Cleage, Pearl 1948–

(Pearl Michelle Cleage, Pearl Lomax, Pearl Cleage Lomax)

PERSONAL: Surname is pronounced "cleg"; born December 7, 1948, in Springfield, MA; daughter of Albert Buford (a minister) and Doris (a teacher; maiden name, Graham) Cleage; married Michael Lucius Lomax (an elected official of Fulton County, GA), October 31, 1969 (divorced, 1979); married Zaron W. Burnett, Jr.; children: (first marriage) Deignan Njeri. Ethnicity: "Black." Education: Attended Howard University, 1966–69, Yale University, 1969, and University of the West Indies, 1971; Spelman College, B.A., 1971; graduate study at Atlanta University, 1971.

ADDRESSES: Home—1665 Havilon Dr. S.W., Atlanta, GA 30311. Office—Just Us Theater Co., P.O. Box 42271, Atlanta, GA 30311-0271. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Ballantine, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Playwright, poet, novelist, and educator. Just Us Theater Co., Atlanta, GA, playwright-in-residence, 1983–87, artistic director, 1987–; Spelman College, Atlanta, instructor in creative writing, 1986–91, playwright-in-residence, 1991–. Martin Luther King, Jr. Archival Library, member of field collection staff, 1969–70; Southern Education Program, Inc., assistant director, 1970–71; WETV, Atlanta, "Black Viewpoints" (produced by Clark College), host and interviewer, 1970–71; WQXI, Atlanta, staff writer and interviewer for Ebony Beat Journal, 1972, writer and associate producer, 1972–73; WXIA, Atlanta, executive producer, 1972–73; City of Atlanta, director of communications, beginning 1973; Brown/Gray, Ltd., writer, beginning 1976. Member of board of directors, Atlanta Center for Black Art, 1970–71.

MEMBER: Writers Guild of America (East).

AWARDS, HONORS: First prize for poetry, Promethean Literary Magazine, 1968; Georgia Council for the Arts residency grants from the city of Atlanta, 1982 and 1984; National Endowment for the Arts residency grants through Just Us Theater Co., 1983–87; Audience Development Committee (AUDELCO) Recognition Awards for Best Play and Best Playwright, 1983, for Hospice; Bronze Jubilee Award for Literature, Atlanta, Georgia, 1983; Mayor's fellowship in the arts, Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs, 1986; seed grant from Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines, 1987, for Catalyst; AT&T New Work Development Grant, 1990; outstanding columnist award, Atlanta Association of Black Journalists, 1991; individual artist grant, Georgia Council on the Arts, 1991; grant from AT&T Onstage program, 1992, for Flyin' West; outstanding columnist award, Atlanta Association of Media Women, 1993; grants from the Coca-Cola Company, the Coca-Cola Foundation, and the Whitter-Bynner Foundation for Poetry; Oprah Book Club Selection, 1998, for What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day.

WRITINGS:

We Don't Need No Music (poetry), Broadside Press, 1971.

(Author of essay, under name Pearl Cleage Lomax) P.H. Polk, Photographs, Nexus Press (Atlanta, GA), 1980.

Dear Dark Faces: Portraits of a People (poetry), Lotus Press, 1980.

One for the Brothers (chapbook), privately printed, 1983.

Mad at Miles: A Blackwoman's Guide to Truth, Cleage Group (Southfield, MI), 1990.

The Brass Bed and Other Stories (young adult short fiction and poetry), Third World Press (Chicago, IL), 1991.

Deals with the Devil: And Other Reasons to Riot (essays), Ballantine (New York, NY), 1993.

What Looks like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (novel), Avon Books (New York, NY), 1997.

I Wish I Had a Red Dress (novel), William Morrow (New York, NY), 2001.

Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do (novel), One World/Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Zaron W. Burnett, Jr.) We Speak Your Names: A Celebration (poetry), One World/Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Babylon Sisters (novel), One World/Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2005.

PLAYS

Hymn for the Rebels (one-act), first produced in Washington, DC, at Howard University, 1968.

Duet for Three Voices (one-act), first produced in Washington, DC, at Howard University, 1969.

The Sale (one-act), first produced in Atlanta, GA, at Spelman College, 1972.

puppetplay, first produced in Atlanta, GA, by Just Us Theater Co., 1983.

Hospice (first produced Off-Broadway at the New Federal Theatre, New York, 1983; first international production, the MAMU Players, South Africa, 1990), published in New Plays for the Black Theater, edited by Woodie King, Jr., Third World Press (Chicago, IL), 1989.

Good News, first produced in Atlanta, GA, by Just Us Theater Co., 1984.

Essentials, first produced in Atlanta, GA, by Just Us Theater Co., 1985.

