Dawn Robinson (left) was part of En Vogue, which pioneered girl groups and revolutionised R&B in the 1990s. Photos: Dawn Robinson/Instagram, Handout
Three years of living in her car have been a “growth period” for Dawn Robinson, the En Vogue founding member said in a YouTube reveal of her surprising situation.
“You guys, for the past three years, I have been living in my car. I said it, oh my gosh, it’s out,” Robinson said in the video posted Tuesday (March titled Your New Life Is In The Scary.
The decision to go homeless came after a string of housing mishaps along with pandemic-related hard times. She was living with her parents in Las Vegas during lockdown, Robinson said in her video, an arrangement that ended in 2020 when they stopped getting along.
“That was wonderful, until it wasn’t,” she said.
What followed was a few years of being strung along by her manager after he coaxed her back to Los Angeles with housing promises that never materialised, she asserted.
After concluding the manager was “playing games,” Robinson said she began a web search of “car life” and found the community she never knew she needed.
“This whole community of people that live in their cars, and a whole community of people that live in their RVs, and a whole community of people that live in their vans,” she said. “Van life, car life, RV life. And I loved what I was seeing. I thought, Wow, I could do that.”
She kicked off her adventure on March 9, 2022.
Robinson said though it’s been a bumpy road at times, it has also been a time of “awakening, healing, forgiving, and growing.”
“It’s not ‘woe is me.’ I’m learning about who I am, I’m learning myself as a person, as a woman,” she said.
The My Lovin’ and Hold On singer said it was a leap to tell the world about her move, as friends and associates said it could have negative repercussions on her celebrity image.
“What if they judge me? So what?” Robinson said. “We’re all judged. Life is life.”
En Vogue pioneered girl groups and revolutionised R&B in the 1990s after launching in 1989 in the Bay Area, Buzzfeed recounted last year. Besides Robinson the members were Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron and Maxine Jones. They were nominated for seven Grammy Awards. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
