11/13/2018 0 Comments Jeremy M. BrownloweJeremy M. Brownlowe is a 34 year old poet/writer known as Typewriter Troubadour (the name under which I first met him). Born into a military family, Jeremy found himself moving around every year or two until he got to high school. Once he graduated, he found himself out on the road again. He ended up here in San Diego just about a year ago, and has just recently published his new book, Typewriter Troubadour, a compilation of poems he has written on the road, “Poems On Various Topics, For Various People, In Various Places," reads it's subtitle. With a couple publications under his belt, Jeremy has plans to continue writing novels with the intention of helping people understand what it is to be human. Although he has found great success, the journey to get to where he is today wasn’t always easy. Jeremy started writing pretty frequently by the time he entered the 4th grade. He enjoyed reading things like “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, mystery books, and suspense books, and based a lot of his early writings on these frameworks. Once he got older and entered middle school, he began writing poetry to express his feelings as an “angsty teen.” He ended up turning a lot of these poems into songs (as he also plays the guitar), but was very protective over his writing. He even tended to sing in a way where people couldn’t really understand what he was saying, and expressed that he would have felt mortified if anyone were to stumble upon his words and read about his feelings. Growing up, Jeremy had trouble understanding himself as an individual. A lot of the time, he felt as though he didn’t fit in with the expectations of his family or those around him. As a child, he was placed in sports like baseball, hockey, and basketball, and often times felt like an outsider. Due to his family’s military background, he usually ended up being “the new kid”. Once Jeremy graduated from high school, he hit the ground running on this adventure we call life. When he was 18, he moved to Portland, Oregon for it's inexpensive cost of living and prominent creative environment. He worked hard to find himself as an artist and to come to terms with who he was. Faced with a lot of inner turmoil based on what he thought it meant to be an artist, he often times questioned how much of himself he would have to compromise in order to “make it”. Through his 20’s, he continued to write songs, and had a job writing articles for a local magazine. He experienced a lot of writer’s block though, which he described as being feelings of self consciousness and significant pressure from within to be unique. He was very caught up in what other people would think, so it was difficult for him to just let the words flow out onto paper. He was constantly “editing” himself as he was writing instead of just letting it happen. At 28, Jeremy found himself feeling lost and confused with life, and eventually packed his things into his car, grabbed his typewriter, and hit the road for a three month trip across the country. Along the way, he was given the idea to try and create poetry on the fly for people on the streets in order to potentially make a few extra bucks here and there. Jeremy called this journey a “revelational trip” because he had now found a way to make money with poetry. It was a very meaningful and spiritual experience for him, and allowed him to feel as though he was in service of humanity. It also helped him address some of his own internal struggles. By the time he returned from his trip, Jeremy had awakened to his gender identity, a transgender man. He had felt lost with this aspect of his identity throughout his whole life, but it wasn’t until this point in time that he took action to work toward becoming the person he always felt he was. At 29 years old, Jeremy began going to therapy in order to start to better understand what it was that he was feeling and experiencing, and by 31 he began hormone replacement therapy. He eventually underwent top surgery, a surgery that many transgender men go through, which is a chest reconstruction procedure to give the patient a more desired physical appearance. As he was going through this transition, he had another relationship tragically fell apart, causing him to feel as though the chapter of his life that existed in Portland was coming to an end. It was hard for him to pursue his poetry and to be in service of humanity in this city due to the weather and constant rain, and he began to feel very depressed. Needing a way out, Jeremy ended up on the road again, trying to find himself and regain meaning in his life. He was grieving over a relationship he lost, and not in the healthiest of ways. While out on the road, he was drinking and partying a lot, sleeping on couches, and was overall very unproductive. He felt homeless and eventually had to snap himself out of this mindset and lifestyle because he “wasn’t living up to his purpose.” Shortly after this healthy revelation, he took matters into his own hands and found himself in San Diego where he has been living out of his van for the past year. Once Jeremy reached San Diego, he began to settle down and slow things down. He worked hard on reconnecting with himself and becoming healthier both spiritually and physically. He began practicing yoga and eating healthier which has helped him get back on track to meet his goals; putting his personal story out into the world, inspiring people to follow their dreams and pursue their passions, and allowing people to reflect their own life story through his poetry. He hopes to give people a chance to hear the voice of a transgender man that isn’t completely tragic, but still show people that struggle and overcoming obstacles is a necessary aspect of personal growth. Growing up, it was difficult for Jeremy to be comfortable with being vulnerable, so it is a desire of his to try and help people break down those walls and to diminish the inherent fear of opening up and letting your guard down. Jeremey has worked extremely hard to understand himself and to become the person he is today. There were a lot of ups and downs in his life that caused stress on his writing career, but he has definitely come out on top. With the recent publication of what he imagines being a coffee table book, and plans for a new novel, Jeremy still occasionally has fears over not being taken seriously, over how people will react to how he portrays them in his novel, and over how people will react to his life story. It is difficult to not think about those things when sharing your life to the entire world, but Jeremy is a strong individual with a voice that demands to be heard.
