Joy Johnson | Artist & Curator

In this episode of Rodney Veal’s Inspired By, artist, activist, and muralist Joy Johnson traces her path from Fordham University and basketball scholarships to interior design, mural festivals, and leading community art on Dayton’s West Side.

Learn more about Joy online: https://www.artislifedyt.com

Follow Joy on Instagram: @joy4theworld23

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Rodney Veal, Joy Johnson, Promo, Ad

Rodney Veal  00:09

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Rodney Veal's Inspired By podcast. Today, I get to have a conversation with someone who is a whose name is synonymous with joy, because it is joy, and so Joy Johnson is an artist, activist, muralist, intellect, mover, and shaker. She is the next generation of things of good change in our community, especially around the arts, and I am super excited to have a conversation with her. So, Joy, welcome. to the podcast.

Joy Johnson  00:44

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am, I'm beyond honored. Thank you very much, Rodney. I'm over here like all these things. Yes,

Rodney Veal  00:55

the thing is, well, you're a multi hyphenate, and so that's, you know, we gotta, we gotta give props to multi hyphenates, and so thanks for coming aboard. So, this is.. I'm always.. you think it's full disclosure, folks. Joy and I first met at a table at the Collaboratory with Peter Beekendorf, and from that moment I'm like, oh, I love what this young person is all about, because you know, I'm a man of a certain age, but it was just the thing is, it was just the just the level of depth of engagement, and just your enthusiasm for things, and changing the community. I'm like, I just love hanging out with you, so I now I get to find out more about you, because we're always using, we were working towards something, so now I get to go. Okay, so joy. Where did this joy, this determination to do the multi hyphenic start for you? Where did it all begin?

Joy Johnson  01:55

Let's start way back. Yeah, let's start. Yeah, I believe that the art making probably truly began in my mother's womb. She named me Joy from a song that she heard while she was in church, and if you've been in church, you know they do the joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, and so she said, at that time I was just like going crazy, and honestly, that has been one of my favorite songs of all times, and I continue to listen to Handel's Messiah because of that song, it kind of just reminds me of that moment, and from there I believe that art is has truly just been my journey in life. It's been a discovery, as I have discovered myself. We can go back to when I was younger, my mother always, when we went, she would take me to work sometimes, and she taught me how to, like, file right. We start there with the filing, and the filing taught me, like, how to put colors together and how to organize things, you know. And then she was like, 'Come over here, let me teach you how to, how to type, you know, type these things out for me, right. And so, from the typewriter, I realized, like, oh, I really like the hearing the keys and watching the letters pop up, and how they appear. And from there, I started making books as a child, and I really participated. Yeah, I participated in a poetry contest, art making poetry contest, back in the day by Key Bank, and I won, and I was like, ah, this is like really exciting, and so from there art was never really cultivated from as a child, but it's always been an interest, always been an interest, museums. When I go to museums, I'm always like stopping and looking, and like trying to understand and discover, like, where did that happen and why was it created, you know. And so, from there, I just continue to utilize my toolbox. I would say, I utilize a toolbox to like acquire like some skills and materials, and I had like little inspirations around the house and around my community and my network of people, where they like my grandmother would often play like Etta James and Billie Holiday, and she would play a little Duke Ellington on Sundays when we were like cleaning up, or just after church, and then listening to those records. Words and watching or looking at the album covers like really inspired me often inside just like took that and put it in my toolbox and music was always a thing and so I loved listening to like the jazz and the blues and the different things that I heard around the house and then my other grandmother on my paternal side, she had art around the house, right, and there was this piece, it was black and blue, made in like velvet, and it was velvet on top of painting, but there was like little light fixtures that had came through, so it was this mixed media piece, and I loved it. It was like a skylight, and I was like, I love the big city, apparently. Right? I need to be there, I need to be there, listen to the blues that Nana plays over here, and so through that, I just continue to watch and acquire different like materials and details that I would see, and just like, okay, I don't know what it, where it's going to take me, but I really like seeing these things, and I would always talk about them to like family members, and they'll be like, yeah, yeah, okay, that's interesting. What did you find at the museum? Yeah, okay, that's nice, a sculpture, you know, and so from there I played basketball. Basketball took me to college to Fordham University, and in Fordham I really majored in communications, and my minor was music, and

Rodney Veal  06:40

wow,

Joy Johnson  06:41

and I acquired painting. Painting was like a thing that I could see something and recreate it, but not exactly as I saw it. It could be like whatever I wanted it to be, and I noticed that, like, when I'm painting, like there was a way of, like, feeling like I'm in the painting, you know, or feeling like I'm in the paint, and so, like, that was a different feeling for me. And at the time, I went to college a long time ago, writing, so I'm probably not really far off from you.

