This interview was conducted in Brooklyn, New York at a garden in Bed-Stuy on June 18, 2022 at 2:01 PM. Upon my arrival in Bed-Stuy, I was immediately taken with how beautiful and lively the energy on the streets is. Mecca Mozelle is an extension of that same energy. Her voice has a natural vibrancy to it, strong and assured and light and kind. She’s vivacious. As we walk through her neighborhood that she says she rarely leaves, she reveals its secrets to me with her own particular zeal. She attracts attention and everyone appears to be a little more alive after speaking to her. On this day, in my eyes, Mecca is a smile in human form. But Mecca is also a million other things. She’s a model. She’s a writer. She’s an actor. A lover. An abundant creator in the highest sense. She tells me a lot but isn't afraid to keep some things for herself. Above all, Mecca is a soul to be experienced and I feel like I am better for having experienced it. In this chapter of her life, she is limitless with her love and with her understanding. We sit at a chess table with no chess pieces in a garden with little flowers and exchange ideas. 

Najee AR Fareed: Who are you? How old are you? Where are you from? What do you do? 

Mecca Mozelle: You gon ask my age? Damnnn. I don’t wanna tell my tea. 

Najee AR Fareed: You don’t have to say your age if you don’t want to.  

Mecca Mozelle: Okay I won’t. My name is Mecca Mozelle. I am originally from upstate. I now reside in Brooklyn, New York. I model but I am also a writer. 

Najee AR Fareed: What was the first thing you fell in love with? 

Mecca Mozelle: The first thing I fell in love with was creating. I remember when I was younger and I needed an escape and I didn’t have a lot of resources, I would take everything I had and have fun. I would make the best of everything I had. I’d cut up magazines, knowing I couldn’t pay for the subscriptions. 

Najee AR Fareed: That was me. 

Mecca Mozelle: My whole wall was full of them. I would write stories. I was one of those kids who would fantasize about a lot at a young age. That was definitely my first love.  

Najee AR Fareed: What do you think sparked that love? 

Mecca Mozelle: Curiosity. I was very aware of certain things at a young age that I think certain kids may not pay attention to. Syracuse is a very small town. Everyone knows everyone. If you don’t know them, you know something about them. Stuff like that. Me being the only girl with the boys in the house and my mom being the way she was, I was very quiet and I was very observant. I feel like I understood a lot of things they may have thought I didn’t understand. I was always curious and wanted to see what else was out there and what else I didn’t know. I was very young. Too young. I was stressed out. I was five like, “why is this like this?” 

Najee AR Fareed: I was the same way. 

Mecca Mozelle: Really? 

Najee AR Fareed: I don’t feel like I was a big question-asker but I think even as a kid that might have been because of ego. I wanted to be a know-it-all so I would never be like, “why is this like this?” but there was a curiosity. I think that’s part of the reason why I got into reading and writing. 

Mecca Mozelle: That’s me with writing. 

Najee AR Fareed: With reading I was able to find out things without asking questions. But there was definitely a curiosity. Curiosity and creativity go hand-in-hand.  

NAF: So this is a quick word association. I will say a word then you will say the very first thing that comes to your mind. 

Mecca: What do you mean? 

NAF: The very first thing that comes to your mind. Just say it. I’m not gon ask you no crazy shit. 

Mecca: Okay, okay, okay. 

NAF: No thinking. 

Mecca: Okay. 

NAF: Just say the first thing. 

Mecca: Cool. 

NAF: Model. 

Mecca: Visionary. 

NAF: Art. 

Mecca: Fashion. 

NAF: Fierce. 

Mecca: Strong. 

NAF: Lost. 

Mecca: Found. 

NAF: Sex. 

Mecca: [thinking] 

NAF: No thinking! 

Mecca: [laughs] I’m not. Uh, love. 

NAF: Love. 

Mecca: Sex. 

NAF: Beauty. 

Mecca: Pain. 

NAF: Death. 

Mecca: Life. 

