Buzz Magazine Chicago

Today I am a visual storyteller, a truth-telling oil painter in the traditional genre depicting African-Americans historically in the light that best illustrates the past. It is a duty so to speak to display my God given talent about what fills my heart and the experiences to which I relate. Time is precious in days being short and I choose to spend it gifting back and sharing this love.

For 35 years I taught in the Chicago Public Schools briefly as an art teacher but primarily as a Kindergarten teacher. I know you may be wondering how I went from high school to the babies and that is an interesting story aside from where I am today. Let me say since teaching was indeed a calling my best qualities to instruct and guide were best suited with children wide-eyed and curious to learn about everything. I also was a student in that setting and that is where I first fell in love with reading and storytelling, not holding anything back and sharing the light of the world. I taught, instructed, coached 6 yr. olds for over 30yrs.and emerged filled with the experience and substance to transition to a real artist and painter.

People often ask, “When was the first time you realized you were and artist?” It is indeed a very pat response not at all surprising for I found it as a little girl. I was pronounced by my father as a child as an artist and I proudly wore that title. I embraced that calling and made it my own. I have always been a painter. As a girl, I often took the bus to the Art Institute Museum of Chicago to surround myself with genius that inspires and transforms one’s life. I would ponder what I liked or did not rather contemplative or busy, light hearted or grotesque, how the colors or lack of them played with my emotions. I was amazed the richness and elegance of it all, as close to riches that I would ever be.

It was all that sowed the seeds too my life’s journey. A 58 yr. journey that waited till retirement which afforded me the opportunity to exercise my gift of painting.

My career is just beginning. It’s been a journey of self acceptance and hard work.

I’ve always been interested in acting but because of my low self-esteem as a child I never thought it would be possible. I felt like people like me were not seen or represented on TV so to me that meant, I was going to make it in the industry. I was definitely wrong! One day I decided to audition for an agency and from there things changed. I decided to focus on what it was I could work on and that was building a platform for myself within the industry. I took acting classes and became more accepting of myself. Once I stopped comparing myself to other girls in the industry and showed who I really was, was when I saw people were interested in giving me opportunities. The projects came and the journey is just beginning.

When my mother moved us to Germany, I noticed that there was absolutely no Hair salons offering services for my type of hair and I got tied of taking the train on the weekends to Paris to get our hair done I decided to teach myself how to braid so I could do our hair. From the start one of my goals was to keep our hair healthy and not cause what I later learned is Traction Alopecia. After I got better at doing different styles my mother started one the first salons in the German town we lived and my sister and I started working and helping her that’s when I noticed how much I loved transforming and beautifying ladies. After moving to the US in 2006 with my family I decided to continue my path in the beauty industry as it given me the flexibility I needed being an Army wife, I became licensed in the US in 2008 and opened my salon in 2012 after renting booths in several other salons and not being able to conduct my business the way I envisioned it. Chéz Délali Salon is a dream come true and being able to add Délali Robinson Cosmetics in 2016 definitely boost my business confidence. To be able to share the journey and be part of our clients life and transformation is a privilege and priceless.

I was raised in Mississippi by my paternal grandparents. I moved to Chicago to pursue a career in writing, and I did. I started out writing for a trade magazine, and I quickly moved into creating web content. Then, one day, I was given a project to work on the website, and I fell in love! That was 20 years ago, and I’ve been infatuated with websites ever since. As of today, I’ve worked on approximately 48 websites and 7 apps!

I was the friend in high school and college at all the parties and events with the camera. I documented everything in site. I started photography as an elective in college. I needed one more credit hour and figured I would give film photography a go. I ended up getting an A in the course and being the top student and from there I made a career out of it. It took many years to get to where I am at and I’m always learning daily. I now photograph weddings and with the pandemic going on I figured hey let’s document my town where I am in quarantine. It’s been a blast. I can still do what I love to do from a distance with the social distancing order in act and give the gift of beautiful photos to my community. I’m turning a sad event in time into something many generations from now can look back on.

Like a lot of singers I first started singing in church but I feel I really got immersed in a plethora of music at the early age of 8 when my mother enrolled me in the Chicago Children’s Choir. Here is where I developed a strong interest for the classical and opera genre. While in the Chicago Children’s Choir, my parents also enrolled me in an apprenticeship program with the City of Chicago called Gallery 37. This program gave youth of Chicago an opportunity to study an art form and get paid while doing it. Of course, I decided to partake in the Operatics Ensemble, which is where I met my vocal coach, mentor and who I call today, my musical father; Andrew Schultze. Once it was time for me to graduate from high school and pick a college, Columbia College Chicago really stood out to me, so I applied and got accepted. Now it was time for me to become a professional at an art form I’d loved since the age of 8. Most students at Columbia were musical theater or jazz majors so I did feel a wee odd during my time there as my focus was Opera. Fortunately, the teachers respected, appreciated and nurtured my talent and made me feel supported in my decision to focus on Opera.

