Kenya Templeton Does

Kenya Templeton Does Vocalist | Educator | Actor | Jewelry and Clothing Designer | Contemporary Mandala Artist

Communing. Imbibing. Laughing. Savouring. Sharing. Learning. Supporting. Assisting. Teaching. Listening. That’s what we ...
08/08/2026

Communing. Imbibing. Laughing. Savouring. Sharing. Learning. Supporting. Assisting. Teaching. Listening. 

That’s what we did last night at my birthday dinner at Lam’s Kitchen in Matthews, one of my top 3 places to eat in the Charlotte metro area. Surrounded by some of the core people that provide me emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical safety in a private room I have always wanted to dine in, I revelled in the collection of personalities assembled. I am one of the most fortunate people in the room. These folks would fight for me literally, as we witnessed when discussing a hurtful comment I received on Facebook this week and someone commenced to remove their hoop earrings, asking where we were riding out to. Yeah, dis here is my crew…my family. 

And as chronologically advanced humans, the after party was at The Ice Cream Factory, a new black-owned ice cream shop near the Trader Joe’s in the University area. Chile, we were four loud dancing aunties walking in to the 80s music playing in the shop. A brightly lit table in the corner heard us cut up like teenagers, and I freaking loved it. 

I am grateful for all of the wishes, prayers, texts, emails, calls, and voice notes. I particularly want to call out Michael Maxwell, as his call was unexpected and a lesson that people are watching and cheering you on unnoticeably. Thank you to all for your guidance, support, and prodding this last year, which was one of the hardest of my life. I send wishes of love, healing, and joy in abundance to everyone. 

I am SAFE. I am SIGNIFICANT. I am LOVEABLE.I am ENOUGH.I MATTER. I have said this mantra daily since June 30, 2026. I ca...
08/07/2026

I am SAFE.
I am SIGNIFICANT.
I am LOVEABLE.
I am ENOUGH.
I MATTER.

I have said this mantra daily since June 30, 2026. I came across it through an online seminar called "Brain: Rewire Your Mind for Healing" with Dr. Gabor Maté. In the short time I have been following his instructions, I am noticing how I am responding to words and actions slightly differently in my body and mind.

Today, my 53rd birthday, has been a test of how much I have grown and how much less stressed my body is in comparison to my last birthday. I have spent 99% of my life not feeling truly loved, as love was transactional and conditional as a child, beginning in my childhood house.

Text messages began to come from overseas late last night. People have taken time to send voice notes and to call me. I was on the phone with one of my oldest friends for over three hours this morning. I can hear the love without resistance or deflection. That's huge growth for me! I was even able to reply to some in real time.

Yesterday a coworker asked what I wanted for my birthday. I had no answer. No one has ever asked me that question in decades. I know it sounds crazy, but it is true.

As I prepare for a dinner with people I specifically chose due to how they have cared for my heart and soul in ways and at times I did not know I needed, knowing I am working hard to not hurt people anymore because I hurt, I can say I want to be a safe space that I did not think I had until I began my healing journey.

I need to pay someone to install a few electronics into the Sidala Learning Lounge. I want picture frames to put up artwork and info in the space for inspiration and education. If you would like to support this as I prepare an official launch next month, I will gladly accept donations. If you want to collaborate with teaching, mentoring, or offering a service to the black community for intergenerational dialogue, healing, and education, please hit me up asap. I am officially opening Labor Day weekend.

Zelle: my phone number
Cash App: $GriotDesignsbyKKT
Venmo:
PayPal: [email protected]

I collect fine writing instruments. I am not above a Bic or Papermate. As a girlie who journals by hand and prefers writ...
08/06/2026

I collect fine writing instruments. I am not above a Bic or Papermate. As a girlie who journals by hand and prefers writing over typing, I get particular when it comes to how the pen feels in my hand based on the type of writing I do.

And please do not attempt to purchase a pen for a collector. We are often particular about barrel diameter, weight counterbalance, nib/ballpoint size, ink color, ink advance mechanism, etc. I tend to like girthier pens with increased weight from the middle to the top of the barrel.

What is your favorite pen to write with or that you have ever owned?

