Meet Daniel Haynes | 🇬🇾 Journalist 🖋️| Educator 📚 | Storyteller ✍🏾🗣️

We had the good fortune of connecting with Daniel Haynes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
When I was younger, I never thought about starting my own business. I knew I wanted to be a writer and tell stories to connect people outside of their own experiences but I guess I had subscribed to what was taught to me. You know the traditional narrative where you go to school, then go to college, then work and from there you build. As a storyteller, this meant becoming a journalist, telling stories and eventually getting to tell the stories I wanted to. I don’t disagree with that traditional narrative but I believe that in today’s rapidly evolving media world that narrative is just one way to do it.

It wasn’t until my junior year of college I started thinking about what it is exactly that I wanted to do as a storyteller. So I sat down one night and I prayed. I had a heart to heart with God and asked him to show me what my purpose was. The next morning I woke up hearing. “I created you to turn words into windows.” From there my trademark “Turning Words Into Windows” was born and from there I connected my “business brand” to my purpose. I also thought about the ultimate goal I had to own a media company one day and it took some time for me to realize that while I’d like to have my media company in a physical building, I am the media company with the abilities God gave me, and the skills I’ve learned over the years, and still continue to learn.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My work is rooted in narrative and literary art, so I focus on telling stories to illuminate and highlight the human condition. For me, feature writing and storytelling is an art form to which I have dedicated my life to. My mind is always overflowing with questions that seek to explain this human condition.

Again, when I was younger my storytelling focused on bringing characters to life that people could see a bit of themselves reflected in. I also was more tapped in with my poetry and spoken word art. But in the last two years, my writing has focused on bringing minority stories to life-especially those of Black and Brown people. My pieces are influenced by a more nuanced understanding of the collective experience of struggle and violence but are underscored with themes of hope, love, and community. When the murder of George Floyd happened in the summer of 2020, and the BLM protests ensued, I began work on what I consider my greatest literary piece to date, a book titled “US: A Collection of Our Stories, Thoughts, and Dreams” which I completed in July of 2022 with a publication date set for a few weeks from now.

This last April I went back to my poetry and spoken word roots with my series Train Thoughts, or. “🚊💭” as it’s known on Instagram. It was a bit unnerving bearing bits and pieces of my soul for the world to see, but that’s what we do ultimately as creators. We bare our souls in each one of our pieces. But the overall process wasn’t and still isn’t a straight and sunshine filled path, with obstacles constantly popping up. From constantly going back to the drawing board on ideas, to trying to put together quality content with the existing resources I have.

Thankfully, I’ve got a good team of people around me, who I can ask for help and who genuinely believe in me and my purpose. They remind me of the African proverb “To go fast go alone, to go far, go together.”

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Now we’re talking about the fun stuff! In NYC I got quite a few hole in the wall spots where you get a taste of life in the city even though I’m a lowkey guy who could have the best time sitting on my roof with a glass of whiskey watching the sunset and reading. My best friend is like me in that regard haha.

But I’ve been here a while so I’d say we’d definitely hit the Caribbean food and night spots out in Queens where the food and music literally tastes and feels like home, to hidden gem Jazz and poetry spots where you get to hear dope artists perform. City Lights Open Mics out in Queens is one of those open mic spots. Great people, talented artists, and wholesome energies.

We’d definitely hit some of the museums like the MET, MOMA, Guggenheim, but also do the NYC touristy things like check out Times Square, ESB, Statue of Liberty, and walk the Highline.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are too many names to call right here haha, I think I could start today and still be giving shoutouts till the end of the summer but I’ll try my best. I’ll divide my life into three parts: The earlies, the midyears, and now. In the earlies I credit my mom and two teachers of mine, Ms. Maison and Ms. Austin who I had in high school. Outside of being amazing teachers who pushed me to be the best I could be in whatever capacity, they also held me accountable to the potential that lived inside of me.

In the midyears I credit my Caribbean support group who would make sure I was okay when dealing with homesickness, when struggling with things I’ve shared before with you guys. Now? I credit my boys Jamell, Ryan, and Anthony whose brotherhood has served as a solid rock on which I can bounce ideas, vent feelings, and just have wholesome connection with.

Website: https://twiw.us/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniel.chaynes/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-haynes-18174b141/

Image Credits
Black and white photos: @thelu.mag