Arkansas Black Hall of Fame to host annual Distinguished Laureate Series, featuring actress Phyllis Stickney

By The Arkansas Black Vitality Staff – The Arkansas Black Hall of Fame (ABHOF) will host its twelfth Distinguished Laureate Series on Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, which will feature ’98 inductee and award-winning actress Phyllis Yvonne Stickney.

Stickney will perform spoken word, read excerpts from her novel, “Someone to Love,” and preview the documentary Becoming Phyllis Yvonne Stickney: The Road to Hollywood about her life and career. A reception will also follow an audience Q&A. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is requested and is available at Eventbrite.com.

Stickney, who was born in Little Rock, is best known for her television and film roles in the late 1980s and 1990s such as Tina Turner’s sister, Allene, in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It and others, including Die Hard with a Vengeance, How Stella Got Her Groove Back and the ABC-TV miniseries The Women of Brewster Place, which co-starred Robin Givens, Lynn Whitfield, Cicely Tyson, and Oprah Winfrey.

She won two Audience Development Committee Recognition Award, which rewards excellence in black theater and performing arts, for her performance in Robert Furman’s adaptation of Molière’s Tartuffe, called Monsieur Baptiste, the Con Man, and for Outstanding One-Person Performance for Big Momma ‘n’ ’Em, which was written and performed by Stickney.

After studying at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Stickney began her acting career in Harlem, honing her acting and comedic skills at the University of the Streets Theater and New Heritage Repertory Theatre, the oldest nonprofit black theater company in New York City.

Her TV credits include Law & Order, New York Undercover, and Linc’s. Other film credits include New Jack City, Jungle Fever, and Malcolm X. Stickney was noted in the twenty-fifth-anniversary issue of Essence magazine as one of 200 African American women who have changed the world. In addition to acting, Stickney is a comedian, poet, playwright, producer, and motivational speaker. She has authored two books; Loud Thoughts for Quiet Moments, a poetry compilation she has been writing since the age of ten; and Someone to Love, a novel.

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