Pearl Cleage Biography
Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta based writer, currently Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Tony Award winning Alliance Theatre. Her new play Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous, had its world premiere as a part of the theatre’s 50th anniversary season in 2019 and is scheduled for productions around the country next season, including Arena Stage in Washington, DC. Her other plays premiered at the Alliance include Pointing at the Moon, “What I Learned in Paris,” and Flyin’ West, the most produced new play in the country in 1994. Her play The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years was commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and co-produced with the Alliance in Montgomery and Atlanta. Her first play for young audiences, Tell Me My Dream, was commissioned and produced by the Alliance in 2015. Her book for children, co-authored with her husband, writer Zaron W. Burnett with illustrations by Radcliffe Bailey was a part of the Mayor’s Reading Club last summer and distributed free to 15,000 Atlanta children. It will be presented at the Alliance as a play for the very young in March, 2020. Cleage is currently at work on Sit-In, a play for young audiences about the sit-in movement in conjunction with a national exhibition sponsored by Scholastic Books, starting at the High Museum this summer. Blues for An Alabama Sky was included in the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival and has been produced in multiple American theatres every year since it premiered at the Alliance in 1995. The Alliance included a 20th anniversary production in their 2015 season, directed by Susan V. Booth. Earlier this year, the play ran off Broadway at the Keen Company in New York and is scheduled for a production at the National Theatre in London in 2021. Some of her other plays include Late Bus to Mecca, Bourbon at the Border and A Song for Coretta.
Her first novel, What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day, was an Oprah Book Club pick and spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Her other novels include Baby Brother’s Blues, which received an NAACP Image Award for Literature, I Wish I Had A Red Dress, Babylon Sisters, and Things I Never Thought I’d Do. Her memoir, Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons and Love Affairs, was published by Simon and Schuster/ATRIA Books in April, 2014. She is also the co-author with her husband, writer Zaron W. Burnett, Jr., of We Speak Your Names, a praise poem commissioned by Oprah Winfrey for her 2005 Legends Weekend, and A 21st Century Freedom Song: For Selma at 50, commissioned by Winfrey for the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March. Cleage and Burnett are frequent collaborators including their award-winning ten-year performance series, “Live at Club Zebra!” featuring their work as writers and performance artists.
Cleage was awarded the Governor’s Award for the Arts in 2018. She received an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from her alma mater, Spelman College, in 2010 and spent two years as a member of the Spelman faculty. She was the founding editor of CATALYST Magazine, an Atlanta-based literary journal, for ten years and served as Artistic Director of Just Us Theater Company for five years. Her work has been given grant support through the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulton County Arts Council, the Georgia Council for the Arts, the City of Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs, and the Coca-Cola Foundation.
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Pearl Cleage Speaking Topics
A firm believer that “the personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself,” Cleage’s 2014 memoir, Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies Lessons and Love Affairs, revisits her journals from the 1970’s and 1980’s as a way of passing on the lessons she learned on her journey from naïve wife and young mother to full time professional writer and freewoman. Frank and funny, it’s an invitation to cross generational dialogue.
Examining the dangers of voting based solely on race or gender identification, Cleage suggests that for the American democracy to continue to thrive, women must not be confined to a set of issues determined by their biology or excluded from the wider debate that often informs those issues.
As a widely produced playwright, Cleage examines the unspoken cultural assumptions that continue to shape the choices made by producers and artistic directors as they go in search of “cultural diversity,” and explains why those choices stifle the growth of the American theatre.
An unexpected commissioning from Oprah Winfrey found Cleage writing the poem that defined Winfrey’s 2005 Legends Weekend honoring African American women. She shares the process that produced the piece and her memories of that extraordinary weekend, taking listeners behind the scenes of the poem that became the centerpiece of the event.
Cleage examines her own life and determines that she’s done “everything right but the money.” Equal parts affirmation of her own life choices and cautionary tale for independent women, it is a frank and funny examination of the joys and challenges facing American female baby boomers.
Pearl Cleage Videos
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How much does it cost to book Pearl Cleage for a speaking engagement?
Speaking fees for Pearl Cleage, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. The estimated fee for a virtual event is Below $10,000. For the most current speaking fee to hire Pearl Cleage, click the Check Schedule button above and complete the form on this page, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak directly with an experienced booking agent.
What topics does Pearl Cleage speak about?
Pearl Cleage is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Black Heritage, Women, Diversity, Authors, Performing Arts, Social Activism, Music, College, Political, Writing, World Affairs, Inspirational, Government, News & Media, Literary, Poetry, Leadership and Culture.
Who is the agent for Pearl Cleage?
AAE Speakers Bureau has successfully secured keynote speakers like Pearl Cleage for clients worldwide since 2002. As a full-service speaker booking agency, we have access to virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. Our agents are happy and able to submit an offer to the speaker or celebrity of your choice, letting you benefit from our reputation and long-standing relationships in the industry. Please click the Check Schedule button above and complete the form on this page including the details of your event, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536, and one of our agents will assist you to book Pearl Cleage for your next private or corporate function.
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Pearl Cleage is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics including Black Heritage, Women and Diversity. The estimated speaking fee range to book Pearl Cleage for virtual events is Below $10,000. Please contact us for live event fees. Pearl Cleage can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Judge Glenda Hatchett, Donna Brazile and Mariane Pearl. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Pearl Cleage for an upcoming event.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Pearl Cleage Speaking Topics
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Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: The Power of Memoir
A firm believer that “the personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself,” Cleage’s 2014 memoir, Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies Lessons and Love Affairs, revisits her journals from the 1970’s and 1980’s as a way of passing on the lessons she learned on her journey from naïve wife and young mother to full time professional writer and freewoman. Frank and funny, it’s an invitation to cross generational dialogue.
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Voting for the Girl: Citizenship as a Women’s Issue
Examining the dangers of voting based solely on race or gender identification, Cleage suggests that for the American democracy to continue to thrive, women must not be confined to a set of issues determined by their biology or excluded from the wider debate that often informs those issues.
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In Search of August Wilson: American Theatre & the Challenge of Diversity
As a widely produced playwright, Cleage examines the unspoken cultural assumptions that continue to shape the choices made by producers and artistic directors as they go in search of “cultural diversity,” and explains why those choices stifle the growth of the American theatre.
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We Speak Your Names: A Celebration
An unexpected commissioning from Oprah Winfrey found Cleage writing the poem that defined Winfrey’s 2005 Legends Weekend honoring African American women. She shares the process that produced the piece and her memories of that extraordinary weekend, taking listeners behind the scenes of the poem that became the centerpiece of the event.
-
Everything But the Money: Lessons for Free Women
Cleage examines her own life and determines that she’s done “everything right but the money.” Equal parts affirmation of her own life choices and cautionary tale for independent women, it is a frank and funny examination of the joys and challenges facing American female baby boomers.
VIDEO
Pearl Cleage Videos
BOOKS
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