Favorite daily writer: Sheaffer 100, stainless top with blue enamel barrel

Favorite pen in my collection: Namiki blue marble swirl rollerball with a Mother of Pearl in the barrel clip

Journaling pen: Sheaffer 100 ballpoint Coffee edition

Favorite pen to write with: Sheaffer 300 Iridescent Plum with silver accents

I hate karaoke...PERIOD. So, do not ask me to go unless:1. I am at Seoul Food Meat Company singing in Japanese, Chinese,...
08/05/2026

I hate karaoke...PERIOD. So, do not ask me to go unless:

1. I am at Seoul Food Meat Company singing in Japanese, Chinese, or Korean.

2. I am bullied at Holly and Joe Whisman’s house and allowed to get by singing only one song that is less than 3 minutes.

My favorite meal is a good ole salad. This is thanks to Katie, my paternal grandmother, and Jean, my mother. My grandmot...
08/05/2026

My favorite meal is a good ole salad. This is thanks to Katie, my paternal grandmother, and Jean, my mother. My grandmother made the simplest, delicious salads. My favorites were when we would pick the vegetables from her garden, wash them at the spigot, and cut them with her wood-handled paring knife.

Jean mastered something I never saw a black mama of her age make–homemade salad dressing. You didn’t ask what was in the dressing because you knew it was going to be fire. Just eat it and shut up. All kinds of spices, herbs, vinegars, vegetables, fruits, and oil would be placed in a blender or shaken in a mason jar. They were all called Jeano’s Specials, as most of what she made had no formal name.

I am definitely the granddaughter of Katie and the daughter of Carolyn Jean. There are always jars or blender containers of at least two salad dressings in my fridge at all times during raw salad season. I made a vinaigrette with molasses, garlic, thyme, zaatar, raw apple cider vinegar, white pepper, grapeseed oil, smoked sea salt, and sweet paprika last night for a simple baked salmon salad over mixed greens. Y’all know I do not do recipes, so you will have to play with this ingredient listing.

Thanks to Wallace Alston, my college sweetheart, my salads are called B.O.S.S–Big Ole Salad, Son/Sis–by some of my NC State crew. One night when he was on night staff duty in Sullivan Hall, he called me to ask if I would bring him and the fellas something to eat. I took one of those oversized Dollar Store plastic bowls and made a HUGE salad. I arrived at the front desk with the salad and several forks. Those guys tore it up! It was an expectation that if I was cooking, a B.O.S.S. would be served.

A few years later, I got off the plane at RDU to attend my friend’s, Shonita Savage, baby shower. As I got into the car, it was requested that I make mango or pineapple salsa and a B.O.S.S. Her request was granted. The baby we celebrated just graduated from high school this year.

I was a beauty queen...THREE times. It was never my desire. It does not pay to be the daughter of a black Southern belle...
08/03/2026

I was a beauty queen...THREE times. It was never my desire. It does not pay to be the daughter of a black Southern belle who thrives off pomp and circumstance.

Pageants, to me, were the adult, in-real-life version of playing dress up for my mother. She made almost all of my gowns and talent outfits, including the one pictured. One year she paid my cousin, Cynthia, to do a plaster relief of my face that was painted to look like me. It was attached to a life-size stuffed doll body she made with a curly wig. For my talent, I recited Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. I was dressed as a mother in a matronly dress as I talked to my child, the life-size doll.

Remember the Janet Jackson head mic she wore in her Control video? My father made one in 1982 using a wire hanger and a mini wired microphone from Radio Shack. That was way before Janet recorded her first album. So, when you ask how I make jewelry and artwork out of bicycle inner tubes, know that I got it honestly.

For me, performing is a very serious undertaking, as I consider it edu-tainment and a healing art form. If you have watc...
08/02/2026

For me, performing is a very serious undertaking, as I consider it edu-tainment and a healing art form. If you have watched me sing, it is not like any other performance you have witnessed. I am intentional about the songs I choose. I pray that I choose songs addressing the emotional and/or spiritual needs of whoever attends. My request of the Great Spirit is that I reach at least one. Even during my most lackluster performance, I have achieved this task.

