We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christine Anglin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christine below.

Christine, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I’ve been single, let my mother tell it, forever. Navigated life and been through many of its phases as a single woman. What I’ve noticed is a lack of care for and general knowledge about the beauty that the single life affords. The single life is the free life. There is happiness, fun, and joy that one can experience not only when a person is single but only if a person is single.

Growing up in the church, I’d always seen marriage as this abstract inevitability. Of course, I’ll meet a guy and get married and have children. Because that is what you do. But what happens if you don’t? I am not sure that all churches are prepared for that eventuality. Now, when I am considering becoming a member of a particular church, one of the first questions I have is, “How are you caring for and ministering to the single members in your congregation?”

In the Winter of 2022, I laid the groundwork for Come Tell A Story a storytelling platform that amplifies singles’ stories because God loves single people too. It’s a quarterly series and each iteration features three to four storytellers. Here we are creating community, providing support, and nourishing singleness in all of its forms: single never married, divorced, and widowed. The idea is to take control of the narrative surrounding singleness because there isn’t anything wrong with being single. In fact, singleness is right.

Christine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Christine Anglin, and I am a writer. My writing takes form in poems, essays, and stories. In May 2011, I graduated from the Howard University School of Business with plans to become a financier. And I did, to a degree. I went to work in the retail bank and developed a passion for financial literacy. I created a curriculum and facilitated financial literacy seminars for High School students and young adults. My titles included Credit Champion, Top Banker, and Member of the President’s Council. I even started a financial literacy blog.

Soon I realized that I was simply too creative for the world of finance. On a whim, I left my job and moved to New York to pursue my dreams. I landed in Brooklyn. While there, I confirmed myself as a writer. I devoured literature and began to perform my work publicly. I transitioned from writing about finance to writing about life. After developing a relationship with a theater there, I wrote and produced three plays two of which I directed.

Later, I moved to Phoenix where I found myself on the storytelling scene. I performed my stories and listened to other people’s stories too. It was there I produced my first storytelling series.

Now I live in Memphis where I produce and direct Come Tell A Story a storytelling platform that amplifies singles’ stories because God loves single people too! I’ve performed my work in all three cities and am a member of Carnegie Writers.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I am working toward the equal and equitable treatment of singles — everywhere. I want the world to know that there isn’t anything wrong with being single. That single people are people too. I’d like to see Come Tell A Story blossom into a worldwide series. Where single people from around the globe take the stage and tell their story.

I’d like to write a bestselling novel. And continue developing books of poetry and essays. I’d like people to read my writing and find themselves.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Comparison is a cancer. It’s everywhere. People are always asking who is better. In the early stages of my creative journey, I spent a lot of time comparing my journey to other people. I had to learn that everyone has their own path. It was a colossal waste of time comparing me to anyone else. We are two different people, with two different stories, and two different paths. I’ve learned that not only is there no need to compare and contrast but better and worse are subjective. There is so much that I don’t know about them, and so much they don’t know about me. The best thing for me to do is get to work on myself. Working on myself has made me a happier person. Happier with where I am and where other people are.

There is a quote I like by Ernest Hemmingway, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.christineanglin.com/
• Instagram: @cometellastory
• Facebook: Come Tell A Story
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-anglin-86453b89/
• Youtube: @ChristineAnglinblog

Image Credits
Photo 1 – Christian Roberson Photo 2, 3, 7, 8 – Kam Darko Visuals Photos 4 – 6 – Ben Brown Photo 9 – Jared Sturghill