Meet Evan Seymour | Founder, Black Women in Entertainment for Kamala

We had the good fortune of connecting with Evan Seymour and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Evan, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Black Women in Entertainment for Kamala is not a business, but a collective. Inspired by the July 21, 2024 call organized by Win With Black Women. I started Black Women in Entertainment for Kamala to organize Black women who work in my industry with the goal of providing educational resources, volunteer opportunities, and a collective for political fundraising, with the objective of encouraging people to become more civically engaged.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Black Women in Entertainment for Kamala is my current venture. It is a grassroots collective of more than 500 Black women in the entertainment industry, along with our allies, who are taking action to help ensure that Kamala Harris is elected as the 47th President of the United States. I have worked in the entertainment industry for more than a decade, starting as a news assistant at Access Hollywood and eventually ascending to the executive ranks within the world of communications in film and television. I have utilized the skills learned and network built throughout my career to create the BWIE4Kamala collective. This work has been incredibly challenging, but also rewarding. Creating an organization from scratch, building a team of volunteers, and doing impactful work — all over the course of three months — is something I will be proud of for the rest of my life. The work has been anything but easy. It has been emotionally and physically taxing. I walked away from a lucrative and stable job to focus full-time on this work, a decision others have questioned, and which I myself have questioned many, many times. I cannot say that I have overcome the challenges. I manage fears and doubts on a daily basis, but I continue to push forward, which is what we all must do in life. I have learned that I am stronger than I give myself credit for, that I must grant myself grace, that I am a creator and a community builder, and that my most important job is to take care of myself. I have been reminded that I will stumble and make mistakes, but if I lead with humility and kindness, and embrace a constant learner mindset, I can continue to do great things and be a force for good in the world.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am from Pasadena, so I would definitely want to show my beset friend around my hometown. Octavia’s Bookshelf is a Black-owned bookstore in the city that I would take my best friend to as we’re both bibliophiles. I would also take her to Eaton Canyon so we could be out in nature and visit the waterfall. Outside of Pasadena, I would take her to The Broad, and Grand Central Market. We’d also check out the beach in Malibu and visit one of my favorite restaurants, Malibu Farms.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My shoutout is a collective shoutout to all of the Black women trailblazers, people like Harriet Tubman and and Rosa Parks and Shirley Chisholm, who have provided a framework for being activists and disruptors. Simultaneously, I would like to shout out each and every one of the members of the Black Women in Entertainment Collective who have given of their time, talent and treasures to build our community while contributing to the Harris-Walz presidential campaign efforts. We are all volunteers, and I am so inspired by the work we are doing. These are scary times, but we lean on each other and lift each other up, and that is a beautiful thing.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-seymour-513b2b41/

Image Credits
Images with me in BWIE4Kamala t-shirt: Maury Phillips
watch party photo: Spinxx