Meet Jean-Louis
For the past 14 years, Jean-Louis has called Harlem home. His experience in the neighborhood has been defined by a sense of community, which he felt instantly. Looking back at when he first moved on his block, he remembers the feeling of welcoming, and belonging through the block association, block parties, and events with dancing, music, and group pictures, that laid the foundation for creating deep bonds with his neighbors and to the neighborhood.
Though he was born and raised in New York, directly before he moved to Harlem he lived in Florida for three years. He says, “I lived in… Fort Lauderdale. And then my wife and I got married, and she was actually living right next door. She was living in a studio apartment… And then when this building became available, we were the first ones to find out because there was a guy on the block [named Charlie]… Charlie knew everybody and knew everybody's business. He was a great guy… And he said, 'Well, I found out there's an apartment that's available, you know, if you're interested, you should go take a look.' And so we were the first ones to see the apartment... And we were like… here's the deposit. We didn't even think about it, boom, here it is… And we've been here ever since.” Coming back to New York from Florida, and more specifically moving to Harlem was meaningful for him, “There's something about living in a community where people know you and you have a stoop and you can sit on your stoop and everybody else can sit on their stoop and then you can talk to each other.” The people and the literal architecture of the buildings creates a sense of closeness between residents, that is strengthened through the natural bonds that form when seeing each other every day.
“There’s something about living in a community where people know you and you have a stoop and you can sit on your stoop and everybody else can sit on their stoop and then you can talk to each other.”
That sense of connection can be felt throughout Harlem, “If I go up to 152nd street, to Dance Theatre of Harlem… it has its own unique vibe to it, too. There are people who have their classic cars on the street and they cover them… And they maintain them and they talk to you about what's going on with the car and so on, so forth, and you kind of connect in that way.” Similar interests connect people, even by walking your dog you can meet someone new and strike up conversations with people you wouldn’t expect and the community is built through those daily life that can bring lifelong connections. “It's the mundane sort of things, you know, that you just see each other again and again [and] after enough times it's like, 'Hey, how are you doing?' You know, and that compounds after years, and then maybe a conversation starts… and then now you're starting to know about each other in a way that you [wouldn't], if you were just one time passing by… And then you compound that with kids and kids going to school. If you're a certain age or a parent, you have young kids, you know, my [daughter’s] preschool… was ten blocks away, so we would walk her down. And… all the other parents who were from the community, had their kids over there. Now we're getting together… Years later, my wife's involved in what she calls the ‘Harlem Moms Club,’ basically, all the moms from preschool. And they're still together, and the girls are hanging out together. There's like six of them… [Those are potential] lifetime bonds… That's Harlem.”
Living and being a part of the community, creating a home in Harlem, and creating bonds like these has helped him put in practice core life lessons instilled in him by his upbringing. He explains, “It's helped me to expand my ability to empathize and lower my own ego. Like, just be aware of myself, because I think sometimes it's real easy to jump to conclusions about people. What I've learned is, respect everybody, and regardless of what they may appear to be, who they may appear to be, respect all of them. And that was something I was kind of raised by, but really got to practice it here.” Jean-Louis is the creator of GROWING BEYOND BELIEF, a training program where he implements this practice and helps others to do the same. At times when people reach their forties, fifties, and sixties they can feel stuck, as though they haven’t fulfilled “who they really came here to be or what they've always known they could do or… wanted to do.” And Jean-Louis works to help them see more possibilities for themselves. He says, “I help them to see their life differently and to see what is possible differently, and to see themselves not just as human beings, but as perhaps spiritual beings having a human experience. When they kind of see life from that expanded perspective, then they can take into account that maybe there's a guidance that they have that's behind their form, the nature of which is benevolent, maybe there's a wisdom behind their mind, the nature of which is unlimited. And maybe there's a mission behind their soul, the nature of which is growth. And when they start to view life, this expanded view, and they start to organize themselves to develop capacities and skills to fulfill on who they came to be as a soul, their life starts to have more ease and flow in their life than ever before. And that's what I help them do. I created a method to help them do that. And I was my own… first client…. I really see myself as a guide and a facilitator in that process.” Harlem has helped him develop in his practice, through being present, observing, and being inspired by life passing by and the creativity flowing through the neighborhood.
“[Harlem is] culturally and historically deeply rich and deeply rooted in its sense of identity and uniqueness... I see a community… that knows that it has potential. It knows its potential. And I think, at its best, it believes in its potential.”
Jean-Louis sees endless possibilities for Harlem and looks forward to all that can come from the community. “I think that as New York goes, so goes the world. I really believe that.... Both my parents are immigrants. My mother's from France, my father's from Haiti. And so I was born here, raised here, and so I have that kind of perspective of… we are really, like, the crossroads of the world in many ways, or at least one of the major cities that's the crossroads. And... if you zoom into New York even more, I think maybe how Harlem goes, so goes New York, and how New York goes, so goes the world. And so I think Harlem is one of those nexuses of… creativity, of potential that sits here, that if… it's supported and encouraged to blossom individual by individual and group by group, and then community by community, I think the potential is amazing [for] what the city can do if we really tap into that.” He remarks, “[Harlem is] culturally and historically deeply rich and deeply rooted in its sense of identity and uniqueness. I think it's a community that, block by block, you don't know what to expect. And you could turn one block and have a completely [different experience]... I just see a community… that knows that it has potential. It knows its potential. And I think, at its best, it believes in its potential.”
To encapsulate his Harlem story, Jean-Louis says, “I was part of something special for a special period of time, and it really changed me in a special way.” He is open to where life takes him moving forward, and is allowing opportunity to guide him in the next stages of his life.