Leslie Scott-Jones
Singing, acting, directing and producing don’t even begin to cover the many talents of Leslie Scott-Jones. She approaches her creativity and activism from an Africana perspective, and her hand in Charlottesville’s creative community is strong. When the world slowed down during quarantine, Leslie sped up. She worked on projects that went unfinished before. In the first three weeks of the shutdown, Leslie finished writing a play that she had been working on for two years. She also launched an audio drama podcast called Grounds while in lockdown. Leslie notes that this return to the basics of theater – stripping storytelling down to its word-heavy roots – was incredibly interesting and fun.
Leslie is also involved in the Jefferson School’s Charlottesville Players Guild. The Guild’s mission is to “make sure every Black artist knows what it is like to create within a completely Black space.” Among myriad projects within the Guild, Leslie has worked on reimaginations of Shakespeare’s classic plays in the Black aesthetic. During the pandemic, Leslie wrote and directed a play called Thirty-Seven – the story of a Black man wrestling with whether to get involved in the Black Lives Matter Movement, as well as the constant battle of being Black in America.
When asked about her motivation or how she does it all, Leslie will likely tell you she was raised by an amazing “woman who never stops.” Creativity, motivation and support for the Black community are “baked into her DNA,” she says. Stay on the lookout for more of Leslie’s upcoming work, including the release of her new EP and the rollout of the next season of the Grounds podcast.