Tag: Community Engagement & Cultural Advocacy

Evelyn Berry

“It’s just that when we’re conceptualizing art, we always think of it as something that has happened, but not something you can do in your own life, like in the current moment.”

Evelyn Berry, poet and educator from Columbia, SC, uses her voice to champion authenticity and queer Southern storytelling. Through workshops, editing, and her acclaimed poetry, she inspires writers to embrace vulnerability and speak truth to power.

Interview

Transcript

Lexi Raines 00:00

Alli, okay. So, first just give us a little introduction to yourself. What do you do for work and where are you currently working from? Yeah.

Evelyn Berry 00:08

My name is Evelyn Barry. I was born and raised here in South Carolina. I am an author of a book called grief slut, which was published last year by sundress publications, as well as some chat books called buggery and glitter husk. I have another book coming out next year called Tea for tea, from a small harbor press. In addition to writing and publishing, I teach workshops at organizations, whether that’s a nonprofit that’s looking to bring me in for a workshop series, a literary festival that wants to bring me on for a panel, a conference where I’m going to do kind of like a masterclass seminar with students, either online or in person, as well As universities. Where I might come speak to the classes, lead a couple of classes, and then usually do like a masterclass in reading at that university. In addition to that, I am an editor. Yeah, I would say, big role, besides writer and educator, is as a freelance editor, so I work one on one with writers all across the country on their manuscripts. This might look like helping build better writing practices where we talk about how they can deepen their craft, or it might look like helping them navigate the like the world of professional publishing. How one seeks agents, how one seeks publishing opportunities, how you write cover letters and things like that, or even find out about these kind of publishing and funding opportunities. And then my day job, which probably comprises of, like, probably two thirds of all of the money I made last year, is as a library communications strategist. So, I work with staff at a pretty large library system here in South Carolina and help with employee communications that might include anything from drafting all staff emails to share operational updates, creating talking points to help staff talk to and discuss kind of interesting, relevant topics with our communities. This might be a new initiative, an art gallery. Maybe it’s something that’s happened in the news that we want to make sure staff are equipped to talk about, and also staff newsletters, so this includes a lot of blogs that feature staff stories’ this could be anything about a staff who really likes speaking, and it’s about their love of baking, or it might be about staff who run programs using tabletop role playing games, or sometimes like a Storytelling Festival that we’ve had at the library, things like that. So, anything kind of communications wise that might be shared with staff. I usually have a hand in, and I’m sitting on different committees for different projects.

Lexi Raines 03:23

Awesome. You sound very busy, but that all seems very exciting.

Evelyn Berry 03:27

It is very busy. It’s a full schedule. Yes!

Lexi Raines 03:32

I’m sure. So how long have you been writing?

Evelyn Berry 03:38

So, I’ve been writing since I was a kid, which I think is pretty common, though, I’d say probably started writing seriously around the age of 16, when I was that’s also when I started to publish in literary journals. I was around the age of 16, you know, both obviously in my like high school literary journal, but also in some community literary journals, and then a little farther afield by the time I got to college. I kind of started in high school publishing short stories and poems. I also used to write some articles and a semi regular column for like, a local arts alt weekly newspaper in Augusta.

Speaker 2 04:19

Georgia. Oh, that’s so cool. That’s all, that’s actually awesome. One of my first paid.

Evelyn Berry 04:24

Writing gigs, and I think I was just a precocious teenager. Very much precocious.

Lexi Raines 04:32

What’s one thing that you love about working as a creative in South Carolina?

Evelyn Berry 04:38

In South Carolina, there’s a fairly close-knit community of writers. I think that one of our one of our strengths, is the small size of the state, both in numbers as well as geographically, which means that it’s really easy. Get to one another. I live in Columbia, so within two and a half hours I can pretty much get to any other city which offers a lot of really cool opportunities. When I started to write, I probably had no real business like teaching or writing book reviews, or, like, writing articles in magazines. But a lot of older writers took me under their wing and kind of believed in my work, and, you know, helped me navigate those processes, helped introduce me to new opportunities, and that was tremendously helpful. I don’t have, like, an educational background in writing. I did study English, and I don’t have an MFA, don’t have a PhD, but what I do have is, like a massive village of writing mentors throughout South Carolina and beyond. Who care really deeply about community, and so that’s, that’s a big thing I really love about South Carolina. It’s gotten to the point now where, you know, anytime I go to pretty much anywhere, no matter how small. I know someone there, you know, and I know someone I can grab coffee with, or who would be glad to have me over at their house and, you know, eat dinner their family. Just because, like, that’s kind of what the writing and the arts community at large is here, which is, is really beautiful.

Lexi Raines 06:26

It is super beautiful. I’ve heard a lot about that in my interview. So it is, I think it’s super awesome to hear that. It really is just a huge community. So, what does South Carolina bring to your work compared to anywhere else.

Evelyn Berry 06:43

I mean, I grew up in Aiken, South Carolina. I went to school in Charleston, South Carolina. I live in Columbia, South Carolina. Now I’ve you know, spent the majority of my life here in South Carolina. So. it’s kind of impossible for the landscape, the culture, the language, the stories of South Carolina not to seep into my work. I write confessional poetry which is often very biographical. So, the experience of living in the South, especially as a queer person, has kind of informed most of my creative work. Also, in the past, I’ve had the opportunity to work in different capacities in archives, as well as write in response to materials from archives, and it’s gotten me really interested in South Carolina history. I specifically am really interested in South Carolina’s queer history and the ways in which queer people have kind of fought for our rights here in South Carolina, whether that’s the like 1989 ACT UP die in at the state house, or the first Pride festival, which was only like 35 years ago, or, you know, even some of the more, like illicit parts of history, like the history of cruising down in Charleston, South Carolina, from like the sailors and things like that. So there’s all of these, like interesting stories, whether it’s like stories of resistance, or kind of sordid stories, or really fun stories. And I think people don’t think about that when they think of South Carolina, other parts of history. And I’m really always interested in what different spaces and places offer up in terms of their history.

Lexi Raines 08:39

I completely agree. I think South Carolina has, like, a very diverse history that, like, not too many people know about, like outside of those specific communities. So, I feel like just bringing out that research is super cool. That’s awesome.

Evelyn Berry 08:55

Yeah, it’s been super fun, especially, you know, I’m not an academic, I’m not a historian, so I get to have the freedom of doing things creatively, which gives you a lot of leeway with these things, which is, which is a lot of fun. How

Lexi Raines 09:10

Would you define professional or personal success in your creative endeavors?

Evelyn Berry 09:15

Um, I think that personal success, I think usually comes when you’ve written something that people respond to, that speaks to them. That might change how they think or how they feel, or just move them in some way. I would say the best kind of response that I’ve gotten from like books, is people I’m talking about what it meant to them, whether that it’s, you know, helped vocalize something about their own life that they had never seen on the page before, or that it helped them write something about their own life. Think, which I think is always super cool to see. So I think that’s kind of personal success, professional success, I think is a little bit trickier, because, you know, we do live in a society where you got to pay rent, got to have health insurance. So, I think that if you can consistently get projects and you know, say for poetry or novels, it’s consistently getting published, consistently getting invited to festivals and conferences to teach, so that you can kind of maintain a steady income, which is extremely hard to do because, you know, funding in the arts is very unpredictable. Some years you might, for example, get a fellowship, which I’ve done in the past. Like, last year, I got the South Carolina Arts Commission fellowship. And, like, you know, that’s, that’s like, $10,000 you know, on top of what I usually make. And it’s a big, you know, that that’s, that’s a huge thing for me. And then, you know, having to think of, okay, next year you’re not going to have that. Well, how are you going to make sure to maintain what you’re doing? Like, what will you have to do differently? So I think finding sustainability is really the key for professional artistic success.

Lexi Raines 11:27

Yes, I would completely, completely agree with that. So, um, this kind of goes along the same lines of that, what was your biggest fear when you first decided to pursue the arts professionally?

Evelyn Berry 11:41

Well, you know, I mentioned that I didn’t really study English. I really wanted to, I really, you know, when I was applying to colleges and high school, all I wanted to do was write. I wanted to write stories. I wanted to write novels. I wanted to write poems, plays, whatever I could get my hands on. And everyone kind of tells you that it’s a dead end, that it’s impossible. But I think that’s also because they don’t really know anyone who’s ever done it. It’s a weird thing, because, you know, we have, culturally, an idea of artists as something from the past, right? You know, when we think about if you ask someone their favorite artist or their favorite writer, they’re more than likely going to name someone who’s dead, which is not a problem. It’s just that when we’re conceptualizing art, we always think of it as something that has happened, but not something you can do in your own life like in the current moment. So, I think that was the big thing. Is just kind of like falling on my face. I’ll say I remember feeling so like defeated at one point. So, I had a I had my first novel come out when I was very young. So, I like signed a contract when I was 19, and then all came out when I was 22 which is like, maybe irresponsibly young to publish it, to be honest. And, you know, of course, like I was in college, I had this very romantic idea of what a right being a writer was like, I, you know, got to go to, like, one or two conferences and festivals and be like, here’s my novel. And then like, reality set in really fast, which was like, you know, there’s hundreds and hundreds and, you know, there’s 10s of 1000s of novels out there. And so now, just because you’ve, you know, published one, how do you make people actually care about that? How do you sustain that kind of momentum as well? I didn’t have anything else ready to go, you know, at that point, because I’d been college through that entire editing process, and it was a couple of days after, you know, it was months after the novel had come out, interest had already dried up. Like six months in, I’d stopped doing events, and I finally graduated college, which was a crazy kind of thing. And then I remember the very next day, I was like, working at this restaurant, and I was like, a busboy and a like, I like, came up on this table, and it was like a mother with her daughter, and they were touring the college from which I had just graduated, right? It just graduated from the Honors College or top honors, and I dropped the plates in front of them, like I, like, tripped and, like, dropped plates. And the mom looked down at me and pointed at me and went, see, that’s why you need to go to college. And I remember just being like, Oh no, crazy that I’ve, like, you know, thought that I have, like, reached this height, and you think that you’re going to, like, have a single success, or you’re going to graduate from college and then launch yourself into some sort of, like, career of miracle after miracle after just like, coincidence. Yeah, but it’s much harder work than that. So, I think that’s the biggest fear, was realizing that it would not be as easy as I thought, or that, you know, luck and coincidence can only take you so far.

Lexi Raines 15:18

An English major, actually going back to your first point, like, I was terrified to be an English major. I didn’t come into college as an English major. I was originally a computer science major, and I just hated it, like it was so miserable. And like, I’ve always really enjoyed writing and like reading, and so when I made that switch, I was so much happier. And so I feel like people saying that they don’t have there’s no jobs in English is very, very untrue, obviously. So I feel like just being able to keep your options open and look for those opportunities is something that’s really important.

Evelyn Berry 16:03

Awesome! Well, I mean, I’ll just say, in response to that, like, something that I would say to anyone who’s graduating with, like, an English degree, or say, like sociology, or any kind of degree that people are generally saying that doesn’t make money, there’s, there’s a lot of jobs out in the world that you’ve never heard of that actually need the skill set that you have, and the skill set that you have, whether it’s like writing and communicating clearly, is becoming more and more rare. I mean, I’m sure you see it in your own peers. Like the ability to write a like cogent and coherent essay about a literary piece without using AI is like a huge deal these days. I see it in, you know, my communications work all the time where, like, you know, being able to quickly and correctly write, or even knowing, like, the basics of grammar or the basics of sentence construction, that’s something I take for granted. I’m like, everyone, everyone knows that. Like, duh, everyone can but that’s not true. And the more that you kind of like work in the world, you realize, oh, actually, I do have a set of skills that might be really useful to some people, and my I might be able to leverage it in real ways. Yes,

Lexi Raines 17:24

I’ve, really noticed that. And I think coastal does a good job with preparing English majors to, like, really market their skills. So it’s awesome. Can you describe, like, a defining moment in your creative journey?

