Today we’d like to introduce you to Lynsey Mitchell.
Lynsey, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My story is definitely one that I’m grateful to be able to tell because who I am is not just made up of me. I first started singing in the church. Growing up United Methodist, hymnals are a major component of the Sunday service and at the time, I wasn’t really aware of the significance music had on me intrinsically, but it quickly became attached to my soul and defined all that I was and am evolving into. Growing up, I was exposed to music on both sides of my family. My mother’s mother worked her way through college on a singing scholarship and my father’s mother sang in Chicago nightlife during her youth. My father’s sister was also a vocalist, so to say music was just a song, would be an understatement, and learning to read music, expressing oneself through performance, and embracing the craft was the innate process that at times, I took for granted.
I’ve been blessed and privileged enough to have parents who put me in a church choir, competitive Cantata choir, theater, and dance. Although I was trained as a 1st soprano in classical music, I took a hiatus from the competitive aspect, until I found my way back to my soul at Spelman College where I began to really discover Jazz and the lower range of my voice.
Singing for a Domestic and Sexual Violence Survivor initiative around the Atlanta area, gave me a voice and a platform I strongly believed in and soon, I began to discover music on a different level than I had known before. I think I hadn’t realized how much I needed it until it became attached to another aspect of my life’s work of service, which helped me find a deeper appreciation for the impact it had on myself and others.
When I graduated, I found my way to a dream I had long manifested and moved to New York to work in the fashion industry. Loving all aspects of fashion, but not necessarily the expectations of corporate, I found performance as a safe haven and began to build relationships in the New York nightlife, but never really understood the professional aspect and intricacies of pursuing independent artistry, until I moved back to Chicago.
Truly pursuing the craft and releasing my first singles “Young Lyfe” and “State of Mind” in 2014, I realized I needed to find a way to support my pursuits and ended up going back to school for education, to teach full-time while I began to navigate the complexities of the industry, which is what I do full-time today, while working on music.
In doing so, I’ve found that becoming an English teacher has pushed me to find the language and an understanding of self that builds on my dimensionality as a woman of color and artist, which has allowed me to actively pursue music while building my own network for my LLC and non-profit “Moxie Movement.”
I hope to use my voice, music, and education to build a platform that not only helps empower young people of color but also encourages the exploration of self on an intellectual as well as mental & emotional level. Because music has and continues to help me find my light, my hope is that I am able to use my gifts in music to inspire others to find their most enlightened selves as well.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It’s funny because my father has always told me to “embrace the hard and run from easy”, so for me, bumps are apart of the learning process and build character for you to become your best self. Now, to say, it makes dealing with difficulties at that moment easier would be false and unauthentic. In turn, I think that’s what I’ve begun to embrace the most, the hard even in moments that feel at the time impossible. My vulnerability and accepting that it’s ok to be emotional when things feel overwhelming or too tough to handle, has become what I like to call a superpower and reminds me of my humanness, which results in more creativity.
Moreover, to be reminded that “if it was easy everyone would do it” kinda makes me feel that more unique, because I accept that the process requires as I tell my students “productive struggle”, “discomfort”, “openness to change”, and embracing the humanity within life that a lot of times it will not “go your way” or “seem fair.” Rather, it’s the lessons and journey and not always the arrival that matter. Although I’m still working on that I’d like to say being a work in progress is ok and keeps me grateful.
So, I guess those are the defining moments where I must navigate through my own doubt, trials, and tribulations, to get to my best self. Because in the end, without suffering, I don’t think I’d appreciate all of the beauty of the world around me and take in those little blessings like breath, waking up, and even being able to have the gift of song.
Now, some of my struggles that I still have to learn to embrace? Rejection, fear of failing, someone not liking what I have put my heart out to do, and trucking through the moments when I’m tired from work or just feeling like there’s no end in sight, but again, I try to hold on to the positive so I’m reminded of how much grace I’ve really been given.
Please tell us about Moxie Movement LLC.
I think what I’m most proud of in this very infant stage of my LLC and my music is being able to have a platform to share my gifts with youth and connecting with people that ultimately want to join me on my music journey, because I’ve inspired or evoked emotion in their life in some way.
I’m always surprised by the feedback I receive from a show and I think that’s what drives me the most to continue to push to perform and put myself out there to build with others. Ultimately, I want to help other people find joy, so I hope to be able to continue to inspire through my music and workshops, so I am able to make others feel good in their souls and young people to be reaffirmed in their stories.
With my LLC, I specialize in building a curriculum for students of color (particularly black children ages 13-18) that focuses on using creative writing and comparative literature workshops to support an intersectional methodology.
With that said, I look forward to building on my LLC’s mission to create space for marginalized groups of youth to feel empowered socially, emotionally, and intellectually through spoken word, literacy, and culturally accurate literature workshops that represent a dimensional and holistic person of color.
I’m all about creating a unique, interdisciplinary, dimensional experience and I think that what sets me and my LLC apart. I’m passionate about building something new with every performance and every workshop, and I look forward to bringing other passionate, multi-faceted perspectives along with me on this journey.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Read more, listen more, pray more, but I say that knowing I’m right where I’m supposed to be and what is for me will be and is for me.
I’m learning to embrace my journey and really take all the highs with the opportunities for growth. I’m always going to be a work in progress.
What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
Traveling around the country doing shows, 2019 youth workshops, 2019 Non-Profit Fundraiser for Domestic and Sexual Violence Survivors, and whatever God has planned for me to achieve. I’m most looking forward to pushing through my own fears and really achieving what I’ve been set out on this earth to do. Still working on myself, but all student’s of the game of life is, so I guess just continuing to elevate intrinsically.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lynseyannmoxie.com
- Email: moxieinquiries@gmail.com
- Instagram: @moxie_ann
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LynseyAnnMoxie/
- Yelp: https://soundcloud.com/lylymoxie
- Other: https://lynseyannmoxie.hearnow.com
Image Credit:
Ashley Gardner – “Forget Me Nots” EP Cover Art (www.ashleyjan.com), Gracie Meier & Juli Del Prete – @whoisshephoto, Keeton Robinson – @krp_chi, Jessica Quli – @qulinthacut, Lynsey Ann Moxie & Moxie Movement LLC
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