Heal, Homie streetwear combines fashion with mental health, wellness and healing

PITTSBURGH — Jonathan "Quest" Brown is the multi-hyphenate creative behind the mental health and wellness streetwear brand Heal, Homie.

Brown's sagacious nature is inviting and assured, but getting to the iteration of himself that aims to help so many along their healing journeys took reckoning with his own grief and deep inner work that led him all the way to another continent.

Eight years ago, Brown found himself in Amsterdam, just three days after his mother unexpectedly died from a heart attack. Grappling with the life-altering loss, he was searching for something.

During his nine-day trip, he was introduced to psychedelics and other wellness practices he says opened his mind. Now, he draws from those experiences, fashion and what he has gained in practice to help others.

"I was searching for a way to find what I had just lost," said Jonathan Brown, 39, founder of Heal, Homie and wellness practitioner. When he returned home, he tried kundalini yoga.

"It's been a journey of feeling comfortable enough in my own skin and what I'm embodying to offer that to others," Brown said

Heal, Homie had been in the making for several years, but he officially launched the brand this April. A portion of the profits support access to mental health services, including therapy, yoga sessions and other wellness tools.

"We're really promoting mental health through fashion and bridging the gap between the hip-hop culture that I live and breathe every day," said Brown, who is also a father of two.

His first encounter with yoga happened at a studio near his home in Swissvale. He was uncomfortable. "I looked around and everyone was white, except for the teacher. She was a Black woman," he said.

He was blown away.

Raised by a single mother, Deborah Brown, he credits her for shaping his open-hearted nature. "She accepted me for who I was, no matter what I did, my mother still loved me for me. She showed me how to love others unconditionally ... I do my best to offer that to anyone that I meet," he said.

Brown dove into the practice and spiritual exploration, finding mentors to guide him through meditation. The practice evolved into Reiki — a system of touching with the hands based on the belief that such touching by an experienced practitioner produces beneficial effects — and other wellness modalities. Friends and family who knew him from his upbringing in the Hill District or through his 15-year hip-hop career as "Jon Quest", began asking questions.

"That's when I began to come out and introduce them to what had helped me," he said.

Not everyone was accepting. He was judged because of the way he decided to process his grief. People who knew him through the lens of hip-hop didn't understand the new direction. He lost friends and family along the way.

"A lot of Black and brown folks might be scared to meditate or not even feel comfortable enough to try that, so Heal, Homie is my way of introducing those modalities through fashion and 'Hey, if you are curious about healing, this is how I did it'" Brown said.

Fashion became the vehicle for communication.

On a recent overcast summer Friday in July, Brown was sat in the plush sofa chairs of his fiancée Jamie Korchak's studio, Sacred Social House in Dormont. He wore the inaugural collection of his brand: a beige raw umber Initiation 111 T-shirt or the "OG shirt" as he calls it. He styled the shirt with a Heal, Homie hat, relaxed light wash jeans and his signature round metal frames.

"Heal, Homie was born for a couple of reasons, to honor and be authentic around our healing journeys and giving someone space to heal their own way. The journey is not perfect, "Brown said.

The brand's logo reflects that imperfection. The font is designed to be irregular. The person is a stick figure in a Gyan Mudra pose, symbolizing energy flowing from within. The lines are wavy, representing motion and the nonlinear path of healing. Homies represent everyone.

Leading up to the brand's release in April, Brown posted positive affirmations and wellness messages on social media. Gina Vensel, 44, co-founder of the Plan Media Project was following his posts and reached out to try a Reiki session.

After discussing their mutual work, hers in cannabis advocacy and psychedelics, they decided to collaborate and co-founded Three Rivers Psychedelic Society, or TRIPS. A community based educational organization focused on compassionate care and destigmatizing psychedelics.

Brown plans to drop Heal, Homie seasonal collections, with a fall line featuring multiple shirt and hat styles and a hoodie.

Healing, he said, is messy. "It's about coming together to combat the messed up things happening around us," Brown said.

Vensel said, there is a collective trauma that we are all experiencing, regarding what is taking place across the world and residual trauma from the COVID-19 pandemic. "Community is medicine. Healing which can include psychedelics, or breath work, dancing and Reiki," she said.

As a young Black man growing up in the Hill District, Brown said he was taught not to cry or emote, despite the traumas and barriers that can come with living in the inner city. "Just fight through it...don't talk about what is happening inside the house," he remembered.

Being a Black male leader in a wellness space often led by women is something he approaches with humility. Brown began offering men's meet up sessions in person, over the last few years. He continues to facilitate it through a call every Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.

"This is my responsibility," he said. "I understand now why my mother passed away. It took time, but I've found the beauty in her death because it showed me my purpose. This is it."

"Jonathan is just a really authentic person," Vensel said. "He has started Heal,Homie with his heart. It's in service to others, to help people understand they are not alone and share what he's learned."

Part of his healing journey also includes honoring all aspects of his heritage which includes being about 15% Irish, which has deepened his self- awareness.

More folks are now paying attention. He is still the same "Quest" they knew on the stage dropping albums and mixtapes, "I'm just an evolved version," he said.