Jennifer Msumba, autistic filmmaker, musician, author

Jennifer Msumba is a multi-hyphenated creator: she’s a singer/songwriter, filmmaker, and YouTube vlogger with over 30,000 followers, along with another 20,000 more between Instagram and TikTok).

She’s also a woman of color on the autism spectrum — and the author of “Shouting at Leaves,” her “sort of” memoir. Msumba is a comedic genius with impeccable timing, and her scripts are witty and delightful, featuring other friends and companions, some of whom are also neurodiverse. Msumba helps us see not only how many ways there are to experience and give witness to the world but reminds us of the power of art to help us transcend our own self-erected boundaries.

Performing at The Studio@620 in St Petersburg on August 11, Msumba spoke to The Weekly Challenger about her journey from a young person struggling to cope with her brain — which was a mystery to even her.

Her YouTube channel invites audiences to get to know her world, featuring videos like “My First Theater Audition!,” “The Hidden History of Fidget Toys,” and a video that shares her experience selling at her first flea market.

While chatting with The Challenger, she shares how her autism wasn’t diagnosed until she was in her 30s, even though doctors told her family of her sensory processing disorder by second grade; by 15 she had been given an additional obsessive-compulsive diagnosis.

While her membership in MENSA indicated her high-level intelligence, all the separate issues she was dealing with weren’t wasn’t easy to diagnose. Msumba lived at ‘placements’ that were supposed to keep her from self-harming herself, but she remembers them as being less-than-helpful to her sense of self and self-esteem.

But finally getting diagnosed, and landing in a facility that works for her life and allows her to practice her talents and create has made all the difference. “For whatever reason, one day, I realized, Jennifer, no. I realized God gave me things, and I realized I wasn’t going to ever use them unless I allowed myself to go outside of the boundaries that have been set upon me,” she shared.

Check out more about Msumba in The Weekly Challenger, and don’t miss the opportunity to see her when she performs locally at Studio@620.