Cheryl Gittens-Jones

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BIOGRAPHY

Even as a child in her native Barbados Cheryl Gittens-Jones wanted to be a writer. A victim of domestic violence, the young girl learned not to put much hope in her dreams. Although, a student of high academic standing and an avid reader, she found it difficult to concentrate and by the age of 15 dropped out of school. Without the high school diploma needed for well-paying jobs, she fixed her eyes on the United States of America--"the land of the liberated."

In 1987 Cheryl accepted a job as a nanny with a family in Canada. Her new position came with the guarantee of college classes in the evening after work. But overworked, unhappy, exhausted and not fulfilling her dreams of a college education she decided to illegally immigrate to the United States.

Once in the USA, the young woman was faced with many challenges, the first being that of an illegal immigrant. She spent the majority of her seven years in New York City working in low paying ‘off-the-book’ jobs as a live-in housekeeper.

Despite the difficulties Cheryl faced she completed her GED in 1989.

Feeling a sense of power and accomplishment, her love of reading and of studying rekindled, she began to seek out new opportunities through higher education. Cheryl started working at the Art Students League in New York City as an Artist Model. There she began to open up and trust her self to make conscious decisions about her life.

She applied for a student visa but was forced to return home to receive the document. It was a risk, since her illegal status might prevent her from returning to the USA. In January 1993 she returned home, received her student visa, and returned to the United States.

At last, as a legal International student, Cheryl began to implement her vision of the future. She began to write again partly in an effort to heal from the traumas experienced in her life. Incorporating painting and drawing Cheryl began to gain a sense of direction

In 1994 she enrolled at California University of Pennsylvania with the help of fellow artists from the Art Students League. By the end of her first semester she made the Dean's list and began performing poetry in 'bajan'--the dialect of Barbados.

At the end of the school year Cheryl applied to Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts as a transfer student. In the fall of 1995 she began her program there as a Frances Perkins Scholar.

Cheryl has experienced major setbacks and devastating loss. Nevertheless, she has persevered. In 1996 she was refused reentry by the United States immigration because of her illegal status in this country years before. The Barbados government played a crucial role in allowing her to return to continue her studies.

Her 32 year-old brother died of AIDS in 1997 leaving his 6-year-old twin daughters (their mother passed away a couple years before) in both she and her mothers care after her graduation. Through age 4, after undergoing frequent tests while in an orphanage in Barbados, the twins were found to be free of the infection.

Overwhelmed by years of hard work and tragic events Cheryl has

struggled to bring about a sense of normalcy to her life.
It was a trip to Senegal, West Africa, and the Slave Houses on Goree Island, which gave her renewed faith and hope. She knew in her heart her story could inspire and give hope to those in the world who lived through similar situations.

As a result of losing her brother to such a devastating disease as well as dealing with the stigma associated with it, Cheryl was further inspired to work on the semi-autobiographical work entitled: THE CLEANSING, and RETURN. In addition to these works, she is developing another play entitled Ne Ne and has completed a book of poetry entitled Being Black: Being human.

Cheryl Gittens-Jones is a devout Buddhist. In May 1999 she graduated from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts. She has gained recognition in Who's Who in American Colleges, USA Today’s All-USA College Academic Team 1996 and 1997, gained a Phi Beta Kappa award for her sculpture, a Mount Holyoke research grant to Senegal, most recently the play was amongst the top 10 finalists chosen from 240 at Stage 3 Theatre’s Festival of New plays. Stage 3 is located in Sonora, CA. West Africa, and a James Baldwin Playwriting prize for her play Shaduhs Uh Voodoo. The play has had readings in 1996 and 1998. It was produced at Mount Holyoke College as her final project for graduation March 1999.

She has done interviews in connection with her work on All Things Considered NPR, in the Boston Globe, the Axis Online Hampshire Gazette and WMUA UMASS Radio in Massachusetts, the Sunday Sun newspaper in Barbados, and made a guest appearance on the talk show T. P Parked on CBC (Caribbean Broadcasting Co-operation) in Barbados.

Cheryl is 40 years of age, a full-time mom and is presently residing in Connecticut with her husband Keith and their 2 year-old daughter, Amaranthia Sepia. Keith is a self-published author and a Business Analyst/Business Architect. He is a cancer survivor. Cheryl finds time to write late at night. She and her husband plan to adopt her orphaned twin nieces as their own.

