Gwen Reed

Gwen Reed (1912-1974) was an actress and educational advocate from Hartford, Connecticut. She was an African-American person.

Biography

Early life Gwendolyn B. Clarke was born in Harlem, New York, in 1912, to Georgianna and George Nathanial Clarke. Clarke's parents separated while she was still a child, and she moved with her mother to Hartford, Connecticut. Clarke worked with her mother in Connecticut tobacco fields.

Clarke graduated from Hartford Public High School and then briefly studied law at Hartford Federal College. In 1935, she married John T. Reed.

Career In 1936, Reed began work as a secretary for the Charles Gilpin Players. The Players performed as part of the "Negro Unit" of the Connecticut Federal Theatre Project.

Legacy After Reed's death in 1974, Hartford mayor George Athanson dedicated the story room the Gwen Reed Room at the Hartford Public Library in her honor.

The theater group HartBeat Ensemble was given $15,000 in 2021 by the New England Foundation of the Arts to create a new play about Reed.