NAF: Legacy 

Mecca: Ancestors. 

NAF: See? That wasn’t that bad. That wasn’t that bad at all. 

Mecca: [laughs] 

NAF: What was the last song you listened to? 

Mecca: Can I go to it? 

NAF: Of course. 

Mecca: [pulls out phone] I was listening to it but I never remember the name of it. “Dangerous” by Ivy Sole. 

NAF: “Dangerous” by Ivy Sole. I never heard it but I’ll go listen to it. 

Mecca: It’s fire, I’ll send it to you. 

NAF: Tangentially related to that, if you could be a song, what song would you be? 

Mecca: If I could be a song I would be Nina Simone, “Blackbird.” 

NAF: I love Nina Simone. 

Mecca: I feel like if I had a theme to my life’s story, it would be Nina Simone’s “Blackbird.” I love that song. 

NAF: Her voice is just so… 

Mecca: Yeah.

NAF: It carries so much with it. If that makes sense. 

Mecca: Yeah and she’s a storyteller. I love people who can do what they’re passionate about and make people feel things deeper than the sound of it. I really appreciate that. 

NAF: It’s crazy you are talking about stories because that’s kinda exactly what I was thinking about when I was coming here and drafting questions in my mind. [reaches into bag and pulls out Jazz by Toni Morrison] 

Mecca: Toni Morrison. 

NAF: Yep. Have you read Jazz before? 

Mecca: No, sorry. 

NAF: Nobody has read everything, no judging. 

Mecca: [laughs] 

NAF: But I was going to read the first paragraph of the book because it’s been something I have been thinking about a lot recently. Here we go, Jazz by Toni Morrison, first paragraph: 

Sth, I know that woman. She used to live with a flock of birds on Lenox Avenue. Know her husband, too. He fell for an eighteen-year-old girl with one of those deepdown, spooky loves that made him so happy and sad he shot her just to keep the feeling going. When the woman, her name is Violet, went to the funeral to see the girl and to cut her dead face they threw her to the floor and out of the church. She ran, then, through all that snow, and when she got back to her apartment she took the birds from their cages and set them out the windows to freeze or fly, including the parrot that said, “I love you.” 

I feel that’s probably the best intro paragraph to anything ever. 

Mecca: I love that. Could I take a picture of that so I can read it? 

NAF: Of course. I guess the question would be about the husband. She described his love as a spooky love that made him happy and sad. Do you feel like there’s anything in your life that you are scared of a little bit? That you could describe as spooky? 

Mecca: I think everything that I am doing now. Honestly. Before it was just fantasy and it was fun and it was an escape. And now I have somehow manifested it into being my life. The other day I went home for five hours to see my mom. You remember when I was telling you about the pictures on my wall? I feel like I’m living the life I had on my wall. And it’s kinda crazy to know that now. And it scares me. I was telling her that I was scared now and I am in the process of learning how to receive these things and this is a real thing and I am actually in control. And it’s scary to know that you are in control of where your life could go. 

NAF: Yeah! Like, do you trust yourself? 

Mecca: You have to have real strong faith in that. It makes me so happy and I love that I’m doing it but at the same time… Even now, to say that I am a writer, that’s new for me. I have been writing my whole life but it’s new for me to say that. I think just putting myself out there is very beautiful, fun and exciting. But it’s definitely my biggest fear at the same time. 

NAF: I get that. With writing, I feel like the biggest nerd telling people that I am a writer. 

Mecca: Even acting. Like I am going to show everyone that I can tap into this? [screams] I didn’t know I could do it until my agent had threw me into a casting. He was like, “you gotta remember these lines in 8 hours?” I was like, “8 hours?” Then I remembered all of them and I was great. Great. 

NAF: Powerful. Do you think that love could be vindictive? 

Mecca: What does that mean again? Like vicious? 

NAF: Like vicious. Can love be something that comes back and bites you? 

