Chosen to Create: A Juneteenth Reflection-----
In this deeply personal and historical reflection, Melissa A. Mitchell explores the meaning of freedom through the lens of creativity. From leaving behind a traditional career to honoring her ancestors through art, she draws powerful parallels between the Harlem Renaissance and today’s creative renaissance. Melissa reminds us that creativity has always been our medicine, our rebellion, and our bridge to a freer future. This is her love letter to the past and a call to future generations: let creativity be your choice, your voice, and your power.
Every Juneteenth, I find myself deep in thought — heart full, eyes misty, soul stirred.
Yes, it’s a celebration. But it’s also a reckoning. A reminder. A pause to ask: What does freedom really mean?
For me, as a creative, freedom has looked like walking away from a traditional career just a few years ago and choosing the unknown. I traded in stability for purpose. Structure for paint strokes. I chose freedom — not just to live, but to create. And that freedom became my passport.
A passport to travel the world with my art.
A passport to design pieces worn by people I may never meet.
A passport to express the fullness of who I am, without permission.
And none of it would be possible without the ones who came before me.
I think about my ancestors often — and especially on Juneteenth.
How they weren’t seen as fully human, yet they created anyway.
They braided liberation into hair.
They made music out of sorrow.
They stitched hope into cloth.
They sang joy into the wind.
In 1925 — just 100 years ago — the Harlem Renaissance was in full bloom. It was a time of deep loss, economic depression, and uncertainty. Sound familiar?
Yet, in the middle of it all, Black creatives chose imagination as rebellion.
Creativity became our medicine.
Our escape.
Our refuge.
Our weapon.
Our bridge.
And here we are again.
Another time of political unrest.
Economic tension.
Spiritual searching.
But also — a creative revival.
“History repeats itself, not to break us — but to remind us that we were chosen for such a time as this.”
Today, I am chosen.
Brush in hand.
Creativity in my heart.
Freedom on my lips.
And with every color I lay, every stroke I make, I leave behind echoes of those who dreamed me into existence. I am their wildest vision. Their unfinished sentence. Their permanent proof that legacy never dies.
This is an ode to my ancestors.
A letter to the generations coming next.
Let creativity forever be your choice, your voice, and your power.
~Melissa