Evelyn Berry 17:38

You know, what’s kind of interesting is, you know, when you’re doing creative work, every Turning Point feels like the big break. You know, in some ways, I would say the biggest thing for me a big turning point. A couple of years ago, a mentor of mine encouraged me to apply for a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in creative writing. So these are governmental fellowships that are given to 25 writers per year. It’s a tremendous amount of funding. And beyond that, it’s quite like an honor to get it is, you know, one of those awards that people recognize on a resume and will bring you in. And at the time, I didn’t have a full length poetry collection out. The novel had been kind of a flop. I was starting to publish in different places, but I still didn’t feel like a quote, unquote, real writer. You know, I still felt like I had failed to live up to that kind of potential, and there was a massive amount of insecurity around the fact that I never went to graduate school and never studied writing. The older I got, the further I felt behind my peers, despite the fact that, you know, I was reading the same books that they were in graduate school. I was, you know, having the same conversations, going to the same events, doing this in kind of community volunteering and getting involved in the literary community. So, you know, this sort of fellowship wasn’t a sort of thing that I thought someone like me was one supposed to apply to, because it would be a waste of time, right? That it would be something no one without proper training, no one without that kind of pedigree already would be able to get a fellowship like that. But I decided to apply. I applied twice, and on the second time I got it, it was, it was really life changing. I actually didn’t believe them when they pulled me on the phone that I had gotten the fellowship, yeah. And it was just really cool to, like, have that moment of like, okay, like, this is real. Like this is, you know, it kind of was funny because it eclipsed a lot of other failures, because it didn’t really matter anymore. It’s like, well, you have, like, this seal of approval, which sounds silly, like, you know, a lot of especially universities, they look for those. Seals of approval, right? And or before they like invite you to come teach, or invite you to come read. And sometimes when you’re able to get a fellowship or an award like that, it’s just the one thing that can help you kind of stand out in the crowd. And that was really a turning point for me. I think that I was able to take myself a little bit more seriously as a writer, I was able to demand a little bit more in terms of, like, what I charge from, you know, people who were hiring me and mostly it kind of gave me, like, the confidence to continue to actually say to myself, like, okay, like, this isn’t just something I do for fun. It is actually, like, my vocation. It is the thing I’m doing with my life is to write and share stories and share poems. Congratulations!

Lexi Raines 20:53

On that. That’s actually, so that’s awesome. So it was really great.

Evelyn Berry 20:58

Cool. Yeah, I think, um, it was kind of interesting. Last year, a like, some academic did, like, a qualitative study on, like, who got these kinds of fellowships, and I was the first one to receive that fellowship, I think, in like 30 years. Like, the last person who did it was James Dickey, and so it’s kind of like, yeah, like even that, like Southern writers, rural writers are, like, massively underrepresented for these fellowships. You know, the majority of writers who get them are people who are already well-established. They’re already teaching at major universities and things like that. So it felt really good to like represent for my state as well. And I didn’t realize that until someone pointed it out, and I was like, wow. Like, it’s kind of wild, because I know so many amazing artists and writers here who deserve support, sometimes ignored by like, the national art scene.

Lexi Raines 22:01

Yeah, that makes it even more meaningful. Congratulations again. Like, what is the best and worst advice you’ve ever received?

Evelyn Berry 22:10

Unfortunately, the best advice, and I think this goes for any creative path, is just do the thing that you want to do. What I mean by that is, I know a lot of writers who think, Well, I would love to write a novel, but before I can write a novel, I need to go take a creative writing class. Before I write a novel, I need to read 10 books about writing a novel. Before I write a novel, I need to like prove myself in some way, same with being an artist. You know, I will become an artist. I will start making art once I get to the certain point that it’s proved myself. But the only way that you can actually develop craft and develop as an artist, as a photographer, as an actor, is to practice that craft. And, you know, often practice looks like failure because you’re not going to be good at it at first, right? No one is no one is like perfect or no one is skilled at what you do first, and you still might feel inadequate years later, too. But once you start comparing you know how you’ve developed, you’ll see growth. So I think that’s really important as to whatever you’re doing to begin now, you know to not kind of wait for any kind of permission, to wait for any kind of degree or certification or seal of approval from anyone else, but just to start making and also start sharing that work, even if you don’t think it’s very good, you know, upload that photography to Instagram if you’re writing stuff and you know, you know, go ahead and send it out to literary journals. If it’s not getting published in literary journals, like print it in a zine. Share it with friends. Once you start to get into that cycle of creating and sharing art, you’ll kind of you’ll do some more often, the worst advice I’ve ever gotten, I think that the worst advice I’ve gotten is that one should separate, not write about politics. I think a very common thing, what used to be a very common thing in the arts, and especially in writing, was that, you know, people didn’t want to read, you know, quote, unquote, political stories or political art, because it was very heavy handed, which it definitely can be for sure. You know, we’ve all read work that is very heavy handed in that way. But I think it’s really important to think about why that advice is given and Who Gives it often. You know, the lack of politics is not. A lack it is just like a defense of the status quo. And so art that does not engage with values that might be seen as quote, unquote, political are still political. You know, they are. They’re maintaining a kind of status quo, a patriarchy of white supremacy, you know, kind of this, this, this kind of paradigm, right? That is seen as the quote, unquote norm or seen as apolitical when, in fact, it’s very political. All of our lives are very political. And as a poet you know, writing about like being queer in the south, it’s impossible for pretty much anything I write not to be viewed by others as political, even if I don’t mean it that way. And so I remember getting some advice, like definitely, from like, fiction writing mentors and teachers to kind of avoid, you know, talking to explicitly about politics, despite the fact that it kind of informs our every day, I feel like it

Lexi Raines 26:04

Would be hard to ever completely avoid that topic, because it makes up who you are. It makes up the community around you. It really makes up everything a lot, influencing you.

Evelyn Berry 26:14

Yeah? So that’s what? Yeah, exactly. It’s an impossible piece of advice unless you are, like, the single most privileged person in the world and are able to insulate yourself completely.

Lexi Raines 26:25

So, can you please walk us through a typical work day for you, like, what does your process look like, and what’s kind of expected of you on a daily basis? Yeah,

Evelyn Berry 26:33

Let me take you through kind of a general day that includes all of my different jobs. So I usually wake up at five in the morning, which I know is not fun to hear. If I have real energy, I’ll work out. Otherwise, I’ll go shower. I will say I this is so I mean, maybe it won’t sound weird, but like, you know, I’m not the biggest physical fitness person, but I do think that exercise and just moving your body, whether that’s walking or going to the gym or like playing a game with friends, actually can, like, help boost your creativity. It puts you in a better mood, and it helps bring you energy that doesn’t necessarily fade throughout the day. So I think it’s a really good way to get one’s mind ready to write after that. I usually end up coming home showering, putting on makeup, etc., and I will go right. So sometimes I write at home at my desk. More often, I will go to like a local coffee shop, and write for anywhere from one to two hours before work. And the reason I do this is just that I’m a morning person. It is like when I do my best work is when I wake up by the time like one o’clock rolls around, I’m a little less sharp, so I want to give the best version of myself to my creative work. Then I usually go to work at the at the library. So this usually looks like spending the morning, usually dealing with more immediate needs. So that might be helping write an email, helping finish up some projects, maybe being in meetings so often I will find, like, we have meeting rooms at the library, so I like to find, like, a quiet place have my like, noise canceling headphones, and just really dig into the deep work. So anywhere from one o’clock to five o’clock is when I do that kind of deep work for communications, that’s strategy building, or just something that’s going to take a long time to write. I will say I’m very lucky in that sense, like I have a job in which people generally leave me alone unless they need something or they’ll send me an email, so I get a lot of uninterrupted time to, like, think and sit, and I think that’s really important to kind of have, like, you know, I’m also totally allowed if I wished to, like, leave the library and just like, wander around, because that might help, like, write something that I need to write, and get me in the right mindset to do it. So, yeah, that’s generally what that workday looks like after work. I might do different things. So I help. I helped start a local collective here called queer writers of Columbia. We hold like write ins and workshops and open mics. So often, if that is happening, I will leave work and go grab something to eat, maybe with some of the friends from that group, and we will go and write together even more. Sure, generally in that setting, I’m actually not writing my own work. I’m usually helping other people navigate stuff, just a lot of moving parts. So it might be, you know, just mentoring people basically to get published or to seek opportunities. It might be going to support people at open mics. I’m at the point in my career now where, like, I don’t necessarily have to do those things, you know, like, I can get paid to go read poetry, so I don’t need to go to an open mic and, like, have that kind of exposure. But I think it’s still important to engage with like, everyone in your community, no matter like, level of development they’re at, because, you know, that’s kind of how I had any opportunity at all as a writer, is that someone took a chance on me and gave me an opportunity before I was ever ready for it. So that’s, that’s a big thing that I believe in, is, you know, encouraging people to say, hey, you know, you should really host this. And they’re like, I or teach a workshop, you know? And usually people say, like, I don’t have anything that I could possibly teach others. And I think that when you start doing it, you’ll be surprised by what you can teach others. Something else I really believe in is like, to not get, keep, like, publishing secrets. There’s a lot of norms around literary magazine publishing, wearing agents reaching out to bookstores that are not like written down in many places. You might learn them in an MFA program, but even then, probably not. So the only way to learn them is through trial and error or from just another writer telling you. So I’m a big believer in, you know, mentoring writers to make sure that their talent is not being unnoticed, that they’re able to develop and both within their community and beyond. Yeah,

Lexi Raines 32:00

So,it sounds like you again, you’re very, very busy person. How do you, like, create a good work life balance where you’re able to maintain both, like, your professional creativity and your personal creativity. That

Evelyn Berry 32:15

Can be hard sometimes. You know, I think one of the challenges that you run into, like I write for work, and so when I’m done sitting at a computer for eight hours, I don’t want to go sit at a computer anymore. So one of the things I do is prioritize my personal creativity. I think of that as you know, despite the fact that it doesn’t make me as much money, it is the thing that I want to give, like the best part of myself to, which is why I tried to do it before work, right? You know, I say that’s a typical day, but, you know, maybe going and spending time with other writers happens maybe once a week. You know, I’m also very conscious, and even more so these days of like self care, make sure to have time to myself. One of the huge benefits of working at the library where I work is that it has a big emphasis on work life balance. So we have open PTO, which means we can basically take as much PTO as we need. I’m able to work from home one day a week, which is where I am now. I’m not at work right now or not at the workplace. So, you know, it allows the flexibility, which is really great because, you know, I work with people, with families who, you know, need to like to pick up their kids from school in the middle of the day or drop their kids off at daycare. And it’s really nice to work for both a organization as well as for a manager who cares about your personal well being like, beyond anything else, like the actual parts of my job, sometimes they’re fine, like, I like writing articles, but a lot of it’s very boring. It’s very boring writing. It’s very technical, it’s very straightforward, but that doesn’t really matter to me, because what’s more important is that I’ve chosen a career that can sustain me enough that I have the energy and the time and the ability to pursue my creative passions. So for example, like last year, I went on book tour for grief slut. And, you know, I was able to take, you know, several days off, sometimes weeks, or like, a week at a time, to go travel around the country and tour this book. And it was really important to have support from the organization. Person I was working for. And not everyone has that. So like, you know, if, again, you know, if I’m would give advice to someone, I’d say, like, you know, think about the values of the people for whom you’re working, because they will also, you know, sometimes help shape you will they see, like, your art career as something that supplements them, like it’s like something that they’re very happy about, or do they see it as a rival for their time? And so if you can find someone who supports your art as well as your livelihood, it’s a really beautiful thing. I agree.

Lexi Raines 35:39

That is, I want to find would be an amazing opportunity for a lot of people.

May 27, 2025
Walter Curry

“Value success through impact rather than accolades.”

Dr. Walter B. Curry, Jr. is an award-winning author, educator, and historian based in Columbia, South Carolina. Through Renaissance Publications, he documents African American family and local history, connecting ancestral narratives to broader historical themes.

