African American Lesbian Poet/Playwright to Give Reading

African American lesbian poet/playwright Sharon Bridgforth, author of the bull-jean stories (1998) will give a reading, "Soul cycling:", at Hamilton College on Friday, Sept. 22 in the Fillius Events Barn, followed by a book signing. Both are free and open to the public. The reading is sponsored by the Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture and is part of the Southern Accents: Representation and Resistance Through the Arts series.

Using traditional storytelling and nontraditional verse to chronicle the course of love returning in the lifetimes of one woman-loving-woman named bull-dog-jean, the bull-jean stories give cultural documentation and social commentary on Africa-American herstory and survival. Set in the rural south of the 1920s, and using the accent and dialect of everyday Southern speech of the times. This work is about community, past times and spiritual binding.

Bridgforth is co-founder and co-facilitator for the Institute for Radical Living, a long-term series of workshops that focus on the history of people of color in America. She is founder and director of the Root Wy'mn Theatre Company in Austin, Texas. She is the 1999/2000 National Endowment for the Arts T. C.G. playwright resident for Frontera at Hyde Park Theatre, and also received the NEA Creation and Commission award for 1999-2000. The bull jean stories received the 1998 Lambda Literary Award for best small press book and were nominated for the 1998 American Library Association award for best gay/lesbian book.

Bridgforth received a bachelor's degree in creative writing and broadcast media from California State University at Los Angeles.