We were lucky to catch up with Jarvis Matthews recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jarvis, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

HERE IS A MAN is the first iteration of a project that had been gestating in my heart and mind for 10 years. My classmate and fellow a capella group member, Alex J. Bledsoe, who is also a filmmaker now, introduced me to the work of Donny Hathaway while we were students at Georgetown University. What I discovered is that I had always known Donny’s music without explicitly knowing it. “This Christmas. “A Song for You”, the definitive cover. And so many other songs in the Black soul and R&B catalogue that I didn’t know he stamped. To skip ahead, after I’d finished my master’s degree in Acting at New York University in 2020, I began to take writing more seriously. First, I finished a poetic short film title LOVE IS that attempts to encapsulate the overwhelming emotions of the Black Lives Matter movement during summer of 2020. I received such great support from my various communities that I figured I should keep writing and attempt to tell more stories. Two very important mentors developed in my life during this time, Joanna White-Oldham and David Mulei. They have more combined years in the filmmaking industry than I have years of life, and they graciously poured their expertise, time, and love into me and the development of my new project, HERE IS A MAN. After receiving a small City Artist Corps grant from the New York Foundation of the Arts, we got to work and created the short film in less than two months. Everything came together in divine timing. The director, crew, and cast were all top notch. To top it all off, we were able to film this day in the life of Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack, at the historic Bitter End Club where Donny recorded his legendary live album in 1971. We filmed in 2021, exactly 50 years later. Last year we were accepted into several major film festivals, including the Academy Award qualifying REEL Sisters Film Festival where our first time director, Sideeq Heard, won the Best Director Award. This project told then and encourages me now that if I have the vision for something and apply my best self to it, then the universe/God will meet me in that endeavor. All things are possible when we believe. “Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” (Habakkuk 2:3)

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Broadly, I exist in service of curating a well lived life, alongside the ultimate Creator. Specifically, I am a Southern Blacqueer actor-filmmaker that seeks to facilitate more nuanced and inquisitive conversations about Black Americans and the essential influences we have seeded into the soul of this country. There is no United States without the existence of enslaved African peoples on this land. I am a proud descendant of these magnificent humans, and I must speak their names and tell their stories every chance I get. Enshrining them into memory through my work is the greatest tribute I can offer in this realm.

I began my artistic journey very early on growing up in Black churches in both Memphis, Tennessee and Franklin, Georgia. The former being Pentecostal churches where I performed my first songs and plays, and the latter being where I grew into myself as an intellectual, advocate, and public speaker. The real revelation came after I went to college. By my junior year, I had become wholly disillusioned with the nature of politics and switched my major to theology as I became more interested in why I believed in God at all. The question led me to the theater. I had started attending plays on campus and even tried to audition for a few, but was never cast. In my junior year, one of my best friends. Anthony White, asked me to audition for this one-act festival. He was directing a scene from August Wilson’s play, Joe Turners’ Come and Gone. In short, I was cast as the lead, Herald Loomis. This CHANGED my life. Herald Loomis’ whole character trajectory is steeped in his crisis of faith. He is tortured by this belief in a God that he feels abandoned him in his most dire times of need, and stripped him of his life and manhood. In the scene that I performed Herald has this harrowing spiritual vision that I believe epitomizes the traumatic nature of the lived Black experience in this country. By the end of this vision, Herald is on his knees weeping for much of the agency and memory both he and all Black people stripped away in the hulls of human cargo ships. I didn’t to perform the entirety of the play, but by the end Herald has regained his song and walks into the world a man delivered from the bondage of mental servitude. Before playing this part, I had only experienced God as a result of religious practice, but this new sacred space of the theater became a home where I could investigate and share my deepest questions. I acted in a play every semester until I graduated.

After college, I went to Princeton Theological Seminary for a year because I didn’t know what else to do. Fortunately, I met some of the greatest humans while I was enrolled. And even more fortunately, after I realized that I didn’t want to go into clergy or Christian ministry for the next 20-30 years of my life, those same folks encouraged me when I said that I wanted to move to New York City to begin an acting career. I had continued acting while in seminary. Every chance I could get, I was on a stage. It had become my safe place. I moved to New York City over a decade ago, and I am still in love with this ever deepening craft.

Now, my work has evolved into a more encompassing world of storytelling as an actor-filmmaker. As a student of politics, history, and spirituality, I offer up stories that encompass the full spectrum of the human experience. From the absolute mundanity of everyday life to the magnificent triumphs of human genius. My speciality is exalting the stories of extraordinary Black people who have been forgotten to history despite them being ingenious trailblazers while amongst us. It is my purpose to show that they were worthy of recognition both then and now. That their lives were full and complicated. The work they accomplished lives on in the fabric of our society, and are worthy of taking the time to listen, see, and feel them.

I must tell the story of Donny Hathaway’s life and music because he has influenced the greatest artists we know today (i.e. Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, John Legend, Amy Winehouse, Beyoncé, and many many more.) We need to know him. Though his death remains a mystery, young Black people need to know that he died early at 33 years old due to a possible suicide brought on by paranoid schizophrenia. This is not to glorify his death or his state of mental health, but to circumvent that reality for themselves if possible. Suicide is a growing epidemic among young Black people, especially boys and young men. Where is the voice in the current entertainment industry landscape speaking to their lives? It must be said aloud without shame.

What I know for sure is that stories have the power to change lives. It has been true for me, for my ancestors, and so I know that it is true for others. Our stories, Black stories, when told by Black artists, with nuance, respect, and imagination, are gifts humanity. We have the power to create the future in real time and for the benefit of all, whether they be Black or not.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

It is my duty to investigate the truths of the human experience through the employment of both factual and imaginative means in order to pull apart and mend reality. Also, I have the great privilege of doing this among other magnificent artists who gather for prolonged periods of time with the same intention. Though the tasks vary from actor to director to writer to cinematographer to designer to engineer, etc., we coalesce around a common goal. The best experiences are when the whole tribe is in sync with this goal and, come hell or high water, we see it through with grace and excellence. Those are the experiences I relish, as do the audiences.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

It must be emphasized that artists are doing the work we deem necessary in the world. Art is necessary for our survival as a species. Creativity is at the root society. There is no agriculture, science, math, or language without creativity. All of the so-called professions are historically based in an art form. It is the greatest of tools we have to express our innermost longings, joys, and sorrows. Art is not an undertaking only for the wealthy and careless. Every human on this planet has a birthright to do and experience art. In its essence, art brings us back to the childlike self that we have had to tuck away for the satisfaction of others. I’m here to tell you that it’s okay. Let yourself out to play! Artists battle the everyday pressures of life, too, but we also know the thrill of unmuted creativity. You deserve that liberation too.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jarvisd_matthews/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarvis-matthews-a4605a53/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/brotha_jahvis
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jarvismatthews3871

Image Credits
Maamoun Tobbo, Donathan Walters, Ella Bromblin, Amir Malaklou, Edwin Montoya, Jarvis D. Matthews, Ashley Pena