Interview

Transcript

Lexi Raines

So what do you do for work and where are you currently working from? Just give a little introduction of yourself.

Walter Curry

Well, first I want to thank you for inviting me. I have followed the Athenaeum Press for a while. I have a connection there, actually how I found out about the press about a year ago, when I’ve heard about your organization, initiatives focusing on community, with the Communal Pen, I’ve learned more about the Press.

But just to tell you about who I am: I am author and educator, and I currently live here in Columbia, South Carolina, and my work focuses on ancestry and local history. And so as an author, I write narratives about my family history which connects to local history in South Carolina, in Orangeburg and Aiken counties, where my family is located, and using those ancestral narratives through the historical context, in the broader scope of African American History and beyond.

Lexi Raines

That sounds that sounds really fascinating. It’s good to hear that you also know about the Communal Pen. That’s amazing. So how long have you been writing?

Walter Curry

I’ve been writing about been writing for five years. Yeah, five years. I started in 2018 I published my first book on the Thompson family on told stories from the past 1830 to 1960 and because of the success of the book, I won my first book award in 2019 I was encouraged to use that as a opportunity to launch my business. And so the concept and the business Renaissance Publications is a self publishing company where I published my books focusing on the literary arts, and so I’ve been writing about five years. I’ve written two books, The Thompson Family Book, my second book, The Awakening: the Cy Ellison Family Saga, Volume One, a narrative history. That book won several awards as well, and —

Lexi Raines

Awesome.

Walter Curry

Thank you. Thank you. And my third book, which will be a blockbuster South Carolina, Matilda Evans, she was the first African American woman licensed to practice medicine here in South Carolina, that book is coming out in April, and that book is going to be the exclusive biography of Dr. Evans. And so I’m blessed to have written three books so far, and I have also branched out to other areas in the literary arts, visual art. I also do presentations and design of exhibitions as well.

Lexi Raines

That’s awesome. So it sounds like you’re definitely staying busy. Yes, yes. I am. I am. You said that you have a family history in South Carolina. What’s one thing that you have, like loved about working as a creative here?

Walter Curry

South Carolina is a very unique state. South Carolina is about 80% rural, 20 urban. And the beautiful thing about South Carolina is that South Carolina is unique because of our rich history and culture. And when I travel across South Carolina doing presentations, I’m always paying attention to the area, looking at the features of the area, looking at the cultural aspects and the local history, which connects that area to other broader aspects of history. And so I will say, with South Carolina, we’re very unique as it relates to our culture, our rich history, and that creates opportunities for authors like myself to bring that history out and to make it come alive. Through the literary arts.

Lexi Raines

That’s awesome, because I feel like South Carolina does have so much like kind of hidden history that’s kind of been like pushed to the back, and that deserves to all come forward, because it’s always like such beautiful stories that are meaningful.

Walter Curry

Yes, yes, yes, I totally agree. South Carolina has a lot of hidden history. I’ve discovered during my journey that when I was researching my mother’s maternal native County, Aiken County, I discovered that Aiken County was founded by three African American men during the Reconstruction Era. Aiken County was founded on March the 10th, 1871 and I also found out that Aiken County was the only county in South Carolina that was founded during the Reconstruction Era. And so when I asked my mom and some of my relatives and friends who grew up in Aiken county in the salad area, they had no idea about the founding of Aiken County. They didn’t know that Aiken County was founded by three African American men, all state legislators and civil war veterans. And so it’s the hidden history that I have discovered which is an opportunity for authors and historians like myself to bring that hidden history out, and that is relevant in all communities across South Carolina, there are stories of hidden history that need to be brought out so it creates opportunities for those of us like myself to focus on local history and to make those broader connections to state history, national history, African American History, Women history, or other areas of History.

Lexi Raines

I feel like you’re definitely helping pave the way, like uncovering all of this stuff. So you how would you like describe the local professional community? Because you did say there’s a few others that are also working on similar projects?

Walter Curry

Yes, yes, I have a great relationship with the local professional community. I do my best to support my peers. They support me. I have collaborated with several of my peers on various projects, one in particular a good friend of mine named Wayne O’Brien. He’s a local historian and author from Aiken County. He’s from Charleston originally. We have partnered together on several activities and initiatives, the Harlem Renaissance, that exhibition. He has written several essays on his family history, about his family connection to the Harlem Renaissance, and how his great uncle, Charles Linton, discovered Ella Fitzgerald. And yes, yes. Charles Linton the Lenten family, they are from Shera and so his family is from Charah, and how the Harlem Renaissance is connected to my family, I’ve discovered in my ancestry that my great grandfather, first cousin alsman Ellison, lived in Harlem New York in the 1930s during the Harlem Renaissance, and he was employed at Hotel Teresa, and that that was the famous place where all of the political dignitaries, cultural icons in the African American community, even foreign leaders, they patronized and stayed at a hotel, Theresa. And so looking at my cousin his life, and also saw, I saw his picture, and I have his picture, and he wore a Zoot Suit. And so I learned about the zoot suits. And so me and my colleague, Wayne o Bryant, we have partnered together over the years. And one of the thing about being a part of a professional community, a network of peers, you are able to share information and share ideas. With each other and potential collaborative opportunities. And so I encourage that, because we don’t know everything. We have our strengths, we have our weaknesses, and I think we as creative, should acknowledge that. And the beautiful thing about being a part of a network is you lift each other up because this work sometimes is challenging, sometimes it’s frustrating. It’s a battle of the mind where we have to constantly reassure ourselves that we despite the struggles that we face from time to time, we’re in this because of our talent and and we want to show the world that our talent has value because we believe that we as creatives have value, and that our value is the creative arts.

Lexi Raines

That’s awesome. Yes, I feel like I completely agree. I think it’s also so nice that, like you have, that South Carolina has such a good community to lean on. Because I feel like that’s something you may not find in, like bigger states, is that just really close connection and networking capability that we have here?

Walter Curry

Yes, yes, I totally agree. South Carolina is a close community. Is a small state, and we’re a state that is blessed to have rich culture, rich history, diversity. And I remember Governor McMaster, he mentioned in a state of the state address, he spoke about South Carolina rich diversity in history and culture, and that we are the envy of some of our competitive states because of the fact that we have rich history, rich culture from the American Revolution, Revolutionary War, Civil War and beyond. And we we also have access to the mountains. We have access to the beaches. We have warm climate. So we have a lot of amenities that motivate us as creative artists to really highlight South Carolina through our work.

Lexi Raines

Yes, I would completely agree with that. And so kind of shifting gears here in your writing, like, how? How do you define, like, professional and or personal success in your creative endeavors?

Walter Curry

That’s a, That’s a great question. I never thought of it. I would say that professional success, to me, is growth. I believe that over time you want to you want to see whether or not you are actually growing growing in the areas that you need to grow in in order to maintain success. And so for me, I look at my writing. I look at how my writing has improved over time. I also look at my activities. What are what am I doing as far as my activities to make sure that I stay active. So I measure that. Am I’m going to networking events? Am I doing professional development, professional learning opportunities? So I measure that, and how am I applying the knowledge and skills that I have obtained over time, and whether or not the knowledge and skills are working in my favor. And so that’s how I measure myself, professionally, personally, I look at the accolades, because we all want, we all need to know whether or not our work is being recognized. I’m not a person who seek personal recognition, because that is a trap. I think we have to be careful as creative to if we focus too much on personal recognition, but it doesn’t help to get recognized, and so when I receive awards, and I have received several awards for my work, that tells me that I am being noticed, and I am out there and people are. Recognizing my work, not only those who follow me and support me, but my peers who are judging my work as well.

Lexi Raines

Yeah, I would completely agree with both of those. I think, like first for what you said in your professional life, like I feel like the worst thing that can happen to a creative is that kind of like stagnation. So I feel like striving for growth at all times is the only way to grow to get anywhere. Really.

Walter Curry

I agree. I agree. I agree and to and to your point, you don’t want to feel stagnated. You always want to achieve growth, and

Lexi Raines

then with the your personal success, the like awards and stuff, I feel like it definitely, I would agree it’s important to have a mix of having a drive for doing it for yourself, and then having a drive to put stuff out there and be recognized. So I would, I would agree with that. Thank you. Thank you. So what was like your biggest fear when you first decided to pursue the arts?

Walter Curry

Oh, man, that’s a great question. I would say fear, fear of failure. I have failed several times in business, and I’ve learned from my mistakes. I started out as an insurance agent, following my father’s path, did pretty well, but I found out like this, ain’t me, you know, he’s a very successful insurance professional. He taught me a lot about business and some of the skills and lessons that he taught me, I still apply till this day. And then I moved into real estate, got my real estate license, and I only sold one house. Actually, it was a cousin who who I helped, and he owned a rental property, and he sold it, and I helped him for 21,000 so I didn’t do well, because I thought, Man, I got this real estate license. I’m going to make a lot of money. I remember going to a subdivision and this successful real estate broker. He was like, Walter, if you you come to this subdivision and you be the agent on duty. And I was thought, man, all these people going to come to me, I found out that was not so. And so I got out of, out of real estate, and then I tried jam Pro, because I was, I was convinced by a cousin to get into the cleaning business. Did okay with that. Then I quit, and then got into education. I taught school for four and a half years, then at the time, I was blessed to obtain my graduate degrees. I have three graduate degrees, by the way, and I decided to leave the classroom because I was tired of teaching middle school kids, so I didn’t do well with that. And I look back at that experience, and I said to myself, if I would have applied myself, I would have been a better teacher. So I was a rebel, okay? And I didn’t take my training seriously, so I fell on what I know, and at the time, I was going through a midlife, midlife crisis, I remember all of the stories that my mom shared with me about her family history, and I did some research and find out that man I have an ancestor who was an enslaved cook in the Confederate Army, and found out about her, located her pension record. Then I did some more research find out about ancestors who were enslaved, more written records, primary sources. I said, Wait a minute. I got something here. Okay, and so I was able to to discover my passion in history. I have discovered my passion as a writer, and because of my background in education and business, I put those skills to use, and I have successfully applied those skills. And so I’ve been doing this for five years, but my biggest fear when I started. Out was the fear of failure. And the fear of failure for me was the mistake over the years prior to me becoming a business owner in the literary arts, was the lack of application, the lack of discipline, not being humble, okay, not learning from mistakes. And so I say to myself, I will not fail again, you know? And so I’m blessed to be in business for five years. It has really been an incredible journey. Yes, I

Lexi Raines

feel like that definitely shows too that everything that you do does ultimately get you, if not, where you thought you would originally be. It gets you to where, somewhere, where you will be happy, like your business background, your your your time as a teacher, all of that led up to you being a writer. So it really shows you never know where life is going to take you all the time.

Walter Curry

Well, I agree. I agree, and that’s why you have to have a open mind. I encourage everyone to seek your gift, seek your calling. I believe that everyone has a calling. Everyone has a gift. It’s how we cultivate our calling, how we cultivate our gift and and be able to appreciate that. I’ve learned that you cannot be something that you’re not. You know you could try, but you cannot be something that you’re not. You could, you could try to fill somebody else’s shoes, but over time, those shoes are going to get bigger and bigger, and your feet going to get smaller and smaller. It’s kind of like my grandma, Lizzie Williams curry, she passed away several years ago at the age of 102 and she said she shared a lot of wisdom and advice with me during her last years. We had a lot of private conversations, and she told me about my journey, she said, Walter, I’m going to tell you something. You gotta stay in your lane. Okay, stay in your lane. Don’t worry about trying to ride somebody else’s lane, because if you do that, you’re going to get run over. Okay, stay on the path that God has called you to do. Don’t worry about what people say, because people going to talk, they going to criticize. I mean, that’s part of life, that’s part of the game, but you gotta stay focused on what God has called you to do, and stay in your lane. So I live by that example, and I don’t try to interject myself in a lane that I am not called to run on. So for instance, because of my popularity as an author and a historian, I have received numerous requests about doing other things and also requests in knowledge that I’m not familiar with don’t have no expertise, so I’m happy to defer to those who do have knowledge, experience and expertise, and that’s why a professional community of peers is so important, because, number one, it helps you to identify peers who have the knowledge, skills and expertise and the resources. And number two, it gives you credibility, meaning that I don’t know all the answers, but I know someone who does so that gives folks a sense of your credibility and your ethical behavior in the field,

Lexi Raines

I would completely agree. I feel like staying in your lane, like I have a question later about like the best and worst advice you’ve ever received, but I think that is genuinely good advice too, because I feel like, if you are trying to like, you said, like, interject yourself into other places. I feel like that can be where, like so much unhappiness will stem from. Like, that fear of judgment from doing like, what you truly want to do. So I feel like that is just a really, really important and wise piece of information she gave you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So please like describe, for me, a defining moment in your creative journey, like, did you have a like, a particular project or moment that had the biggest. Impact on, on you.

