It is a quiet work of art, not an educational project." Sharon Bell Mathis writes honestly and respectfully about black people coming to terms with themselves and with those whom they love.
Mathis was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, and attended the New York parochial schools. As a child she was an avid reader and recalls particularly the impressions of Richard Wright's Black Boy, Willard Motley's Knock on Any Door, and Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. One of four children born to Alice Mary Frazier Bell and John Willie Bell, Sharon Mathis saw her first real play when her father took her to see Tennessee Williams's The Rose Tattoo. Her mother protested that the girl was much too young for that kind of drama and promptly took her to a performance of Hamlet. Exposure to such a range of literary works influenced the poems and stories and play that she wrote while a student at St.
This is a free page. This page contains 157 words. This
biography contains 2,283 words (approx. 8 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Sharon Bell Mathis Access Pass.
