When Latifah asked Monae about how she came from a place like Kansas to make it to a mainstream level of stardom she replied:
I grew up in Kansis City, Kansas in one of the poorest counties – Wyandotte County – and my mother was a janitor. My father worked as a tartan. My stepfather, who treats me just like his own. Sometimes our lights would get cut off. I didn’t come from middle class. So I had to help out. I had to work hard, and once I got certain opportunities; I got the opportunity to meet Sean Combs and to work with outcast. I said, ‘I’m going to take this to the moon. Country girls like myself don’t get these opportunities. And what I wanted to do was make her proud and let her know, ‘I’m going to do everything I can to pay you back (her mother).” At the end of the day, your family brought you into this world. They knew you before everyone else did, and in Janelle’s case, before the whole world knew her. Change is a necessity in order to be a part of society, but you can see how easy it is to lose touch of who you were first. As my mother says, ‘Don’t forget where you came from.’
Next, Queen Latifah asked in what sort of ways was her creativity fed as she was growing up. Monae shared:
When I was growing up, I went to a public school. It was predominately African American. We had arts programs but not a lot. I was in theatre. I was in music, and I stayed in that. And I had great teachers ; they stayed on me. When they saw me slacking, they were like, ‘Robinson, get it together.’ And I did talent show cases. And my mother never said, ‘Hey, we want you to go be a doctor or a lawyer.’ She always believed in me. She always believed that my voice and the gift God had given me was going to take me somewhere. She just always would say that. They never told me to do anything else except be happy. Make sure the grades are good. You can be in any talent show you want to be in. And that was my ticket. I moved to New York fresh out of high school because of my acting and singing.
Speaking as someone with a dysfunctional family, I know that family has the power to hurt you the most. Even family can get cut off. I’ve seen it happen too often. But when you have some alone time – like your yoga and meditation time – sit and think: is it worth it to never be close again or even eliminate all contact with him/her/them? You may find that the disagreement is so small that thought of cutting someone off for it is utterly ridiculous. When people say that “Family is all you got” they mean that traditionally, your family provides shelter in this cold world.
Watch Janelle Monae’s interview with Queen Latifah below.
Janelle Monae: 2 Superpowers She Never Leaves Home Without (And Neither Should You) was originally published on blackdoctor.org