Walter Curry

Yes, yes, I will say the defining moment for me was in 2020 before COVID. February the first 2020 black history, month of the unveiling of my first exhibition Sally in the Thompson family, and that exhibition was featured at the Aiken County Historical Museum in Aiken, South Carolina, where my maternal family is from. And I, along with the director, Laura Virgo, we collaborated for about six months on the exhibition, the items and the promotion. And I remember putting, putting the word about the exhibition out to the public and on social media. And I looked up one day find out. Man, it is sold out. And I remember Laura said, Doctor, curry. We are at capacity. I said, what? You gotta be kidding me. And so I remember, I spent the weekend down there. My cousins gave me we had an Alli at my cousin house, and so they were so excited. I mean, I mean, they were so excited. Some cousins I never met, who came down, and I was like, wow, they doing all this for me. And so I on Saturday morning, I lost my wallet, and luckily, I was able to recover it. I left it at a gas station, so I said to myself, Man, I lost my wallet a few hours before the opening event of this exhibition. I’m freaking out. And so when, when, when the exhibition was finally open, during event time, I looked up and there were people coming from all walks of life. I mean, I think it was over 100 people. And according to the museum, they say that that was the largest gathering of an exhibition in its history. Insane. That was insane. I was like, Oh, my God, this is insane here, you know. So that was a defining moment for me to really sink my teeth in and say, Okay, this is something. I could do this. And so that led to me defining my skills, making sure that I stayed with what I am doing. And so that was the defining moment. And the second defining moment was recently when I finished writing, when I finished writing my third book on South Carolina, Matilda Evans, a medical pioneer, and looking at my work and looking at how this book is really going to be a major blockbuster in South Carolina history. That is another defining moment for me. So yes, those are two defining moments.

Lexi Raines

Those both sound so like special I can’t even imagine, like, how you must have felt in that moment. That is congratulations. That is actually amazing. Thank you. So, yeah, of course. So I know we kind of already did hit on this, but if you have any other advice, what is the best advice you’ve received and the worst advice you’ve received?

Walter Curry

The best advice I receive, I will say, like I said during during our interview, is stay in your lane. Know what you’re good at, and perfect your skill and and talent. And that has helped me the worst advice. I haven’t received any worse advice. I will say, being tempted to do something that you don’t want to do. I will say over joining organizations. Sometimes we do that. Join this organization, you join that organization, and you hoping that if you join organizations, you will get something out of it. So I will say that is, is the worst advice that I receive. And I will say in that if you going to join an. Organization, you have to feel comfortable. You have to know why you join in that organization, and you don’t want to overjoin. You want to join organizations that relates to your interests. So that is the two advices that I have received.

Lexi Raines

I feel like that is definitely good thing, or a good piece of advice, or not over joining organizations, because I feel like young creatives, they are just trying to, like, get their names out there, do whatever they can do, as much as they can. And I feel like, as an artist, it’s so easy to stretch yourself too thin and kind of like get burnt out in that way, which is obviously never what you want to happen to your passions.

Walter Curry

Oh, I totally agree. And we can get burned out, and you get burned out to a point where it does affect your cognitive ability, because as a creative your mind is all over the place. You know, I even have to guard that myself. Well, well, I want to do this, but, but I know I shouldn’t okay, what I shouldn’t do, what I shouldn’t do I should do okay and to your point, we have to guard our minds. And I will tell any creative, guard your mind. Take time for yourself. Don’t worry about whether or not you’re going to get opportunities. Opportunities will come if you just stay focused and perfect your craft, stay engaged. Opportunities will come, and I’ve discovered that. I’ve discovered the days that I feel like, Are there any opportunities coming? You check your email, you find out, Oh, man, there’s an opportunity. Okay, yeah, yeah. And also cultivate relationships and give back. I think sometimes we miss that. I mean those organizations and peers who have helped us, we need to help them. And I would say that to creatives, that when you have downtime, that doesn’t mean that you’re not working. Okay, that’s an opportunity where you can reflect. That’s an opportunity where you can say, Okay, I need to retweet this. I need to retweet that. I may need to revise this content, revise that content, that content. That could be an opportunity to do some promotion on social media. Okay, follow up on emails. So So I always, I will always say that there’s always something to do, but the same time you have to know what your goals are, what your interests are.

Lexi Raines

Mm, hmm. I completely agree with that. Because, like, even on your point with like, not being afraid to give yourself that time to relax and have that downtime. Even I have felt that this past semester in school like it, it’s okay to give your brain a little break, and in that moment, in those moments where you are taking that break, you can find so much inspiration for things when they pick up again.

Walter Curry

Oh, absolutely. And you have to reflect on your successes too. When you reflect on your successes, that will help you feel positive, because, you know it’s like with Steve Harvey. He owns a radio show, and he has his his morning talks, and his morning talks are very, very powerful, inspirational. I remember listening to one of his morning talks, and he mentioned about how you have to speak something positive about your life, where God has placed you in your life. He will start off by saying, Steve got a radio show, yeah, I got a radio show. Okay? And he will tell you what led to him getting that radio show. He will tell you that man, several years ago, I was homeless. I was sleeping in my car. Okay, now I’m sitting in this chair, and I have my own radio show, and so he takes the time to reflect on his successes, and we have to do that, but particularly in this world of distractions, as we see, there are so many distractions, and so I would encourage creatives to reflect on your successes, and that doesn’t mean reflecting on your awards or your accomplishments, but but if you have published a book, if you have. Design or create a painting. Count that as a success. I mean, I mean, count the fact that you are participating in a professional development opportunity. Okay, the little things. It’s the little things that we have to appreciate. I believe in what St Augustine said in his book confessions, it’s the little things that leads to the greater things he didn’t say. These are the greater things he says, those little things. And so those little things that we have to pay attention to.

Lexi Raines

I completely agree you have, you have good advice after good advice, this is going to be awesome. So can you walk us through like a typical work day, like, what does your work process look like, and what do you kind of like expect from yourself on a daily basis?

Walter Curry

That’s a great question. You never know. I’m a father of two sons. I have a lovely wife who supports me, so it’s always unpredictable. I’m blessed to have flexibility. I work from home, so I make it a point to walk outside while my wife and my boys, they in the kitchen getting ready. I’m getting ready to take them to school. So I believe walking outside in the morning to feel refreshed, to connect with nature, to clear your mind, because your mind has to be clear. Also, I work out. I go to the gym twice a week. I’m trying to increase it to three times a week, because your success connects to your physical success. I believe that in order for us as creatives to stay engaged mentally, to decrease stress, we must take care ourselves, take care of our bodies, and we have to incorporate physical activity. So I do work out at the gym. I check my emails in the morning. I look at things that I could do as far as my work. I pick up the kids from school, help them out with their homework, and when my wife and my kids are sleep, I’m back on the computer, catching up on things. Well, that’s my typical work day. I do have presentations, and so when I schedule presentations. I take the time to prepare for those presentations and other projects that I’m working on, making phone calls.

Lexi Raines

So how do you create like that work life balance where you’re able to maintain like your professional creativity, your personal creativity, and just like that time with your family.

Walter Curry

Yeah, it’s a challenge. Sometimes it’s a challenge because in my position, I’m blessed to be compensated for my work. I receive compensation through a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission. I have a partnership with the Aiken Center for the Arts. I am the author in residence, and so we have a grant through the South Carolina Arts Commission, where we host historical exhibitions in middle schools across Aiken County, eighth grade classes. And so I’m blessed to be compensated, and also I’m a member of the South Carolina humanities speakers bureau, where I’m part of a circuit of speakers of history, art and culture called South Carolina, and I present at various cultural centers, museums, arts and humanities organizations across the state. And so I’m blessed that I am being compensated for my work. And I think we have to feel well, let me say we need to be compensated for our work because of what we put in. And so I’m always looking for opportunities for compensation, and if those opportunities for compensation don’t come quickly, then I’m looking to help other authors. And that’s a key point I want to make too, is don’t just look to see compensation all the time, there could be an opportunity to help another creative, and that creative will help you. There could be an opportunity to connect with it, with an influencer. And influencers are very, very important in our work. Those are the individuals who have influence in areas of expert. Teas, but also have influence in networks that could give us opportunities, and so we have an opportunity to help the influencer. So these are strategies that I have used over the years that have helped me, because as a creative, you’re going to experience gaps, okay? I mean, in any business, there will be gaps, okay, but how do you overcome those gaps? How do you train your mind mentally to not allow those gaps to affect your confidence? And so that’s why I live by three things, looking for opportunities that provide compensation, looking to help other peers, and also looking to help influencers and get involved in my professional networks.

Lexi Raines

I would completely agree. I feel that, like, obviously, when you are working creatively, you do want to worry about money, but like, there’s so many other ways that you can kind of get that, like payout, like just their experience, or growing your circle, all of those things that you mentioned.

Walter Curry

Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Totally agree.

Lexi Raines

So as we’re approaching the end of the interview, do you have any questions that you wish you were asked?

Walter Curry

Oh, no, no. I really enjoyed this interview. I got off to a slow start, but over over time during this interview, really enjoyed answering the questions. No,

Lexi Raines

I’ve really enjoyed talking with you. I feel like you have so many like valuable, so many valuable words of advice for people that I think will be just so helpful. Thank you. Thank you. So my last question, do you have a creative that you would like to be interviewed, that you’d like to nominate to be interviewed?

Walter Curry

I do several of them, several of them. I will say my cousin Teresa Corley Wright and and here’s why I say that, because she was the one who introduced me to the world of writing. Really tell you this story like myself, she is a family historian. We share a common we share a common ancestors, and I remember myself and Teresa, we discussed the idea of a family history book. And at the time, I knew that Teresa had experience in writing books. She has written several books over the years and and she told me, she said, Well, Walter, since you know the family history and you know a lot of relatives, you should write the book. I said, me, Ah, man, I’ve never written a book, you know. I said. I said, okay, okay, okay, okay. You gotta be kidding me. I’m just gonna provide you the information. But I said, Well, wait a minute. You know, I’m at a midlife crisis. This is an opportunity for me to show what I can do. And so I took the opportunity I wrote the book through trial and error. But what’s so interesting about my first book is the structure of the book is the same structure that I use when I wrote my dissertation. And so I had no format of writing a book. I say, Okay, I’m going to write the narratives, and then I’m going to write an interpretive essays about the narratives. Okay? And that’s qualitative research, where you take narratives and you write interpretive reflection essays about the narratives, looking at themes and context and so forth. And so I follow that format, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll follow that format. So yes, Teresa has been very helpful. She She deserved to be honored. She has now received accolades for her work, and so I will, I will be be honored to recommend her,

Lexi Raines

Yes, okay, awesome, so I’m going to be sending. You like a little follow up email, and I’ll remind you in there. But could you just like, attach either her contact information, like her email or her phone number, whichever she prefers, and then also, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, I’ve really enjoyed our time today this you just have so much good advice. It’s awesome. I feel like your story is really inspiring. Like you’re just you didn’t know what you do. That’s kind of how I’m feeling. Like I don’t know what I want to do, but you give me hope that I will end up there.

