CLEAGE, PEARL.
Pearl Cleage papers, 1966-2011

Restrictions on Access

Personal journals are closed to researchers until December 7, 2037.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Source

Purchase, 2012.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Pearl Cleage papers, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Unprocessed collection.

Biographical Note

Pearl Cleage was born on December 7, 1948, in Springfield, Massachusetts, the daughter of Doris Graham and Albert B. Cleage, Jr. She grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where her mother was a teacher and her father was a church pastor. Albert Cleage was a leader in liberation theology, including the founding and leadership of The Shrines of the Black Madonna of the Pan-African Orthodox Christian Church, and the creation of the Freedom Now political party.

After graduating from Northwestern High School in 1966, Cleage enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she majored in playwriting and dramatic literature under the tutelage of Owen Dodson, Paul Carter Harrison, and Ted Shine. She also took an active role in many demonstrations and protests marking this turbulent time. In 1969, she moved to Atlanta and enrolled at Spelman College, graduating in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in drama. She later joined the Spelman faculty as a writer and playwright in residence and as a creative director.

From 1972-1973, she produced Ebony Beat and Ebony Beat Journal, a weekly contemporary affairs program on WQXI-TV (Atlanta), that focused on issues of interest to the African American community. In 1973, she joined Maynard Jackson's mayoral campaign as principal speechwriter, and once he was elected, stayed on as his press secretary until 1976. Since then, her contribution to the Atlanta community has been steady and intense, finding expression through her columns in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Gazette, and Atlanta Tribune; in the pages of Catalyst, a literary journal she cofounded and edited; and in her work as a faculty member at Spelman.

Her first novel, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (1997) was a New York Times bestseller and a 1998 Oprah's [Winfrey] Book Club selection. In addition to her numerous works of fiction, Cleage has also published several volumes of poetry, and has written and produced numerous plays.

She was married to Michael Lomax, an Atlanta politician and educator, from 1969 to 1979 and they are the parents of one daughter, Deignan Njeri. Cleage married Zaron W. Burnett Jr., writer and theatre director in 1994 and they have collaborated on many creative projects over the years.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of the papers of African American author and playwright Pearl Cleage from circa 1966-2011. The papers include personal journals, writings, correspondence, printed material, photographs, and audiovisual material. The writings include manuscript and typescript drafts of her works of fiction, plays, poetry, and newspaper and magazine articles.

The correspondence is comprised of letters to colleagues, friends, editors, producers, and reviewers; as well as her family. Of particular interest are letters written to family, beginning with her enrollment at Howard University in 1967 and continuing through the 1980s. These letters provide partial documentation of her earliest creative efforts, and especially her growing radicalism during her undergraduate years. The audiovisual material consists of recordings of productions of Cleage's plays, readings, and performances; as well as recordings of Albert B. Cleage, Jr. sermons.

The photographs include images of Pearl Cleage, her family, and other African American women writers; as well as photographs used in the publication of Catalyst. The collection also contains printed material, including newspaper clippings and published articles by and about her; as well as reviews of her works.

Arrangement Note

Unprocessed collection.