The Self-Discovery Continuum
You may or may not know that I went to undergrad to be an artist. I was accepted into a pretty selective program at NYU where I'd spend four years honing my craft and critical thinking as a photographer.
Prior to being accepted into this program, my high school friends and classmates knew me as the girl who always walked around with her 35mm camera shooting black and white images of everything. I spent many hours both in high school and college developing and printing my negatives.
After I graduated from college, I continued my work as an artist. But to pay my rent, I worked a few jobs. I was an office administrator, teaching artist, and freelance photographer. I also organized free exhibitions in the city because, at some point in college, I started to take an interest in creating space for people to connect with each other and discuss important issues with art as the catalyst.
At that same time, I felt the way many early 20-somethings feel – full of energy and interests but lacking enough money or clear direction for how to turn my interests into a livable wage.
Early 20s Petrushka as a recent NYU grad shooting Nas' dad Olu Dara for the Time is Illmatic documentary with her 35mm camera.
So, I went to grad school. Ha!
I saddled myself with some debt in a new city, San Francisco to be exact, to formalize my interests through a Master of Arts in Curatorial Practice.
I was sure that by going to grad school, I'd be able to land a job after graduating. I did get a part-time offer in the Public Programs Department at SFMOMA, but after two years in San Francisco, I was more than ready to get back to Harlem.
When I made the decision to go to grad school for something other than what I went to undergrad to study, people always asked me if I missed photography.
I always shared that I felt the curatorial and cultural organizing work that I became interested in felt like an extension of my practice as an artist.
I ended up moving back into the apartment that I got right after I graduated from undergrad and started looking for work yet again.
It was 2008, so the curatorial jobs were not exactly flowing, not that they ever have, so I returned to working multiple jobs to pay my rent.
Grad school graduation pics with some of my closest friends
Eventually, I landed a full-time job as The Laundromat Project's first employee. I worked there for almost six years before getting LinkedIn recruited to join the leadership team at Brooklyn Children's Museum as their VP of Programs & Education.
With each job I landed, people asked if I missed the work that I had previously done at the job that I had recently left.
And you know what?
People haven't stopped asking me this question.
When I announced that I was all in on ice cream, people most certainly asked if I missed working in the arts.
My answer is the same as it's always been. No.
I see every new role that I've held as an extension of my interests. I am on a continuum of self-discovery and learning by doing.
Each position that I've held responded to the season of life that I was in.
Top-Bottom: a group exhibition that I organized at Brooklyn Children's Museum (BCM) being activated with public programming; a professional development workshop for BCM's educators on how to undo racism within museums; image of a different BCM exhibition and an adjacent public program that brought some of the exhibitions themes to life; me with Zadie and Nico at the install for a exhibition that I organized at Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling a year into my ice cream life; me at the Broadway store fully in my ice cream life era.
I became an ice cream company owner and operator because I needed to live life more on my own terms. I needed more time with my children and I wanted more time in my neighborhood.
Ice cream is my new platform to do the things I love. In the last year, two of my former CCNY - City College students launched a project that I wanted to do on my own when we first opened Sugar Hill Creamery. They began a version of it in our class a couple of years ago. And now, each week they interview and photograph a Harlem resident who shares their Harlem story.
The result has been 34 stories (and counting) from an intergenerational group of Harlem residents sharing their childhood memories and hopes for the future of our neighborhood.
Images of a handful of Harlemites participants
So why am I sharing this reflection?
I want to affirm your desire to make a professional change. Our jobs should help sustain our lives and ideally respond to our interests. Naturally, who we are evolves over time. Let your work evolve too if it needs to. There are always ways to connect the dots from your past experiences and your current season of life.
As always, wishing you an inspiring week ahead.
Petrushka
Your Local Ice Cream Lady & Life/Business Coach