Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Sims
Hi Jonathan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My name is Jonathan Cardell Sims, Sr. and I’m the executive director of Enjoy The Movement, Inc. I consider myself a creative. I’m a screenwriter, painter, actor, and director. I’m also working my way into filmmaking. I always said that it was art that saved me from venturing down a wayward path from the lifestyle I was exposed to, but now I say art saved me from myself.
I was never easily influenced by peers or what was trending. I was always in control, and yet I was curious and valued the acceptance of my community; whether back home or during my time in college. I’m from the small town of Darlington, SC where one could aspire to land a job in a factory or mill, or make something of their own and run with it. There was the beckoning of street life. The fast-paced lifestyle in the “trenches” was enticing, but I knew it wasn’t for me. I was misguided; no aim, and no direction. When you’re in one place, your inspiration is drawn from what you see. Without exposure to life outside of Darlington, I wasn’t aware of other opportunities other than what was presented to me. Art gave me a sense of direction.
I remember an army recruiter visited my class senior year, and went around the room asking my classmates what they wanted to do when they graduated. One of my classmates said something along the lines of being a trash man, and I laughed. The recruiter turned to me and said, “since you’re laughing, what lavish career do you have in mind for yourself? Probably staying at home with your momma.” I knew his response was to try to make me feel low for laughing, but I had a plan. I said, I’m going to be a successful car salesman. And if that falls through, my family owns a funeral home that I’ll take over. He looked me in my face and said, “you won’t be successful at anything, and you’ll run your family’s business into the ground.” Again, he was pissed that I laughed at someone else, but I took his words personally. A year later, I was a car salesman at a local dealership, and who walks into the store? The army recruiter and his wife. Long story short, I sold him a car and I waited until he finished signing the paperwork before I revealed who I was and what he said to me in that classroom. The expression on his face was priceless as he shook my hand and said, “I said that stuff to you so you can prove me wrong. Now here you are.” He was right, sometimes to get somewhere you have to be challenged. How you choose to respond to the challenge is what makes or breaks you. I didn’t realize it then because, again, I had a lack of resources and didn’t identify any goals. Having a sense of direction would come later when I discovered a passion for something, and it was something that I had within me my entire life.
Growing up, I was always an entertainer. At the age of 7, my mom taught me and my three sisters to sing. I recall her teaching me three-part harmony with two radios and two cassette tapes. She would press record on one radio and I’d sing the melody of the verse. Stopped recording, played it back, and pressed record on the other radio while I sang along with the first recording in a high tenor. She repeated the process with me singing alto and played it back to hear the three parts I recorded. Little did I know this would be my first time in a makeshift “recording studio”, but it wouldn’t be my last—that’s a story for another time. She formed a group with me and my sisters called, The Singing Angels. We toured local churches, singing in programs, weddings, and opening for gospel concerts. When I hit puberty and my voice started to change, so did my interests.
I found a knack for comedy. Being the funny guy became my identity, and also a coping mechanism. No matter how tough things were, I could always lean on being funny and being the center of attention. If people were laughing with me, there’s no way they could laugh at me. I had the opportunity to open for comedian Travon Free. At the time he was a writer for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Now he’s an Oscar winning filmmaker, known for the film Two Distant Strangers. Travon gave me some of the best advice. We talked after the show and he loved my set. He said it needed some polishing, but the timing was on point. I asked him, how do I get to the next level, and he told me that I “needed to starve.”—what? He told me to “move to New York, couch surf, live out of your car, and do comedy 7 days a week.” He didn’t literally want me to be homeless, but it was to say that if I had a well paying job, lived comfortably, and made ends meet, I wouldn’t have the hunger or drive to strive for survival. He was right. I now live with the mantra that I can’t get too comfortable or else I’ll settle; and that’s why I dabble in all forms of artistic expression. It keeps me on my toes and my mind sharpened.
