We recently connected with Christopher Richardson and have shared our conversation below.

Christopher, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

One of the big risks that I took was producing my own Stage Play. About twenty years ago, I was awoken in the middle of the night with what I can only label as a labor pain, similar to what I’m sure most mother’s go through when it’s time to bring forth a child into the world. For me the pain, the pressure was to get up and write. And write I did. I handwrote, start to finish, an entire stage play that I had no prior thought or knowledge of. I firmly believe this was a diving moment between God and myself. To this day, I feel awkward listing my name as the person who wrote it. I put the play on the shelf in my closet, and it literally collected dust. At the time I wrote it, I was going through my rebellious stage and I had to learn life’s lessons the hard way. It was like a thorn in my side for the years to follow after I wrote it, constantly reminding me to take the play off the shelf, dust it off and bring it to life. After I moved to New York and got into a groove creatively that thorn became like a giant sword in my side. The feeling and pressure was intense, almost felt like there was a literal sword sticking out of me at times. So I finally broke down and did it. I revised the play to make it more modern and set out to produce it. I advertised it on social media, put out audition announcements, scheduled the venue and rehearsal spaces. Even found a prop warehouse and secured everything for each scene that I would need. One thing stood in the way. I didn’t have a job. I was unemployed and on government assistance for my bills, food and medical needs. Throwing complete caution to the wind, I went to my credit union and secured a loan to cover all the costs. I didn’t have any income in sight but I knew I had to give birth to this play by any means necessary. I forged ahead, not letting any of the cast members know that I was doing all this, literally on faith, hope and prayer. But that’s all that was needed from me, faith that this was something that was meant to be. Since I had limited funds and time, I wasn’t able to gather as many people to help with the actual production of the play. I ended up being the writer, director, producer, financier, marketing, ticketing and one of the main actors. It took a toll on me as I lost weight, my hair thinned out and I had never experienced that level of stress and anxiety in my entire life. The play finally saw the light of day, it was born! It did not go as I wanted it to, and how could it with me being in so many different roles at the same time. In hindsight, I now know it wasn’t meant to be a perfect birth, a perfect first showing. Much like how I had to learn life lessons the hard way, this process was no different in that regard. What was different was the lesson had a much more profound effect on me. God had to allow me to be squeezed so tight that the only way out was to rely on him for all things going forward. He took something that I tried to forget about, used that as the tool to make the man that I am today. I didn’t take the risk, He did, I just had to walk along side of Him while He navigated it.

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

I’m originally from Stuttgart, Germany. My dad was in the Army and my mom is Jamaican. My mom is a former model and dancer so I get those creative genes from her. I get my athleticism and quiet focus from my dad. I had no choice but to have discipline instilled to every aspect of my life being their son with there respective backgrounds. There are pictures of me from an early age sneaking on stage at one of my mom’s events and following her around. To me, I think I’ve been entertaining since I was in her womb. I officially got into being an actor and model after I moved to New York. I worked with a woman who would tell me stories about being cast as a background actress on movies and television shows. I would disregard her stories and chalk it all up to me missing my opportunity to get into the industry. One day she convinced me to just go and sign up at the company that handles a lot of the castings in the New York area. Admittedly I thought I would have the textbook story of being discovered right on the spot and becoming the entertainer I had dreamed about becoming as soon as I stepped into the casting company’s office. That did not happen and I left kind of dejected. A couple of days passed. by and at that time I had resolved to think I wasted my time on signing up and I could at least say I gave it a try. Out of the blue, I get a call on my cell phone from a New York area code. Why that is significant is because I had just moved into my new apartment, was still pretty new at this job and not too many people had my personal cell phone number. I reluctantly answered the phone, albeit with an attitude. I honestly don’t remember all of what they said on the phone but the little I do remember is them saying they were with Casting Networks and that Law & Order: SVU was filming and needed a background actor. Before I knew it I had left my job early, made it all the way home to get clothes for wardrobe options and was on set waiting to film my scene. My first job out of the gate was being a background actor in a scene with Ice-T! From there I signed with an agency and have been in a couple national commercials including match.com, music videos most notable the Grammy Award winning song “The Joke” by Brandi Carlile, modeling and fitness ads as well.

