Sharon Bridgforth
Sharon Bridgforth is the Lambda Award-winning author of the bull-jean stories (RedBone Press) and love conjure/blues, a performance/novel published by RedBone Press. Bridgforth's work has fostered the study of black lesbian performance literature in academic settings. Some of the professors who have taught her work are: Lisa Anderson (Arizona State University); Elmo Terry-Morgan (Brown University); Laura Harris (Pitzer College); Daniel Banks (New York University, Tisch School for the Arts); Lisa Hernandez (St. Edward’s University); Mattie Richardson (University of California, Berkeley); Lisa Arnold (University of Minnesota); Kristen Hogan (Louisiana State University); Kirsten Gardner (University of Texas at San Antonio); Carol Guess (Western Washington University); and Lisa L. Moore, Daniel Alexander Jones, Jafari Allen, Matt Richardson and Joni Jones (University of Texas at Austin).
Bridgforth has developed a method of facilitating creative writing that she calls “Finding Voice” as part of her work as anchor artist for the past five years at The Austin Project, sponsored by the Center for African and African-American Studies (CAAAS), University of Texas at Austin. Bridgforth’s “Finding Voice Facilitation Manual” will be published in 2007 by University of Texas Press in The Austin Project Archive: Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic, co-edited by Dr. Joni Jones, acting director of CAAAS and associate professor, Theater and Dance, University of Texas at Austin; Dr. Lisa L. Moore, associate professor, English and Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Texas at Austin; and Bridgforth. Bridgforth is an affiliate faculty member at CAAAS, University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches an undergraduate course that focuses on art as a vehicle for community organizing.
Bridgforth’s work has been anthologized and produced widely, and has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts Commissioning Program; National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Playwright in Residence Program; National Performance Network; and the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund Award. Bridgforth’s work has been presented nationally at venues, including Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, MN; The Theatre Offensive Out on The Edge Festival in Boston, MA; La Peña in Berkeley, CA; Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, Walhalla, MI; and Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul, MN. Bridgforth is currently touring the love conjure/blues Text Installation. For more information go to loveconjureblues.com.
[Photo © 2007 by Jen Simmons.]
