D.C. United were honored to catch up with Charity to have an open dialogue about being a Washington, DC resident, what inspires her, the role of sports in activism and social justice and how sports and poetry help empower our youth.

D.C. United: To start, how long have you been a DC resident?

Charity: I’ve been in DC for about 11-12 years now, so I feel like a fake official Washingtonian. Just because I'm not born here, but I've been here for so long that I've seen the city shift and shape. Over what seems like a short amount of time, the city has changed so much, so I feel like I'm really embedded in the culture that DC has now become.

D.C. United: Why did you originally come to DC, and why did you end up staying?

Charity: I originally came to DC because my father at the time got a job as a contractor for the new African American History Museum. So this was planned out long, long ago. I came up here around the time I was looking at colleges anyway, and literally up the street is a college that I attended, Trinity University. I went there, got my BA and my Masters, and once I graduated, I had no desire to return back to South Carolina after experiencing how awesome DC is.

D.C. United: What's your favorite thing about the Chocolate City?

Charity: Oh man. This is a hard question to answer. There's so many amazing things about the city, but I would have to say two things. The food. The food here is amazing. I feel like you can find just about anything here, but also just the culture. The art culture here. I've met so many amazing artists and discovered myself as an artist here in DC, and I think that has a lot to do with what the city is; an accepting city, an open city, a loving city, and I was able to come as my full self once I moved here, and because of my artistic ability I really think I flourished being in this city. So I love the culture, I love the art, and I love my people.

D.C. United: Did you come into DC as a creative, as an artist? Or was that something that you started and really developed while you were here?

Charity: Yes, the second part. So it was something that I always had an interest for, but once I got to DC, I felt comfortable exploring more of, and was exposed to, different art forms that helped inspire me to even come out of my full shell as an artist. Like right here. We're in Busboys and Poets Brooklyn location. This is the first place that I ever hosted a poetry event, and I didn't even know what spoken word was until I got to DC, I was always a poet, but not a spoken word artist specifically. Huge shout out to DC.

D.C. United: What do you do with DC SCORES?

Charity: It's so weird how so many things are just connected in my life, and when I answer these questions it just really makes me think about how things happen. It doesn't make sense at the time, but then when you look back and just examine your life sometimes it just seems so well connected and it makes so much sense now. I actually was introduced to DC SCORES at my college, Trinity University. I was the front desk manager at the Athletic Center at the time, and this is when DC SCORES had their big Fall Frenzy. So they would take over the Trinity soccer field and they'd have arts, soccer, games, live DJ, food, music, it was just a whole celebration. And they always did it at Trinity at the time, up until recently, but that's where we have always had it and will probably continue to have Fall Frenzies.

I grew up playing soccer. I was on the soccer team at Trinity University and I was, at that time, creating poetry events at the school. So soccer being a huge part of my life, and poetry, I never would have seen those two things actually connecting and really forming my job and shaping the road that I would take going forward in my professional career. And, ever since then, I got involved. Once I heard about what the organization was, about their mission, the kids that they serve. They actually created a position for me; Creator of Directive Arts and Education, which was really dope. I've never had a position created for me. And that's how I ended up at DC SCORES. I always stayed involved with them, hosting their poetry slams, and so when the position opened up, yeah, it was history from there.

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