Helena D. Lewis is an actor, playwright, poet, and social worker. She performs her autobiographical one-woman plays across the country chronicling with humor her life as a certified alcohol and drug counselor and HIV/AIDS educator. Helena has appeared in multiple movies such as “Golddigger Killer,� TV shows, and slam poetry festivals. She is currently a member of the troupe, HerStory, a multi-cultural group of female performers who are touring the U.S.
Helena will be performing her play, “Call Me Crazy� at the Nuyorican Poets Café from March 22 to March 25th. Make sure to catch it. You definitely won’t forget it.
I interviewed Helena over email. Here’s Helena…
Did you always know you were an actor, playwright, and poet? When did you decide to take that next step to pursue a career in the arts?
Everything happened by accident for me. I had no intention to be either of the three. When my brother passed away in 1998 from AIDS, a close friend of mines asked me to come with him to a poetry reading in East Orange, NJ at a club called Bogies. He was trying to get me out the house. Long story short, I had so much fun I kept going back and one evening one of their regular poets asked me, “What do you think of my poetry?� Well, one should never ask a Sagittarius for the truth. So, I said, “I think you are sexually repressed.�
The next time I went to Bogies he proceeded to get on the microphone and started to talk about me. I was so shocked. I went home and wrote my first poem about him and what I thought of his poetry. Next thing I know, the producers of the poetry reading asked me if I wanted to feature at the club. I went home and wrote two more poems for the feature. Then I started slamming at the Nuyorican Poets Café. One day after a show, a Marc from Arcose Entertainment asked me if I had a play, because he noticed I was doing jokes and acting things out between my poems. I lied and said, “Yes, I’m working on a play right now.� He booked me on the spot for the 2002 DownTown Urban Theater Festival. So, to keep from looking like a liar and a fool I sat down and wrote my first play, “Just Me.�
I didn’t think anyone was going to like my play. I took off from work and wrote it in two days. I got a standing ovation and three offers to do it again on the same night and that’s when I decided, “Hey, maybe I can quit my job and do this performing thing full time.�
You’re also a social worker. Does your drive and inspiration to make art also come from the same place that inspires you to be a social worker?
I am a certified drug and alcohol counselor and a certified HIV/AIDS health educator. I spent six years running a drop-in center for prostitutes, four years teaching HIV/AIDS Health Education Risk Reduction classes at a male prison, and now I work with women inmates at a halfway home. However, my degree is biology. Right now, I would have to say I get a lot of my material from work, but my drive and inspiration to make art does not come from the same place that inspires me to be a social worker. Performing is a form of cheap therapy for me. It takes my mind off of my problems and gives me the chance to share my story with the world. On the other hand, I went to work in the social service fields hoping I could find out about new medications and treatments to help my brother who passed away. I just didn’t think I was going to like it so much.
The current play you are performing, “Call Me Crazy,� pokes fun while revealing the harsh realities many social workers face on a daily basis. Are most of the experiences in the play personal? What do you consider to be the most challenging aspects of the job?
Everything I talk about in the play is true. From working with pimps, to my drug nodding co-workers, to my officemate who is going through menopause and attacked me over a tape dispenser. The most challenging aspect of my job now is juggling performing and work. I’m lucky enough to have a supervisor who lets me work around my performance schedule. She even saw the play; I shoot her in the opening scene. I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to continue to work in the field. Sometimes during sessions with my clients they recognize me from Def Poetry, “Blind Date,� or another TV show and instead of working on their problems they want to read me poems. So, I have to get them on track by saying things like, “I’m not here to talk about poetry. Let’s talk about drug and alcohol issues and maybe we can figure out how to keep you from coming back to prison.�
If you had a social worker wish list, what would it be?
Oh that’s easy: 1) Increased funding for after-school and summer programs designed for children between the ages of 5 and 18. 2) Tax breaks and incentives for companies and business who hire ex-offenders. 3) Mandatory sex education in private and public schools. 4) An organization or fund to help people in need of dental care get the care they need. 5) Double the salary for all social service providers.
I can go on for days, but those are my top five.
If and when you make it big, do you think you will be ready to leave social work behind?
I see myself volunteering my time speaking and doing some fundraising. Once a social worker, always a social worker.
How was it to work with Vanessa Williams in “Dreams Do Travel�? And can you talk about your performance?
Vanessa Williams is a nice lady. Just in case anyone is confused, I’m talking about Vanessa Williams from the movie “New Jack City� not Vanessa L. Williams from the TV show, “Ugly Betty.� She flew out from L.A. to help Darrin Henson who wrote and produced the play. Darrin and her worked together on the TV series, “Soul Food.� Darrin is a good friend of my boyfriend and he was speaking to him about a play he was working on and he wished he knew some poets. My boyfriend told him, “My girlfriend is a poet, maybe she can get come of her friends to help you.� Long story short, Buttafly Soul, Daniel Beaty, and myself met with Darrin and worked with him on the play. It was very interesting. It was like hip-hop, meets Alvin Ailey, meets Def Poetry all wrapped up into one. The play sold out both nights and now we are working with Darrin together on some other projects.
What do your family and friends think of your work? Was it hard for them to initially support you?
My friends are more supportive of my work than my family members. Initially, I received no support from my family. Now they are starting to come around. I actually performed for my mother and several of her friends a few months ago and she had this big Kool-Aid grin on her face when I got off stage.
Do you have any advice for readers who are thinking about or are pursuing a career in the arts or in social work?
All I can say is pursue your passion. And if you are going into social work, don’t do it because of the money because there is no money. Do it because you really want to make a difference in the world.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Helena D. Lewis: Making Art From Life.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/4958
Weekly Feministing Newsletter
Feministing RSS Feed
Great interview. I perceive a lot of energy both from Celina and Helena.
It's great to see that you can do two different things with your life and get inspiration from one to the other and viceversa.
Social work vs. money. Complicated dilemma. How much is enough? As I read somewhere: 'It's the price you pay for the life you choose'.
I also liked that sometimes the best things come without looking for them but just doing something else. Keep moving.