Rodney Veal  07:12

No, yeah, which is, which is no, I mean, class 88

Joy Johnson  07:20

Oh, well. Okay. Okay. Yes. Okay. Class of 2001 in high school college. I'm an

Rodney Veal  07:30

elder.

Joy Johnson  07:32

Yes. So, yeah, I in college, like I said, I picked up the painting, and my art teacher was like, "If you really like painting, do the painting because you love it. Don't do it to make money, because you're not going to ever make money as an artist. And I was like, "That sucks, right? But I kept doing the art, and I loved it. And then after school, I decided that I was like, "I'm like, go not do art, I'm gonna try to just go out here and make some money, right?

Rodney Veal  08:06

Yeah, which is what you know you do,

Joy Johnson  08:09

right?

Rodney Veal  08:10

Right, right.

Joy Johnson  08:13

Yes, go get a job, because my parents always taught me, right, go get a job, you're supposed to work there for 40 years, and then you then get a chance to retire, right, and then then you can like live life, and I always thought, like, that's not like a good plan, I don't like that, it

Rodney Veal  08:31

isn't a good plan, but

Joy Johnson  08:33

yeah, to figure out something else to sustain yourself to have the best life that you, you know, and so from there I came home, and I started doing a couple of odds and end jobs, and I learned that I really enjoy using my hands, so I created an interior design and furniture restoration company, and I started making walls appear out of nowhere, right? So, like, somebody punching a hole in the wall, and then I can, like, oh, I can cover that up and make it look like a wall again, right? So I really learned how to pay attention to detail, and then I started taking, like, painting classes around, and I started listening to the fellow contractors and my elder contractors, who would tell me, like, this is how you cut in a line, right, this is how you truly roll to finish out the detail, and I noticed that detail and paying the truth, truly paying attention to detail and finish was very important, so I kind of took that, took it into my toolbox, and then from there I received the opportunity from a local business to restore their space, and she said, "You know what, I have this wall, and you can just do whatever you want, and I was like, "Oh, I get to do art again. Okay, let's see. And so the space I completely turned the space around, and I took that one wall and I made a skyline of the city, because I'm, I'm very much inspired by the space that I am from, and so, and then, of course, my grandmother's skyline painting brought me right back, right,

Rodney Veal  10:20

right, there's always an homage to the past,

Joy Johnson  10:23

absolutely. So I painted a skyline of Dayton, and I utilized some other tools, so I had learned how to, like, use a Cricut machine and how to work on, like, vinyl pressing and things, and so I took that and I made a mural that included some vinyl work across it, so I was like, okay, I can now learn how to like juxtapose some different skills together to make something from there. I said, okay, I really think I want to do something more with this art. I like murals. Let's, let's make some more murals. Let's figure this out. And so I went to Art Academy in Cincinnati to learn how to make art, because I felt like that was the piece that I was missing, right? I don't, I didn't know how to, like, I didn't know that, like, it took seven heads to make a body, you know, like those type of technical things, so I went there to learn that, and upon being in my first couple classes, I did not learn how to make art at all. Rodney, it was kind of like disappointing at first. I was like, "Dang, I'm supposed to be here to learn how to draw, right? Like, I'm not like learning how to draw, but I took other classes that taught me how to look at art and how to understand art about different art history movements and moments and it taught me about people and and anybody that knows me knows that I love learning and I love education and love reading and applying, and so I was like, oh, this is okay, this is interesting, maybe this is why I went to school, right? So I took those things and I tucked them away in my school, in my bank, and I really learned like different artists at the time, because text has always been a thing for me and landscape has always been a thing for me, so I'm trying to understand, like, why, what is my connection here with, like, the text

Rodney Veal  12:26

with language text.

