Meet Jennifer Jones of Title Track

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Jones. 

Hi Jennifer, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
For the majority of my existence, I have been a musician; started out taking private piano lessons and learned cello through the public school system. While in college, a friend let me borrow their acoustic guitar and I taught myself with my brother’s ‘Guitar for Dummies’ book. In 2001, I started writing and singing my own music, and my 2011, I released a full-length album entitled ‘A Story of Longing’. While I have always enjoyed the artistry and talent of others, I did not always share the desire to travel/tour with my own music, so in 2011, when my album was released, I chose to share it with my immediate community. During that time, I realized I wanted to help other people achieve that goal as well as connect them with other artists and people in the community that would enjoy their music; it was at that time I took my music publishing company and turned it into Sadie Madden Music, a company that helps musicians make connections with each other and their community. If anything, I realized how distracting the tedium of administrative tasks and publicity was for musicians who simply desired to create, and I wanted to make a space to handle some of those aspects. 

The relationships born from that work led to a large network of musicians, venues, organizations, companies, and friends. I began to help book venues featuring local artists as well as national artists. I attended festivals and helped to scout for local venues, and continued building relationships and friendships with people across the country. This work was rewarding and was fun! At the same time, I became aware of the community and its needs at large; it’s great to connect people though art in this way, however, deepening my listening and action locally was something crying out to me. It was around that time (2018) that I was approached by musician and activist Seth Bernard who was in the midst of founding a nonprofit. He made me an offer to become part of the team and I accepted. I now serve as the organization’s, Title Track’s, Co-Executive Director, engaging in racial equity, youth empowerment, and clean water initiatives across the State of Michigan. In addition to this, I have embarked on a substantial collaborative project that involves art and artistry in the conversation about the legal system’s impact on youth, adults, and the community called RE:CLAIM (Rooted Exhibition: Community, Love, Abundance, Intergenerational, Multiplicity). 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I feel that I have been more fortunate than most in that I have had a very supportive family and a wonderful network of solid friends and collaborators, however, one of the bigger obstacles would have to be the amount of time I have in a day; I am good for about 12 hours in my day, but some of that still has to be devoted to my well-being. Another obstacle/struggle would have to be being taken for granted as woman of color in a predominately white community and having a work/life balance and income to allow me to do even more work for our beloved community of youth, artists, and collaborators. 

While I do not want another few years like 2020/2021, at the same time, to be cliche, it really did force us to slow down and take inventory of the things that we could and should continue doing for ourselves. To bravely keep things in our lives that we adopted during those unfortunate years that actually helped us connect with ourselves and loved ones. 

As you know, we’re big fans of Title Track. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Title Track is a Michigan-based nonprofit organization focused on engaging creatively to build systems that support clean water, racial equity, and youth empowerment. I have been on staff with this organization since its founding on Earth Day 2019; working as its development director and now as Co-Executive Director. While we have focused on a number of different programs over our history, we focus our energies on anti-oppression education, mentoring and educating youth on the importance of clean water activism and protection, and providing the “stage” and the opportunity for youth to be heard as they are the gate-holders of everything in our future. What is different for our organization for one is that we are a collaboration of creatives; we’re comprised primarily of artists and musicians who understand the importance of creative means to connect with our communities and environment. 

I would say that we’re definitely proud of our ability to learn and adjust to what we as individuals need in order to rest and be most effective in our communities, but we’re also exceedingly pleased with the success of our ‘Understanding Racial Justice’ programming that we developed and released in June 2020; launched shortly after the murder of George Floyd. Since that training was started, we have educated more than 250 white people in anti-oppression and anti-racism primarily in the State of Michigan and we continue this training in October and into 2023. While this is a white-affinity space for learning, Title Track engages with BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) individuals during the training AND the training was developed in part by BIPOC collaborators. 

I think the biggest thing I want people to understand about this work is that it is always a growth opportunity. It will always be a space that takes a lot to do professionally, but a lot of it is quite personal as well. You choosing to be in the equity and education space means that you get to learn about yourself and others sometimes simultaneously, and you either choose to accept that your body and mind need boundaries and protection, or you burn yourself out — and then you help no one, including yourself. I am most proud of our organization for realizing that while we carry and bring so many things to the table in terms of our artistry, our heritage, our race, our relationships – we get to pull back and slow down or say ‘no’ entirely to the things that will damage our mental or physical health – WE GET TO SAY ‘YES’ TO HEALING. 

Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
While I read a plethora of different types of books, fictional books help me take a step away from all of the work being done and brings me to space where I get to be an explorer and dreamer again. Quite a few people ask what they can listen to in order improve their way of professional and personal life, however, I am finding that face-to-face conversations with people in my community have been so extremely effective and have helped my mind to process aspects of my own life. I definitely do listen to books while traveling (using Audible), but most often than not, I am processing while listening to one of my self-engineered playlists (usually 90’s music – R&B/hip-hop/alternative) while I think about my relationships and experience memories associated with some of the songs. Lastly, a few of my favorite authors/poets would have to be bell hooks, kahlil gibran, ari weinzweig, valerie kaur, ross gay, rudy francisco, adrienne marie brown, and grady hendrix. 

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.thejennyjones.com
• Instagram: @sadiemadden
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SadieMaddenMusic
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/sadiemaddenx
• Other: http://www.sadiemaddenmusic.com

Image Credits
Nikki Closser
Holly T. Bird
Isaac Murdoch