S. Pearl Sharp
Biography of S. Pearl Sharp
S. Pearl Sharp commentaries and essays are heard on NPR radio and other broadcast outlets. Her published literary works include the non-fiction Black Women For Beginners, the plays Dearly Beloved and The Sistuhs, four volumes of poetry, including Poets & Performers, New York City, early 1970’s.Typing In The Dark, and two poetry w/jazz CDs, On The Sharp Side and Higher Ground.
She was the 2006-2007 Poet Laureate of Los
Angeles’ Watts Towers Arts Center. S. Pearl worked with esteemed actress
Beah Richards on There’s A Brown Girl In The Ring, a collection of the
actress’ essays, later adapting them to stage. Sharp was Senior Editor for
Juneteenth Audio Books/ Time-Warner, the first commercial Black audio-books
company, founded by CEO Steve Williams, where she co-directed the recordings
of books by Bebe Moore Campbell,
Susan L. Taylor and
Ernest J. Gaines.
An independent filmmaker, Sharp created the semi-animated film short Picking
Tribes, with watercolors by Carlos Spivey; Life Is A Saxophone, on poet
Kamau Daa’ood; a women’s
health video, It’s O.K. To Peek, produced with Arabella Chavers-Julien; and
Back Inside Herself, a poetic short. She wrote and directed numerous arts
documentaries for the City of Los Angeles’ CH 35, with Exec. Producer Rosie
Lee Hooks, including Central Avenue Live!, L.A. to L.A (Louisiana to Los
Angeles), Spirits of the Ancestors and Fertile Ground: Stories From the
Watts Towers Arts Center. She served as SS. Pearl Sharpupervising Producer
for five short films by other filmmakers on the impact of gang violence,
produced by the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center (BHERC), with
Exec. Producer Sandra Evers-Manly. In S. Pearl’s award-winning documentary
film, The Healing Passage/Voices From The Water, cultural artists, healers
and historians address paths to healing from the present-day residuals of
the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Using
her art to address community issues, Sharp was one of the co-founders of the
Black Anti-Defamation Coalition which directly challenged the entertainment
industry on the Black image in the media, and edited the group’s newsletter,
Media Matters. With the help of
Alex Haley and other industry leaders, she published the
first-of-its-kind 1980 Directory of Black Film/TV Technicians, West Coast to
highlight the employability of skilled Black talent working behind the
camera in the film industry. This was followed by publication of the
resource guide, The Black History Film List.
S. Pearl’s acting
credits include her first film role in
Gordon Parks’ classic film
The
Learning Tree, starring roles in the television movies Hollow Image (ABC),
with Morgan Freeman,
Dick Anthony Williams and Hattie Winston, Minstrel Man (CBS) opposite Glynn
Turman and Ted Ross, co-star in The Donna Cheek Story (NBC) and guest roles
in episodic programs.
An advocate of holistic healing, S. Pearl conducts workshops that merge art and healing, and creates ritual. She is based in Los Angeles.
Writer and Actress, S. Pearl Sharp, is interviewed by Tavis Smiley.
Learn more at Sharp’s offical website.
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