Let’s back up a bit. It’s 2008, and I’m stuck. I was moving down a path that would have eventually ended with me dead or in prison. In a series of near death experiences, I started carrying a gun on my person at all times. I didn’t know the threat because I never saw their faces, but after being chased around the city in my car, and nearly run off the road a few times, I needed protection. I recall a situation where I was in the passenger seat of a car, and we were stopped at a red light. The passenger door opened, and I saw a gun pointed near my head. My friend who was driving, ran the light, and got us to safety. I think about that night often. My father called me a day after the incident and asked me to move to Charleston to get a fresh start and he’d help me along the way. He heard about what I had been into and figured the best option for me was to show me new options. He introduced me to his supervisor. She would later offer me a job working for Burke Community Education as a counselor. I was also a substitute teacher and the kids called me, Mr. Crazy. He introduced me to the stage. When I moved to Charleston the spring of 2008, he was working on a production that was a week away from opening, and he stuck me in a booth above the orchestra, seated behind a sound board. He showed me the buttons to hit and how to read the sound queues in the script. I liked seeing the show come together and the final product was spectacular. He put me on the stage in a few of his shows and I was a natural talent. I had no training in acting, but I was decent. He told me with a little more stage time, I could take my talents to bigger arenas. He introduced me to some of his friends in the arts industry in the area and I became an assistant stage manager for a local theatre company where I worked on three productions. Not only was I learning my way around the stage, my mindset had also changed. I no longer had an appetite for street activity, and I no longer put myself in positions to dodge trouble. I would go on to perform in more shows, continue stand-up comedy, and I started directing plays through college. I hosted quite a few of the college’s talent shows, open mics, and other campus programs and events. At one point someone jokingly said to me, “those who can’t, hosts.” Little did they know. Hosting helped me develop my stage presence and confidence.
After graduating from the College of Charleston, I wrote my first play called “What Are the Odds?”, a story about four playwrights writing a scene in reflection to the civil unrest caused by the murder by a police officer of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MS. I thought about how angry I was and wanted to express my emotions without acting in violence—which is what I really wanted to do. After writing the script and getting the responses from my friends, I knew I’d find fulfillment in using my voice in a more thoughtful way. With that in mind, along with what I learned years before, I thought I could teach others how to channel an artistic appreciation to express themselves in a meaningful way; thus Enjoy The Movement, Inc. was born. I pitched the ideas to a few of my friends from college and they quickly got behind the cause. My board of directors are Tyler Canty, director of finance, Fred Quick, director of communication, Camille Weaver, director of fund raising, and Will Goodwin, director of marketing. They all work in an advisory capacity providing me with insights and advice in their field of expertise. We operate from a place that utilizes the purest form of our imagination and encourage participants to channel their inner child; open and vulnerable without the worries of everyday life to hold you back from a full-bodied artistic experience. I had a college professor, Joy Vanderbilt-Cobb, who had a major impact on my academic approach to the art form. She taught African America theatre where I learned that during the height of the black power movement in the 60s, the black arts movement emerged. Names like Nikki Giovanni, James Baldwin, and Amiri Baraka come to mind. Amiri Baraka’s black arts repertory theatre program/school is what I modeled Enjoy The Movement after. Enjoy The Movement is a dedicated to teaching various forms of creative arts in underserved communities, with the idea that we’ll form a larger network of creatives to work together. For examples, we teach creative writing and acting. The writers will produce the scripts, while the actors perform them. I’ve also used forms of acting for interpersonal development; using improvisation to teach leadership skills. Our motto “Invent. Involve. Enjoy. Just Insert Yourself” is advice within the statement itself. Just insert yourself. Invent yourself, involve yourself, and always enjoy yourself. You have to build yourself up. Develop a skill and work at it non-stop. Involve yourself and give back to your community. Once the work is done, celebrate and enjoy yourself. The movement is not only the art form, it’s the lifestyle.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. We don’t get a ton of donations, so a lot of what I do is out of my own pocket. It does limit the programs and events I can put on. However, it doesn’t make me want to quit. I just have to be strategic about my plans for the organization. With the support from my wife, my daughter, and my team, it makes it easier to manage the lows. With that said I’m currently building the network and gaining interest around the community. I’m also requesting donations to fund all activities and programs. Donations can be made on our website.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I started acting in 2008 for my father’s production company, and throughout college. I’ve been in five productions and one televised documentary on the Smithsonian channel. One summer I taught an acting class for a program at the College of Charleston, and found a love for teaching and directing. Since then I’ve directed multiple plays and I’m working on directing my first short film. I would love to work with other creatives in the area on a project, so if you know anyone who’s interested, send them my way!
