AUTHOR BIO

Shelia Payton is an author, playwright and lyricist. Her previous works include Cultures of America: African Americans (part of a middle-school book series); a play, Facing the Shadow, about free woman of color in pre-Civil War Baltimore who must decide whether to help a runaway slave escape; the libretto (lyrics) for an opera, Black Caesar, about an African king captured by slave traders who became a feared pirate (music by Broadway’s first Black music director, Neal Tate), and lyrics for Christian and soul/country songs. Some of her future projects include plays, a young adult book series, songs and musical theater works.