Joy Johnson  12:28

Absolutely, and I

Rodney Veal  12:30

specific imagery. Yeah,

Joy Johnson  12:32

yes, yes, yes. I was inspired by different artists that I had learned about at the time, like Glenn Lingon and Jean Michel Basquiat, who utilize text as a way to not only incorporate what they wanted to say but utilize text as the imagery as well, so how to keep happy

Rodney Veal  12:52

right,

Joy Johnson  12:53

and so after that I can't, I before I came home, sorry, I had an opportunity to connect with a group called Scentsy Art, and Cincy Art was is led by a guy named Brent Billingsley, who is a muralist and a community activist, and he does a lot of different things in the spaces in Cincinnati, and mr. Billingsley taught me how to better, yeah, mr. B, he taught me how to cultivate a space where art cannot only inspire us, right, as the artist, but it inspires others, and it is a way to incorporate healing, if I can use that a little loosely, right. Um, so there's a way for us to like connect, and there is like healing through that connection, right. And sometimes it's not like always immediate, it's like something that we like sometimes feel a need, and we don't always know it,

Rodney Veal  13:54

right, right, right.

Joy Johnson  13:56

But when we feel it, we know that we have it, right. And sometimes there's like, oh, I'm seeking that right, I'm seeking that connection, because humans, we really do need each other as much as it's important for us to know who we are individually, that individuality is what helps us be more connected, and that's how we understand each other a little more, so I did a couple murals with Brent down in Cincinnati, and I teamed up with Black Art Speaks, and I worked on,

Rodney Veal  14:31

oh, okay, with Landis,

Joy Johnson  14:35

yes,

Rodney Veal  14:37

Helen's Powell, yes, yes, I'm meeting her in a few weeks, by the way, so

Joy Johnson  14:41

wow, she is definitely an amazing, amazing woman.

Rodney Veal  14:46

Yeah, she really is.

Joy Johnson  14:48

Yes, truly an inspiration. But I had an opportunity to work with that group, and that group was so inspiring as well, and it was like, oh my goodness, like there's other like. Like black artist, right? There's other black artists doing like amazing work around me, and so I think I was just really inspired by that, because honestly, that's not really something I had saw growing up when I went to New York. New York gave me an opportunity to see um see life in color. I believe, like home, sometimes there is black and white, you know,

Rodney Veal  15:32

but we need to see the color to

Joy Johnson  15:36

see the color. It's so important.

Rodney Veal  15:38

Yeah,

Joy Johnson  15:38

um, it's so important, because that's how we just see the beauty, that's how we discover the beauty, right. And there, and in the beauty, there is value, right. And when we understand the value, then that is how we build that connection. But when I came home, I saw black and white again, and I wanted to continue to see color. So, when I went to Cincinnati, Cincinnati was like, oh my goodness, I'm seeing all this color, like this is great. And so I came home three years ago, and I said, okay, I want to see more color, and how can I do that? Like, what is it that I can do, and how can I, how can I be that

Rodney Veal  16:24

manifests image that managing that change? Yeah,

Joy Johnson  16:28

and so I've just continued. Now I am in the process. I made art, and I was showing some art, and I was doing my landscaping thing, and I'm a Pisces, Rodney, so naturally I'm intuitive, and so abstract intuitive painting, something I really enjoy, and I learned that I think I have a, I have a connection with landscape. I think it started with my, my paternal grandmother and that skyline painting, but I also think it connects to my maternal grandmother, who gave me a lot of history and talked a lot

Rodney Veal  17:05

about

Joy Johnson  17:06

the roots of my family, and how she came to Dayton, Ohio, and how her brothers and sisters came here, you know, and like her husband, how he got here, and so it was just learning about those things, and like, really trying to understand, like, what is the connection to the land, and as a melanated person, I have oftentimes, like, wondered where do I come from, and so I know that there are ways in which I can do like genealogy and things to like help me identify the space, but I really like, there's a way that like I just always like, where do I come from, who am I really, right? And so like I know that I have like some indigenous like peoples in me, I know I have some melanated people in me, I know I have some non-melanated people in me, you know, like I have all these different types of cultures within who I am. Oftentimes it's like, like, where do, like, who am I? So, when my grandmother's passed away, there was like, I don't know, I don't know where that history is, like, where am I? Like, where do I go? Where did that come from? Right, my grandma was always my ground, my ground floor. She always helped me understand, like the reasons why, and so after she passed, it was like, okay, I have to like find my own reasons why, and so now with the art I'm really trying to understand how to incorporate who I am and what it is that I'm, that I'm trying to see into the space for my people. Right? I like, I love doing murals in Cincinnati, when I came home, we do have, we have a lot of different art spaces that have murals up and designs, and I love that, that's beautiful, and I just wanted to see that on, like, like all over, you know,

