels. (Yes they’re people too.) The more I listen, the better I listen, and the better I play. That has been so core to my journey.

Consistency: Sometimes creatives like to think that we need to wait for inspiration to strike. Absolutely not. Consistency is the name of the game. Creating market history shows others the narrative you’re telling. And the more I’m consistent in positive ways, the better I’ll get at rooting out bad forms of consistency that trail behind and fester within me. In consistency you work out your conundrums.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron! I CANNOT recommend this more highly. She takes you through a 12-step journey of recovering your creativity. If you commit to the journey, you will see results. I recommend doing it with others.

1st insight: All of us are creatives, and all of us have compromised creativity. We live with lies that routinely block our creativity, so we need to unpack those blockages and create ways to surmount them.

2nd insight: Journal three pages a day, and go on artist dates, which are outings where you date your inner artist. Don’t be stingy and go somewhere for 10 minutes. We would hardly call a romantic outing a date were it that short.

3rd insight: Listen to God. God is speaking and coursing through you, and you just have to tap in. There’s more creativity in each of us than we could ever harness or even articulate.

 

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Rene Marban, Roger Mastroianni, sascharheker.com, Grace Farms

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