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11/6/2018 1 Comment Kendra KingKendra King is a 25 year old woman born and raised in Poway, California. Ever since she was a little girl, she has been crafting and creating, always pushing herself to learn how to make new things. At the age of 9 she was making her own beanies while sitting at her brother’s soccer games, and by the age of 12, after her and her mom went to a class to learn how to wire wrap, she was making her own jewelry. Once Kendra got to high school, she ended up joining the cheer team and had to learn to make bows. She eventually turned this newfound skill into her senior project where she made and sold bows, and gave all of the proceeds to an orphanage in Haiti. By the time Kendra graduated high school, she had tons of crafting skills under her belt, which drove her to begin to start her own business, Cali Coast Couture. This didn’t come without obstacles though. When Kendra graduated high school, she found herself in a rather unhealthy relationship. Her depression was slowly creeping in and taking control over her life, and this caused her to stop creating for a while. She moved around a bit with her boyfriend and was feeling very unhappy. At the age of 20, she was living in Temecula and cooped up in the house all day with nothing to do. Eventually, she stepped up and decided to take control over her happiness though, and this is when she started creating again. One day she picked up a pair of pants and some scissors and got to it. She cut holes and distressed her pants which ended up becoming the prototype for one of her best selling items today, her “Playhard Leggings.” I actually have two pairs of these leggings and I absolutely adore them! They are simply leggings with holes cut all down the front of them, and they are perfect to wear to any event, especially if you are looking for both style and comfort. It was around this time when Kendra launched her Instagram page, @calicoastcouture_, to display her creations and show what she had to offer. Overall, it was Kendra’s friends and the people she met through her crafts that drove her to create certain things and to learn new skills. All throughout high school, the group of friends she hung out with listened to EDM and went to a lot of shows. Although Kendra didn’t go to her first rave/show until later on in her life, she was still very influenced by that culture. Her first big event she attended was to see OMFG when she was 18. Here, she fell in love with DJs Porter Robinson and Garreth Emery who are still her favorite artists today. After this event, she was hooked. She continued to go to shows, and the music was a way for her to cope with the daily struggles she faced dealing with her depression and anxiety. Soon after she started crafting again, she moved back to Poway and started creating rave bras for her friends. She would post her designs up on her Instagram page and started getting orders from other friends and friends of friends. “I liked to create outfits for myself and my friends that were unique and different from everyone else” she said. Around this time, Kendra started making more things that had to do with the rave culture, including kandi bracelets, perlers, flower crowns, and tie dye. She continuously got orders from her followers which pushed her to get better at the things she already knew how to do as well as learn how to make things that people were asking for. One of her customers messaged her and asked for a crochet top at one point, and although Kendra had never picked up a crochet hook in her life before this point, instead of letting the order go she spent days watching youtube videos to learn how to crochet. Today, Kendra now makes various types of crochet tops, all with a unique design, and they have become one of her more popular products. She was also driven to learn how to make kandi cuffs and kandi masks by other customers who asked if she was able to make those items for them. Kendra was on a roll at this point, gaining followers on her page, and getting orders on top of orders on top of orders. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all smooth sailing from there though. She eventually got out of her toxic relationship, but not without him hurting her one last time. When she broke up with her boyfriend, the first thing he did was log into her Instagram account and delete it entirely. Kendra recalls this event with great anger and sadness. It was such a major loss for her and she remembers feeling mortified. She was in shock that he would do this to her, and she found herself faced with a huge decision to make; would she give up or would she work twice as hard as she was before to build Cali Coast Couture back up to where it had been. Although she never received much support from her family for what she was doing, in a moment of strength she decided “I am not going to let this f*ck me up” and she started over from scratch. She slowly started gaining followers again, but still feels the impact of that loss today. When she first started back up, she got very few orders and felt very discouraged yet she never stopped making things. By the time 2017 came around, things started going up again, and with major support from her friends she was finally getting back on her feet. Kendra is an extremely dedicated and hardworking woman. She stays up all night sometimes finishing orders after working all day at Subway, her current day job. When I asked her what motivates her to keep making things, she expressed that it is mainly her friends’ support that keeps her going, but it is also the idea that she can give back to the DJs that have essentially saved her life with their music. Towards the end of the year 2016, Kendra started making personalized perlers for DJs at shows her or her friends would attend. One order she received from her friend was for some kandi and perlers to wear when they went to a show by Marshmello, and she decided to throw in an extra perler for him. Her friends ended up throwing the necklace onstage and Marshmello actually picked it up and gave a heart symbol with his hands to Kendra’s friend. When she was told this story once her friends got back from the show, she was ecstatic. “It was a huge victory!” she expressed. Since then, she has continued to try to give back to these DJs by giving them personal perler necklaces. This was the start of something new for her, and it became her dream to get her creations to the DJs that have impacted her. She would do anything to get close enough to give her necklaces to them and has been quite successful so far. Kendra expressed to me that what drives her to do this is the fact that no one ever gives anything to DJs and that she wanted to give back to them because of the impact they have had on her life. It isn’t about meeting them or trying to get their signature, but instead a way for her to say “thank you”. It is a way for her to foster a deeper connection with the creators of the music that help her get through each day. Kendra is an amazing and talented girl. She can literally make anything you could imagine, and is always open to learning new things. Her biggest fear is that one day her depression might get the best of her. She is sometimes terrified of the demons within her yet she works day after day, taking baby steps, to build up her business to get to where she wants to be. Currently, she strives to make at least one thing everyday while also working on creating a website, all with her end goal in mind, to be a vendor at one of the bigger rave events so she can talk to and meet new people while also selling her products. She is her own driving force and source of motivation, and while faced with comments like “you should stop” or “your ‘business’ is going nowhere” from her own family, Kendra claims “I am the source of my own happiness” and continues to push herself to create. |
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