Walter Curry

Well, I appreciate it. And that’s, and that’s, and that’s, that’s what we have, is hope. Like Steve Harvey said, If you don’t have faith, have hope. And and I draw on that because that was the the characteristic that my ancestors had when they were enslaved and and share crop. And in the rural South South Carolina, they they had faith, but they had hope. And I think before you have faith in something, you gotta have hope. You gotta have something to believe in. Because when you have hope for something, then then you will develop faith, but you got to have hope first. And and how I describe hope as optimism, you have to be you have to be optimistic, and you have to really believe in yourself, because, again, there will be challenges. You have to face rejections. One of things. One thing I learned when when I was active in the insurance industry, I learned about rejections. I learned about overcoming rejections, because that’s part of the process. When you are in the sales industry, you going to have objections, you’re going to have rejections. Okay? Is how you overcome those objections and rejections to move forward. It’s all saying it’s a numbers game, you know, an insurance business, it is a numbers game. And that has never changed. And so we as creatives, we’re selling our work. We are actually selling content, okay, where in insurance business, you’re selling a product, okay? That product could be life insurance, health insurance, disability, okay? Where, as a creative, you’re selling content based on an idea. Okay? You’re trying to convince people that your content and your idea worth something for them to buy. Okay, so you you gotta have hope and you gotta have faith.

Lexi Raines

Yes, that’s also more good advice you, you just keep coming with this.

Walter Curry

I love to do a podcast one day, my tips and strategies.

Lexi Raines

Yeah, that would be awesome. We we actually do have a podcast section on our website, so I’ll definitely, I’ll definitely mention you to my boss for sure.

Walter Curry

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I appreciate it,.

Lexi Raines

Yeah, of course. So just thank you again for your time. I’ve really enjoyed this interview. I’m going to send you that follow up email, and obviously you can, like, email me any questions you have, but yeah, I think that’s it.

Walter Curry

Alright? Thank you so much.

Lexi Raines

Yeah, of course, you have a good rest of your week.

Walter Curry

Same to you. Same to you. thank you.

Lexi Raines

Thank you.

May 27, 2025
Carla Angus

“A carrot in boiling water softens, an egg in boiling water hardens, but a coffee bean in boiling water changes the water around it.”

Carla Angus runs a consulting business, Transforming Minds, and serves as the Director of Community Engagement at ArtFields Junior. She is originally from Lake City, SC, but now lives with her family in Florence, SC. Carla also directs Dramatic Coffee Beans, a youth development organization that uses performing arts to help children make positive choices.

Interview

Transcript

Sara Sobota

Can you please do us the favor of introducing yourself, spell out your name and tell us where you’re from.

Carla Angus

well, my name is Carla Angus and a C, A, R, L, A, and then last name, Angus, A, N, G, U, S. I’m originally from Lake City, South Carolina, right here and but I currently live in Florence, South Carolina with my husband and two children.

Sara Sobota

Okay, what do you do for work? And where are you currently working from?

Carla Angus

I have a consulting business called Transforming minds. I am I was a principal, believe it or not, in education, and I was fortunate to have this opportunity with the art fields team. I came on when it was when we didn’t even have a name. So I guess I’m the old head. And so I started here as an employee as well as a contractor, and from that point, I’ve continued to have the pleasure and the honor of continuing to work in the role as a contractor. So right now, as far as title, most people refer to me as the director of community engagement and art fields Junior my main responsibilities at this time

Sara Sobota

okay, great, great.

Carla Angus

The other thing I have is I am director over dramatic coffee beans, which is youth development organization. It is geared towards helping kids make positive choices during difficult times, and we use the performing arts to help kids express themselves and deal with different issues. So that is my passion. That is my something that I, you know, I consider myself a youth advocate. So that’s my my heart.

Sara Sobota

Okay, that program, dramatic coffee, means I’ve, I’ve read a couple articles about it, is it? Is it in Lake City, Florence area? Or where does it live?

Carla Angus

In Lake City, it’s open to all students who can get here. But I would say, if I had to say a target area, we do, Florence County, Williamsburg County, and we want to advance out to Clarendon County this year. Okay,

Sara Sobota

wow, that’s great. When was dramatic coffee beans founded?

Carla Angus

we started brewing in 2011

Sara Sobota

explain briefly what coffee beans has to do with Children’s Advocacy.

Carla Angus

you know, I heard this story a while back, and I’ll be very brief with it, but it said in life, you can deal with your trials and tribulations as a carrot to egg or a coffee bean, and as a carrot, you start off hard and strong, and you know what you want to do, and you know, but as soon as you get in that boiling water, which is in common tribulations of life, you get soft and you get weak, you know, kind of like that diet. You’re like, Oh, I’m going to start my diet day. And somebody brings a donut, and you say, I’ll eat it and start tomorrow. But then you also can be like an egg, which is very fluid on the inside and golden, it seems at peace, but as soon as it hits that boiling water, it gets hard and stiff. And I know you don’t know anybody like that, Sarah, you know, but they seem good until they’re not getting their way and they get an attitude. But then that coffee bean, as soon as it hits the boiling water, and letting, instead of letting the water change it, it changes the water. And so we encourage all our young people that when they’re dealing with different things in society, to not the society impact them in a negative way, but for them instead, to impact society in a positive way. So all our kids that be coffee beans, but not just a coffee bean, but a dramatic that’s amazing. That’s kind of the story behind it.

Sara Sobota

Okay, great, great. What background do you have that helped you land the roles that you have?

Carla Angus

I would probably have to say art fields Junior, because when we first came in, this was very much an adult based competition, and we were targeting 12 southeastern states. And being on the team at the time, I was very excited about the possibility of art making a difference in our community, but I just felt that need to involve the youth, because I feel like if you get them when they’re young, maybe they’ll continue as they get older, and so through the out of the out there of having a, you know, a younger base competition with the same expectations as art fields, but just targeting first grade through 12th grade and, you know, fast forward now, years later, is statewide. It has a traveling exhibition. You know, it’s just really grown beyond what I originally thought of it to be, because originally it was just a competition for first grade through students.

Sara Sobota

But you’re excited about that? Yeah. I mean, you are the founder. Was it your brainchild to begin with? It sounds like, yeah

Carla Angus

yes

Sara Sobota

wow, wow. Okay. Can you recommend any specific skills that an aspiring applicant should have to increase their chances of landing a role in your field? And I guess we’re gonna have to have a broad definition of your field.

Carla Angus

I would say open minded, flexible, very flexible, quick, on their feet, okay, problem solving. Okay, then I would definitely say a zest of creativity this, you know, and everybody’s creative skills and talents are different, but I think all of that brings about change in something. So for me, I would have to say that I think I’ve got it, flexibility, open minded creativeness, quick on your feet

Sara Sobota

yeah, yeah. Okay, awesome.

Carla Angus

And communicative,

Sara Sobota

okay

Carla Angus

And I think that’s when I see open mindedness, being able to dialog with with the diverse amount of people, backgrounds, ages, everything. Because one other part of my role is I work a lot with volunteers, and our volunteers make what we do. And so when I think of volunteers, I’m thinking about individuals that may not be a part of the art world and helping to be, you know, empowered through the arts, instead of intimidated by the arts. Because let’s be real. You know, when you’re looking at to the art and things like that, most of the time is certain clientele that have that opportunity to really engage in the arts. So it can be very intimidating to just the general population. So I think being able to communicate with them in a way that they can appreciate and feel respected, yeah, it helps them feel free to explore. So, you know, so communication is a big one, yeah?

Sara Sobota

what are some techniques you use specifically with volunteers, when they show up and are are willing and interested, but feel that sense of, maybe I don’t belong here.

Carla Angus

I think giving them a voice and letting them be the ones to tell me what they’re looking for. You know, what they think about things, and then taking what they saying, and then being able to, then drive what I would like for them to get out of what they’re doing, right? You know, so, so definitely hearing what they what they have to say, and how they’re thinking

Sara Sobota

Yeah, okay. Are there any other well, you can include art fields, of course. But are there any local organizations, programs or events that you recommend for aspiring creatives in South Carolina?

Carla Angus

Well, you know, we have a great little theater here in Lake City. And I think sometimes, because we don’t have the Grand Theater and the grand stage that, you know, we lose people coming to this area, but I think they have a great little the Lake City community theater. And I was a kid in high school, I participated in it, and so I think that that has a lot of room, and when you hear about it, you want to come see it. Yeah? Concert Series here does a wonderful job of doing local concerts and things like that. I think they do a great job. And I’m trying to think locally here, yeah, I think that our chamber is working really hard to come back around and institute some events that can bring forth people I know they have Crossroads music and market that’s coming up. They used to be back in the day, something we call the tobacco festival, okay? And they’re really working hard to engage more and make everyone feel welcome. And so they’ve restructured what that event was in. To something new. So,

Sara Sobota

okay, great

Carla Angus

at hometown holiday. We have hometown holiday December. So everybody’s got to come to Lake City for hometown holiday.

Sara Sobota

Is that Christmas sort of

Carla Angus

yes, the first weekend of December.

Sara Sobota

Great. What advice do you have for current college students or pre professional adults who are pursuing a career in the creative world?

Carla Angus

I would say to definitely take part in creative events. You know why the art fields, art competition and festival? I don’t think there’s anyone from this area that should not have come to that particular event at this point. So definitely, to engage me a part of those things, I say, work with artists from different disciplines, visit the museums and things like that, surround yourself by other creatives, those who are wanting to be creative, I think can help drive you as well as you drive them, you know, good back and forth type of thing, right? Oh, and definitely work with those who are older, who already in it. So you can learn from the learning curves. And I call them learning curves because you hit those bumps sometimes in life that may knock you out the car you have to get back again and climb and try to drive again. So finding those mentors who can help you along the way, I think, is is really key, because to this day, I may have individuals that I’ll call and I’m maybe trying to troubleshoot through something, and they are a good voice, and they tell me that I’m right or wrong they dont hold back.

Sara Sobota

who would have been your mentors when you were 18 or so?

Carla Angus

You know, I was very fortunate. I had, I know, one or two teachers that I remember talking to because it seems like they heard me. They listened. I think it was Miss Floyd. She was an English teacher at Lake City High School, and I felt like she listened. She wasn’t just looking at me as this crazy teen, like she made me feel like I had a voice. Oh, my goodness. I wish I could think of her name right now, because she was over student council for years, just a wonderful lady, so I remember those adults along the way that made me feel like I had a voice. Yeah,

Sara Sobota

yeah. Okay, great. Wow. I’m just so impressed with all the different ways that you impact community, and I cannot imagine how you find time to do it all. What could you maybe tell me a lesson or two that you have learned from the experience of a dramatic coffee beans,

two lessons from that. It’s so fun because I’m in the process of meeting with my staff now to try to fix things, I would say lesson lesson learned. Am I correct what you’re telling me? Lessons Learned. Just because it’s your idea, don’t mean you have to do everything.

Carla Angus

two lessons from that. It’s so fun because I’m in the process of meeting with my staff now to try to fix things, I would say lesson lesson learned. Am I correct what you’re telling me? Lessons Learned. Just because it’s your idea, don’t mean you have to do everything.

Sara Sobota

Yes, yes.

Carla Angus

I think that don’t be afraid to let go. You know? I think that’s that’s one thing for me. I always want to make everything easier for everybody else, and not recognizing how it doesn’t allow them to be as strongly as they can be, because they they then get into this thing where they’re waiting on me or waiting on the other person. So sometimes you empower people by stepping back and letting them fall and then helping them get back up. You know. So for me, being now at the age that I am, I’m learning that in a hard way. So, but a good way, but a hard way, right, right? I could have confused a lot of this head, like I had alone.

