INTERVIEW: John Holiday Gives Himself Permission To Live & Love

Darius Caffey, MPA
The Closet Unlocked
2 min readOct 28, 2021

John Holiday shares his light with the world through music.

With his latest single ‘Waste Mine’, service as Associate Professor of Music at the Lawrence University Conservatory, travels as an internationally known vocal performer, and guest appearance on NBC’s The Voice — he continues to show up unapologetically and unashamedly himself, leaving an impact in every room that he walks in.

Because with every step, he walks in love.

As an 80’s baby, John had the privilege of growing up listening to some of the greatest wordsmiths in history. Nina Simone, Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey — all of them spoke about authenticity. And from them, he learned that being authentic means always starting with love. First with ourselves, and then in everything that we do.

Holiday also mentioned that growing up in Rosenberg, Texas, in the choir, and under his grandmother’s wing taught him to never ask for permission to be. He learned in those early years that he can be whatever he wanted, create whatever he wanted, go wherever he wanted, and love who he wanted. So, that’s exactly what he did.

He gave himself permission to just be.

By learning to be his authentic self and how to let go of control, John wants nothing more in life than to inspire others with his journey. He wants to uplift his community in ways that shift culture so that other Black and Queer people feel welcome too in the rooms that they walk in.

He wants more love.

And if you too want more love, then give it when you can. Speak heartfelt words over your people and show up when you can. Find a quote in this interview that stuck with you and share it with your people whenever you can.

Just do more; be more; love more.

You already know that I’ll be back with more Black, Queer folks being represented at the table, but until next time friends… peace out.

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Darius Caffey, MPA
The Closet Unlocked

Writer of many things. | Educational Equity Advocate, focused on Youth Development | Amplifying voices from the Black, LGBTQ+ community | Spread more love