In our series My monday morning, motivated people say WSJ. how they start the week.

This month Ahmir Thompson, better known as DJ and producer Questlove, made his directorial debut with the documentary Summer of Soul (… Or, when the revolution couldn’t be televised). The film tells the story of the Harlem Cultural Festival, a music festival that took place over six Sundays at Marcus Garvey Park (then Mount Morris Park) in 1969. The series featured artists such as Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone and Mahalia Jackson and eventually drew the nickname “Black Woodstock” because it was held the same summer as the counter-cultural festival in upstate New York. While Woodstock was quickly commemorated in a documentary of the same name, footage from the Harlem Cultural Festival has been rarely seen so far.

In 2017, two producers approached Questlove with over 40 hours of festival footage; he edited it into the backbone of the documentary in just under two hours with editor Joshua L. Pearson. Questlove also interviewed a number of people behind the festival, from artists and producers to members of the public. The documentary was acquired by Hulu, Onyx Collective and Searchlight Pictures at the Sundance Film Festival this year.

Wonder, who was 19 when he appeared at the festival, is one of the documentary’s most notable performers. “It’s a well of water, an unstoppable faucet of information and love,” Questlove said when interviewing Wonder. In 1969, “[Wonder] was in such a transformative moment in his career, where he is about to leave Little Stevie Wonder – land and turn into genius Stevie Wonder.

Questlove is also a musician, drummer and, along with rapper Black Thought, co-founder of The Roots, who have performed as an in-house band since Tonight’s Show with Jimmy Fallon since 2014. He has produced records for artists like Elvis Costello, Jay-Z and Amy Winehouse. And he’s the author of six books, including a cookbook, as well as Music is history, on the last half-century of American music, coming out this fall. Here he is talking to WSJ. why he’s been drinking all of his meals lately and how he’s learning to be kinder to himself.