Interview in The Prompt by N. Alysha Lewis
Jonathan Brown is close to living his ideal life: spending half his time on the road and the other half at home, creating art. A former high school English teacher, he left his full-time job to pursue his passions of writing and performing music. With an Indiegogo campaign that reached 116 percent of its goal, Jonathan was able to produce and promote his latest album, Aggressively Vulnerable, which was released on June 5th.
I chatted with Jonathan to learn more about his journey from teaching to music and what he hopes his future holds.
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My Spilt Milk article by Alex Rawls
“One of the premises of the album is that it’s cool to be yourself.”
Hip-hop artist Jonathan Brown would say that. His gig is to be as himself as possible, an idea that underlies the title his sixth release, Aggressively Vulnerable, which dropped earlier this summer. Musically, he has staked out a very specific place, subscribing to old school rap values balanced with an MFA holder’s belief in poetry. Brown has the degrees including an MFA from University of New Orleans, and even if you didn’t know that, you’d guess it because he released a limited edition poetry book with the lyrics to the songs to accompany Aggressively Vulnerable’s release.
Click here to read the full article in MY SPiLT MILK
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Interview in SoundValley by Kelly Dillahunt
Poet. Rapper. Optimist. Generous and compassionate human. All of these adjectives describe Jonathan Brown, but they aren't enough. Some people are magic; Jonathan is one of them.
I met Jonathan on the Midwestern leg of his last tour, in the dead of an Ohio winter. Hailing from the south, Jonathan had never encountered such a harsh winter. -19 degrees, snow drifts up to your knee, ice, hail, wind. All of it in a rented van because his car went belly up part-way through tour. Shows were cancelled or rescheduled, his tour path rerouted. January is a hard month. But Jonathan, who currently resides in New Orleans, met all of it with enthusiasm and wonder. I saw him perform three times during that Midwestern winter run, and each time, his set was compelling.
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Interview in the Merced Sun-Star by Brigitte Bowers
Jonathan Brown started his professional life as an English teacher who strove to connect to kids who struggled to feel a sense of belonging. The need to belong, but also to be okay with not belonging, was a “big drive in my teaching career,” Brown said during a recent phone interview.
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