Shauneille Perry

Personal

Perry and her cousin Lorraine Hansberry were born less than a year apart and were very close. One summer when they were little girls, Lorraine's mother took them to Columbia, Tennessee, where she and Perry's father had grown up. Along the way, her aunt pointed out the Kentucky hills where her father (Shauneille's and Lorraine's grandfather) George Perry had hidden after he escaped from slavery.

Years later, Shauneille was there when Lorraine had cancer and supported her. Hansberry named her as substitute executor of her estate after her ex-husband, Robert Barron Nemiroff.

Lenny Kravitz, son of Roxie Roker, considered Perry as an aunt, writing in his memoir that "there was the brilliant Aunt Shauneille. Shauneille Perry and Mom had attended Howard together ... Aunt Shauneille had a love and understanding of the arts that launched her to become one of the voices of her generation. She became a prominent director, writer, and actor, and her home at 444 Central Park West became a cultural mecca, the unofficial headquarters of the Black Arts Movement. On any given day, I'd be sitting in the corner of Aunt Shauneille's living room while Nikki Giovanni read her poetry aloud or ensembles rehearsed plays. ... Aunt Shauneille's enormous living room housed a tall avocado tree, floor-to-ceiling bookcases, paintings, and gorgeous African masks that mesmerized me. ... Writer Toni Morrison was another close friend. She had gone to college with Mom and Aunt Shauneille, where they were part of the theater group the Howard Players."

Shauneille Perry died on June 9, 2022, in New Rochelle, New York, at the age of 92. Harry De Jur Playhouse / Abrons Arts Center 1995 The Tropical Breeze Hotel Ubu Repertory Theatre, New York City Written by Maryse Condé (Pension les Alizés (1988)); translation by Barbara Brewster Lewis and Catherine Temerson (1994) 1998 In Dahomey New Federal Theatre Also writer

In Bed with the Blues: The Adventure of Fishy Waters American Place Theatre Written by Vincent Smith

Keyboard New Federal Theatre Written by Alice Childress. Part of A Black Retrospective with four other plays. 1978 African Interlude E.S.T. Theater A program of two one-act plays by Philip Hayes Dean 1976 Showdown Theatre de Lys Musical written by J. E. Franklin and Micki Grant, based on Franklin's play, Prodigal Daughter 1972 Jamimma Henry Street Settlement 1978 Mio PBS One episode

Motion Pictures

Acting

Awards and recognition 1974: AUDELCO Award, Best Director

Perry is also the recipient of a Broadcast Media Award, a Fulbright scholarship, a New York State Council of the Arts Young Audiences Play Commission and a Black Rose of Excellence from Encore Magazine.