About The Author
Karen J. Lewis, Jr. is a writer, actor and mental health advocate originally from Wooster, Ohio. She began writing at the age of 12; she wrote a script for an episode of 'Ghostwriter'. It was...a little too violent for PBS. She was undaunted in her pursuit to express herself and expanded her writing to poems and short stories. Looking back, some of it was pretty fuckin tragic and dreadful (a story about a slave girl running away with the plantation owner's son? Yeah, that's the type of stupid shit you write when you grow up around white people). But some of it held extreme promise. She also developed an interest and eventual talent for acting, first discovered during church holiday plays. After that she branched out into doing theatre.
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Her life moved fast in the 2000's. In the summer of 2000, she started as Sidney Lipton in the production 'God's Favorite' as a member of the 11:11 Theatre Company at the Grand Opera House in St. Mary's, Ohio. Her first child Bryce Antonio was born March 2001 in Wooster, Ohio bringing joy into her life. In September of 2000 she relocated to Michigan. In March 2004, her second bundle of pure joy Kayla Janee was born in Detroit, Michigan. In November of 2005, she costarred in the stage play 'The Family Line', written by The Honorable Peter Lawson Jones and directed by Desmond Jones at the historic Karamu House Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio. Her creative ventures slowed down after 2007. Her mother, Karen Jean Lewis, Sr. saw a return of her breast cancer in early 2008. In December of that year, her mother held her hand and said, 'You should get back into writing.' She always knew best, and she was the biggest Karen, Jr. fan. Karen, Sr. sadly passed away February 2009. Karen, Jr. never forgot her advice and encouragement. And it lit a fire. In 2013 she combined her writing and acting skills by writing a script for a web series 'Sadie'.
Unfortunately, production grinded to a halt in 2015 after another devastating life event. Her life continued to downward spiral until she made an attempt to end her life in early 2018. Twice. Her first attempt saw her sent to a psych ward in Wyandotte, MI where she was officially diagnosed with PTSD/night terrors, depression, and anxiety. In April 2018, she made her second and last attempt on her life. She found herself at the psych ward in Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NY where she stayed for a month - and discovered she was pregnant. Her life would never be the same after that.
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On November 28th 2018, her daughter Karen Jai Lewis, III was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She and her partner Joshua Whaley were overjoyed. Between 2018 and 2020, she struggled to rebuild herself from the ground up, make sense of her past and heal. With prayer, therapy, and proper medication, she arrived to a new place in her life. Her creativity was revived with projects 'Hunter' and 'Nyx'. She was mentally stronger, secure. And she wanted to help. In October of 2020, she and fellow writer/creative Phette Hollins created 'Unpacking Our Sh*t w/ Phee and K.Jr.' A discussion series regarding mental health and the Black community. Their intention is to raise awareness about mental health to our people, and to start painful but necessary conversations about how we threat therapy, and the generational patterns that need to be undone.
With a renewed and improved sense of self awareness and understanding of her purpose, she moves forward to create, entertain, and help heal the past to clear the path for a better future - for all of us. Together.