Rodney Veal  19:13

all over, and not, and not just in specific spots of the screen,

Joy Johnson  19:16

correct,

Rodney Veal  19:17

you know, and which is, you know, it's that's a real kind of legitimate observation, and that's what we need. It's like, like, when you go away, you come back, you see, you observe, you see things through a different lens. Yeah, it's like that's.. I, that's always.. I always say we're always encouraging people to, like, go, go somewhere, go other places, come back with what you see. Yeah, you said, like, what you saw was color, and you're like, I want to bring the color back.

Promo  19:45

I'm Bonnie Miles, membership coordinator of CET. Thank you for listening to Rodney Vales. Inspired by this podcast is a production of CET and Think TV, two local PBS stations. As PBS stations, the work we do online on air. And in the community is supported by listeners like you. If you're enjoying the show and would like to support our work, please consider becoming a member at CET connect.org or thinktv.org Plus, when you sign up to donate at least $5 a month, you'll get access to special members-only streaming videos on the PBS app through Passport. Learn more at CET connect.org or Think tv.org

Ad  20:26

If you're enjoying this conversation, The Art Show, also hosted by Rodney Veal, is available to stream anytime from anywhere on YouTube or the PBS app.

Rodney Veal  20:34

I'm just really curious, because you, because you know when you meet with people, people meet with Peter, which is, you know, it's, it's usually in the service of something bigger than the individual thing.

Joy Johnson  20:45

Absolutely, and

Rodney Veal  20:46

so this notion that you are going down this pathway of, like, and combining, and I love you, happy to tell you, full disclosure, my phrase about tools in the toolbar box is something I've said for decades, and it comes from, for me personally, it comes from William Forsythe, which is like my, like, if you want to create movement and multidisciplinary art, go look at William Forsythe, and his, his thing is, you have already have the tools in your tool belt, you're just adding more tools, that's what the experiences are, that's what the training is, that's what the like the interactions and engagements, just more tools in the tool belt, but you pull out when you need to. I was like, when you said that, I was like, okay, that's why we get along. Oh, so we were simpatico of what tools like you using all the tools, and so you, you, you're carving out a new way to kind of see, and so I'm kind of curious, like, when did, when did you start doing, like, talk to me about the mural making, and date, like, you see it, you experience it, and Cincinnati is considered like mural capital,

Joy Johnson  22:00

yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes,

Rodney Veal  22:02

they are on it. I will give Cincinnati their props, but you're bringing that kind of different sensibility to Dayton, and I'm kind of curious. Talk about it, talk about like that.

Joy Johnson  22:12

I would, I really, I was inspired by the connection of artists that I see in Cincinnati, I guess. In Cincinnati, is like, is like full of a lot of different like cultures and experiences, right? And I believe I see how like there are ways that like they can enjoy their differences in their different spaces, but when it's time to like come together for a bigger purpose, everybody comes together for that bigger purpose, and so it was like really inspiring to see a lot of different artists work like it like do so many amazing things individually and be able to come together and do something amazing as well, and so coming home I started making like a couple little different like murals throughout the city, I was just trying to like put a little piece of like myself in the city, right, and like, like I said, I love, I love text, and like, just really I love the graffiti art that I see in the city, like that, the Brick City Mural, Brick City Arts artworks, right, Crunch Street. He's doing his Mural Fest, may 1 through the third,

Rodney Veal  23:37

right, which I like. I just saw the prepping the walls, it was kind of like I was over there this morning, and I was like picking up some sound blankets from the studio, and it's like I'm like, you know, it's having people who

