Black Music as Activism - 2/3/2025

Carol Maillard was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although she originally attended Catholic University of America on scholarship as a Violin Performance major, she soon began writing music and performing with the Drama Department and eventually changed her major to Theater.

This passion for the stage brought her to the D.C. Black Repertory Company and the beginnings of the vocal ensemble that was to become Sweet Honey In The Rock. Carol is an accomplished actress and has performed in film, television, and on stage. Her theater credits encompass a wide range of styles from musical comedy and revues to drama and experimental. She has performed on and off Broadway (Eubie, Don’t Get God Started, Comin’ Uptown, Home, It’s So Nice To Be Civilized, Beehive, Forever My Darling); with the Negro Ensemble Company (Home, Zooman and the Sign, Colored Peoples Time, The Great Mac Daddy); and the New York Shakespeare Festival (Spunk, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Under Fire, A Photograph...); in Ntozake Shange’s BETSEY BROWN at the AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE FESTIVAL and also at the Actors Studio (Hunter). She can be seen in the feature films Beloved and Thirty Years to Life. On television, Carol has appeared in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide and Halleluiah! ( PBS) ; Law and Order: SVU and Law and Order.

Carol is a founding member of SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK. Her powerful rendition of Motherless Child arranged for Sweet Honey, is featured in the motion picture, THE VISIT and the Dorothy Height documentary, WE ARE NOT VANISHING. Carol was Conceptual Producer for the documentary film on PBS’ American Masters 2005 – SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK: RAISE YOUR VOICE! Produced and directed by Stanley Nelson (Firelightmedia Films) the film chronicled Sweet Honey’s 30th Anniversary year (2003). She also produced the accompanying soundtrack recording for the film, SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK: RAISE YOUR VOICE! (Earthbeat Records 2005) . In 2008 she produced the soundtrack recording of GO IN GRACE for the groups music and dance collaboration with the ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATRE (She Rocks 5 Music) The group continues to travel across the globe adding to her list of countries: Turkey, Oman, Peru, Paraguay. Jamaica, and Ethiopia. Onward and Upward Sweet Honey. Also in February 2009 the group was the first ensemble to perform at the Obama Whitehouse, invited by First Lady Michelle Obama. A special offering for middle school children.

In 2014 she produced the groups 40th Anniversary stage production FORTY AND FIERCE. She serves as Creative Supervisor for the group.

As a vocalist, she has had the privilege of recording with Horace Silver, Betty Buckley, and on the SYDA Foundations inspirational recording Sounds of Light. She is a featured soloist on Horace Silvers MUSIC OF THE SPHERES on Blue Note Records. And has performed and recorded with Betty Buckley on her Carnegie Hall performance benefitting BROADWAY CARES EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS in 2006. In 1998 she penned the HERSTORY for Sweet Honeys first songbook, CONTIUUM.

Then, in 2003, her poem H2O Flow was featured as the opening selection of Marjorie Reyersons photo/poetry book WATER MUSIC. Maillard appeared in and also composed music for Trey Anthony’s DA KINK IN MY HAIR which was featured at the National Black Theatre Festival in 2011 and composed TIME TO GET READY with Louise Robinson for Regina Taylors production of CROWNS at the GOODMAN THEATRE in 2012. The show was also produced at the Mc Carter Theater in Princeton and the Long Wharf Theatre in Connecticut.

Although her talents as actress, singer-songwriter, producer and poet find expression and her creative passions are many, her first love is the theatre. Carol has taken advantage of using her acting skills in NY by participating in staged readings of HOME and ZOOMAN AND THE SIGN. She was also a part of a special choir assembled for Anna Deveare Smiths HBO special presentation of her play NOTES FROM THE FIELD in 2018 Maillard is also offering her skills as a vocal coach and arranger.

On JULY 10,2018 the Broadway hit musical revue, EUBIE! was performed a concert version of the show at Feinsteins 54BELOW. Carol was a part of that celebration.

Ms. Maillard lives in Manhattan and is the mother of Jordan Maillard Ware, a Morehouse graduate, violinist/composer and producer. And GRAMMY AWARD WINNER!!!

Founding member of the Black Storytellers of San Diego, an affiliate of the National Black Storytellers Association. P. Shekinah Perkins, most recently rejoined Community Actor’s Theatre, SD, is Founder and advisor for the UDC-Artist Collective HBCU, UDC, DMV, Founder and Board Chair of reemerged Poet’s on the Greenline of the DMV. Communication Arts Specialist, Master Storyteller, Oral Interpreter, Poet, 3 Thespian and Motivational Humorist, P.S.’s works include characterizations, dramatizations, monologues, and interpretations of Black historical sheroes and unsung sheroes (original creations). Repertoire includes: Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman, Elizabeth Umpstead (character of Carl Sandberg), Jane Pittman, Rosa Parks, Ida B. Wells, Pearl Primus, Phyllis Wheatley, Harriet Tubman, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ruth Baker, Martha Flowers, Leontyne Price, Nikki Giovanni, Betty Perkins Jones, Anita Baker, Jill Scott, and others. She is a re-teller of the stories and characters of writers including Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Eve Ensler, Ntozake Shange, J. California Cooper, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, August Wilson, Loraine Hansberry, Maya Angelou, and other Black Literary pioneers. Perkins, writes, speaks, facilitates/trains and performs as an Organizational and Leadership Communication and Behavioral Communication Specialist, with the Human Communication Institute, as well as Narrative Medicine & Play Therapy Specialist for ALL AGES and institutional mission and goals.

MOTTO: BE TRUE TO YOUR WORD BECAUSE IT WILL BE TRUE TO YOU! ps