Welcome to Simple Grits!
I’m Lydia Charles…
Combining an academic background in cultural studies with program planning, organizational development, and project implementation experience, I’ve carved-out a little niche consulting gig over the last twenty years. Simple Grits formed in 2007 to better structure my work with friends, neighbors, and former colleagues on public and private cultural projects across the United States.
After leadership positions, including roles with the Washington D.C. Main Street program, Cultural Tourism DC, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Save Our African American Treasures initiative, I moved to New Orleans to serve in the rebuilding of the city after Katrina. Since then, I’ve committed to living in the South, calling the region home for more than a decade.
Charlotte Hawkins Brown seated in the Salisbury, North Carolina section in the America on the Move exhibition. Transportation Hall, National Museum of American History. Below is the Alice Freeman Palmer Memorial Institute, the school for Black children in Sedalia, NC which Dr. Brown founded in 1902.
My joy is working with others who effect positive change and improve resiliency in our exquisitely complex, challenging, and changing culture.
Joy + Work + Laughter + Living
Why the name?
One thing has held true in the work I do — Successful outcomes require time, attention, quality, and consistency. The more complicated a recipe, the likelihood things could go sideways increases.
Simple grits are the workhorse of the kitchen. You can take almost anything you have in the fridge, serve it with some quality stone-ground dried corn, and you have a meal to fortify, comfort, and nourish all those who come to the table.
The name Simple Grits contains my mission — To take the time to work with clients and assess where they are. Help them develop a recipe from which to build, with ingredients already rich in their cupboard. All with firm consistent guidance that will produce something substantial, delicious, and hearty. Never pre-packaged.
Banner Photo Credit: John Hicks
This one taken by dear friend James Patterson. We miss you!