Selma Burke

سلمى بيرك،

Selma Burke

Winner of the Theatre BC Canadian Playwriting Competition, two Betty Mitchell Awards, and two Calgary Theatre Critics’ Awards

Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor’s Life is a flight of fancy based on the incredible life of Dr. Selma Hortense Burke, who lived from 1900 to 1995, approximately 49,932,000 minutes. Here, imagined, are ninety of them, in a play that asks, “Who gets to make art, and who gets to destroy it?”

African American sculptor Selma Burke chronicled many of the extraordinary and devastating events of the past century in her outstanding work: lynchings, the Harlem Renaissance, the Holocaust, the assassination of Martin Luther King. Understanding that it is always easier to rip things down than build them up, Burke persisted in artmaking in the face of a society that didn’t always recognize her talents, a husband who demolished her work, and a government who stole it.

Cast of 1 Black woman, 1 white woman, 1 Black man, and 1 white man

Publisher Talon books
Author Caroline Russell-King, Maria Crooks
Country Canada
Publication Date 31/03/2026
Pages 108
Edition first
Size 15×22
About the Author Caroline Russell-King has worked in theatre for over forty years. An award-winning playwright, with thirty-three plays to her credit, she currently represents Western Canada as ambassador for the Dramatist Guild of America. She is also a professional dramaturg and the CEO and founder of Dramaturgy on Demand. As a critic she reviews sixty to seventy plays a year. Caroline is currently working on a thriller and her first opera. www.carolinerussellking.com Maria Crooks was born in Cuba but immigrated to Jamaica after the Cuban revolution. Upon retiring from careers in the public service and in the petroleum industry, she began to write plays.
Publisher Address info@talonbooks.com
ISBN 9781772017151