Joy Johnson  23:51

get it, yes,

Rodney Veal  23:52

and understand that it's it's not just the art and the and the white box,

Joy Johnson  23:58

absolutely, art is there's all kind of art in all kind of ways, and I love that we have the diversity in that art here. I said the mural, the mural festival I participated last year, and Dan Wells loved him. He helped me put a spell. He gave me opportunity to put something up at the space near Sunoco, the old Big Daddies, and so that was one of my very first public outdoor murals here in the city. Then now I'm working through Miss D, and we're currently working on a space at James H. McGee. That one will be finalized about mid May, so just waiting on the rain to stop, so we can get up in there and like really knock it out. Um, and ideally the next piece that I work on, as I continue to work through the spaces I'm now, I'm working on a literary arts program with Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, and we are going to be incorporating a little bit of scripture reading, so building a little bit of faith, building some of that confidence through your art making skills, and then we're going to take that, and we're going to make a mural through the reflections of who we are

Rodney Veal  25:28

in the

Joy Johnson  25:28

space, too. And so I want to just consistently be, I just want to consistently put art up throughout the city. My biggest initiative is to see art on the west side as much as I can, honestly. That, that is my biggest mission, because I believe that when you see it, then you are more inspired to be it, you know, and I just I want to give the young people opportunity to understand that they can utilize their hands and their mind to go wherever they want to go, and be it not just here, like going physically, but mentally you can go places, and how can you utilize those skills to really be what you want to be, and so that's what I'm working on right now, that's my mission, Rodney, and I've taken a step back, honestly, from like trying to prove myself as an artist who makes pretty work, because art is not always pretty, right? And so sometimes I show art to some of my friends or some of the people around me, and they'll be like, oh, that's nice, I just don't understand it, or oh, that's pretty, you know, and so I am now trying to like really tap into the work that really speaks to the art of who I am, the art discovery, the art of learning, the art of execute, art of executing, and how can I continue to be present as well as be in that change that I want to see, so

Rodney Veal  27:26

yeah, and so I mean that's, and that's that is why you were at that table, because you, because, yeah, you know, when we were meeting Peters, it's a sense of the future, and I, and I'm kind of always curious about, like, you know, what are the, you know, like I said, I'm a, I'm a man of certain age, and it's like, you know, it is time for the new voices, and that's why I wanted to have you on the podcast, because I feel like you're a fresh new voice, and, and so you, you're coming at it with a very fresh perspective, and so what do you think's missing from the art ecosystem of Dayton.

Joy Johnson  28:07

Well, that, my, my friend is a very good question.

Rodney Veal  28:11

Yeah, because you're fresh eyes, you're, you are fresh eyes on this. I mean, I have my opinions, but that's just me, old age. This is different. I'm just kind of curious about that.

Joy Johnson  28:23

What do I think is missing? I,

Rodney Veal  28:27

or not missing, it could be.

Joy Johnson  28:29

If I can say, if anything is necessarily missing, I think that we have everything, everything that we need. I think it's about how can we utilize what we currently have to move forward. How, and how do we do it together? You know, I love coming home and seeing a little bit more color. Here I am, seeing a little bit more opportunities, and seeing us like in the spaces everywhere. I'm enjoying being downtown. I have a my studio is located downtown at 130 west second street. I've been here for about two years, and I've loved seeing just the growth of the city around me. And I'm a, I'm a, I'm a downtown girl, like I love downtown. Period. Like I'm from the city, and so some people don't like downtown, some people do, but I'm a city girl, so I love..

Rodney Veal  29:25

I know I love the city too. Come on, the

Joy Johnson  29:28

parks, you know, like

Rodney Veal  29:30

everything..

Joy Johnson  29:31

the riverscape.. I love being by the water. I think we have a really beautiful city, and I just want to continue to see how we can

Rodney Veal  29:43

elevate,

Joy Johnson  29:44

yes sir, more.

Rodney Veal  29:46

Yes,

Joy Johnson  29:46

how can we just do it together? You know, yeah. And oftentimes, Ronnie, sometimes I get discouraged when I, because I do, I have been doing some community. Work with, like, and I don't really like saying community work so much. I just like saying, like, I just been creating, like, social events to get people just outside of thinking that only artists can engage with artists and do artist things, right? Art, right, for everything. Art should be for everybody, and art can be for everybody, because it's so much of it, right? And

Rodney Veal  30:27

there's an entry point for everyone. I always tell people all the time, like, what do you like?

