Lorene Cary

Cary is an arts activist and the founder of Art Sanctuary, an organization dedicated to bringing Philadelphians together through the unique community-building power of black art. She is a senior lecturer of Creative Writing in the English Department at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of three novels, most recently If Sons, Then Heirs (2011), her acclaimed memoir Black Ice (1991), and numerous articles and essays.

From 2011-2013, Cary served as a member of Philadelphia's School Reform Commission, convening a community-wide summer Safety Summit for administrators and overseeing revision of the Code of Student Conduct to help decrease suspensions. The recipient of six honorary doctorates, in 2003 she received the Philadelphia Award, the city's highest honor. She is currently working on a memoir about her grandmother's end-of-life-care and a play about Harriet Tubman. She is also the author of scripts for videos at The President's House exhibit on Independence Mall that commemorate the lives of nine enslaved Africans who lived there in the Washington household, along with the free people who befriended them.