Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Holly Charles-Pearson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Holly, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?
At the beginning of 2020, I was riding a creative wave – one that allowed me to connect to my community through meaningful stage plays that highlighted and uplifted marginalized people, one that left me energized and ready to take Houston Play On Purpose (my Houston-based nonprofit theater company) to the next level and one that expanded my network as a burgeoning member of the creative arts scene. Like the rest of the world, I never imagined the onset of the pandemic and how it would change the world. Moreover, I didn’t know how it would change my world as a creative. My stage plays were cancelled indefinitely. I was devastated and, if I’m being honest, a little lost.
In the three years that Houston Play On Purpose lay dormant, I never stopped writing. But, the more I wrote (episodic love stories, comedic teleplays, screenplays, historic fiction, you name it), the more worried I became that the pandemic would never end, or that my former audience wouldn’t be interested when the world opened up again or just that the lightning in a bottle success that I’d experienced would soon flicker and burn out. While I once felt like a valuable part of my community, a literary activist, a scribe of my tribe, I suddenly felt disconnected.
After much frustration and even more prayer, I realized that the three years of what I thought was inactivity were actually some of the most restorative years of my life. Here are the blessings that I can count: 1) Because I wasn’t writing and producing stage plays at the lightning speed of every 8 months, I had TIME to write more than I ever had my entire life. 2) Desperate for creative outlets, I applied (and was denied) for writing fellowships that required me to learn new skills 3) Instead of the wash-rinse-repeat cycle of creating what was safe, I finally did what I’d always wanted to do – I ventured from writing for the stage to writing for the screen.
I learned that time is never wasted if you aren’t wasting it (read that again). I’m grateful for the pandemic, for the struggle, for an absent audience, for the frustration, for God’s discernment and now the opportunity to create my first live-action short film, ‘If They Took Us Back’, which goes into production January 2024.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am an author ‘Velvet’ (2013), playwright of ‘In All Thy Getting: The Forgotten Story of Freedmen’s Town’ (2017; a stage play celebrating the triumphant rise of an ex-slave settlement in Fourth Ward Houston), ‘I’m Still a Woman’ (2018; an episodic stage play raising awareness concerning the growing, yet taboo issue of infertility in women of color), and ‘Black, White & Sunshine’ (2019; stage play which shed light on the disproportionality of minority children swept into both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, TEDx Talk speaker (‘Being My Mother’s Daughter’, 2019) and founder of Houston Play on Purpose, a non-profit organization purposed with raising awareness for social injustices and issues which disproportionately affect underserved minority populations. But, here is a more accurate description of who I am:
I’m an on-the-cusp Millennial/Gen X’er who cleans while listening to Anita Baker but scrubs the ground while listening to Megan Thee Stallion. This is just one example of the comfort I find in duality. As a creative, I embrace such juxtapositions, like my Chicago project upbringing versus my Ivy League PWI experience, my churchy obsession with Kirk Franklin as well as my fascination with Plies (still not convinced they’re not the same person anyhow). I am a research junky and lover of words who firmly believes that, as heavy as the African American experience can be, there is undeniable love and levity! And, that’s why I love mixing storytelling, wit and social awareness to create purposeful works. When I have writer’s block, I’m a hobby-seamstress creating knockoffs of the fits I can’t afford at Free People, forcing my husband to watch just one more Black History doc or bleeping out my own curse words while rapping way-too-hard in the drop-off line of my daughter’s school. Needless to say, I’ve found my place in the literary canon somewhere between Sean Carter and Shaun King, discussing Black female pathology during my TED Talk (another shameless plug) and peddling original stage plays that address not just the difficulties but the beauty of Black life.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Purpose drives my creativity. As an artist, I will always include bits and pieces of myself in my work. But, at the end of the day, the work is about service to others. Art should be about sharing your experiences and perspective so that others don’t feel alone. My constant prayer is that my writing never become just about ME. It is about us. It’s about the human experience. It’s about you and I healing and growing together.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is making others feel seen. Have you ever heard a lyric or listened to an actor perform a monologue and thought, ‘Wow, I thought I was the only one who ever felt that way’? Those moments where words validate others’ experiences… that’s the sweet spot. I want my audiences to know that I see them, I feel them, and I am ‘them’.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.houstonplayonpurpose.com
- Instagram: @hollycdivine
- Linkedin: Holly Charles-Pearson
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@hollycharles4767
Image Credits
Point&Click Photography