Joy Johnson  30:32

Absolutely,

Rodney Veal  30:33

and that was the whole thing. It was like, really interesting that I was here, because I hear from people, like, they're like, "Oh, man, I just wish I had the time to make art. I said make time when nobody said you just spend 20 hours a day, 10 minutes. Come on, yeah, you can't. Don't, don't, don't espouse a thought and then don't follow through, just take action. 10 minutes, nobody asked for five days in a row,

Joy Johnson  31:01

yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's, and that's honestly what got me to doing the social events, because I was constantly hearing that, and at the time there was like so much noise, and it was really loud and really chaotic in the world, right, and in the world in general, and was like all this nervousness amongst the people, so it was like, oh my god, like, what are we gonna do, and so it was like, come out and let's do, like, let's just hang out together, and let's like do this thing called art, where it's like, doesn't matter if you are artists or not an artist, doesn't matter what you create or how you create it, let's just create something, and let's just be in a space where we like, here's some music, and we're like, we can vibe, and we can just talk about our day, right, and we can just talk about the things, and maybe, just maybe, like, it's not, it's okay that I don't know who you are, you don't know who I am, but just maybe there might be something that we find while we're there that connects us, and then you might just be my next best friend, right? I use that term very loosely, but you might just be my next best friend.

Rodney Veal  32:04

You never know,

Joy Johnson  32:05

we never know. And so, oftentimes I just think that that is like very important for us to just like get out into a space. We have to like be outside more often, you know? Like, we have to get outside and be in the space and feel the air and feel the sun and feel the breeze, you know, and just like allow ourselves to be where we are and appreciate where we are in the moment, so then that way sometimes the noise we can't hear all that noise, right, because we're so, we're so present. So I think, like, creating the social events were very important for me, and in that I was making it in a little, a little moment of transparency. I was just like constantly getting pushed back, like, why are you making these spaces? Like, everybody doesn't want to be together, everybody doesn't need to be together, you know. It's like, oh, I'm feeling like all this discouragement, because I believe as a person who has consistently like been involved in spaces where I felt like I was not like wanted or didn't feel like I was deserved to be in a space or I'm too big for my britches to be in a space, you know, like, so for someone who has, like, experienced those things, I just want to live in a world where you know people see people for people, you know, and so, how that, like, that's really my mission, is like, how do we understand the value that's, and it goes back to the art to me, right, because it's all about the perspective. So, how can I look a little bit deeper to understand the value of what I'm looking at and what I'm seeing, so then that way I can connect and maybe inspire, or not just inspire, but just like be there, you know, be there, so we can like be here together, you know, right

Rodney Veal  34:00

in that moment, and it's, you know, and so that, that is what that, that's what you're, you're, you're the person that gives me hope,

Joy Johnson  34:08

blessings, you give me hope too. Thank you.

Rodney Veal  34:11

You know, I'm saying, and so you know, in this, because what you're saying is take a chance, and so, what do you, what do you say to folks who, like, you know, who may doubt themselves being in those spaces, you know how that is. Well, sometimes you feel like I, the imposter syndrome is real.

Joy Johnson  34:32

It is, is

Rodney Veal  34:33

a very real thing. But I've seen, you know, you know, I see you navigate these spaces with such a confidence and an ease, but you know, we, it's not an overnight, like instantaneous thing. So, what would you say to the people about that? There's someone who may be thinking that they don't belong, and they roll those shoulders down around, and heads kind of tilted, and not really here, you know? What do you say? Is

Joy Johnson  35:01

if you have done the work, and if you are doing the work, and if you feel it, then you belong. I came from when I was younger, I played basketball when I was like in the fifth grade. My one of my church friends was like, 'Come play for our team, for our team, and I was like, okay, I can play basketball. These bands, like, yeah, you're really tall, it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be great, gonna be a great basketball player. And I was like, okay, cool. And so I went, and in my first game, I was like nervous and playing, but I was having a good time. I didn't know what I was doing, but it's just out there, and I'm standing up with my hands up, and I got hit my mouth and chipped my tooth, and but I still had a really great time. And afterwards, one of the coaches was like, you know, you're tall, but you really suck, you know, like you really suck, you probably shouldn't play basketball anymore. And I was like, oh man, that was. and in seventh grade, one of my teachers, one of my coaches said, "Hey, come out. It was one of my teachers, he was my gym teacher. He said, "Hey, come play basketball for us. And I was like, "No, I'm not doing that no more. I'm not supposed to be playing basketball. That's not my thing. And he was like, "No, just come on, let's try it. I'll teach you, I'll show you the ropes, and we will do it right, and so from there I tried it, and I wasn't really good, but I kept practicing, and I kept doing it, and it got me in a couple different spaces, and I played AAU, and I was in like some really uncomfortable spaces sometimes, you know, I'm black girl from Dayton, Ohio, and I used to play with, you know, an all-white team from Urbana, you know, and sometimes now I love seeing, like, the growth of where we are, because then, and I can even say, because I'm young, right, so I can't imagine, like, what you say, because you probably was like, and back then, right? And then your people was in, like, back being, you know, but it was, it was a little rough, you know, sometimes, like, the things, you know,