I have my own production company, Kathenas Entertainment, started a men’s mental health website called men-tallyaware.com, will be starting my podcast titled “Agree to Understand with Chris Richardson” very soon and recently started taking professional photographs under the name youbetterworkchris on Instagram. Kathenas is a take on the Greek word for every and is used as a play on words. Kathenas Entertainment, entertainment for everyone or everyone’s entertainment. I pride Kathenas Entertainment on making content that we all can feel a part of. I utilize Adobe Creative Cloud for the majority of our editing needs. Vistaprint for our business cards and apparel. Wix hosts our website as well as our Search Engine Optimizier. We offer the ability to visualize, craft and breathe life into whatever project you have in mind. We have and only provide services with and through a diverse and equitable lens. Youbetterworkchris is my latest creative venture through Instagram, where I take my creative eye and apply that to photographs. What makes me special are the pictures I take have meaning, depth and the natural beauty that each person encompasses. That and I let the subject tell the story they want to tell while I take a back seat and capture it through pictures. My podcast, Agree To Understand, will be geared towards talking about topics that largely generate a hard line of agreement or disagreement in an attempt to have a conversation where the topic is understood first. Men-tallyaware.com has a special place in my heart because therapy literally saved my life. It’s a website for men to learn and put into practice good mental health and hygiene habits. It goes into depth about popular terms, conditions and gives science based suggestions on how to achieve good mental health and hygiene. Going through life, I look back on the fact I am a rape survivor, have been arrested multiple times, attempted suicide and even been deported from a country and I know for a fact that had it not been for therapy in addition to God, I would not be here with a sane and sound mind.

Being able to say, as a man, that I was raped is something that oddly enough I am most proud of because it is a voice that is seldom heard and a voice that is desperately needed. Being bold enough to say I was raped fuels me to fearlessly move Kathenas Entertainment, youbetterworkchris and men-tallyaware.com forward to achieve all that I know is meant for people through those outlets.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The mission that drives my creativity is one that I know I won’t see in my lifetime but one I know I can leave the tools to keep the momentum going. The mission I am on is get people to want to understand each other, not necessarily agree with each other. I think people combine and somewhat confuse agreeing and understanding. If you understand someone, you give yourself the appropriate space to see if you agree or disagree. The space to see why it is you agree or disagree with them. You also give yourself the space to see why it is you want to understand them. I believe with understanding comes the knowledge on how to navigate life and situations better. Settling on saying “agree to disagree” sends a shiver up my spine. When you break that statement down you’re acknowledging you have the power to agree with someone, yet will take that and settle on disagreeing with them. Underestimating that a seed of disagreement can grow into more disagreements and unwillingness to understand. How about we try saying “agree to understand”?

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn was giving people grace and patience. I work with a Hip Hop pioneer, a legend if you will, Sweet Tee. I met her while filming my documentary, Queens Reflections, a mural dedicated to influential people hailing from Queens, New York. She is one of the first successful solo female rappers in Hip Hop. At the dedication of the mural and her place on it, we crossed paths and she said she needed someone for some video work. I immediately jumped at the opportunity and gave her my contact information. Days went by and I didn’t hear from her and with each passing day I got further dejected. Coming up with scenarios, each one of them negative. I convinced myself she found someone else to do the video work. That she saw my work examples and said I wasn’t good enough or that she just flat out lied to me. All of them were the furthest things from the truth. The woman is busy with a capital “B”! She just didn’t have the time, she wanted, to dedicate to having the initial conversation with me. One day her sister put us into contact with each other and from there the story is still writing itself. She has invited me into her circle and I now accompany her to her concerts, events and promotional stops. Capturing everything through video and pictures. I’ve met and seen people that I never thought I would, all because of her. I had to unlearn that time in between someone saying they will do something doesn’t automatically equate to a negative source or outcome. Some people are just waiting, literally, for time to talk or think about things. While others may be waiting for me to get in better position to be able to do what it is we are meant to do together. And others are going off of faith and waiting to be prompted to go the next step with me. All in all, I had unlearn those thoughts steeped and negativity when there isn’t an instant return on words.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chriserichardson.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chris.topher.richardson/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christophererichardsonpage/
• Other: www.men-tallyaware.com www.kathenasentertainment.com