Sharon Bridgforth
Encyclopedia
Sharon Bridgforth is an American writer working in a theatrical jazz aesthetic.
, The Theater Offensive
in Boston, MA, La Peña Cultural Center
in Berkley, CA and the Walker Art Center
in Minneapolis, MN.
From 2002-2009 she served as the Anchor Artist for the Austin Project, produced by Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones and The John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, University of Texas at Austin. Her "Finding Voice Facilitation Method", used in the Austin Project is published in Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project which is edited by Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Dr. Lisa L. Moore, and Sharon Bridgforth.
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 delta dandi in 2008. A workshop production of the work was produced in 2009 at the Long Center in Austin, TX. As the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Artist-In-Residence in the Performance Studies Department at Northwestern University
, Bridgforth presented a workshop production of delta dandi during the 2009 "solo/black/woman performance series".
A resident playwright at New Dramatists, New York, since 2009, Bridgforth’s blood pudding, was presented in the 2010 New York SummerStage Festival
. Bridgforth is 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 Theatre School at DePaul University, Links Hall and Bridgforth.
Roell Schmidt is producing the premiere and tour of Bridgforth’s newest work, River See.
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” 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. She has received the 2001 YWCA Woman Of The Year in Arts Award in Austin, TX.
A recipient of the 2008 Alpert/Hedgebrook Residency Prize, 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.
Career
From 1993–1998 Bridgforth worked as the Founder, Writer, and Artistic Director of the root wy’mn theatre company.root wy’mn’s touring roster included: Michigan Womyn’s Music FestivalMichigan Womyn's Music Festival
The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, called "the Original Womyn's Woodstock" and often referred to as MWMF or Michfest, is an international feminist music festival occurring every August since 1976 near Hart, Michigan...
, The Theater Offensive
The Theater Offensive
The Theater Offensive is a Boston-based theatrical organization dedicated to the production of queer works. The Theater Offensive was founded in 1989 by Abraham Rybeck "to form and present the diverse realities of queer lives in art so bold it breaks through personal isolation and political...
in Boston, MA, La Peña Cultural Center
La Peña Cultural Center
La Peña Cultural Center is the main Chilean-American culture center in the United States. It opened in 1975 and has been operated by the same two expats since in the Ashby neighborhood in Berkeley, California...
in Berkley, CA and the Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
in Minneapolis, MN.
From 2002-2009 she served as the Anchor Artist for the Austin Project, produced by Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones and The John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, University of Texas at Austin. Her "Finding Voice Facilitation Method", used in the Austin Project is published in Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project which is edited by Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Dr. Lisa L. Moore, and Sharon Bridgforth.
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 delta dandi in 2008. A workshop production of the work was produced in 2009 at the Long Center in Austin, TX. As the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...
Artist-In-Residence in the Performance Studies Department at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, Bridgforth presented a workshop production of delta dandi during the 2009 "solo/black/woman performance series".
A resident playwright at New Dramatists, New York, since 2009, Bridgforth’s blood pudding, was presented in the 2010 New York SummerStage Festival
Summerstage
SummerStage is an annual, free performing arts summer festival founded in 1986 which takes place at Rumsey Playfield in New York City's Central Park and, since 2010, in parks throughout the five boroughs of New York. In 1994, SummerStage was transferred to the City Parks Foundation, where it has...
. Bridgforth is the 2010–2012 Visiting Multicultural Faculty member at The Theatre School at DePaul University
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...
and is the Curator of The Theatrical Jazz Institute at Links Hall, produced by The Theatre School at DePaul University, Links Hall and Bridgforth.
Roell Schmidt is producing the premiere and tour of Bridgforth’s newest work, River See.
