Joekenneth Museau is Finding the Poetry in Healing, Style and Words
WITH JOEKENNETH MUSEAU
Museau is one of the OG, Tumblr-era menswear bloggers—and into fresh territory of his own: documenting growth, endurance and the pursuit of becoming the best version of oneself.
Photography, Julio Nuno
Words, Cole Habersham In Conversation with Joekenneth Museau
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To scroll through Joekenneth Museau’s Instagram is to enter a cozy space of style, knowingness and affirmation. The multi-hypenate creative has developed a personal brand that extends beyond his fashion roots—Museau is one of the original, Tumblr-era menswear bloggers—and into fresh territory of his own: documenting growth, endurance and the pursuit of becoming the best version of oneself.
It’s nine in the morning and Museau joins me on Zoom, calling in from his New Jersey apartment. For many, including myself, it’s too early to discuss anything but caffeine, but Museau is graciously up for a chat, noticeably absent of morning voice.
Recent followers of Museau might appreciate the rich scenes, colors and encouraging words that make up his feed, but longtime followers know this phase is preceded by another marked by great loss.
In May 2012, just one day after Mother’s Day, Museau lost his mother to cancer. “It feels like yesterday,” he says, reflecting on the nearly ten years since her passing. In that time Museau has found healing through spirituality, mentorship and pouring into creative projects.
I use art as a vehicle to tell stories And to express myself. I feel like that’s broad enough for people to ask more questions and I can reveal hats as they inquire.
While the weight felt from such a significant loss is never fully lifted, Museau finding joy and peace is remarkable to witness.
CH: I noticed you set a goal to read 30 books this year. How’s that going? What’s on the list?
JM: That's one thing I'm really excited about. I'm on book number four, currently reading Zadie Smith's Swing Time. Zadie is such an incredible writer. She takes her time with developing a story, so her books tend to be quite long. This is a 400 page book and I'm only on page 60. It's a bit intimidating, but also exciting because the characters are so rich already.
CH: I set a similar goal recently. One or two books a month. Maybe I’ll try 30 books next year, trying to keep up with you. Is there anything you’re looking forward to reading this year?
JM: I got a list of books from the social community and others. There is this book by Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. I’m looking forward to reading that because it has a similar premise to work that I've done in the book that I wrote, Days After Your Departure. Vuong is writing about his mother and her illness. I had to go through that ten years ago when my mother passed away. I was there for her during her battle with cancer. I’m interested in reading how he expresses himself, the motions that he goes through in dealing with that and finding commonality in that story.
CH: I’m so sorry for your loss, first of all.
JM: Thank you.
CH: I heard that the book was beautifully written. Do you find you enjoy reading books that are close to your personal experience or a little detached?
JM: I love memoirs. I love stories about people because I'm so interested in finding similarity in the human experience. There are so many things that people promote to cause division. There's a quote one of my mentors shared with me. He said, There isn’t someone you wouldn't like, if you knew their story. He said that to me years ago, but it continues to resonate with me. Just being able to read someone's story, to develop compassion for the human experience and people of all walks of life is something that really speaks to me.
CH: Would you like to share who your personal mentor is?
JM: I have quite a few. My dad wasn't really present in my life, so I have quite a few male mentors. The one who I just referenced is Bob Dunn. Another one of my mentors is Cebo Campbell, who employed me at my current job at Spherical. He's just been really a gem of my life. Someone else who has really, really affected me in terms of growth and development — this good guy, Tre Romeo.
THE LOOK
Suit, Institchu; Boots, YSL; Bow Tie, Ermenegildo Zegna; Sunglasses, Moscot
CH: What Bob mentioned–There isn’t someone you wouldn't like, if you knew their story–and your personal love for memoirs of the human experience, were those contributing factors or on your mind at all as you were creating Days After Your Departure?
JM: I would say that consideration came later. I am very much an artist, a creator who does it for himself. For me, writing has always been cathartic. Even to this day, as I'm going through this really rough patch in my life right now, writing is my therapist. It's how I process what I'm going through, how I spend time with certain emotions, how I give them the space to breathe.
With Days After Your Departure, after my mom passed, it was almost immediate. I said, okay, I'm going to write something about this because I had to in any way, shape or form. It became this five-year journey of me trying to redefine my existence after losing my mom. For those first 22 years of my life, I feel like I had a [conjoined] existence. Me and my mother were completely attached at the hip, at the heart and now that tie was severed. I had to figure out who JoeKenneth was on his own. What does he like? Where is he going to go? If it felt like such a monumental Herculean task, but you know, within that five years, I was able to process a lot and get to the other side of that.
But going back to what you said, after I wrote the book for myself and even having a moment where I felt like maybe I shouldn't even publish the book, my loved ones and wife helped me realize that the story is beyond me. It's a story about a Black man who has gone through a very difficult time and is being vulnerable and telling his story unabridged. That's so important, not only in representation, but also for me and my contemporaries growing up in a time of social media where things are a bit more curated and polished. You need someone to tell you how it is in a real way.
