Conjurewoman: Sharon Bridgforth

Conjuerwoman. Photo of Sharon by Daniel Alexander Jones, 2004.

Your new book, love/conjure blues, was published this past October. Would you give our readers a synopsis of the book?

In essence love conjure/blues is about love/juke joint spirit circle praying sinning carnal ancestral love. It is a jazz piece with a blues beat that considers a range of possibilities of gender expression. Love conjure/blues is a performance novel- a polyrhytmic ritual within which the living the dead the past the future co-exist.


Sharon and Lisa in Harlem. Photos by Negronius. 2004.

Talk about your writing process.

It is looong. Basically I get a feeling/a haunting first. Usually I can't put words on it for a while. I find a song that fits the
Feeling and play it over and over until some clarity comes. Once I have a sense of what the piece might be about I read read read/usually autobiographies and reader friendly history books that touch on the subject. Then I have as many conversations as possible on the subject/look at photos if I can/and just pray till the words come. Usually it takes about a year or more for the first real gush of words. Once I have a good first draft it can take up to two years more of really working the piece. After I have the final draft (if it's a novel) Lisa Moore (publisher, Redbone Press) works with me some more to help me flush the kinks out/cause I always gots kinks, baby. Then it's complete. And then/I start the whole process over with a new work.

Sharon and Sonja chilling in Harlem. Photo by Bisque, 2004.

In 2003, you produced amniotic/flow, a spoken word/music CD with your daughter, Sonja Perryman. What was the inspiration behind the project?

I was an artist in residence at ALLGO at the time. The (then) artistic director (Ixchel Rosal) asked me which work I wanted the organization to support me in developing. I picked amniotic/flow. Daniel Alexander Jones had workshopped amniotic/flow with Sonja and I the year before (which helped us complete the writing and experience it as a staged reading). Sonja felt that it was important that there be a positive document of a relationship between a straight (black) daughter with a lesbian mother and I was interested in exploring what it was like to have my baby gurl all grown up. We adapted the material that we wrote during our work with Daniel and performed a mix of spoken word, songs and monologues. In making the CD we had the opportunity to work with some brilliant collaborator/musicians: Lourdes Perez, Amy L. Van Patten and Camille Rocha.

Can we have a list of your writings?

Books/both published by Redbone Press:
the bull-jean stories (which is also available on CD)
love conjure/blues

Performance pieces:
lovve/rituals & rage
no mo blues
dyke warrior/prayers
blood pudding
geechee crossing
con flama

I also have pieces in anthologies.
More details are on my website.

Give us a brief history of ALLGO (Austin Latina/o Lesbian Gay Bi-sexual Transgender Organization).

ALLGO is a queer people of color organization founded by Latina/o's in 1985. ALLGO's programs include: case management for people living with HIV and AIDS; community organizing and civic participation; outreach and education; and a cultural arts season. ALLGO works towards its vision through cultural arts, health and advocacy programming by: supporting artists and artistic expression within our diverse communities; promoting health within a wellness model; mobilizing and building coalitions among groups marginalized by race/ethnicity, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation/sexual identity to enact change. I have worked with ALLGO in many capacities over the years, and currently I serve as the artistic director.

How did you get involved with the radio show, finding voice?

I have mentored lots of writers over the years. As a touring artist I’ve met an incredible number of extremely talented arts. As a result I just wanted the opportunity to document and make accessible some of these voices. Austin is a city wealthy in human resources. There are lots of artists, lots of techie geniuses and lots of activists. A group of us committed to making the radio show happen and the funding exchange: the Paul Robeson Fund for independent media proved the perfect source of support for us. You can hear some of the shows and read more about the community of folk that made it happen at the website.

How did you become involved with this project? Who are some of the others artists?

The Austin Project is the result of the vision of Dr. Joni Jones who is the Associate Director of the Center for African and African American Studies at U.T. Austin. It was her idea to bring folk who identify as artists, scholars and activists together for an intense process/to have them in the room together so to speak and see how they might affect and inform each other's work and vision. Dr. Jones and I have worked together for twelve years; she dramaturged some of my performance pieces and she helped me in the early development of my theatre company (the root wy'mn theatre company) back in the day. However I think it was because of the mentoring that I have done that she asked me to be the anchor artist for this process. I have developed a method of facilitating creative writing (which I call finding voice); I use that facilitation method during the Austin Project. We are going on our third year now. The group expands a bit each year. We meet for ten weeks. Four hours plus a week. It is a life changing experience each year. Guest artists have been: Laurie Carlos, Robbie McCauley, Daniel Alexander Jones, Carl Hancock Rux and upcoming, Helga Davis.

Name twelve things you love about your lover.

Her booty
Her body
Her locks
Her attitude
Her eyes
Her laugh
Her power
Her creativity
Her sweetness
That she don't take no mess from me
The benefits that I receive because she is a Scorpio child of Osun
That fact that she truly understands my work and artistic process
(Dr. Jones--also known as Iya Omi Osun Olomo--and I are partners. Finally after way too long we got together. She wrote the intro to love conjure/blues. Yum! yum!)

Describe yourself as a conjurer.

Living breathing praying crying opening feeling writing dancing loving being
Living breathing praying crying opening feeling writing dancing loving being
Living breathing praying crying opening feeling writing dancing loving being
Living breathing praying crying opening feeling writing dancing loving being

Next: Donald Goines's biographer Eddie B. Allen Jr.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005 @ 12:07 PM