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,-1940’s, 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.love conjure/blues
A performance/novel,love conjure/blues places the fiction-form inside a traditional Black American voice/inviting dramatic interpretation and movement within the fit of a highly literary text—filled with folktales, poetry, haints, prophecy, song, and oral history. love conjure/blues was published by RedBone Press.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). The bull-jean stories won a Lambda Literary PrizeLambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
for “Best Book by a Small Press” in 1998. The collection also received a nomination for a Lambda Literary Prize
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
in the category of “Best Lesbian Fiction” 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. She has received the 2001 YWCA Woman Of The Year in Arts Award in Austin, TX.
A recipient of the 2008 Alpert/Hedgebrook Residency Prize, her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
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.
Personal life
Bridgforth was born in Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, but moved to South Central Los Angeles when she was 3 years old. She discovered the diversity of Los Angeles during her long bus commutes to school. She has a daughter, Sonja Perryman, from a past marriage. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones is her life-partner. Jones has a daughter, Leigh Gaymon-Jones, from a past marriage.Selected Publications
- “delta dandi”, anthologized in solo black woman performance, Northwestern University Press (upcoming), ISBN (pending)
- “The love conjure/blues Text Installation” script, anthologized in Blaktino, Northwestern University Press (upcoming), ISBN (pending)
- excerpt from “con flama”, anthologized in Windy City Queer: LGBTQ Dispatches from the Third Coast, University of Wisconsin Press (2011), ISBN 978-0-299-28404-6
- writing exercises are featured in Wingbeats: Exercises and Practice in Poetry Edited by Scott Wiggerman and David Meischen. Dos Gatos Press, ISBN 978-09760051-9-3
- Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project, (Ed. with Lisa L. Moore and Omi Osun Joni L. Jones), University of Texas Press (2010), ISBN 978-0292722873
- “Litany-Blood In The Soil/Texas”, anthologized in A Students’ Treasury of Texas Poetry, Texas A&M University Consortium Press (2007), ISBN 978-0-87565-353-2
- “a wo’mn called sir”, anthologized in First Person Queer: Who We Are (So Far), Arsenal Pulp Press (2007), ISBN 978-1551522272
- excerpt “dyke/warrior-Prayers”, anthologized in Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years Of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender Writing, Other Countries and RedBone Press (2006), ISBN 978-0978625139
- “Street/Angels & Clarity”, anthologized in Check The Rhyme: An Anthology Of Female Poets & Emcees, Lit Noire Publishing (2006), ISBN 978-0971905238
- “interlude #21: the road to Higher Power”, anthologized in Spirited: Affirming The Soul And Black Gay Lesbian Identity, RedBone Press (2006), ISB 978-0965665933
- “Doña Julia”, anthologized in Red Light Superheroes, Saints, and Sluts, Arsenal Pulp Press (2005), ISBN 978-1551521848
- Love Conjure/Blues, Redbone Press (2004), ISBN 978-0965665964
- excerpt from “con flama”, anthologized in New Monologues For Women By Women, Heinemann (2004), ISBN 978-0325006260
- excerpt from “con flama” anthologized in “Is This Forever, Or What?: Poems & Paintings From Texas”, Greenwillow Books (2004), ISBN 0060511788
- “bull-jean slipn in” & “bull-jean & trouble”, anthologized in Role Call – A Generational Anthology Of Social And Political Black Literature & Art, Third World Press (2001), ISBN 978-0883782392
- “dyke/warrior-Prayers” and “blood pudding”, anthology in Recreations: Religion And Spirituality In The Lives Of Queer People, Q Press (1999), ISBN 978-1895564068
- the bull-jean stories, Redbone Press (1998), ISBN 978-096566591
- excerpt from sonnata blue, anthologized in Ma-Ka Diasporic Juks, Sister Vision Press (1998), ISBN 978-1896705149
- “that beat” anthologized Does Your Mama Know?: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories, RedBone Press (1997), ISBN 978-0965665902
Albums
- amniotic/flow, with daughter,with Sonja Perryman (2003) available digitally
- the bull-jean stories, available digitally
Theater
- delta dandi
- The love conjure/blues Text Installation
- con flama
- blood pudding
- dyke/warrior-Prayers
- no mo blues
- lovve/rituals & rage