We’re looking forward to introducing you to Jermaine McGhee, MFA. Check out our conversation below.
Hi Jermaine , thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: Have you stood up for someone when it cost you something?
Yes, absolutely. I recently stood up for the Non-Tenure Track faculty at Loyola Marymount University, where I have served the College of Communication and Fine Arts for three years. As a Bargaining Action Team member represented by SEIU 721, I advocated for livable wages, fair treatment, and humane working conditions. That advocacy came with consequences: I was ultimately disinvited from my role as Lecturer of Jazz Dance due to my alignment with the union and my efforts to mobilize colleagues toward collective action. Even so, I do not regret standing firmly in my values—protecting my peers and championing equity in higher education.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a dance educator, choreographer, and scholar whose work sits at the intersection of embodied storytelling and Africanist aesthetics. My career has moved between concert stages, opera houses, and university classrooms, but the heart of my work is always the same: using dance as a tool for connection, lineage, and transformation.
My research explores the Africanist roots of jazz, embodied memory, and the healing intelligence of the body, while my creative projects range from new choreographic works to a growing fashion-forward brand grounded in individuality and craft. At my core, I am committed to creating spaces where people feel seen, challenged, and inspired—because I believe dance is more than movement. It is a way of remembering who we are and imagining what we can become.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a child, I believed I had to fit into something that already existed in order to be great. I no longer hold that. Today, I understand that my power comes from being fully myself—creating each day with intention, possibility, and gratitude.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering taught me that I am capable of far more than I imagined. Success doesn’t show you the process—struggle does. Moving through hardship has given me the resilience, clarity, and tools I need to sustain myself and grow. It’s in the difficult moments that I learned how to become who I am.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What truths are so foundational in your life that you rarely articulate them?
One truth I rarely say out loud is that once you know something, you can’t unknow it. I’ve spent much of my life moving from the unknown into the known by simply living, learning, and staying open. When I first stepped into a dance class, I had no idea what it meant to build a life in this field. Now I know deeply what it is to be an artist, a dreamer, a maker, and a scholar—and that knowledge is something I carry in my bones.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
I hold a deep understanding that God is eco-somatic—that creation and the body are inseparable. I often think of the earth as a seed formed by God, containing everything it would ever need from the very beginning. Our environment is a living body, and we, as bodies, live within it. Nothing is accidental. Everything we need has been provided through the original design of creation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jermainemcghee.com
- Instagram: emerald27
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jermainemcghee/
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/F9kcbwIgwhA?si=5h9h_80NP-iRmzU7
Image Credits
Wes Klain