When I did my Senior Recital and looked out into a packed audience, it was in that moment that I said,” You know what, Keanon this is for you and where you need to be–you can really have a career as an opera singer”. Though that was a very powerful and positive thought leaving out of Columbia; reality set in. What reality you may ask, well, the one a lot of college students feel as they walk across that stage and get their degree but don’t have a job lined up after graduation. In the time span of a walk across stage, I went from a high to a low because I realized I have this paper that proves I’m worthy but no job. So, out of all things, believe it or not, I got a job as janitor for ABC 7 Eyewitness News.

Don’t wipe your eyes, you definitely read it correctly, from music school graduate to janitor. Confused I was but determined that this will only be a year, you know, just until I get on my feet. Well, a year turned into nearly 10 years of working as a janitor at the new station. The first 2 years I was in a real funk and just confused about life and my choice to study music. However, I had a stern talk with my mentor and he motivated me to keep striving for what I want, so I decided to seek Young Artist Programs. I got accepted into a few but they were very expensive so the determined person in me took on 2 part-time jobs on top of my full-time nightside janitor position in order make enough money to cover my living expenses and pay for these programs. After calculating- I realized for 4 years straight I worked 80 to 90 hours a week between all 3 jobs. #teamnosleep

One day while vacuuming at the station the 10 p.m. news producer at the time, Lisa McGonigle stopped and asked if I had any weekend plans and I told her I was doing a small recital and she’s more than welcome to come if she’d like. To my surprise she did and from that moment my life and career changed for ever. She got Frank Mathie (former ABC 7 feature reporter) to do a story on me and once it aired, people from all over the world were inviting me to sing for them. From Europe to South America I have been performing in famous Operas by composers like Puccini, Britten and Verdi, singing primary and lead roles. However, even though I had quit both part-time gigs by then, I was still working full-time at the news station in between performance. That is until, Chicago Opera Theater offered me a contract and I decided to take the leap of faith. I officially quit my full-time job and decided to go after my passion and dreams. Since then so many doors have opened for me, I’ve sung with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, made my South America debut as Noye in Noye’s Fludde and made my Carnegie Hall solo debut and the doors continue opening. My goodness, a journey it has been for sure and if I can say anything, I’d say, the road will be bumpy, journey will be long but never lose, faith, hope and love, with love being the greatest of them all.

I started YMagazine in 2017 while I was attending the Art Institute of Chicago. Through that time I developed my brand through different channels trying to get familiar with all medias of art and marketing skills. I soon created a website where I blogged about different artist, creatives in the Chicago community who didn’t get a lot of spotlight for their talent due to their lack of popularity in the city. I learned a lot about myself throughout this time one thing I learned and took into full force was that I enjoyed the interactions I had and getting to know those throughout this journey of growing my brand. I decided to release the magazine with as many creatives as I could and tell their story through photographic images set in ways that contributes to all aspects of the different elements of art or being an artist/creative. YMagazine hosted an event July 19th, 2020 entitled “Spring In The Summertime” where the art installed event contributed to showcasing the first released magazine. I loved putting together the event seeing something come to life then bringing different crowds together to take in a place empowering each other. Today I’m planning the next magazine and event release for this year, but with everything going on some things are at a pause. I am working on new things that I want featured at this next event to show what else everyone could be seeing from my brand. I’m really looking forward to the next chapters of this I see it going far and I will keep working to make that happen.

I created BlkGirlDaily in 2018 for the purpose of sharing the things I wish I would have learned when I was younger and to empower other young black women to be self-aware and make smart decisions. Since the start, my brand and I have gone through an evolution where we now have a podcast, merchandise, and a community. I believe my brand is where it is today because I have chosen to be patient and on task. This means that I have tried as best as I can to stick to my goals with this brand and not deviate or pivot too far left to where I am not consistent. I think it’s important for someone who is building a brand, a business, or anything to continuously check-in and make sure you are still within your purpose as you grow.

Another intentional act that has aided in BlkGirlDaily’s growth has been being engaged with my audience and supporters. I am always open to collaborating and sharing other’s content, which in turn exposes me to their audiences, thus growing my platform.