

Today we’d like to introduce you to Keia Jackson and Miri Teresa.
Keia and Miri, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My name is Keia aka Fresh. Born and raised in East Atlanta. I’ve always wanted to work for myself AND help people, so I decided to combine my love for the two on my quest for entrepreneurship. I originally started FreshThoughtz as an Indie Artist and Black Entrepreneur promotion site. This gave us a space to connect and thrive. I later used it as a launching board to segways into other ventures. I branched into Fresh Kickz N Teez because it combined my love of art and sneakers. I originally got the idea from helping less fortunate kids in my neighborhood learn to clean and take care of their sneakers to save money.
Eventually, I moved on to customizing them to showcase my love of art. That brought me to one of my biggest ventures yet, Joining fellow artist (and my favorite Lil cuz) Miri Teresa and her artist connection non-profit. iMiTs Art is a nonprofit geared to promoting the artist and giving back to the communities of Atlanta and Houston, respectively. It also connects artist worldwide. This move really took my love of art and entrepreneurship to another level. Miri is a fearless leader with a clear vision and the same passion as myself for helping the people of our communities. I believe that the dynamic elements we each bring create a whole game-changer for creative entrepreneurs to be apart of.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the biggest obstacles I faced early on was getting an artist to trust me to help promote their vision. It honestly started as a free promo to get artist to give me the opportunity to work with them. From there, it was just about staying consistent and working hard despite my busy work schedule. It took time but, I eventually learned to balance my job and my passion. As much as I contribute to the creative community, I one day look forward to teaching our community how to fuel a passion into a thriving career. It takes daily actions to keep fueling one’s passion. Through consistency, careers are created.
We’d love to hear more about your art.
As an Artist Connection Director, I create community engagement for an artist who is freshly starting their careers. With the full backing of iMiTs Art, I am able to help empower the community through the passion and talents of our members. We want to create positive inspiration for our youth. Our mission is to establish a unified community link to the world that craftsman has to offer. We want to emit the vision of greatest to the society.
In the greater scheme of things, we specialize in artist promotion, providing services to help them to brand themselves as well as community empowerment. We link together locally with organizations like Inspiration Colors who help with providing a platform and in return, we connect our artist to mentorship programs that nurture the youth.
I’m most proud of the growth of our non-profit. Miri and I have linked so many artists between cities like Houston, Atlanta, Florida and even California. She has passed me the baton out here in Atlanta to broaden our reach and I have successfully accepted that torch. We have built a community of artists that work together to make our communities strong. We have also went as far as gaining connections with HoH 77.7 digital radio out in Houston. We have a Thursday night jam for Indie Artist to be heard at 8 pm called Fresh Thoughtz. This allows us to make a place for our team and those who work hard to be heard. We are literally creating multiple avenues to reach not only our personal communities but to be globally heard, as well.
One thing that I must say sets iMiTs Art apart is the creative ideas we collectively have to ignite the change we want to see. Where many may think it’s all in your own hands to do everything, we believe connections are key. I feel as though there is no one who can do what we do, the way we do it. Many may try but the passion that fuels us makes all the difference.
What were you like growing up?
I’ve always been a leader and a very independent person. Captain of any sports team I’ve ever played on and always wanting to do what’s fair and right… Even as a small child my mom always said I wanted to do everything myself and I always wanted to bring my brothers along wherever I went. I guess you could say I’ve always had a passion to lead and elevate people. Tapping into my creative side always appealed to me. From poetry to painting anything I could do to express myself creatively, I was down with it. I would even draw and write poetry on my basketball sneakers lol.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.declareyouriam.com
- Phone: 4046158364
- Email: 2freshthoughtz@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fresh_since86/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imit.art.9
- Other: https://instagram.com/imitsart?igshid=1x3viwki4v9ww
Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.