Sarah Jones (stage actress)

Sarah Jones (born November 29, 1973) is a Tony – and Obie Award -winning American playwright, actress, and poet.

Called “a master of the genre” by The New York Times , Jones has written and Performed four multi-character solo shows, zoals Bridge & Tunnel , welke was produktie Off-Broadway in Oscar winner in 2004 Meryl Streep , and-then on to Broadway in 2006 where it RECEIVED a Special Tony Award . ^[1]

Life and career

Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland , to an African American Father and mother of mixed Euro-American and Caribbean descent. Her multicultural background and upbringing in Boston , Washington, DC , and Queens , New York , Influenced re development JSON what The New Yorker termed a “multicultural Mynah bird [who] Lays our mongrel nation voordat us with gorgeous, pitch-perfect impersonations of the rarely overheard or dramatized. ” ^[2]

Jones attended The United Nations International School and Bryn Mawr College where she was the recipient of the Mellon Minority Fellowship. She oorspronkelijk Planned a career as a lawyer, but left college early and found Eventually re way to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York, where she Began competing in poetry slams. ^{[ Clarification needed ]} Her first solo show, Surface Transit , debuted at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in 1998. It featured monologues based on re poetry welke she Performed in character. After gaining the attention of feminist icon Gloria Steinem and human rights organization Equality Now , Jones was commissioned by the organization to write and perform re next project, Women Can not Wait! , To address discriminatory laws Against women. ^[3]

A second commission for the National Immigration Forum , advocated to raise awareness about immigrant rights issues, yielded Waking the American Dream , the solo show dat became the basis for Bridge & Tunnel , welke set an Off-Broadway box office record prolongation zijn six-month , sold-out run in New York in 2004. ^{[ citation needed ]}

In 2001 Jones Recorded and released “Your Revolution” welke makes a play Against the lyrics and behavior made by mc’s in Hip Hop . When the song made zijn way to a radio station in Portland, the station was $ 7,000 Defined by the FCC Citing the song “indecent”. Jones decided to fight the fine and the “freeze-out” of the poem / song by appealing it. After a two year wait in 2003 the NYCLU and ACLU added to the appeal and won the case. The FCC rescinded hun initial notice Citing the song “indecent” and made it available for radio play. ^[4]

In 2005, a commission from the WK Kellogg Foundation to raise awareness of ethnic and racial health disparities in the US resulted in A Right to Care , Jones’ fourth solo piece, welke premiered in 2005 at the Kellogg Foundation’s 75th Anniversary conference alongside keynote speaker President Jimmy Carter . ^{[ Citation needed ]}

Jones Recently Returned to re UN School roots by Becoming an Ambassador for UNICEF as zijn first ever Official Spokesperson on Violence Against Children, traveling and performing for audiences from Indonesia to Ethiopia, the Middle East and Japan. ^{[ Citation needed ]}

A recipient of the 2007 Brendan Gill Prize, Jones has ook RECEIVED grants and commissions from the Ford Foundation , New York State Council on the Arts , and others. She has ook obtained a Helen Hayes Award , two Drama Desk Award nominations, and HBO’s US Comedy Arts Festival’s Best One Person Show Award, as well as a New York Civil Liberties Union Calloway Award in recognition or Jones as the first artist in history to sue the Federal Communications Commission for censorship. The Lawsuit resulted in reversal or a censorship ruling, welke had targeted re hip-hop poem recording “Your Revolution” in welke she makes a powerful statement Against sexual exploitation of women in hip hop music . ^{[ Citation needed ]}

A regular guest on public radio, Jones has ook made numerous television appearances on programs waaronder Charlie Rose , The Today Show , CBS Sunday Morning , Live with Regis and Kelly , and Sesame Street as Mr. Noodle’s Other Sister, Ms. Noodle on Elmo’s World. ^{[ Citation needed ]}

References