CH: Absolutely. Thank you for being so open and transparent with such an understandably sensitive topic. In the spirit of sharing, I empathize with the idea of finding or trying to find healing through creative output, specifically writing. There's something about the writing process that helps us to make sense of our feelings or realize what we are feeling. In addition to being a writer, you’re also a Director, Influencer, Creator, Advocate… the list goes on. How do you introduce yourself to people?
JM: That’s always tricky, right? Especially in New York *laughs*
CH: Especially when you’re twelve different things *laughs*
JM: I always just say artist [or storyteller]. It’s the most broad. I use art as a vehicle to tell stories, to express myself. I feel like that’s broad enough for people to ask more questions and I can reveal hats as they inquire.
That’s a throughline in everything that I do, whether I'm writing or if I'm doing influencer work, because marketing is at its core for storytelling. Here's my product. Visually, through words or both. That’s what I'm keenly interested in—telling stories in ways that are fresh and ultimately engage with people. People just want to feel something that's real.
Things do not happen overnight. Flowers do not bloom overnight and we love flowers for the most part.
CH: How do you have that same approach—to make people feel something that's real—when it comes to content that's not so personal to you? Maybe it’s a sponsored post for a brand.
JM: It can't feel so transactional. That’s one of the things about me, I'm always looking for the poetry in something. It's like, okay, we want you to promote this alcohol. Okay, people drink for a myriad of reasons, right? What's the scene? What are we allowing a person to feel? What do we want to attach to this product? That's just the way my mind works. Some people might call it just being deep for no reason, but I understand whether people are aware of it or not, we form emotional attachments to things or to people. To tap into that emotion, to allow people feel something is so important to me. I guess I'm just super emo that way.
CH That’s a good way to be. I love what you said–I'm always looking for the poetry in something. Even as you speak or when I first watched the Days After Your Departure film, I was like, oh, he's a poet. There’s a rhythm to how you just carry on regular conversation. We'll definitely add poet to your list of titles.
JM: Yeah, certainly. That's how people first got introduced to me on the internet. I was the spoken word poet. I was this wordsmith during the height of the blog era putting together these stories that were just a bit richer than just looking at my outfit. I always found myself contributing a poetic voice.
CH: Are we talking Tumblr era here?
JM: Heavy Tumblr.
THE LOOK
Sweater - Trousers, Teddy Vonranson; Shoes, Sebago
CH: Let’s jump into your Instagram. I saw Denzel Washington on a recent carousel of yours. Uncle Denzel, as you called him. Do you have a favorite Denzel movie?
JM: He really should have won an Oscar for this. I'm still bummed about that, but I understand that white institutions do not always acknowledge Black talent but, Fences. It's just so incredible. Incredible acting. Not only on Denzel’s part, but Viola Davis. To see thespian giants go at it, it was incredible.
CH: I think I remember…this might have been at the Oscars. He just lost and looked like he was about to cry because of the lack of an acknowledgement or not being acknowledged by the institution. It was painful.
JM: As you’re saying it, I can visualize Denzel’s face. It was that year.
CH: There was a similar reaction when Beyoncé lost the Grammy to Adele for Lemonade. And her face after. As Black people who exist in white spaces and want, to a degree, their work to be acknowledged by these white-owned, white-led, white-preferring organizations, it's heartbreaking.
JM: It just makes an uncomfortable situation for everyone, because we all know. And as you recall in the moment, Adele gets on stage and says Beyoncé this is for you. She shouldn’t have to do it.
THE LOOK
Trench Coat, Teddy Vonranson
CH: Elsewhere on your Instagram, I noticed these bite-sized mini-mantras. Let’s unpack a couple to close out. There are lands within you waiting for your arrival.
JM: Oh man, sometimes I forget I write things. There are lands within you waiting for your arrival…
I'm glad you brought that up. I needed to hear that. I say I needed to hear that because I wrote that just under, I guess, getting better acquainted with the human experience and the human journey. We live in an age where instant gratification is at an all time high and it's a bad thing. Things do not happen overnight. Flowers do not bloom overnight and we love flowers for the most part.
Things take time to develop. And the growth that we want to see in ourselves that we're so adamant about, we have to be an active participant in the journey. Be aware and wait for that growth to happen.
We have to remind ourselves that it’s going to take some time to get there. When you get there and you look around, you're at the summit of whatever you wanted to achieve. And it's like, oh, this is beautiful.
CH: Here’s another one: It’s important to talk to God.
JM: I have a deeply personal relationship with God and I feel like he is a part of my life in so many ways and has answered prayers through people, through moments in my life. I feel that presence in a very real way. I don't shy away from that. I know we're living in times where spirituality is not something that people speak about openly but I don’t subscribe to that.
CH: Last one: the cure for inconsistency is constant audacity.
JM: You just gotta be audacious to break out of a cycle. We're going to change the narrative. It takes a certain type of audacity, courage and bravery to be like, nah, we're changing direction. We're taking this hard left or we're taking this hard right. And we're going to do things differently. You gotta be forceful with yourself at times and lean into that audacity.
THE LOOK
Suit, Sandro Paris
lean into that audacity.
