American writer working in theater
Sharon Bridgforth |
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| Born | (1958-05-15) May 15, 1958 (age 65)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
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| Occupation | Writer/theatre artist |
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| Nationality | American |
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| Subject | Jazz, blues, African-American and black diaspora history, gender and sexuality, theatrical jazz aesthetic |
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| Notable works | the bull-jean stories, love conjure/blues |
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| Notable awards | Lambda Literary Award, Alpert/Hedgebrook Residency Prize |
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| sharonbridgforth.com/content/ |
Sharon Bridgforth (born May 15, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American writer working in theater.[1]
Career
From 1993 to 1998, Bridgforth worked as the founder, writer, and artistic director of the root wy'mn theatre company.[3] root wy'mn's touring roster included: the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, The Theater Offensive in Boston, La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, California, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
From 2002 to 2009, she served as the anchor artist for the Austin Project, produced by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones and the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, University of Texas at Austin. Her work, "Finding Voice Facilitation Method" was published in Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project edited by Osun Joni L. Jones, Lisa L. Moore, and herself.[4]
In 2008, Bridgforth received a National Performance Network Creation Fund award, for delta dandi, co-commissioned by Women & Their Work, in partnership with the National Performance Network. Freedom Train Productions in New York presented a reading of the work in 2008.[5] A workshop production of the work was produced in 2009 at the Long Center in Austin, Texas.[6]
At Northwestern University, as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation artist-in-residence in the performance studies department, Bridgforth presented a workshop production of delta dandi during the 2009 Solo/Black/Woman performance series.[7] Since 2009, Bridgforth has been resident playwright at New Dramatists, New York. Her work blood pudding, was presented in the 2010 New York Summerstage festival.[8]
She was the 2010–2012 Visiting Multicultural Faculty member at the Theatre School at DePaul University and is the curator of the Theatrical Jazz Institute at Links Hall, produced by the school, Links Hall and herself.[9]
In 2022, Bridgforth was featured in the book 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre, with a profile written by theatre scholar T. Chester.[10]
the bull-jean stories
Published by RedBone Press, the bull-jean stories give cultural documentation and social commentary on African-American herstory and survival. Set in the rural South of the 1920s through the 1940s, the bull-jean stories uses traditional storytelling and nontraditional verse to chronicle the course of love returning in the lifetimes of one woman-loving-woman named bull-dog-jean.[11]
Love Conjure/Blues
Both a performance and a novel, Love Conjure/Blues places the fiction-form inside a traditional Black American voice, inviting dramatic interpretation and movement within a highly literary text: It is filled with folktales, poetry, haints, prophecy, song, and oral history. Love Conjure/Blues was also published by RedBone Press.[12]
dat Black Mermaid Man Lady
Exists as a show, oracle deck, performance/novel, performance, sung children's book, and artistic mentorship towards homeownership.[13] The performance celebrates the different embodiments of gender through the journey of three characters alongside Yoburba deities Oya, Osun, and Yemaya. The show premiered at the Pillsbury House + Theater in Minneapolis, MN, on May 30, 2018, and ran through June 17, 2018.[14] The performance was written by Sharon Bridgforth, directed by Ebony Noelle Golden, with dramaturgy by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and vocal composition by Mankwe Ndosi.
In addition to a performance, "dat Black Mermaid Man Lady" is an oracle deck.[15] The deck consists of characters from the performance/novel and features artwork by Yasmin Hernandez. The oracle deck is a working deck that Bridgforth used for a series of weekly readings.
Partnering with Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association[16] and City of Lakes Community Land Trust,[17] Bridgforth worked with five to seven emerging artist of color to create new works and more toward homeownership.
Awards, residences, and grants
In 1997, Bridgforth's script no mo blues was nominated for an Osborn Award (sponsored by the American Theatre Critic's Association).[18] The bull-jean stories won a Lambda Literary Prize for "Best Book by a Small Press" in 1998. The collection also received a nomination for a Lambda Literary Prize in the category of "Best Lesbian Fiction" [19] and a nomination from the 1998 American Library Association for "Best Gay/Lesbian Book". Bridgforth was nominated for the 2002–2003 Alpert Award in the theatre category.[20] She has received the 2000 Penumbra Theatre (St. Paul, MN) Playwriting Fellowship and 2001 YWCA Woman Of The Year in Arts Award in Austin, Texas.[21]
A recipient of the 2008 Alpert/Hedgebrook Residency Prize,[22] her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts commissioning program; the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group, playwright-in-residence program; National Performance Network commissioning and community fund; the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media; and the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund Award.[2] Bridgforth was also the recipient of the Creative Capital Performing Arts Award in 2016.[23]
Personal life
She has a daughter, Sonja Perryman, from a past marriage.[24] A lesbian,[25] her partner is Omi Osun Joni L. Jones.[citation needed] Jones also has a daughter, Leigh Gaymon-Jones, from a past marriage.[citation needed]