Background Information

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

Art Students League of New York, New York, New York. 1993-94

California University Of Pennsylvania, California, Pennsylvania. 1994-95

Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts. 1995-1999

Bachelor of Arts Degree, May 1999. Mount Holyoke College

Major: Interdisciplinary/Special Major

Title of Major: Caribbean Women Studies As Expressed Through the Performing Arts

GPA: 3.36

Relevant Courses: Advanced Directing

Introduction to Playwriting

Women as Heroes

Studies in Caribbean Literature…the Anglophone Caribbean

Psychology of Women

Cultural Anthropology

Creative Writing

Caribbean Dance

Screenwriting

HONORS AND AWARDS

Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities, 1996-97, 1997-98

USA Today Award for outstanding academic achievement in recognition for the play,

Shaduhs Uh Voodoo, February 1998

Woman of the Week, Mount Holyoke News, November 11 1997.

USA Today Award for outstanding academic achievement in recognition for playwriting research

trip to Goree, Senegal, West Africa. February 1997

Word! James Baldwin Playwriting prize awarded by Faculty Five College Inc at Amherst Massachusetts

Spring 1997.

Mary Is Back for Twentieth Century Tea and She Is Pissed recognized as a work of Merit by the Denis Johnston Playwriting Award Committee, Smith College, Spring 1998

Phi Beta Kappa Award, 2^nd Prize, for sculpture exhibit, “Calypso Mass”, Mount Holyoke College,

Spring 1996

Editor’s Choice Award, Library of Poetry, Washington, DC, spring 1996

Frances Perkins Scholar, Mount Holyoke College, 1995-1999

International Student Scholarship, California University of Pennsylvania, 1994-95

Dean’s List, California University of Pennsylvania, 1994-95

Highest Academic Achievement Award, Black History Month Awards, California University of

Pennsylvania, 1994-95

Best of Show Award, Shaduhs Uh Voodoo, the poem, International Student Festival, California University

Of Pennsylvania, Spring 1994

Board of Control Scholarship, Art Students’ League of New York City, 1993-94

FUNDING AWARDS

T.W Reese Award Dean of Studies office Mount Holyoke College for production of Shaduhs Uh Voodoo in March 1999, awarded October 1998

Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association for the production of Shaduhs Uh Voodoo March 1999, awarded August 1998

Office of Diversity and Inclusion Mount Holyoke College for the production of Shaduhs Uh Voodoo March 1999, awarded August 1998

Rooke Lab Theater award Mount Holyoke College for the production of Shaduhs Uh Voodoo March 1999, awarded March 1998

Five College Inc., Amherst Massachusetts for the production of Shaduhs Uh Voodoo March 1999, awarded October 1997

Judith Reppy Women Studies Grant Mount Holyoke College, awarded for research in Senegal West Africa,

Jan 1997

Word! Five College Inc., Amherst Massachusetts playwriting award Spring 1997

Phi Beta Kappa Award for Sculpture exhibit Mount Holyoke College Spring 1996

CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

Assistant in Robbie McCauley’s workshop Rooke Theatre Mount Holyoke College in Kids to College Program introducing 6 graders to the stage April 1998. Robbie McCauley, director and performance artist – winner of the 1990 Bessie Award for Creative Achievement and the 1992 Obie Award for Sally’s Rape.

Assistant Director to Robbie McCauley, Visiting Director MHC Rooke Theatre, for Shay’s Rebellion,

November. 20-23 1997.

In connection with the staged dramatic reading of Shaduhs Uh Voodoo, November 12, 1997

Publicity Coordinator with Mount Holyoke College Health Educator and Aids Coalition

Organized 5-College and surrounding communities publicity: talks, flyers, programs, posters.

Worked with Mount Holyoke College Inclusiveness Committee as campus publicity coordinator

Connected with UMass Everywoman Center, Patricia Mota Gueddes, and Director of Education and Advocacy against Violence against Women, to bring awareness of the performance to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Community.

Connected with faculty in the UMass Women’s Studies Department to promote awareness of the staged reading.

Worked with John Laprade, Technical Director, and Student Activities to organize the technical

aspects of the staged reading.

Worked with College Street Journal and Mount Holyoke News on publicity and articles about

the play and the process of its creation.

Wrote letters to AIDS Allies, MA and surrounding Community Colleges announcing the

performance.

Interviews: WMUA, UMass Radio (11-7-97), Boston Globe (Metro Life section, 10-21-97

Axis Online Magazine, Daily Hampshire Gazette, (11-6-97)

Guest Speaker on Domestic Violence, T.P. Parked, talk show on CBC Caribbean Broadcasting Corp., (Channel 3) Barbados, West Indies…spoke on the abuse within the Barbadian community of women and children and how I was able to overcome my own domestic violent background

Interview, Sunday Sun, Bridgetown Barbados article “Sister Survivor” in celebration of International Women’s week…on my life and how I overcame a background of domestic violence

Organized a “Frances Perkins Poetry Night” for the Frances Perkins Community

(Non-traditional students at Mount Holyoke). November 21, 1996.

Participated as a selected team member for the Mural Project, directed by Judy Baca, Muralist, in Blanchard Student Campus Center, Mount Holyoke. October, 1996.

