Make Great Art with Jocelyn Arem

Based in New York City, Jocelyn Arem joins us on the show today. She tells her Brave Girl story and how she came to do the work that she does today as a Grammy nominated producer, musician, archival remix artist, multimedia storyteller, and lecturer with the School of the New York Times. I found Jocelyn to be so knowledgeable and it’s no surprise that she’s been featured in Rolling Stone, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR and PBS. She also recently won the 2019 Creative Thought Matters Award of Distinction from her alma mater, Skidmore College. Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, she grew up on 90’s R&B and 60’s folk music and her work is influenced by Erykah Badu, Prince, Ella Fitzgerald and Mariah Carey.

She talks about how she loves reimagining work of artists and who in the music world inspires her work today. I loved learning more about her projects as a recording performance artist and where she sees the music industry going and why musicians need multiple revenue streams today. Known as “Rabasi Joss”, she is a Brooklyn based soul and jazz singer that has toured internationally and she explains her emotional connection to this type of music. We talk about her studio, Arbo Radiko where she helps creatives transform their historical material into valuable modern day content. We also talk about Liz Gilbert’s book Big Magic and the myth of the starving artist and how you need to create a portfolio career. I love how Jocelyn is a social justice advocate that engages in creative endeavors with other artists and organizations where music and storytelling benefits others.