I started writing plays in 2014, took a break, and found an interest screenwriting during COVID. While in quarantine, my wife and I watched a ton of movies. I complained a lot about the quality of the movies, and she challenged me one day. She said, “if you have an issue with every movie we watch, then why don’t you write your own?” I never thought of it that way, so I gave it a shot. I started writing the script that same day. I’m self taught, but I had some help along the way. I had an opportunity to interview Mr. Ronald Daise of the hit 90s kids’ show, Gullah Gullah Island; of course I kept in touch. I emailed him one day and asked for some direction on how to get serious about writing and where to start. He didn’t hesitate to share some insight on his start and some information on how to get going. I recall watching an interview of Ryan Coogler on the Breakfast Club and hearing him talk about his start. How he started writing scripts on Microsoft Word, and then his wife bought him the writing software so he could officially produce works in the right format. I wrote my first script using Word as well, and my wife let me use her computer to get started. I ended up purchasing the software two years later, and my own computer. Now I’ve written over 15 screenplays in less that two years. I’m not comparing myself to the likes of a great filmmaker like Ryan Coogler or America’s favorite TV dad, Mr. Ron, but it’s refreshing to hear that the most prestige had humble beginnings too. I entered my screenplays into film festivals and writing competitions, and won quite a few of them. My most popular works is titled “Super Nova”. It was inspired by the bond I have with my daughter, Nora. It’s a reminder that no matter how busy I am, or how hard life gets, to always make time for her and engage in shaping her imagination. All my works mean something to me. I wrote another short titled “Shutter Speed”, to commemorate the relationship between me and my father. He passed away in the summer of 2020. The story is parallel to my connection to my father where the main character struggles to accept the fact that he shares the same passion for photography as his estranged father. My father wasn’t a photographer, but early on I used to fight the fact that I was getting into theatre when he was coaching me because he and I didn’t have the father-son relationship that most would have, with shared interests. The story concludes with the main character starting to understand his father’s affinity for photography and why he made the decisions he made. I’ll never get to a point where I choose art over my family. If anything, they’ll be there with me on my journey to success. Shutter Speed can be purchased for reading on Amazon.
Recently, I started painting. My wife kept telling me how she wanted to take a painting class. Every other day, she talked about it, and it got to the point where I just wanted her to start so she could stop talking about it. I ordered a bunch of art supplies on Amazon; the easel, brushes, canvases, paint. I got her the apron, and the cloth to cover the surface she’d paint on. I took a page out of her book when she challenged me to write. I said if you want to paint, just paint. Her first piece was so inspiring to me, I framed it and hung it in our loft. I was so inspired I started to get ideas of what I wanted to paint. I used to draw. I created a comic series and sold the pages separately as NFTs. I was thinking collectors would want to collect them all if they were a hit. I sold 9 NFTs that were valued at over $600 at the time of sale. So I figured painting would be a fun release. At the time, I was feeling depressed and anxious. Dealing with stress from many aspects of my life. My wife supported me through it all, but I still needed a way to unload my frustrations without burdening her with the wave of emotions I was feeling. So I attacked the canvas. I fancy myself an abstract expressionist, taking inspiration from artist like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Hebru Brantley. I use harsh marks and bold lines to express pain and despair. I have a series called the “dark thoughts collection”, where I lean into the dark emotions instead of trying to suppress them. I channel the emotions into art and it allows me to release them and not linger in the depths of a broken spirit. Instead I turn it into something beautiful. The series consists of pieces that feature a grid-like design that represents how caged I feel in the moment because I’m constricted by the feelings of anxiety or stress. I paint for hours at a time, or until I feel fulfillment. My latest piece is called “Affirm and Deny”. It represents qualities that I affirm and the opposites that I reject. I used clippings from magazines that are hidden messages under the splashes and drips. My works are for sale, where all proceeds are donated to Enjoy The Movement to assist in funding programs.
What are your plans for the future?
For the future, I’m designing the curriculum for the Enjoy The Movement, Inc’s repertory network. I’m currently working on the acting and creative writing masterclasses where the goal is to teach writers to produce works, and teach the actors to perform the writers’ works. I’m also planning an art gallery to showcase my work along with others who produce artwork under the instruction of our course leaders. I’m also looking to contract course leaders for each aspect of the movement. If you know anyone who’s interested, they can find information on our website. The goal is to begin a festival of one acts, and display artwork of our participants. The event will be an annual affair.
I’ve held workshops in my hometown for youth ages 12-18, and for the College of Charleston’s Multicultural Student Programs & Services’ summer project, SPECTRA. I had an opportunity to preview my Masterclass: Improvisation in Interpersonal Development, and the feedback was phenomenal. I hope to gain more interest in the state from other institutions and expand the network. Inspiring the artists of tomorrow gives me fulfillment, and knowing what creative arts has done for me, I’d love to share the freedom of expression for all to enjoy the movement.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.enjoythemovementinc.org
- Instagram: enjoy_the_movement_inc