Sara Sobota

It’s a lesson and advice together,

Carla Angus

yes, but I mean, basically, I think that’s the biggest thing. Like, there’s enough to share, enough to give you know, be happy to share the spotlight. Because when that spotlight is shined on somebody else, you know, you feel good to know that you are part of that, what’s happening so embracing others, being in their life.

Sara Sobota

great, okay, well, yeah, that’s, that’s all my questions, and you have been fabulous.

April 24, 2025
Jamison Mady Kerr

“As long as I’m still learning and growing, this is as good a classroom as any.”

Jamison Mady is the Director of Art Town Development at Artfield’s in Lake City, SC. She’s redefining community growth through creativity and connection.

Interview

Transcript

Sara Sobota

Can you please introduce yourself, spell out your name and tell us where you’re from.

Jamison Mady

Yeah, my name is JamesonMady, Kerr, j, A, M, i, s o, n, m, A, D, y, k, E, R, R, and I am originally from Florence, South Carolina, but now I am a proud Lake City, South Carolina.

Sara Sobota

Great, great. What do you do for work, and where are you currently working from?

Jamison Mady

So I am the director of art town development for art fields in Lake City, South Carolina, and we operate out of a couple of different buildings in downtown Lake City

Sara Sobota

how did you end up in that field and how did you hear about it? This one’s always a really long answer.

Jamison Mady

So I actually grew up a dancer. I studied ballet, and the physicality of being a dancer was not something that I felt like I could maintain. And so whenever I was going into college, had this like crisis of like, what am I? Who am I? What will I be without this thing that I put all of my time into? And so I always knew that I was creative, and I liked design and so, but really, I mean, I was so untethered by the loss of like, where I had put all of my energy. And so I tried a couple of different classes and different things. I started an education program, and I just realized that there, I needed an outlet for creativity, and so I started my visual art kind of career, I guess not career, but, you know, I started that path because of visual communications, because I thought that as someone who really loved design, that that was a pretty straightforward and maybe not so lofty, because that’s a job, right, right, in a more classic sense than some of these other so I started Taking classes. Loved being around the art department so much. I loved a lot of it, but then I took my first art history class, and I was never the same. From then on, I figured out that through art, I could care about everything else. So where I didn’t ever care about history, I suddenly was I had a path in because I found a way to care about what was going on in the world, because I was seeing it from the artist perspective, and not from, you know, data points that describe a battle that I could really not. I mean, I just don’t care, and I can’t connect to it. And because I was able to connect to people, I was able to connect to events through history, and that, like, really woke me up, because I realized that there was just so much I didn’t know. And so I ended up with a history degree because I thought I was going to go to graduate school for art history and eventually be a professor. And you know, that was the track that I had laid out for myself. And then in my final semester at Francis Marion, which is where I graduated from, my art history, Professor sent me an email about an internship opportunity in Lake City, and so I kind of laughed and rolled my eyes because I had not heard of anything positive coming out of Lake City in all of my years living in Florence and but I also thought, you know, I could use some experience that could Go on my resume and I’ll give it a shot. And so I drove to Lake City, and I can still, like, see it so vividly. I walked into this building, there’s this group of women that were kind of standing around a table and making these incredible things happen that I couldn’t have even dreamed and so lucky for me, they let me come and be an intern. And so I got to work on a project with Kirkland Smith during the festival that year. She was the previous year’s winner, and I’ve got to kind of help facilitate a project with her. I got to do some graphic design. I just, I completely fell in love with the idea of art fields and the people of Lake City, and so I just kept showing up and didn’t get paid. I was not, it was not a paid internship. I was losing money because I was driving 30. Minutes away every day to, like, sweep the floors and like, beg to do whatever they would let me do, yeah, and, I mean, I filled in for a week at a law office in town, just because, like, I was gonna be in Lake City, like I was determined. And so art Fields was over. You know, early May, by July 15 is when I started my first paid job here. And I Yeah, and I started off working splitting my time between art fields with graphic design, because I knew that that was a job. And then I also was really lucky to be at Jones Carter gallery as the gallery assistant, and the first exhibition that I got to work on from start to finish was goy as Liz Caprice. And so I can you imagine? No, wow, I was just like, What? What is this like? What? What on earth have I landed in? Like this dream? Yeah, so at that point, I just promised myself that as long as I was still learning and growing and had opportunities to challenge myself, but this was as good a classroom as any I could find anywhere, yeah, and so I said, as long as I was growing, I would stay. And it has my my 10 year anniversary passed in February, and so I have been able to not only be challenged and have been able to be a part of new things, but I’ve gotten to be in a place where I could be a part of the growth, and I could see the impact that the work that I do has, which has been incredibly rewarding and really special and and now, 10 years later, my husband has a business in like downtown Lake City. I have a little three year old girl who is, you know, we’re raising her here, and we are, we’re in, you know, we’re part, we’re we’re here for what this is, and we believe in it. And yes, you were right. This one is a longone.You aren’t growing it, and his reputation just continues to expand. I mean, yeah, I found out about it when Jim aren’t won the first competition. I was writing for a magazine, and I wasn’t at Coastal, and I got to go talk to Jim, and I was like, what? Same thing. I couldn’t believe it. And then I went out years later, yeah, that’s amazing.

Sara Sobota

Yeah

Jamison Mady

it is very much like you have to see it to believe it, kind of thing. And it’s just been one of the greatest honors in my life to be able to share it with people. So

Sara Sobota

that’s amazing, that’s amazing. That’s so great. You kind of covered this, but what background did you have that helped you land that role? I think you very clearly and eloquently described the interest in art, the finding of art history, anything else though, that, any background, else that you didn’t talk about?

Jamison Mady

Well, I think, you know, we are in South Carolina, and so much of I think the creatives and the people who want to strive to do something different feel like they have to leave the state to be able to find that. And I always kind of felt like it was a disadvantaged for me, but I think that it has helped me so much to know what we have, what how much room we have for all of this, you know, and that it’s made it being me, despite how many other people have may have wanted to be over my life, you know, but being me has made me ready and able to connect with other people. And so the experiences that I’ve had have helped me, and none of them have been wasted here. You know, like, I think that being able to understand why farming is important to people in this community, because if I can get on their level about farming, then maybe that’s a better way to get them on my level about art. So being able to just really, I feel like I’ve been able to be more myself over the time I’ve been here, because the authenticity is what has made me good at what I do.

Sara Sobota

That’s That’s amazing. That’s great. The next question is, can you please walk us through a typical work day? Okay, what does your work look like and what is expected of you on a daily basis?

Jamison Mady

Yeah, yeah,let’s see. So I would just say that to begin to answer this question, that there is no such thing as a typical day in a young arts organization like art fields, and particularly within my department of art fields, which is all new initiatives. I mean, everything that we’re doing is new, is new things we haven’t done before. So we just opened act on studios, and that’s a big piece of what takes up my time, but I can try to answer your question a little bit more. So I come to my office. I work right on Main Street in downtown Lake City. My office is in a building with our visitor center and our tourism kind of department and our chamber of commerce. So there’s an another art fields office, but I’m here because my job is to create a year round arts destination. And so tourism and thinking about the bigger picture of the town’s development helps me understand art town development, and so we spend a lot of time in meetings and talking about ideas. There’s a lot of conversation and development of ideas. Talking with artists. For many months, I spent a lot of time meeting with artists, taking them through the studio space, figuring out what their needs were, and trying to make sure that we could meet those needs with the new initiatives and programs that we’re developing. So I have a lot of people that I work with from day to day. Some days I come in my office and I sit down at my desk and I do paperwork and budget stuff and grant stuff and answer emails, and then some days I go straight into meetings, and I’m in meetings all day, but they’re not meetings like a lecture. They’re meetings like we’re sitting here and talking about, what could we do and how would we do that? How do we take all of the skills that we have together and make something new happen? And so it’s hard to describe a typical day, but we are always planning, always looking to the next part and always trying to think about how art can fit into the big picture and how the big picture can be more artistic in the future.

Sara Sobota

Yeah, that makes sense. Okay.

Jamison Mady

I’m sorry. I know that that one’s probably hard for people to answer.

Sara Sobota

They’re all over the place. But, you know, regardless of how people answer it, they always come around to saying something really poignant, the sort of the mission of their work, or why it really appeals to them. So yeah, don’t yeah, there’s no right, wrong or off tracking. Can you describe it as defining moment in your creative journey? Maybe a particular project or something you produced that showcased your creativity. Oh,

Jamison Mady

so I had a really almost said dumb, because it wasn’t dumb. It was a great idea, but I felt so silly for ever saying it out loud because of what I had to do to get it accomplished. I don’t know if that brings totally works,

Sara Sobota

right? I mean, that totally works, yeah,

Jamison Mady

yeah. So whenever I was kind of doing, like, mostly project management for public art and exhibition work, this was maybe 2017 or so, we were trying to figure out how we could get people to some of the outlying venues, because it’s a competition. We need people to get around town, but there are some where there’s gaps between a bunch of activity and the venue. And so I was kind of trying to think about, how could we fill in some of those gaps and get people to walk all the way around and Lake City, and Darla is known for her relationship to the masters and Augusta National Golf Course. And so I thought, you know golf, I just, for some reason, said out loud, what if we had a mini golf course and every hole was designed by a different school? And my boss at the time, I think, was like, surely, this is going to be it. This is going to be the thing that she gets, that she writes her way out of here on this one, because there’s no way. And I just was so determined. So I found these, like boards with astroturf that have little holes in them. I drove. Them all over the state. I drove to Clemson, and I had no budget because I bought I put all the budget towards being able to pay the schools for materials and the boards themselves. So I was driving a minivan of my friend’s minivan, with all the seats down and like the boards were literally like resting on my shoulder. I was just so determined that it was going to get done, and it happened. And I think what it showed me was a like, maybe think a little bit about what you would have to do if someone says yes

Sara Sobota

yeah, careful what you ask for.

Jamison Mady

But also, you know, whenever you really think about the way that we create networks of engagement and people being excited and feeling ownership over what we’re doing here in Lake City, that expanded the way that people saw themselves as a part of it, in a way that I kind of had underestimated, because there were students from Clemson, there were students from Claflin, there were students from Francis Marion, and there, you know, there were high school students who were in shop class, and they made these great like Keith Haring Inspired, cut out to people as their obstacles and wow, we used like it just the way that it opened up art for people, because they were able to have a prompt that was a fun prompt, yeah, and they just kind of were able to fly from there. Yeah. It was a really rewarding experience, and one that made me really grateful, and, like, sure about the way that I wanted to move forward in, in being able to pull people together in that name of art, yeah,

Sara Sobota

yeah, yeah. Okay, awesome.

Jamison Mady

then you would see like families out there playing golf, mini golf, and whether it was intentional or not, like they were viewing artwork, yes,

Sara Sobota

yes, yeah.

Jamison Mady

And so I always think about like those formative, like, those core memories that every kid has, like, every person has them of like this thing they saw that they’ll never be able to get the image of it out of their heads. Yeah, and to know that that is that a lot of people walk away with that when they’ve come to art fields, that some of the most spectacular things they’ll ever see were in Lake City, South Carolina. If that’s possible, and that’s true, we can all be anything, because Lake City was completely dead, you know, it was totally counted out. And if, if people can come here and see something magical and special, what can happen in a place like the beach, you know what I mean, like? Because, yeah, so, yeah, yeah. Just the way it, like, gives people hope is so important, and it’s what has been, like, the most remarkable shift here in the 10 years I’ve been here.

Sara Sobota

Wow, yeah, that’s amazing. Oh yeah, I was waiting for that. That’s amazing. Yeah, so I’m going to ask the last two are there any local organizations, programs or events that you recommend for aspiring creatives in South Carolina, other than come to art fields?