I wrote this performance mantra several years ago. I read it as I stand in the wings, grounding myself before I hit the stage. The hearts and minds of my audience and the musicians I work with I hold with the utmost regard to allow me to be a griot songstress and mad hatter s**tter, giving us all space and grace to freely be ourselves. We communicate in the most universal manner there is–musically.

The audience is informed that I sing accessible jazz, not the stuffy type where people sit in their seats with their hands clasped. I encourage all to feel their feelings, tap their feet, clap their hands, dance, sing along, or whatever the spirit moves you to do. In a time where there are few places for people to honestly express themselves, I create a safe space to do just that.

There is a touch of selfishness in this. I sometimes choose songs allowing me to express what I need to explore. There is an exchange between us, and my goodness, it is one of the most gorgeous things to experience. I have held the many stories my audience has shared about what they were going through and how a song or even a s**t sequence allowed them to be present. Presence is the present.

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I am writing a little about myself daily. Follow to see them.

August is my birthday month. I have never been someone to get excited for it because no one ever made it exciting growin...
08/01/2026

August is my birthday month. I have never been someone to get excited for it because no one ever made it exciting growing up. I can count the number of birthday parties I have had on one hand and they were all during my childhood. 

My mother made every holiday or life event a big deal, except my birthday, because it fell during the first week she returned to work as a school teacher. Back-to-school gear was disguised as birthday gifts. I had little say-so in the selection. Jean did not have time for that as she was focused on the coming school year.

Robert, my father, aided in the lackluster celebration of my birthdate by telling my mother I did not want birthday parties. In addition, he spent two weeks every July at Ft. Jackson for Army summer camp, leaving Jean to figure her classroom and my birthday alone. It wasn’t that I did not want a party. I did not want the spectacles Jean created. 

I wish I had pictures of my first birthday. Jean created ice cream clowns that scared the kids, causing them to destroy the clowns instead of eating them. For my 5th birthday, she did a circus theme that I did not request. The figures on the cake she made were scary. She tried to get everyone excited as she was and it was an epic fail. I just wanted to ride my new bicycle, which was not the BMX bike I requested.

Only if Grandma Katie did a sleepover with my cousins for my birthday did I get what I wanted–grilled hot dogs, BBQ Ruffles potato chips, cheese ci**rs from Winn-Dixie, the cole slaw with the celery seeds from the deli, chili, onions, homemade potato salad, spicy chow-chow, (see comments for the remainder of this story).

Why is there a Haraz Coffee Haraz Coffee House Charlotte two lights from my house? I had done well to avoid them for mon...
07/29/2026

Why is there a Haraz Coffee Haraz Coffee House Charlotte two lights from my house? I had done well to avoid them for months, but I gave in today. I love saffron and chai. Their Adeni Saffron Chai is addictive. I needed one after staying up overnight to complete a last-minute application. (I'm too old for this 💩, but the opportunity is too good).

This location in University City is less than a 1/4 mile from Chick-Fila. A chai and chicken minis is a sick breakfast! They have a private room you can reserve for meetings or gatherings. It is convenient off the McCullough LYNX station. Look at all of the natural light.

The con...their food selection and presentation are subpar compared to the Central Ave location. I don't need the sugar anyway.

Last week at the NCCJC Collective 2026-27 Taproot Artist Residency Intensive, I found my people. I was in community with...
07/29/2026

Last week at the NCCJC Collective 2026-27 Taproot Artist Residency Intensive, I found my people. I was in community with people who took care of each other and had some of the best conversations. Our moderators created a safe space for idea exchange, to speak candidly from our hearts, and incorporate inner resilience as part of our schedule.

This time was transformative for my psyche and art career. I felt genuinely safe in my body for the first time since I was seven years old. I was able to weave for the first time in a year. Sitting in silence in a field of grass or by the side of the creek at Lake Logan Retreat was the medicine I needed.

I am grateful that the twelve of us are now equipped with knowledge and charged to teach and promote the issues and solutions regarding climate injustice. This is in direct alignment with my art practice of using found and recovered objects to create art. It will be my privilege to serve the first and most impacted citizens of NC in creating a better living environment.

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4237 Raleigh Street
Charlotte, NC
28213

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