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Julia ✨Jules✨Franklin

@juliahfranklin

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🛝Remembering to Play in Adulthood
🥁 Pound Tour Crew - @poundfit
🍃Learning through Nature

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Love consignment gems ☑️
Live near Charlotte? ☑️
Want to support a good cause? ☑️

This weekend in Uptown Charlotte is your moment.

@jtposh and @clothedwithcare are teaming up for Posh with Purpose warehouse sale! Most items are $25 or less! Amazing brands & unique finds! And peep one of the @greenjeanssale sisters too! @thedanadegan serves on the Clothed with Care board. *Check out their mission*

Friday 10/16: 12-8
Saturday 10/17: 10-5
Sunday 10/18: 10-5

📍2517 Distribution Street, Charlotte taken in Charlotte, North Carolina by @juliahfranklin

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Not a day goes by where music isn’t part of my life. Getting to be a small part of Charlotte’s annual @confluencecarolinas and @confluencemusicfest this week brought me back into connection with new friends, songs, lyrics, and ideas. If you are in the music industry or love the music industry - this is the place for you too!
What a finale (for me) to have the opportunity to discover a new incredible NC artist @pressleylatonmusic and then walk across the street and experience the magic of @risingappalachia with @sarahtollerson 💫 taken in Charlotte, North Carolina by @juliahfranklin

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Pure serendipity that a celebration of women in Lake Norman landed on Dolly Day 9-2-5. Butterflies, sequins, shimmer, flowers, and golden hour. What else would we wear. 🦋

I got to join the @greenjeanssale Queens wearing our treasures from last week’s consignment sale to celebrate one of our own. @thedanadegan was a top 10 finalist for Lake Norman Woman of the Year.

@mamieneelylee and @lknwomanmag created this award for women making the biggest real impact. The ladies who don’t always get recognized on stages because they are out in the community making genuine connections. Mamie’s mother was that woman. Dana is that woman who I see show up in every arena of her life making it better and more magical for everyone around.

Dolly would approve. taken in The Brawley Estate by @juliahfranklin

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Music is…
Community. Nourishment. Healing. Expression. Connection.

A gift of being human.

What an honor to facilitate an honest conversation with Charlotte’s music community about AI and Music. Two things that make people feel a lot.

Local singer-songwriter @sarahtollerson opened the night with her newest single. Cannot wait for her to record it. Then @creativechops and Joe from @the_wav_lab Lab led a grounded dialogue filled with stories, analogies, and some great song lyrics to answer questions!

If you are near Charlotte and music is your thing too, these are your people. Do not miss the next @musiceverywhereclt @musiccommunityhang , the upcoming @confluencemusicfest conference, @fridaysdopehouse immersive artist gathering, or the Beatles event with @toscomusic 🎶 by @juliahfranklin

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Charlotte Music Community HANG at Free Range Brewing this week opened with a heartfelt performance by local singer-songwriter Sarah Tollerson who shared two of her original songs. @sarahtollerson @musiccommunityhang

Afterward, @juliahfranklin facilitated our conversation about AI with Joe Miller @the_wav_lab and Adam Franklin @creativechops

Thanks to Sarah, our panel and everyone who joined us for the interesting, informative, and interactive discussion with plenty of audience participation! Many shared a critical perspective about AI’s creative uses (“takes the soul out of music”) and others affirmed it can be useful as a tool for musicians, for example to understand a contract, or to get technical instructions for using equipment.

As always, it was great to see both new and familiar faces meeting and making connections — the more we know each other in our local music community, the better we can support each other!

Thanks also to our new hosts at @freerangebrew where we’ll gather next time too — mark your calendars to come out to the next HANG on the Tuesday, November 10!

Charlotte Music Community HANG is organized by partners @fairplayclt @grindhausstudios @musiceverywhereclt and @toscomusic.

Tosco Music’s community outreach performances at the HANG are sponsored by @corning_incorporated

#cltmusichang #musiccommunityhang #cltmusicscene #704music by @juliahfranklin

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Weekends with Ginger. She is my little shadow in the house but still manages to be the one showing me the way. Back to stillness. Back to the simple things.🧡 by @juliahfranklin

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I put a block of time on my calendar recently that said “do something fun.” It was a meeting with myself without a clear deliverable.