Jamison Mady

Yeah, well, of course, art group, duh. I don’t know. I mean, I think that South Carolina is increasing opportunity all the time for artists and for creatives. I don’t know that’s a hard one, like right off the top of my head, because I think I really admire the work that the Public Works center in Somerville is doing. I think that they’ve done a really great job of blending programming and community. They’ve been so scrappy to like put it together. And I really admire them as an organization, and I think that there something to watch, in my opinion, maybe not necessarily as a resource for young people, but as just a place that good creative acts happen. And I think that that’s really important, that we remember that those things exist. Yeah, yes, and I’m sorry I don’t have more than that, but I just want to talk about art fields Junior and art fields and all of that stuff.

Sara Sobota

Well, I mean, that’s perfect for a middle school, high school audience, yeah.

Jamison Mady

I think that, you know, making sure, so I’ll say this. This is what I always say about youth and art when you. Are really good at football. Everybody knows you’re really good at all. If you’re really, really smart, they’ll put your name in the newspaper because you are in the on the Dean’s list. There’s all kinds of like measures of success and of just like people being really talented, and I think that for parents and family members, just as much as the students themselves. What we can do through art fields, Junior and providing a little bit of a measure, I think, is really, really important, because we don’t want, when I say that, I want to dispel the starving artist narrative. It’s not because I want for their for everybody to be unrealistic about how what they can be and what they can do, because, like, what are we going to do? Like, eat each other’s art? No, we have to make money, and we have we have responsibilities, and I understand all of that, but I think that some of the ways that art fields Junior has encouraged young people who maybe don’t know, like, is this something that I could explore, or am I good at this? Because art funding and things in schools is not, I mean, it’s one of the first things to go and so if you don’t have anybody to teach you or to recognize your talent, then you might go your whole life and never be able to fulfill that need in you. And and it’s not, it’s real, like people who are creative need to express that. So if we can provide a place where that can be done and celebrated, then that’s so that is such an important piece of what art fields is. And so I think, and I’m so excited for you to talk to Carla, because she’s just gonna, I mean, her perspective on this kind of stuff is insanely inspiring and just wonderful, but genuinely like, what kind of confidence can we instill in people who do need that outlet, and who are sensitive and connected and have an ability to relate to other people like that is a skill that is needed and necessary. And, yeah, I just love that. You know, we were, after we were doing this for a few years, the skiza art show came to Lake City, and for the last couple of years they’ve had it in the Rob and I just think like for people to start to associate Lake City with recognition in the arts is really, really cool, but for skiza to have taken what we’re doing and seen An opportunity to expand on their Art Awards. That is, that’s it like, that’s the goal. Like, it’s great that it ended up here, yeah, but it’s even better that they felt the need to put more emphasis on that. And I would love to take a little bit of credit for like that, that art fields Junior has helped to elevate the importance of that in the state of South Carolina?

Sara Sobota

Absolutely. Yeah, wow, that’s great. Okay. Last questions, do you have any advice for current college students or pre professional young adults who are pursuing a career in the creative world?

Jamison Mady

think my best advice for anyone in the arts, or just in general, is that sometimes you can’t reopen a door that you’ve closed. The decisions that you make should be about broadening your opportunities and where you can go, not narrowing, because if I I thought I knew what I was going to be doing so many different times. I thought two years ago I knew what I was going to be doing, and my job is completely different now than it was, you know, two years ago, and remaining open and taking the opportunities that are presented to you and doing your best at the things that you have in front of you are only going to help propel you forward whenever you do, figure out exactly where you fit, no connection that you will ever have. You don’t you don’t know how things come back around. People remember you. Make sure that they remember you the way you want them to be remembered. And just because you’re young now. You won’t be young forever, and people are waiting for you. We’re waiting for you.

Sara Sobota

Hey, that’s amazing. Okay, great. So many great things. I’m not gonna be able to fit them all in. I don’t think

Jamison Mady

I will. I can. I mean, I can talk.

Sara Sobota

This has been great. I think I can give students a snapshot of what our Okay, not only looks like, but feels like and does and yeah, yeah, so, yeah. This has been great. Okay. Thanks very. Awesome.

Jamison Mady

Well, thank you so much. This was so much fun. It has been

Sara Sobota

All right, you

April 24, 2025
Theresa Marchi

“Try to get as many different kinds of experiences as possible. I think a wealth of experiences is really valuable.”

Theresa Marchi was the Director of Strategic Marketing at the charity United Way of Greenville County. She takes a holistic approach to marketing, working to engage the community in different ways.

Interview

Transcript

Theresa Marchi
My name is Theresa Marchi, originally from Connecticut.

Emma Plutnicki
Perfect. And can you tell us what you do for work, and where you’re currently working from?

Theresa Marchi
Yeah, I am the Director of Strategic Marketing here at United Way of Greenville County. So located in the upstate of South Carolina, Greenville.

Emma Plutnicki
Perfect! How long have you been working there?

Theresa Marchi
Yeah. I’ve been here two years.

Emma Plutnicki
Okay. And your official job title is…

Theresa Marchi
Director of Strategic Marketing.

Emma Plutnicki
Perfect. Well, how did you end up in the job that you have today?

Theresa Marchi

Yeah, so I got my degree from Coastal [Carolina University] in graphic design, in 2017. And then from there, I had been working at an ad agency in Myrtle Beach, which was a fantastic opportunity. But at the time, my dream job was to create college athletic spaces. And there was a company in Greenville, South Carolina that was doing that, and I was just obsessed. And so at the time, that was my dream job. And I wanted to go into that field, because it kind of blew my mind that there are designers that design beyond this flat surface of logos and videography and pieces like that, elements of advertising like that. And they really are almost like engineers and architects where they design a whole facility, and they help tell a brand’s story, an athletic’s story about what makes their space special, and why athletes should be part of their program and the history and the legacy that they get to be a part of. And so that was really intriguing to me, that kind of storytelling.

Theresa Marchi

And I had moved up to Greenville to accept a role there as a designer and learned a lot. What helped me at the time was, the Athenaeum Press program at Coastal Carolina had, I had been part of helping develop a museum exhibit. And so this company in Greenville, they’re called Jack Porter, they saw that on my resume, and they were like, “you already have, like some of these skills that a lot of students don’t.” So that really helped me start thinking about design differently and storytelling, a lot different than, I think, a lot of other designers at the time. And from there, I just got really interested in marketing as a whole, how we’re telling stories and this holistic piece of the journey that people learn about a brand and get engaged in it. And so I had an opportunity to work at United Way of Greenville County, I started as a graphic designer here, and just asked a lot of questions, and then kind of seeing that potential and that, like, quality in me, and poking holes in things and trying to understand and build something really meaningful and intentional with our community, they asked me to take this role, which is, takes a holistic approach to that to our marketing efforts. And we just figure out how to engage the community in different ways. So kind of how I got to this role.

Emma Plutnicki

Nice, amazing. So nowadays, what do your day to days look like? What are you responsible for? And what are you working on?

Theresa Marchi

Yeah, so, day to day looks a lot different than it did when I first started. So as a designer, I used to be in the art aspect of things and making sure that the art pieces kind of resonate and tell the story that way. And now my role is a lot more different, and it’s a lot more planning, and it’s fighting for the whole year of all of these touchpoints that we’re going to have with community members, special segments, doing a lot of data interpretation. So collecting all the data, what’s reaching our donors, what’s, what’s not, what’s reaching our community, what’s not. Figuring out what’s working, a lot of A/B testing, and just trying to figure out the best messaging positioning for different groups to try to engage them in the work. And a lot of the times we see that there’s a very high alignment that community members have with our work, they just don’t know it, they just don’t know we do. And so part of my role is really figuring out what’s the best avenue to reach them, and to get them plugged into our work.

Emma Plutnicki

Nice, that’s awesome. So you mentioned the project at the Atheneum Press. And is there any other like defining moment in your journey so far, whether it’s at your job now, or just a project that you’ve worked on, that kind of sticks with you as something like meaningful to you?

Theresa Marchi

Yeah, I think there are a lot. I work in a nonprofit space. And so, truly, what’s been special is seeing pieces come to life and see– it sounds cheesy, but the lives that are being changed because of it. So one of the projects that we have here at United Way is this event called School Tools. And it’s hundreds of people lined up starting at four in the morning, and they will line up and get a backpack full of school supplies. And it’s not just school supplies that are just from all over the place. We work with Greenville County schools to make sure that these backpacks are full of items that the students are actually going to need. They’re organized by elementary school, high school, middle school and families who come and get backpacks they need. And I think you know, there are a lot of really great pieces of my job, but the moments where I get to go to School Tools and see the work really play out and people that have been waiting there since 4am to get a backpack and the lives that are changed and the other resources that they’re connected to, that has been really special and really fulfilling in my work. Because when I was growing up and realizing I sucked at biology, I just was like, “What am I going to do with my life? I want to make something matter in our community, in this world, I want to have a purpose. And I’m good at art. And so, how does that translate into the work?” And I think I’ve really found that here working in the nonprofit space and using the skills that I do have to help change lives. So that’s been really special to me.

Emma Plutnicki

Amazing. So working in the nonprofit, is it challenging? Like, what challenges do you face that you might not see in other areas?

Theresa Marchi

Yeah, I think what’s so challenging being in marketing in a nonprofit space, compared to the for-profit, is usually there’s a product in the for-profit. You are selling, you know, a better experience or something. And in the nonprofit space, what we’re selling is not tangible. So it’s really laying into the storytelling, the impact, the strategy of how we’re doing this work that is most important in this space. Whereas with the for-profit side, you can use a lot of different marketing tactics to sell a product, and its physical, and someone’s going to get it. And then the other side of it in the nonprofit space is, it’s just a lot more complex, and trying to find these allies and cheerleaders for your work, and really figure out how to engage them, it just really feels like a completely different ballgame. You use different kinds of tools. Some things are very similar from a marketing perspective, but I think it’s, to me a lot more challenging, in a good way.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah, that makes sense. So you also mentioned that one reason that kind of helped you in the job process was having that real world experience. Are there any other skills that an applicant should have that would increase their chances of getting a job in a field similar to yours?

Theresa Marchi

Yeah, I think, you know, in the marketing field, one of the skills, traits, that I find most valuable, especially where I’m at in my career is curiosity. And it sounds, I think, overused, but truly, when you’re in marketing, I really feel that everything needs to have a reason, especially in the nonprofit space, when you’re having to utilize resources very intentionally, I think curiosity, trying to understand why we’re doing these things that we’re doing, how is it going to further the mission, what is that experience that people are going to get when they interact with our brand, with our work? That is something that is really hard to find in others, in candidates? And if you really want to be a standout, for me, it’s it’s that attitude, that, you know, always striving for more. Asking questions. And I think as you get into adulthood, and the space is is different from college, it’s not as like, safe, still keeping curious. And asking the questions and trying to make the work better, is really something that I second guessed a lot early in my career that I just at this point, I just am who I am. I’m going to ask the questions. And that’s how I think you can make the most difference in your your work.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah, perfect. And within South Carolina, have there been any programs or organizations or events that you’ve gone to that have helped like progress your career, either that’s like through making connections, through specific clubs or groups or organizations? Can you think of any events like that?

Theresa Marchi

Yeah, I think there are a lot. So to begin with, rotary was a very pivotal organization that I was involved with in college and transitioned into, you know, my adulthood and real girl career. And that had really helped me network with a lot of people that got me into the rooms where I had a lot more options than I probably normally would have. And I just think taking the leadership opportunities in rotary helped me work through managerial challenges and working with others that kind of helped push my work forward some more. Another one is the association, or American Marketers Association, that one is full of resources and tools that has really helped me and kind of shaped my strategy process and what those materials look like, and the training opportunities. That’s been huge. And then, recently, I’ve started working on my MBA, and that’s kind of furthered a lot of my thinking, as far as marketing goes, and kind of the business end of things. So those are a few areas that have worked really well for me. I’m a big learner. So I’m game for all of it.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah. Perfect. So just as we wrap up, do you have any advice for people who are trying to get into your field?