Banana Bread (two-character piece), videotaped and premiered as part of the PBS series Playhouse 30, Atlanta, GA, 1985.

(With Walter J. Huntley) PR: A Political Romance, first produced by Just Us Theater Co., Atlanta, GA, 1985.

Porch Songs, first produced at the Phoenix Theater, Indianapolis, IN, 1985.

Come and Get These Memories, first produced at the Billie Holiday Theater, Brooklyn, NY, 1988.

Chain (one-act; first produced off-Broadway by the Women's Project and Productions and the New Federal Theater, 1992), published in Playwrighting Women: Seven Plays from the Women's Project, edited by Julia Miles, Heinemann Press, 1993.

Late Bus to Mecca (one-act; first produced Off-Broadway by the Women's Project and Productions and the New Federal Theater, 1992), published in Playwrighting Women: Seven Plays from the Women's Project, edited by Julia Miles, Heinemann Press, 1993.

Flyin' West, (produced by Alliance Theater Company, Atlanta, GA, 1992), Dramatists Play Service (New York, NY), 1995.

Blues for an Alabama Sky (produced by Alliance Theater Company, Atlanta, GA, 1995), Dramatists Play Service (New York, NY), 1999.

Flyin' West and Other Plays (includes Flyin' West, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Bourbon Border, Chain, and Late Bus to Mecca), Dramatists Play Service (New York, NY), 1999.

Also author of Christmas, 1967 and Christmas, 1981 (short fiction). Author, with Zaron Burnett, of Live at Club Zebra!: The Book, Volume 1, Just Us Theater Press (Atlanta, GA). Author of and performer in The Jean Harris Reading, 1981; The Pearl and the Brood of Vipers, 1981; Nothin' but a Movie, 1982; My Father Has a Son, 1986; A Little Practice, 1986; Love and Trouble, with Burnett, 1987; Live at Club Zebra! with Burnett; The Final Negro Rhythm and Blues Revue, with Burnett, 1988; Clearing the Heart, 1989; and Mad at Miles, 1990.

Work represented in numerous anthologies, including The Insistent Present, We Speak as Liberators: Young Black Poets, A Rock against the Wind, The Poetry of Black America, Proverbs for the People: Contemporary African American Fiction, and Mending the World: Stories of Family by Contemporary Black Writers.

Columnist for the Atlanta Gazette, 1976–, Atlanta Constitution, 1977, and Atlanta Tribune, 1988–1998. Contributor to various periodicals and journals, including Essence, Readers and Writers, Promethean, Afro-American Review, Journal of Black Poetry, Dues, Essence, Pride, Black World, Ms., Atlanta Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Southern Voices, and Black Collegian. Founding editor, Catalyst, 1987–.

ADAPTATIONS: What Looks like Crazy on an Ordinary Day was adapted for audiobook, read by the author, Simon and Schuster Audio, 1998; I Wish I Had a Red Dress was adapted for audiobook, read by the author, Harper Audio, 2001; Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do was adapted for audiobook, BBC Audiobooks America, 2003; Babylon Sisters was adapted for audiobook, read by the author, Audio Partners, 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: A poet, essayist, playwright, performer, and novelist, Pearl Cleage has been hailed by critics as a multitalented voice for the African American community. As Samiya A. Bashir commented in Black Issues Book Review, "Cleage has firmly cemented her place in African American literary history as a woman of many talents and a strong vision for social change." Cleage once commented: "As a black female writer living and working in the United States, my writing of necessity reflects my blackness and my femaleness. I am convinced that this condition of double-oppression based on race and sex gives me a unique perspective that, hopefully, adds energy and certain creative tension to my work. Here's hoping." Cleage worked for many years in the theater, writing plays including Flyin' West, about black women pioneers homesteading in the early nineteenth century, before publishing her first novel, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, in 1997. That novel was chosen for the Oprah Book Club and climbed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained for nine weeks. Since then, Cleage has published several other novels featuring strong female protagonists facing difficult life decisions.

What Looks like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, traces the arc of experience of Ava Johnson, the owner of a hair salon in Atlanta, Georgia, who discovers she has AIDS. Ava decides to move to San Francisco and build a new life with the time left to her. First, she visits her Michigan hometown, where her sister has just adopted a crack baby. Ava grows attached to the baby and joins in the battle against church conservatives who want to prevent teens from getting AIDS-prevention information. She also falls in love with a local man, Eddie Jefferson, but thinks happiness has come too late in life for her. However, Eddie has a different way of looking at things. Reviewing the novel in People, Laura Jamison found it "uplifting" and felt that Cleage presented her message "with a deft and joyful touch." Cleage told Bashir in a Black Issues Book Review interview that her inspiration to write a novel grew out of personal experience: "I had an idea for a black woman character who'd been living her life, went in for a regular physical and found out she was HIV positive…. I was struck by how many people I knew who were still in denial about HIV/AIDS. I wanted to write about someone who was diagnosed and then had to figure out what to do with the rest of her life."

