MAKERS: CHARLY EVON SIMPSON
Charly: hi. i’m Charly Evon Simpson and i am a writer. i’m a lover of words and connection.
SEQUIN: what is consistent in your work? what sorts of things do you write and what do we learn about you through your writing?
Charly: i write plays. i write poetry. i write prose. and i think all of them – all the themes in them really focus on this idea of connection and understanding. i’m really interested in diving into people who don’t feel understood - the characters who don’t feel understood - and putting them onstage with different perspectives and points of view, so that audience members can kinda go on this journey with them as they try to find understanding. sometimes they’re trying to find understanding from others, sometimes it is from the audience - but I’m really interested in seeing how you can dive into the layers of what it is to be human - to investigate and connect through words.
SEQUIN: that so wonderfully describes the experience of your work. so true! okay, so now let’s have you finish this sentence: “i want my work to…”
Charly: i want my work to linger in people’s bodies afterwards – their bodies and their minds. i want it to force people to ask questions of themselves – they don’t have to be big, huge questions - they can be personal questions. i want my work to be a platform for artists who don’t usually get the spotlight – for artists that look like me and…don’t look like me (laugh). and i want my work to connect to a larger dialogue about what it means to be human.
SEQUIN: amazing! this is the easy one: where are you from and how long have you lived in NYC?
Charly: i was born in Queens, NY and raised in Northern NJ. i moved back to New York – it’ll be three years in August.
SEQUIN: has it really only been 3 years? (laughter) okay, so -- for you right now – top of the head – what is in your way to where you want to be as a maker?
Charly: on a small personal level – i’ll go there first – is the belief in yourself. it’s hard to keep that when you’re not getting things, when you’re not seeing people that look like you, who write things like you, or make things that you’re interested in being propelled to different levels of success. on a basic level it is a mental thing – having to get past that everyday. knowledge – in my case specifically of the theater world and actually of all writing worlds – i feel like when i moved to New York i didn’t know i was going to be focusing on playwriting as much i did and have. i literally didn’t know (and still don’t know) all the things i’m supposed to apply to, the people i should meet, and the things i should go to. also, i’m an introvert. i don’t like to hang out after a show and mingle and talk and all of that – its very much against my sense of being. so knowledge and therefore access. and then i think there are the bigger things – i think unfortunately, you know, as a Black woman there’s tokenizing. if there’s one black woman who wins this thing one year, you certainly wonder, “well, will they choose me the next year? they already did their quota”. same thing in seasons, same thing in whether you’re an actor, same thing on – i’m writing a novel and i’m applying to things and there’s these same questions over and over again. i think there’s some element of that too. trying to carve out a spot where i can be me and not try to represent my race and what it means to be a woman and all these other things and just feel like my writing matters is both this BIG THING and this SMALL THING – how to get through that personally and how to get through that in a system.
to learn more about Charly visit charlyevonsimpson.com
to learn about SEQUIN visit weareSEQUIN.org
