S. Pearl Sharp is a writer, actor and filmmaker. A poet from childhood, Sharp attended John O. Killens’ Writers Workshop at Columbia University where she wrote poetry and plays, in addition to forming the literary performance troupe Poets & Performers. In the mid-1970s Sharp moved to Los Angeles where she created Poets Pay Rent, Too, and served as publisher/editor of many publications. Sharp was a co-founder, with Robert E. Price, of the Black Anti-Defamation Coalition which monitored the image of Blacks in the media (1980-85). Her films include Back Inside Herself (1984), Life Is A Saxophone (1985), Picking Tribes (1988), It’s OK to Peek (1996), The Healing Passage/ Voices From The Water (2004); and for the City of Los Angeles, Central Avenue Live! (1996) and Fertile Ground: Stories from the Watts Towers Arts Center (2005). Sharp was an essayist and commentator on NPR from 2003 to 2009, and has served as a volunteer segment producer for KPFK-FM, Pacifica Radio Network. Her non-fiction writings are collected in The Evening News- Essays And Commentaries From NPR And Other Clouds (2015).