Represented Frances Perkins Scholars on Campus Housing Committee Board 1995-96

PERFORMANCES AND PUBLICATIONS

Scheduled to read from script of Shaduhs Uh Voodoo Odyessy bookstore South Hadley Massachusetts November 6^th 1998

Poems from In My Language, Compilation of Poems performed at Fire and Water Open Mike night Café Northampton July 1997

Play: March 1998 Directed Frances Perkins Scholar Skit The Secret Desires of Mrs. Jones Chapin

Auditorium for Mount Holyoke College’s 1998 junior show

Shaduhs Uh Voodoo, Play on based on my true-life story:

Play: Shaduhs Uh Voodoo

November 12, 1997, Staged Multi-Media Dramatic Reading, Chapin Auditorium, Mt. Holyoke

College

Poem: Shaduhs Uh Voodoo

May 1997, author’s performance for the Writer’s Collective, Barbados Museum, St. Michael,

Barbados

Poem: Shaduhs Uh Voodoo

March 1997, Presented by Sheila Petigny (director/actress) in my absence at Curtin Theatre, UMass, Amherst

for receipt of James Baldwin Playwriting Prize

Poem: November 1996, Tribute to Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, Mount Holyoke College, author’s

Dramatic reading of Shaduhs Uh Voodoo

Shaduhs Uh Voodoo

Poem: spring 1994,author’s dramatic reading, International Student Festival, California University of

Pennsylvania

Miss Daisy, a poem, published in Voices, the Writer’s Collective Anthology, and summer 1997 issue

The poem is from the compilation of poems, In my Language.

Mary’s Back for Twentieth Century Tea and She is Pissed, a one-act happening, an improvisational play

for the 200^th Birthday Anniversary celebration of Mary Lyon, founder of Mount Holyoke College,

Founder’s day, November 10, 1996

In My Language, one act play in verse, an expansion from several poems from my compilation of poems,

In My Language, October 1996, class presentation, author’s dramatic performance

Poems published in the anthology Best Poets of 1996, and in the anthology Journey of the Mind, Spring

1995, Library of Poetry, Washington, D.C

Romantic Novels with No Pictures of Me, short story published in Fisher Island Gazette, New London,

Connecticut, spring 1995

COMPLETED PROJECTS

Being Black: being human a book of poems on coming to terms with my ‘blackness’ and what it means to be human and black.

CD ROM multi-media project in PowerPoint showing the progress of Shaduhs Uh Voodoo as a metaphor

of healing 1999

Shaduhs Uh Voodoo (the play) produced at Chapin, Mount Holyoke College. Spring 1999.

In My Language book of poems written and performed in bajan dialect (spoken in Barbados)

COMMUNITY ACTIVISM

Wrote article for residential newsletter Coachlight News and Views on steps a newly formed committee took to solve problems with difficult tenants in the building. Spring 2001

Fought for the right of non-smoking tenants to live in a smoke-free environment at residence 72 Barrett St, Northampton, MA. As a result, new rules were implemented in tenants lease and smokers allowed to smoke 20 feet in front of building. Fall-Winter 2001.

Confronted issues of sexual harassment on California University of Pennsylvania, campus and was instrumental in changes made on campus regarding attitudes and rules concerning issues of sexual harassment.

Spring 1994.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED WORKS

ANGELS IN BLACK : in memory of 9/11 published by epiphany online magazine January 2003.

THE CLEANSING pulication year 2003 by Publish America Book Publishers, Maryland, USA.

SHADUHS UH VOODOO amongst top 12 plays chosen from 200 by stage 3 theatre, California PA to be presented to theaters in 2003.

SHADUHS UH VOODOO published December 9, 2002 by One Act Play Depot, Canada.

WORK IN PROGRESS

RETURN in progress. Semi- autobiographical narrative based on the diasporic journey of the author, which results in her finding her true self.

FUTURE PROJECTS

Play: COMMUNITY OF CRASHERS outline…Commentary on how we push the elderly out of the world allowing them to fall to the wayside. Play about elderly people who attend funeral wakes as a way to socialize, a way to come to terms with impending death, a way to mourn loss of youthfulness.

NOVEL FICTION: DREAM OF A PSYCHO (working title) outline…Young woman who lives within Walking distance of Twin Towers in coma from 9/11 attack… 2 years later wakes up to a life vastly different from the horror she has been experiencing while still in the coma. It is her wedding day 2 years later. The wedding was planned for Sept 11, 2003.

Play: NeNe outline…in Senegal means (mother in Pulaar and baby in Wolof ), baby in Columbia (Spanish) and in Barbardos (Bajan -NayNay) it means insignificant or nothing. Novel will address issues of displacement and how three black women from Senegal, West Africa, North America and the Caribbean come to an understanding of their sisterhoods by dealing with their differences.