Mecca: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, of course. I feel like the people that love us the most and know us the most, because we have a special connection with them like your parents or your family members or  your lover, certain things they might do may hit us a lot harder compared someone else because you have a certain love, vulnerability, transparency, or compassion with them. So yeah, I feel like it’s very easy when you love someone, for their actions to feel vindictive. It may not always be that, but that can be a feeling. 

NAF: I’ve been thinking about this idea from All About Love by bell hooks, you know the one everyone reads. 

Mecca: Rest in peace. 

NAF: Rest in peace for sure. The idea that love is a commitment to growth. 

Mecca: It is. 

NAF: Is vindictiveness a growth language? 

Mecca: Yeah. Even if you’re my mom, I feel like we are still learning how to love each other. We all go through our different chapters and we become different people within those different chapters. And I think there are chapters where you may not like me and who I am but I need to go through this chapter and now you view me in a certain light in this moment but it does not make me who I am. 

NAF: I was telling someone the other day. In the book, as amazing as it is, there are a lot of definitions of what love and what love isn't. I am not going to say the ideas weren’t complex because she was obviously a very intelligent person and it was very complex. 

Mecca: I get what you’re saying. Everyone doesn’t love the same, everyone doesn’t feel the same. 

NAF: I feel like a lot of the ideas were too absolute. People are more complex than what even the smartest people can put on the page. People are so difficult to pigeonhole, emotionally. 

NAF: What’s something off about you that you love? Something you would consider off, not the world. 

Mecca: Something I consider off? I don’t know. I got a lot of shit off about me but I kinda like it. [laughs] 

NAF: That’s the idea. I love that you love the off things about you. 

Mecca: I have this way of reading people. I have an accurate way of reading people. Of reading who they and maybe even where they come from. It’s very odd but I’m always on point. Weirdly! I can always figure people out and I can adapt too. 

NAF: I feel like I’m a pretty good people-reader too. I feel like it’s something I have. 

Mecca: I feel like people know I be reading them but I think they fuck with it and I fuck with it too. You know? They’re like “she knows” and I’m like, “yep, I do.”  

NAF: I’ve been thinking a lot about stories and being a story. The question is, what’s your story? Obviously no one has a single story but what do you think your story would be? 

Mecca: That’s hard. 

NAF: Yeah that’s too open, 

Mecca: But if I had to put it into perspective, I have this tattoo that says, “I am someone to be experienced, A soul to be tasted.” Meaning you can’t figure me out unless you experience me. Even with how young I am, I feel like I have been through many lives. I feel like if I tell you a story, that would be just one story and I would have another chapter with a bunch of stories. I could never relate to just one story. But I could say that I have a complex story and I am very experienced in life. I have been alone for a long time, since I was seventeen. I experienced a lot of people, what it’s like to be on your own, what it’s like to be with other people, ways of living, new ways of living, unlearning things, just that whole process. I don’t know if that makes sense with your question. 

NAF: Definitely makes sense. Perfect answer. 

NAF: Okay, this is something that I love asking people. If there is a hex chart and they need to summon you out of a portal, boom, poof, you pop up outta nowhere; they need four physical things. What would those things be?  

Mecca: To do what? To cleanse yourself? 

NAF: No, to summon you. 

Mecca: Like four physical, powerful things. 

Mecca: I don’t know if I want to share that, because it’s a powerful thing. [thinks] If you know it’s a powerful thing. I’m spiritual so that’s a heavy question. To some people it’s small but it’s a huge question. I’m not sure if I want to share that. But I guess if I had to make it fun… I guess some flowers. I don’t know, that’s a hard question. I don’t want to answer that one. 

NAF: Okay, what’s a complex emotion of yours? 

Mecca: I think people take my intensity more as aggression rather than passion. My girlfriend says I can be intense or come off as intimidating to some people. I am passionate about a lot and I feel a lot of things very deeply. I can be stern. I’m a capricorn too so I can be really stern with my shit. This is what I believe and this is my shit. But I’m growing to like that part of me. 

NAF: What’s a simple emotion of yours? 

