Kevin: Thank you so much for taking the time to share. Time is a resource and I understand the value. You wear so many hats that choosing where to start is hard. You are currently the Fine Arts Coordinator/Director for McComb School District. What is your first memory of attraction to the arts?
Clinnesha: I wrote a play called "The Littering Bunny Rabbits." I was very young, 7 years old, but I had a sense of scriptwriting and storytelling, which I'm sure was introduced to me by a teacher. My sister, cousin, and I performed the play in my living room for the family, and I was in love with arts and creativity from then on. Theater drew me in. I loved playwriting.
Kevin: One of my mentors, Fern Crossley, would always say that we lose a measure of our creativity early in our formal educational journey. She always highlighted the societal programming of “coloring inside the lines." She would always credit her mother for encouraging her to participate in a stage play at age 3 for her love for creativity. How have you maintained that independent creativity to operate outside the box, and who encouraged you to create your own lane?
Clinnesha: I think I had an innate ability to not conform to things everyone else did. Even as a kid, I had minimal friends. I didn't obsess over trends. My mother encouraged us to be different, and I was. I was very much "out of the lines" as a child, and I had parents who allowed me to be my creative, non-conforming self. I remember admiring Tyler Perry for being so creatively independent. As a teenager, learning about him and seeing his work, I saw him as a role model. And then, I went off to school to formally study my craft. I think anytime an artist goes off to study something they're passionate about, they run the risk of someone-- some teacher/mentor/academic trying to undo something that comes naturally (i.e., make them color in the lines). It can get you off track, but if you're lucky, you'll reclaim what the programming tried to undo. Formal training can be a blessing and a curse-- especially when the guidelines are Eurocentric. If you're not careful, you'll be so focused on trying to gain notoriety that, yes, you will fall victim to societal or artistic programming. If you're lucky, you'll become an independent again-- an "indie-artist" of some kind-- who, in my case, just followed her ancestral instincts. I'll also add that being in the South, I feel, puts you in your own lane. Southern artists have these unique voices and viewpoints, unlike mainstream folks in our creative industries. I admire writers such as Ntozake Shange, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, and August Wilson, who weren't concerned with what literary critics had to say; they honored Black people through authentic words and expressions. They knew who they were accountable to, and because of how they moved, I know how to stay in a specific lane and take care of myself creatively speaking.
Kevin: Speaking of specific lanes, social consciousness is a recurring theme of your work. Why is this such a high priority for you?
Clinnesha: I have always been a deep thinker. Very aware of what's happening around me in my immediate surroundings. Sometimes I can fall behind on important issues in our world thanks to parenting, work, projects, etc. But because I am Black and female, and in the South, and in Mississippi, and a member of a family, I feel like I have to be on guard.
Kevin: Using your plays, poetry, or performances, give us some insight into your perspective on the connection between social activism and artistic practices.
Clinnesha: Oh, you'll have to dive into some of my articles and essays. I'm just very passionate about those connections because of my soul ties to the Civil Rights movement and other Black art movements I feel spiritually connected to. I'm sure that I inherited those interests from my family members who were active in McComb, Mississippi's Civil Rights Movement and from attending an HBCU (Tougaloo College) where social justice is baked into your consciousness. My antenna for injustice and inequity is always up. I've never been in a physical altercation in all of my years of living, but I fight on paper, on my laptop, on stage, and sometimes, in a very nuanced way, behind a microphone to a crowd of people.
Kevin: Youth engagement is displayed throughout your professional and personal portfolio. Art has had a great influence on your life. What do you hope that youth will glean from these artistic experiences?
Clinnesha: To find freedom in their artistic voice, ultimately, become a socially responsible artist. Move with love. Have empathy, and to never forget the communities and people they are accountable to.
Kevin: I agree that understanding the people we are accountable to is vital! I began this profile by discussing the many roles we often find ourselves in. How important is balance, and what strategies do you employ to navigate this aspect of life?
Clinnesha: My relationship with balance is in an awkward place, honestly. Lately, overworking and multitasking have been helping me deal with some aspects of loss and grief. Workaholism is not something I recommend, but it keeps me from breaking when I think about my mother no longer being here. Navigating life and relationships is tough because there's always a change. The greatest strategy I can offer anyone trying to find balance in their life-roles is to be mindful, prayerful, and intentional. Go on a walk to clear your mind from the overstimulation. You can't find balance in chaos, so get still. While everything else is changing and pulling at you, God is constant. Never changing.
Kevin: I definitely appreciate your time and thoughts that have been shared with the 360 audiences. Is there any additional info that we can share for our followers to check out about you and your work?
Clinnesha: I'm putting my playwriting hat back on, and it's a great feeling. My play, "Love Be Like...", is getting a world premiere production in winter 2025. The story is centered on the Charleston, South Carolina church shooting that happened in 2015. The play will be produced by The Union for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska. This will be the second play of mine they've produced. I took a hiatus from playwriting to focus on community and Arts in Education, and I am just now realizing how much I've missed new play development and the theater. Very excited about getting back to my first love and rewriting the script. Also, thank you for the opportunity to reflect through this interview. It has been cathartic.
My Own Lane
Read time: 6 minutes
“To thine own self be true.” I’ve read and heard this phrase numerous times in my life. The older I get, the more applications of these words become apparent. How freeing, it is to live these words of my true nature. The subject of this profile, Clinnesha Sibley, embraced this concept at an early age. She shares her journey, passions, and purpose while operating in her own lane.
Clinnesha Sibley is a playwright-scholar who advances the social consciousness of all people through her storytelling, teaching, directing, and arts endeavoring. Growing up a playwright, poet and performer/dancer, Clinnesha committed to training exclusively as a playwright while attending Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. It was at this historically black college that she also learned the connection between social activism and artistic practice. Her fidelity to the real diversity of America is evident in her research/creative work. Her specific and uplifting writing, communicates the experiences of African-Americans, southerners and women.