Born in the Germantown sector of Northwest Philadelphia, Anwar Johnson grew up consumed by all the things your typical late 90s to early 2000s kid would, especially sports and the performing arts. As young as 5 years old Anwar was involved in numerous athletic activities, most notably football winning multiple regional and national titles as early as 1999 with the historic Mt. Airy Bantams Youth Football Association.
Diverging from athletic aspirations as a teen, Anwar began to put more focus into his other passion, theater. In 2002, Anwar became a founding member of the Opera North Youth Theater Guild (ONYTG) starring in its first ever production, “Oliver!”. Anwar then served as a member of the legendary Freedom Theater before honing his skills at the High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) acting in many musicals and plays including, “A Fiddler on the Roof,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” “Aida,” and “12 Angry Men”.
In 2009, Anwar began to apply his theatrical skills to spoken word and competed locally, nationally, and internationally even ranking as a 2x semi-finalist (2009, 2010) at the international poetry slam festival, Brave New Voices (BNV). Synthesizing all his prodigious experience on stage, at the age of 17, Anwar authored his first ever collection of poetry, “The Audio-Biography”.
Graduating in 2011, Anwar turned his passion for theater and spoken word into professional public speaking at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. Whether it be Academic Excellence, Truth, or Spirituality, every year, from 2012-2015, by serving as a student leader, Anwar prepared dynamic and motivational speeches for incoming freshman classes of young Black men at Morehouse. Anwar featured at numerous events across the entire Atlanta University Consortium and made appearances to speak at Morehouse’s premier events including a feature introduction for NBA Champion Grant Hill at the institution’s Candle in the Dark Gala in 2014 and a feature halftime presentation at the Hawks vs Clippers game in tribute to the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr that same year.
It was becoming a McNair Scholar and assistant coach of the poetry non-profit Atlanta Word Works in the summer of 2013 that Anwar first encountered the unique intersection between psychology and creative/performing arts. Between assisting in leading his own team of spoken word artists and producing award winning research at McNair’s annual research conference in the category of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Stigmatization, Anwar’s academic commitment to pursuing psychology was cemented.
Anwar graduated from Morehouse College in 2015 with a B.A. in Philosophy and went on to continue his academic career in Washington D.C. at Howard University. While in D.C., Anwar turned his attention to mastering his trade as a clinician while simultaneously working across the District of Columbia for multiple mental health organizations understanding and addressing critical issues in the nation’s capitol.
In 2018, Anwar graduated from Howard University with his M.Ed in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and began his professional career. Over the last five years, Anwar has worked at nearly every level of the mental health industry, from community support to residential counselor, from crisis management to social worker, understanding from every angle what it means to be in the helping profession and what is best practice for aiding those in need.
Detecting a gross systemic deficit in how the mental health industry administered psychological services, through a radical and socio-economic framework, Anwar created Identity & Role Rehabilitation, a new cutting edge approach to dealing with intergenerational and systemic dysfunction. Via IRR, Anwar hopes to assist individuals from all walks of life investigate and prevent the miseducation and trauma of White Supremacy and its four branches (Neo-colonialism, White male Patriarchy, Chattel Bondage, and Capitalism).