Rodney Veal  37:11

like, because it doesn't make sense at the time, especially your time.

Joy Johnson  37:15

Yeah, I know. Yes, like,

Rodney Veal  37:19

let's be real about, like, time, like it's like wait a minute now, and

Joy Johnson  37:24

but you are, yes, and this is just 2000s right? And so I'm like, oh my goodness, right? So it's like 20 years ago, you know, and so just constantly being in like spaces like that, but knowing like no, I want to be here. This is like something I'm passionate about. I think I might actually like do something with this, you know? Like I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna keep fighting, I'm just gonna keep working, I'm just gonna keep doing it. And I think, honestly, basketball, and like really being enthralled, and like wanting to be like the best basketball player I can be really helped me like put like everything else to the side and just grind then nothing else matters, the only thing that matters is the goal that I'm trying to achieve. How do I get there? Nobody else in yours and nobody else around you has basketball scholarship to go to a major school, right? So, like, how do you do that? I don't know, like, there's nobody around me doing that, but it was just like I just got a.. my mom prayed for me, and she took me to church, and the people were at church was like, you could do it. The people at school was like, you can do it. I believed in myself, and I just continued to work on my craft. My grandmother taught me that everybody is not going to like me. She also taught me that I cannot change the world, and I cannot change nobody else. The only person that I can change is myself. And throughout the years, I learned some things. I worked at this place called L Brands, and I was a manager at Victoria's Secret, and they taught us to be the change. That was first time I ever heard that, be the change that you want to be, and from there it was like, okay, so this is what I'm going to do, this is what I'm going to do, and this is who I am, and so I think that that is what gives me the confidence to just be in a room, because if I have worked hard to do it, and I know that I can do it. Then I deserve to be here, and I also know that there are people before me who did not deserve to be in a space, or who sometimes people did not find the value to be there, right, but. They still, they still, they were still there, they still made their way, and, and throughout our history in America, we also know that there are people who try to make it who didn't make it right, and so for me that is, that it's very important for me to do it, because I have to do it, for those who could not do it? I have to do it for those who never received the opportunity to do it. I have to do it for myself, because I need to do it, because I deserve to do it. I have to do it

Rodney Veal  40:35

for

Joy Johnson  40:36

people who currently look up to me, my nieces and my nephews, and I have to do it for the legacy of who I am, and in this galaxy that we are in, upon galaxies, upon galaxies, upon galaxies, upon galaxies, right? Like I'm a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny spot, and so, like, how do I become a house, how do I become a light, right? So

Rodney Veal  41:02

the

Joy Johnson  41:02

gamer can look through all those galaxies and see, like I'm doing the thing that I'm supposed to be doing, right? You know, so yeah, that's really why I'm like, you know, I deserve to be in the space because I'm supposed to be here, and I believe if I was not supposed to be there, then I would not be

Rodney Veal  41:21

okay, okay. okay, and that's that's that's what makes you so special, Joy. Just, it just does, it just does. I'm, I am so glad we've taken the time to have this conversation.

Joy Johnson  41:34

Thank you.

Rodney Veal  41:35

I give, I've given folks, if Joy Johnson is connected to the project, you need

Joy Johnson  41:44

to go blessings. Thank you.

Rodney Veal  41:46

You do, because, because of the authentic authenticity, and your, your, your commitment to it is commitment. It is, it's, it's, yeah, that's all. That's, that's, that's the only way I could describe it. Joy, so thank you so much for being a podcast guest.

Joy Johnson  42:05

Thank you so much for having me. I'm passionate about people, I'm passionate about the movement of people, the harmony of people, and I just want to see us all do it. I want to see us all win. I'll make it so. Thank you so much for having

Rodney Veal  42:18

me. The future, the future is here with joy.