Theresa Marchi

Yeah, I think try to get as many different kinds of experiences as possible. I think, you know, one thing that, silly in hindsight, that has actually helped me a lot because it was just a different experience, was I spent the summer working for Chant 411 [the university’s information desk] on campus. And it was an opportunity where I learned all about customer service and, that you don’t use the words “I don’t know” you just kind of use other language to kind of work through it. And I think I use that all the time. And I think about that training and really just kind of diversifying your experience in that way is really helpful. Because then when you step into a situation, especially a work situation, you can see different perspectives and new things that you wouldn’t have brought to the table, had you just solely focused on one thing. So I think a wealth of experiences is really valuable.

Emma Plutnicki

That’s great advice. And is there just anything else you’d like to add about anything?

Theresa Marchi

Nothing other than go Chants. So.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah, Chant’s up! Let’s go!

March 7, 2025
Thurayya UmBayemake

“Your path in life won’t look like anyone else’s.”

Thurayya UmBayemake is the Spark Lead Actor-Teacher in support of the Arts Grow SC program at SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. She delivers literacy-based drama programming to public schools to encourage “creative thinking, divergent thinking, and overall motivation to read.” UmBayemake earned a degree in drama studies at South Carolina State University (SC State).

Interview

Transcript

Thurayya UmBayemake

My name is Thurayya UmBayemake. I moved to South Carolina a couple of years ago from Ohio. But I claim Ohio, Kentucky, and South Carolina because I went to college here, and I felt like I grew up here, so.

Emma Plutnicki

Perfect. So, what do you do for work? And where are you currently working from?

Thurayya UmBayemake

My official title is Curriculum Coordinator, actor, teacher/coach for the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. So what that entails, is that I’m the lead actor teacher for a program called Spark, which is through their department of outreach and community engagement. And, the Spark program is a literacy-based drama program. So we go into elementary schools. And, not only do we show students how to take stories from picture books and how to add drama enactments in there, to show characters, to show settings, to show plot. To reinforce the literacy-based learning. But also creative thinking, divergent thinking, and just overall motivation to read. So we do that. That’s our main goal. But we also have a goal of showing teachers that hey, even though you don’t have an arts background, you could do this too. So it’s a two fold job.

Emma Plutnicki

Amazing. So you’re working out of South Carolina?

Thurayya UmBayemake

Yes.

Emma Plutnicki

Okay. Perfect. And how long have you been working there?

Thurayya UmBayemake

So, I’ve been here for a little over two years. And that’s when the program, the residency program started. Ah, so, this program has been going on for a minute. But, um, the program before I came along was a summer based only pilot. And when the SR [Sub-recipient], ARP [American Rescue Plan] grant money came in, that’s the federal, you know, grant money that was given for the pandemic, it turned this program into a year-long residency program. So, that’s when I was hired in. And I had a team of, underneath me, other actor teachers, and we’re spread out throughout the state. So, we work somewhat remotely and we traveled to different schools across the state. So, just you know, to spread the, to spread the wealth, to the spread the joy of the, of the job.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah, amazing. So two years, how did you end up in this field? How did you hear about it? How did you know that this is something that you could do?

Thurayya UmBayemake

So, my background, I’ve always been into theater. Well, I shouldn’t say I’ve always. I’m a storyteller. So I’ll try not to be so long winded, I will promise you, I will try hard.

Thurayya UmBayemake

So, it all started. When in high school, I was actually an athlete, I did cross country and track and field. I got injured my senior year. And at the same time, I got injured, the African community theater opened up in my hometown. And I tell this story, because it’s very important. That’s how I got into theater. Like I was involved in a theater that embraced me for who I was, and told stories that I could truly relate to. And so, that gave me that, the theater bug because, actually, I wasn’t even initially an actor; I was an assistant director, slash stage manager, then acting, and I knew from that I wanted to stay in theater. So I went to college ended up at South Carolina State University because they had a drama education program. And that’s how I ended up from Ohio down here. I have no ties to South Carolina other than that, but that program really developed me. Um, one as a family unit, you know, I felt comfortable and vulnerable enough, which is, which is very important. When it comes to drama and theater, you gotta be vulnerable onstage, in the script, everywhere, for the story to be told authentically.

Thurayya UmBayemake

So, that was one thing. But then also, when I realized how long the drama education program was going to take to complete, I switched to drama studies, which was good for me because it helped me learn other aspects, more in depth in theater, like I learned Tech, I learned administration, like all these different aspects, versus just little surface levels and education. So, that is my educational background.

Thurayya UmBayemake

Once I graduated, I did some traveling. I called myself a little bit of a nomad, I went back to Ohio for a bit. I did children’s theater up there, and I opened up my own theater, basically for social justice. It was called Sue Company. And I opened it with two of my friends, and we focused on telling the African American stories, you know, up here. I don’t know why I said up here, I put American in there. African American stories.

Thurayya UmBayemake

From there, I went to New York and, actually when I moved to New York, I took a break from theater, even though I was living in New York. I know that’s backwards, but I just was living life and, and me… me being a natural storyteller, you have to experience life to tell stories. So, that’s what I did in New York. I just was experiencing life. I did go to play readings, you know, and volunteered as an actor, but that’s the extent of my, my theater experience in New York. Once I came back to Ohio, I realized I wanted to get back into theater. But I also knew I wanted to come back down south to South Carolina, because this, to me, is where my home theater is now. Like, where my friends from schools kind of stayed in the area. So, I was looking for jobs. And then one of my colleagues or old classmates sent me this job. He was like, Hey, I think you’d be interested. So that’s how I learned about this job. And I was like, I am interested.

Thurayya UmBayemake

So, I was nervous. I actually applied for both that just the actor, teacher job and the actor, teacher coach job, because I didn’t know if I, ah, you know, fully qualified or not. And it’s funny, because I think you’ve you’ve probably seen that article where like, there was a study on men and women. How women feel they have to heal. That’s me. I was like, I don’t know. So, obviously, I interview well, and I got the position. And it’s just been smooth, not smooth sailing, but it’s been smooth sailing since. It’s, it’s definitely been challenging, but it’s a good challenge. And I’m really happy that, one, that they picked me, and they trust me with this position, and that I could do justice for it.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah, amazing. So what kind of challenges have you experienced? And how have you overcome those?

Thurayya UmBayemake

Well, one is I’ve somewhat managed before. My managing experience has always been like short-term, right? Like my last job, I worked for the Board of Elections up in Cuyahoga County, and I was a recruiter official. So, what that means is that I basically was responsible for filling in the poll workers. So I was, I hired them. And then sometimes I had to fire them, you know, or, or, or relocate them, and like, different things like that. But it was a very short-term commitment. This job is a very long-term commitment. You know, because once someone’s on the team, we want them to stay on the team. So I had to grow as a manager to overcome difficulties, whether it’s individual or personal, or just overall team dynamics.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah, that makes sense. So now, on a daily basis, what kind of things are you working on? And what are your responsibilities on just a day-to-day basis? Are you working more on long projects? Or are there kind of short assignments that kind of come up? Or what does it look like?

Thurayya UmBayemake

It’s a mixture, of both. And it’s, I feel like since I’ve been brought on, it has always been a mixture of both. Mostly because it was such a brand new idea of a program, where we had an idea where it was gonna go, but we didn’t necessarily have the pathway. So we had to be always flexible, which sometimes it’s harder than what it sounds, you know. So my daily projects, like the shorter terms is what I know, right? Like summer programming, I know what comes up every year. So I have to plan for it right? During the school year residency, so I have to plan for that. That’s the short term, you know, constantly, but the long term part is choosing the districts, how we’re going to get to those districts, who’s going to be involved like that’s more of the long term, and also getting the word out about our program because, there’s a lot of challenges that comes with our program, because it’s new, you got to explain it. But you gotta explain it in a way that you don’t lose interest. For instance, not being too long winded. But you don’t also don’t want to be too short, because they’ll come up with their own idea what the program is. And so yeah,

Thurayya UmBayemake

I feel like the whole program has just had a signifigant impact on me.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah, makes sense. So, throughout your time doing this, has there been one project or something that you worked on that stood out the most as like resonating with you or something that had a significant impact on you?

Emma Plutnicki

That’s amazing.

Thurayya UmBayemake

It is. You know what, one thing I’ve always wanted to do is be like a presenter, right? Like when I go to conferences or things, there’s always a presenter up there explaining. And I always thought that job looked cool. I didn’t know that this job would turn into part of that. So I get, this past year, particularly, I got to go to different conferences and present the program. So, I was really happy about that accomplishment.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah, that’s so fun. And so you said that you came, you didn’t really have too many ties to South Carolina. So when you came, were there any, um, like organizations or events that you went to, or interacted with to kind of build a network, or just overall help you in your field?

Thurayya UmBayemake

Yes. So, this is when I bring in my mama. But, ah, so growing up, we moved around a lot. Um, and my mama has always instilled in me like, you get to know the community. Like, first and second day moving, we always went and got a library card. We met at the police station to meet the officer, like we you gotta know who you’re living with, you know, your neighbors and everything. So, when I came down here, not only did I reach out to like, my former classmates at, from SCSU [South Carolina State] who are still in the area. I did the same exact things. I went to get a library card, I went to local community festivals or events, you know. And I reached out to different communities to let’s say, hey, you know, introduce myself things of that nature, you know. And that’s how I built, build my network here. I also went to many of the different theater events around. I live in Colombia. I don’t know if I mentioned that but, my remote position is Midlands. So I went to the theater network here to just introduce myself because I’m also doing something in drama and wanted to know the familiar bases.

Emma Plutnicki

Amazing. And within, when you were trying to get this job, were there any skills that you found helped you land, the position, or any skills that you think someone trying to get into your field should have in order to find success?

Thurayya UmBayemake

Definitely. So, I think two major skills is what got me the job. One was my natural storytelling ability. Two was just my background and job experiences. I have worked so many different types of jobs. And I know some people feel once they get out of college, they should only work in their field, right? You’re missing out, right? Like you are missing out on meeting different people, learning about different situations, how to overcome it, you know, taking that L, you know, learn from your mistakes. So, I think me having all those different types of jobs, one led me to be a recruiter official, because I could deal with people well, and that recruiter official helped me get this job because they’re like, Oh, you have management experience, see how it all just comes into place?

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah, perfect.And just as we’re wrapping up, do you have any advice for someone who would want to get into a position like yours, and how they can manage that? And just any overall advice for them?

Thurayya UmBayemake

Yes. One, don’t narrow your network, right? Like, make friends with any and everybody, just to learn about their life experiences and what they went through. It will help you learn that your path is not going to look like anybody else’s. Like, you could talk to 100 people, I promise you, your path is going to be different from all 100 people. Right? And with that being said, you can’t take everyone’s advice. Everyone’s advice is used with a grain of salt because, again, your path is going to be different no matter what.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah, for sure. That’s, that’s good advice. And is there anything else you’d like to add about your experiences or your profession?

Thurayya UmBayemake

Yeah I, I would like to add one more thing.

Thurayya UmBayemake

I feel like this job was a dream come true. And I say that because when you major in one of those fields that doesn’t, quote-unquote, guarantee you a job. You have to learn patience, right? And, like, when I was again when I came out of college, I think my first job was housekeeping. Like, who wants to admit that nobody, right? I eventually got into like children’s theater and other stuff, but none of those paid the bills, right? Like it was just something I enjoyed doing. But, this job is the first one, you know, that meets both. That satisfied my living situation. And I really love and enjoy doing it. And, it took a while. But, I feel like it was the perfect timing. So it’s about faith. It’s about persistence. And, like, I just had to, like I said, refocus and learn different jobs and different skills and enjoy the journey of life. But I really do love this job. My, team is great. Working at the, um, SC gov school is great. And, I couldn’t ask for anything better.

Emma Plutnicki

Yeah.

Emma Plutnicki

Amazing. I’m so happy you found your dream job. So good to hear.

March 4, 2025