Adulting and parenting is full of responsibilities. While I believe fun, work, and productivity can co-exist, I realized recently that I needed a pause.

I just finished reading @pieraluisa’s book “The Playful Way” and got inspired by her concepts of “Wonder Wanders” and “Renewing Your Wows”. This is simply slowing down, renewing your sense of awe, & finding beauty with intention in places right under your nose. As an elder millennial who has spent years optimizing every hour, this felt both radical, necessary, and yes…fun!

So I wandered my way into the newest beauty spot in Downtown Davidson , the first floor of @sincerelyteahouse . This is where you can sip vibrant purple lavender coconut iced tea covered in actual rainbows and cozy up in a reading nook like the adult you are.

I had been sitting on the book, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, for weeks without making time to open it. Hundreds of invented words trying to name the emotions we all feel but never say out loud. The juxtaposition of that dark, beautiful book against the light pouring through those windows was the exact wow and punctuation of bittersweetness the day needed. If you know me you know how fun I believe words can be!

My tea emptied. My book closed.

A few more steps down the road had me crossing paths with a dear friend. Ten seconds earlier or later and it would’ve never happened. The slowing down made room for the lunch we had been trying to schedule for weeks.

Mission accomplished. Fun and play can be quiet, unexpected, and full of wow. For me, that is simplicity, beauty, art, and serendipity.

Wonder wandering will now be a standing appointment. I wonder how many wow moments are just around the corner? taken in Davidson, North Carolina by @juliahfranklin

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The tables are turned! @juliahfranklin asks me what I'm excited about @seriousplayconf by @juliahfranklin

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Play Story Press was at Serious Play (@seriousplayconf ) in early August, so we asked people what they we're excited about, and Julia Franklin (@juliahfranklin ), a speech pathologist, shared her excitement by @juliahfranklin

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The Introduction That Already Happened

Call it serendipity, synchronicity, a God wink, or coincidence. No matter the word, those moments are nourishment to me and when I feel so alive.

Last week at the @seriousplayconf at Duke, I experienced many magical moments, but meeting Kristi Knupp was extra special!

Music is part of my daily nourishment. Playlists, lyrics, sharing songs with people I love. It is absolutely my love language. So when Alym, the CPA professor-magician-DJ I had been trading music conversations with throughout the conference, told me I had to meet the music loving video game audio designer before the conference ended, I paid attention.

Kristi and I ended up at the same group meetup later that night. Alym introduced us and we hit it off immediately. Our stories about life, work, highs and lows were all authentic from the first minute. When I learned she had a budding solo music career she hadn’t made enough time for yet, my curiosity kicked in.

“Are you on Spotify?”
“Of course!” She said her music was under Pretty Little Saturday.
Something in me paused. That sounds familiar.
I typed it in. Her page came up. My jaw hit the floor.
I already followed her!
“No you don’t. No you don’t!”
I showed her Spotify. Then Instagram. I have followed her on both platforms for over a year.
Here is how it happened. I was walking around Asheville with my family last summer and got captivated by an art magazine. I opened it and found a beautiful photo of a musician with a heartfelt story. I sat down on a windowsill at the farmers market, put my AirPods in, and pulled up her music. I followed immediately on both platforms and thought, this is the kind of artist who deserves every bit of recognition.

I was one of her first 500 Instagram followers.
We squealed. We hugged. We took pictures. Everyone around us wanted to know what caused all the joy. It’s contagious.

Two people got introduced, who had already found each other. They just didn’t know it yet.

We celebrated with band stickers and Alym’s actual magic tricks at lunch the next day. AND I found the actual magazine when I got home!

Happy #nationalserendipityday by @juliahfranklin

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Dominique and Julia met for the first time at the Serious Play conference 2026 and ended up bonding over Chonkits! 💛 Julia said that the pins and pieces were great conversation starters and encouraged sharing things that mattered to each of them.

In hindsight, I’m glad I brought my pin making supplies so that she could have a custom tea cup pin.

They chatted, laughed, and got to know each other while choosing their own sets at the Chonkit Bar and celebrated the unexpected connections they were making✨

#connectionsmatter #conferences #networkingtips #conventionseason #corporateretreat taken in Duke University by @juliahfranklin

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