Mecca: A simple emotion? Happiness. Is that what you mean? You mean like it’s easy for me. 

NAF: I just mean… What's an emotion that doesn’t feel hard to get to for you? 

Mecca: Compassion. Compassion. Sometimes I feel like I have too much compassion. I really am a very considerate person. I am the type of person where I won’t place this (missing dog flier she was handed on the way to the garden) too close to your notebook because this is his shit? What are your pronouns? 

NAF: He/Him. 

Mecca: Like I don’t even do it consciously anymore. This is just who I am. I am speaking at a certain volume because I know he’s (a man studying alone in the garden a few feet away) right there reading. I am very compassionate for the people around me. 

NAF: That’s a beautiful thing to be. 

Mecca: Thank You. 

NAF: If you could be one thing, what thing would you be? It could be literally anything but it could only be one word. I say all the time that I feel like a huge reason that I am Muslim is because my mother. She’s never said it explicitly but if she wanted me to be anything, it would be Muslim. Muslim rather rich… happy… black… anything. 

Mecca: I feel like that’s how a lot of my Muslim friends are too. Muslim first. 

NAF: I feel like being Muslim is an easy way to keep my mother happy and proud. 

Mecca: I wanna say the word but I feel like it has this stigma around it. So I want to think of another word. 

NAF: What's the stigma?

Mecca: You said if I could be anything, what would it be? 

NAF: One thing, yeah. 

Mecca: And I would say powerful. I want to have power over how I live my life. Especially the way I live my life; being in fashion, being in art, being a black artist, being a black creative. I want to have the power to be able to create space. I want to have the power to have a voice that really matters, an opinion that really matters. I want the power to help other people have compassion. I want the power to bring people together and be more conscious and aware of their surroundings. I don’t know. It’s a lot. I want to have power. That is the goal. Honestly. Power. 

NAF: The power to create space, especially for other people, is pretty much what I am trying to do with TRIBE magazine. I want to give a platform to others. 

Mecca: That’s a thing too. We need our own. I don’t want to feel like I have to fit into these spaces. I want you to feel like you have to be in the room with me. You are at the table with me. I feel like I’m already there now. But I want to stay stern with that. Sometimes you get insecure with that, being a black creative. Cuz you know, people shut you down or people ignore you when you pitch stuff. There are things that attack that but you have to stay stern with that, especially when you know you’re onto something. 

NAF: What’s something you hope to never know? 

Mecca: Something I hope to never know… [thinking]... can I tell you something I hope to know? 

NAF: Sure. 

Mecca: Something I hope to know… Generationally, a lot of women in my family don’t get married or fall in love and stuff like that or have successful relationships. They all die. I want to know the advice of the one who did have a successful relationship. Both grandmas before me. Like my great-great-great grandma. I want to know the advice she would give to us on love and how would someone as complex as we are, how would you succeed? And what would that look like to you? And what was your love like? That kind of thing. I want to know. I want to be taught love by my ancestors. 

NAF: Love as a legacy, as a heritage. 

Mecca: Yeah, I’m in my 20s. I don’t know. None of us knows. A lot of us don’t know. Nobody tells us. 

NAF: We don’t know shit for real. 

Mecca: We don’t shit at all. We really don’t know. I wish the one who did have a successful relationship could help me. You know? Who went right? 

NAF: There’s this other book I will bring up. It’s Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. At the end of the book, Vonnegut inserts himself into the story as the writer and creator and he directly addresses the main character of the story (Kilgore Trout) and he apologizes to the character as his creator. He apologizes to the character for all of the pain he put him through. My question is, if you met your creator, what would you hope to hear? 

Mecca: Did I do my duty right? 

NAF: You would ask a question? 

Mecca: I would ask a question. I’m curious. I feel like everything we do is already written for us. I believe in many lives and that our spirits just move onto whatever, I won’t get into that. But I feel like this chapter has a certain goal. A certain victory. I feel like if I met my creator I’d want to know if I came close or if I did it right. 

