SHAPE YOUR DESTINY
The author Bernardine Evaristo on the motivating power of invention
Creativity has been at the core of my life ever since I started reading stories as a small child, which fired up my imagination. I progressed from reading stories to acting in plays at my local youth theatre in south-east London, a lovely creative space where children were allowed to express themselves. From there I went to drama school, where I learnt the skills to create theatre, which I pursued once I left. By my early thirties, having left theatre behind, I focused on writing books myself.
Creativity and rebellion are intertwined for me. As a writer, I’ve never wanted to replicate or follow what already exists, but to do my own thing. My outsider status as a mixed-race child in a white suburban area sowed the seeds of rebellion in me. When your childhood home is attacked on a regular basis by thugs who smash in your windows, you know you’re not welcome in the neighbourhood. By my mid-teens, I’d decided that I didn’t actually want to fit in. I used to knit and crochet my own unique multicoloured tops, coats, socks, scarves and bags, because I wanted to make a visual statement that I was not interested in fitting into the mainstream. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and feeling rejected, I chose an alternative path through life and found the creative communities to which I did belong, among people who also did not fit in.
Creativity is the oxygen in the air waiting for us to harness it. We engage with it all the time, whether it’s baking a cake, planning the layout of a room, working out to a new exercise routine, or making clothes, as I did. It can save us from the numbing effects of conformity, and lead us on to pathways where life can be a lot more interesting by not following the crowd. We are all born as individuals who then have to slot into most of society’s conventions, which is, of course, necessary (we don’t want any more sociopaths roaming the streets), but only to a point. I will always advocate for a creative life for those who feel – or perhaps felt years ago but ignored it – the hunger to express and do things differently. It’s never too late to transform old patterns and find more fulfilment in following the creative muse.