ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In addition to being a journalist, Olivier Stephenson is also an accomplished playwright, screenwriter, award-winning poet and former co-founding member of the Caribbean American Repertory Theatre (CART) in New York City.
His book, Visions and Voices: Conversations with Fourteen Caribbean Playwrights, edited by Prof. Kwame Dawes, was published by Peepal Tree Press in the UK in 2014.
He has worked as a freelance journalist in New York City and has written for such publications as The Village Voice, New York Newsday, The New York Amsterdam News and many magazines among other publications.
During the mid-to late-‘90s, he worked as an assignment reporter in Jamaica both in print and broadcast media that included KLAS-FM radio, the Jamaica Observer and the Jamaica Gleaner – one of the oldest newspapers in the Caribbean – as well as a columnist at that newspaper’s evening tabloid edition, The Star. Upon returning to the United States he eventually went to work at the Miami Herald, for six years.
He has lectured at colleges and universities in the United States, among them Cornell University, Duquesne University, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, the City College of New York, College of Staten Island, highlighting his experiences as a journalist and author in Caribbean Theater.
In the book publishing industry, he worked as an editorial assistant at the R.R. Bowker publishing house, both in New York City and New Jersey.
As a playwright, some of his plays which have been produced include Journey Through Babylon, Lincoln Center, New York, 1977; Caribbean American Repertory Theatre, Brooklyn, New York 1978; and the Richard Allen Center for the Performing Arts, 1978; Revolution, Caribbean American Repertory Theatre Festival, 1985; later produced as part of an Evening with the Caribbean American Repertory Theatre, 1988; in New Jersey, 1992; at the Producers Club, New York, 2000 and in a revival by the Caribbean American Repertory Theatre, New York, May 2006. And In the Palace Where He Sits, also by the Caribbean American Repertory Theatre.
In the 1977-78 theatre season he was nominated for an AUDELCO (Audience Development Committee) award for African-American theater, in the category of Best Performance in a Musical for his play, Journey Through Babylon; and was a recipient of the 1982-83 CAPS (Creative Artist Public Service) fellowship for poetry.
Additionally, he has, over the years, conducted numerous creative writing workshops throughout the New York City public school system (elementary and high) via the former New York State Poets-In-The-Schools program; worked as a commissioned auditor/consultant for the New York State Council on the Arts; and developed a series of theatrical writing workshops for a number of community theater companies throughout the New York metropolitan area.
Mr. Stephenson, from time-to-time, has done voice-overs for film (H2 Worker, documentary, 1990) as well as radio, and television ads.