The Princess and the Peace
The story of Becca June
Becca June cannot sit still.
It would be difficult for a casual outside observer to notice that she stands at only five-foot-two (“And a half,” she is quick to add.) and weighs less than 100 pounds. Most likely because she is quick on her feet, always bouncing. Always offering to clean up after you.
“Are you finished with these plates?” she asks a table in her path on the way back to her seat at a local coffee shop. She picks up the plates, balances them gracefully on her thin hands, then clears and places them into the proper receptacle. She does not work at this coffee shop.
Invite her into your house, and she will do the same. She does her friends’ dishes while they wait for her to take her turn at Monopoly. She will ask if she can sweep your floor when you’re waiting for lunch.”
”This is just me trying to feel capable and complete. It’s me wanting to take action to clean things and make things better.” She pauses before adding, “It’s me not wanting to be my mom. It’s me telling myself that things don’t have to be that way anymore.”
The Princess
Becca June, born Rebecca June Kornstadt, is of Cherokee and Huron descent, a fact that is easily hidden in the roots of her bottle blonde hair and pale skin. However, it becomes clear as day when you see the buffalo paintings and dream catchers that line the walls of her new room. And, perhaps, it is most obvious in the natural imagery with which she describes things — including herself.
“I’m like the thunderstorm you mistake for heat lightning,” she says. “You can look at it and think it is simple and harmless and beautiful until you wind up terrified and caught in the rain.”
To June, her evolution into this thunderstorm began before she came into the world.
“I was a ‘whoops’ baby,” she says. “On top of that, the doctors told my mom that she wouldn’t be able to have me because they were very concerned that she wouldn’t make it through the pregnancy. But, she
said that everything happens for a reason, and there was a reason that I needed to be born.”
The Tower
“My sister and I had our own room, but we were never allowed to set foot in it.”
June and her family traveled from town to town selling bead-work and her dad’s airbrush artwork. Her mother’s attachment to her and her sister lead to them never spending more than a few moments apart.
“We stayed upstairs with my mom in her bedroom,” she says. “And, if we left to go get anything it was always ‘What are you doing? No, just stay in here.’”
Her mother did not allow June to attend school and refrained from homeschooling her as well. June attributes her lack of education and socialization as the reason she was unable to recognize her mother’s behavior as abnormal.
“I didn’t know any different, except for what I saw in movies, and I didn’t think that really existed,” she says. “Actually, I learned a lot from movies and online. How to read, how to sing…you know, all the important things.”
The only escape for June came in the form of music. What began as dancing and singing at pow wows evolved into a full-blown music career and a way of life, once her mom began to see her potential as an artist. In 2012, she won the Carolina Music Awards Country Artist of the Year.
The official music video for a song off of June’s 2012 album, written and performed by her.
She also began performing at Pine Ridge Church, which she cites as a major vessel for her escape.
“That’s how I actually developed my independence,” June says. “With the support of people I met at the church.”
One of these church members is now Becca’s oldest and best friend, Erin May. They met at Pine Ridge’s Christmas play in 2011.
“We bonded over the fact that both of our moms are exactly alike with how they want to keep us so close and never let go,” May says. “After that, the rest was history.”
Finding people like May to connect with lead June to push for greater autonomy. By the fall of 2012, she and her sister (still having to do everything in pairs) enrolled in Alamance Community College so that June could begin earning her GED. It was there that she met Edward.
The Rescue
It started with a plate of cinnamon roles. Edward Kamya, an ACC culinary student from Kenya, offered them to June as she was studying in the student center.
“I think part of me was so drawn to him because,” June says. “As we got to talking more and more, I saw how similar his native Kenyan culture was to my Native American roots. I loved being able to bond with someone on that level.”
They exchanged numbers and began seeing each other in secret, to prevent backlash from June’s mother. However, June soon realized there were bigger battles to be won. After their third date, Kamya revealed to her that he had a son and a wife back in Kenya.
“I don’t know why,” June says. “But, when he told me, I still felt this overwhelming sense that everything was going to be okay.”
Despite the extenuating circumstances, June asked Kamya to marry her just over a month after they first met, in June of 2013.
“Bless her, it was such a Becca thing to do,” May says. “I thought the whole thing felt very rushed, but I’m a big believer that love doesn’t always look the same in everyone’s relationship. And, I do feel that they were truly in love.”
After the whirlwind engagement and the finalization of Kamya’s divorce, he and June were married exactly a year after they first met, on April 30th, 2014. June put her music career on hold and began focusing all her attention on providing for her and Kamya — building that movie-worthy relationship of her dreams.
”When we were still together, how he used to tell the story was that on April 30th, 2013, we started a conversation, and we haven’t ended it.” June says. “But, we did end it.”
The Fairytale Ends
In November 2013, soon after she and Kamya moved in together, June began to notice that he was still frequently communicating with his ex-wife. Kamya promised to stop talking with her in a romantic manner, but the communication continued.
“I asked him ‘Do you still love her?’ and he said ‘Yes,’” June says. “And, we were about to get married, so I think he convinced himself that he could settle down with just me.”
After the wedding, things began to unravel further. They began fighting daily over his ex, their beliefs, finances and family troubles, among other things.
“All of it was enough to drive anyone apart,” May says of the pair. “It became clear after a while that they really were not meant for each other. He was so lost and didn’t respect her morals, beliefs and weird quirks.”
Despite those closest to her being able to see it, June had difficulty accepting that the relationship between Kamya and her had failed.
“When he hit me, that’s when I knew it was over,” June says. “I don’t know how many times he had said nasty things to my face and cheated on me and flat out told me he didn’t want to be with me, it still took that long to get through.”
After that, June took two days off of work and stayed in a hotel. When she came back to the house she shared with Kamya, she began to feel an intense dread as she waited for him to come home from work.
“I just thought to myself, ‘God doesn’t want me to be in this situation. He doesn’t want people to beat up on you,” she says. “I realized that I couldn’t stay in this compromising relationship.”
In November of 2017, June told Kamya to leave, and he never came back.
The Next Chapter
“Becca is someone who is timid and scared to speak up, because she was never allowed to,” May says of her best friend. “But, she is finally becoming more vocal.”
June and May are now vocalists together in the worship band at Hope Church. Slowly, June is trying to reintegrate music into her life through small performances at bars and open mic nights.
“I literally started writing and singing and all that stuff again the day after Edward left,” June says. “I felt so free — like I needed music, and that it was there again.”
Kamya’s moving out caused its fair share of struggles in turn. She could not afford to stay in the house they shared and now rents a room across town, without a steady job or a family to rely on.
June performing at Maple Street Bar in Burlington, NC. Her first performance outing in 4 years.
“There’s one thing I know for sure though,” June says. “There will be no more Edwards, men who promise forever but never warn you that you can’t be the only one. And, that everything they say and do for you will turn out to be a lie. But, there will be music.”
This summer, she plans to move to Florida and stay with members of her extended family that she’s still close with in order to reconnect with people from her music career. She has plans to record a new album, join up with her old band for gigs and celebrate her newfound freedom.
Because Becca June cannot sit still.