Cleage's second novel, I Wish I Had a Red Dress, is set in the same Michigan town, Idlewild, a former resort, as was her first novel. She also reprises characters from that book for a sequel of sorts. Here the story focuses on Ava's older sister, Joyce, who never lived an exciting life like her younger sister. A widow, Joyce also lost her son and daughter and now runs a social club and counseling center for young women and unmarried mothers. After giving of herself for so many years, Joyce finds romance with tall Nate and thinks it might be time for a bit of high-living for a change. Cleage's book "suffers from secondnovelitis," in the opinion of American Theatre contributor Frank J. Baldaro. While Baldaro thought the novel would be a "crowd pleaser," he also felt it "wears thin as it ham-fistedly scores its points."

For her third novel, Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do, Cleage leaves Michigan behind but again focuses on an African American woman in crisis. Ambitious Regina Burns is trying to reconstruct her life after a rehab program for drug addition. She desperately needs money to save the family home and takes a job with the mother of her former betrothed, Son Davis, who died in the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York City. Davis's mother hires Regina to help organize a memorial for her son. This position, in turn, takes Regina back to Atlanta, where, reading through her former lover's papers, she uncovers a secret past. She also meets Blue Hamilton, a black man so-named after his blue eyes. He is the local gentleman and protector of women, and Regina finds herself drawn to him. However, complications soon arise with neighborhood tensions and local criminals who threaten to destroy Regina's newfound happiness. Library Journal contributor Joyce Kessel felt this third novel was "not quite as engaging" as Cleage's earlier two, but that its "secrets and characters are compelling enough to sustain the tale." Higher praise came from Melissa Ewey Johnson in Black Issues Book Review. Johnson wrote, "Cleage's third novel sets the standard for fiction that not only entertains but raises important issues relevant in the real world."

Babylon Sisters, Cleage's fourth novel, is once again set in Atlanta, Cleage's home. Catherine Sanderson must decide whether or not to tell her daughter Phoebe the identity of her father. Always close, mother and daughter are being pulled apart by Phoebe's desire to know who her father is. Added to this is another plot dealing with the business Catherine runs that helps establish migrant women in their new country. Tensions mount when Phoebe's father—a journalist covering a story on immigrants who are being forced into prostitution—comes to town. Catherine realizes she is still attracted to him, but he has yet to learn that Phoebe is his daughter. Writing in Black Issues Book Review, Johnson deemed the novel both "suspenseful and engaging."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Black Biography, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

In Black and White, third edition, two volumes, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1980, third edition, supplement, 1985.

Notable Black American Women, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1996.

PERIODICALS

African American Review, winter, 1997, Freda Scott Giles, "The Motion of Herstory: Three Plays by Pearl Cleage," p. 709.

American Theatre, December, 1992, Cathy Madison, "Home Sweet Homestead," review of Flyin' West, p. 11; July-August, 1996, Douglas Langworthy, interview with Pearl Cleage, p. 21; November, 2002, Frank J. Baldaro, review of I Wish I Had a Red Dress, p. 77.

American Visions, October-November, 1994, Steve Monroe, "Black Women as Pioneers," review of Flyin' West, p. 31.

Belle Lettres, spring, 1994, Jeanette Lambert, review of Deals with the Devil: And Other Reasons to Riot, p. 84.

Black Issues Book Review, July, 2001, Samiya A. Bashir, "Pearl Cleage's Idlewild Idylls," p. 16; January-February, 2004, Melissa Ewey Johnson, review of Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do, p. 51; March-April, 2005, Melissa Ewey Johnson, review of Babylon Sisters, p. 49.

Booklist, August, 1999, review of What Looks like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, p. 2024; September 15, 2001, Whitney Scott, review of I Wish I Had a Red Dress (audiobook), p. 243; February 14, 2004, Mary McCay, review of Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do (audiobook), p. 1081.

Kliatt, July, 2005, Nola Theiss, review of Babylon Sisters (audiobook), p. 47.

Library Journal, February 1, 1999, Adrienne Furness, review of What Looks like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, p. 138; September 15, 2004, Joyce Kessel, review of Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do (audiobook), p. 88; June 1, 2005, Gwendolyn Osborne, review of Babylon Sisters, p. 186.

People, February 2, 1998, Laura Jamison, review of What Looks like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, p. 30.

Publishers Weekly, June 7, 1993, review of Deals with the Devil: And Other Reasons to Riot, p. 59.

ONLINE

Pearl Cleage Home Page, http://www.pearlcleage.net (November 22, 2005).