NAF: That’s a beautiful knowing. To know if you succeeded at the purpose of life. 

NAF: What’s a life lived with love to you? 

Mecca: A life lived with love is understanding. 

NAF: Understanding what? 

Mecca: What love means to the person that you’re loving. And growing to love that and like that and wanting to deal with that. Like you were saying before with the whole growth thing, when you were talking about the whole vindictiveness thing… that comes with people. If you have that chapter (of vindictiveness) and I love you, I am willing to understand why you feel this way and what I can do to get you back to peace. Whatever it is. Loving you is trying to understand you and your needs and your wants. 

NAF: Beautiful. 

Mecca: Thank You. 

NAF: If one of your limits could die, which one would you choose? 

Mecca: What do you mean? 

NAF: As people, there are limits on things we can do. 

Mecca: I would put a limit on my compassion. I really do put the world before me sometimes. People I love, I really do. I make a lot of sacrifices. I do. I really do. I wish I could put a limit to what I give. 

NAF: But you wouldn’t want to take a limit off of anything? 

Mecca: Off of it? What do you mean off? 

NAF: Not off of compassion necessarily but when I was thinking of the question… 

Mecca: Yeah, give me your point of view. 

NAF: At first I was- 

Mecca: You answer it. 

NAF: I don’t know if I came up with an answer. My first answer in my head was that I wouldn’t want a limit on happiness. Then I thought to myself that if I didn’t have a limit on happiness, there would be a hollowness. 

Mecca: You wouldn’t even be able to appreciate happiness. 

NAF: Yeah that’s what I’m saying. Then I thought about eliminating my limits on passion or love. Then a fear arose that that could consume me or something. I don’t know. I guess limits are there for us to not be eaten by things. 

Mecca: That’s the thing though, I don’t agree. I feel like the only way to be happy is to have limitless ways and thinking. Once you figure out what you like and how you want to be and live, you should be limitless. Very much so. I feel like those are things that are making me brave enough to step into who I am and who I want to be. It’s kinda hard to me, especially in this chapter of my life. Maybe in the past I'd want to limit my fears or stuff like that. But now, I really believe in being limitless. This is kinda controversial, but people be like, “oh I hate the whole God complex.” I feel like we should all step into our higher selves and be that and believe that and always follow within that. I feel like people get comfortable with others not being too confident. I forgot where I was going. What’s the question again? 

NAF: [laughs] If one of your limits could die, which one would you choose? 

Mecca: Oh yeah, I don’t know. I just think I’m limitless. I don’t have limits. I don’t want any limits. I don’t want any. 

NAF: None? 

Mecca: No. I want to have this high, abundant, free, loving, stern, structured, life. And I actually see that happening now, for the first time in my life. You know what I mean? 

NAF: Definitely. It’s a beautiful place to be. 

Mecca: It’s a first. But it feels good. 

NAF: Final question, what’s next? 

Mecca: What’s next? I’m working on a book and I’m working on a short film. I really want to get my story and my fantasies out. Modeling is my biggest platform and I’m going to utilize that to get myself out there more. I wasn’t the girl in the hood writing stories for no reason. In this chapter of my life, I am literally learning who I am and what I don’t want. I am leaving all the pressures of social media and who I am supposed to be somewhere else. I am really stepping into Mecca. Mecca, who were you before the internet? Who were you before you cared about what other people thought? All of this shit matters. What’s next is that you are going to see the full Mecca coming. I am stepping into my voice and my films and my writing and what I believe in. My visual artistry. I want to be more bold with that. I feel like I have been playing it safe because I was too worried about what people think of me. I felt like I had to model a certain way to get to certain places. I was there but I’m not anymore. I am focused on a goal before I allow myself the freedom to go with the flow again. I went with the flow for a while but now it’s like it’s like I want to get sturdy and build a foundation then get free again. I have to be smart about it but I don’t want to waste time. We don't know how much time we really have. 

published June 22, 2022