The answer to this question has three prongs to it: one, I actually ran an indie label for a few years in DC, so Kenya’s story isn’t unlike my own. Two, I always wanted to create and star in a scripted series. I would watch shows like Sex and the City and Girlfriends and Golden Girls and Living Single, and I would say to myself that I wanted to do that someday. I wanted to be Carrie Bradshaw or Khadijah James. I wanted to someday tell stories relevant to women of my generation. And third, this story just came to me. I wasn’t actually trying to create a series when ideas for this started coming. I just started writing and… here we are.

Absolutely. I believe that stories chose writers, not the other way around. Stories are kind of floating around out there, and when they choose you, you better be ready. Because I don’t try to conjure stories, I’m always waiting receptively to what’s pulling on me, begging for me to write about it. You totally have to be in tune with yourself and the Universe in order to reach that kind of place.

Most entrepreneurs teach their lessons or tell their stories through nonfiction, such as autobiographies and “how to” manuals. As a storyteller, I’m approaching it a lot differently. I want readers to be able to pull lessons about the tangible and intangible aspects of owning their own business from my character’s journey, which means they should experience the entire journey--all episodes. But at the same time, they will also be able to get something from the episodes individually.

I believe in the saying, “Bloom where you are planted.” I was born and raised right here in DC. I see DC as a unique, misunderstood place that deserves the same opportunity to show its beauty that places like New York and Paris have had. I don’t put pressure on myself to “put DC on the map.” But whether I live here or find myself elsewhere, I will always use the uniqueness of this town as part of my stories.

Right. Just in the past few years, we've had Atlanta, Dear White People, Grown-ish, Insecure, Black-ish… and all of these shows are, in some way, speaking to the exact audience that I’m working to reach with Of Music and Men. But I believe this project can hold its own among these incredibly well-written, well-developed shows because my story examines existentialism and entrepreneurship unlike anything else on TV. It’s unique in that sense, and also in the sense that it’s told through the lens of a Black millennial female.

What will draw people in is the familiar friendship dynamic among the main female characters, as well as the somewhat familiar career angle in the independent music scene, but exploring and examining the human journey in the way that it does, along with all the other aspects of being an unorthodox person in a cookie-cutter world… Honestly, I’m excited about how it’ll be received, and how it will live up to my goal of inspiring more entrepreneurship among young women.

I think I can sometimes be idealistic when writing about men. I don’t want to write them in a negative light and come across as bitter or judgmental, so sometimes I let the pendulum swing super far in the other direction. I often refer to my many male friends for true perspective though.

This season is very introspective and tackles both intangible as well as existential concepts for Kenya as an entrepreneur, such as: Can we actually make plans for our lives and businesses, or are we at the mercy of fate? Or how much does age play a factor in when/if we keep going for our dreams or give up? Season two will keep this kind of unique spiritual undertone, but weave in more social topics, like: cultural appropriation, voting, and colorism, just to name a few.