Meet Sharon D. Johnson

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sharon D. Johnson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sharon D., what habits do you feel play an important role in your life?
The habit that helps me succeed the most is knowing when not to listen to other people. I learned never to underestimate how other people’s fears, regrets, or even envy can bleed into the advice they give, particularly when that advice is unsolicited.

This habit emerges from what I consider the most important habit: taking the time to get to know yourself. Self-knowledge is the key to living a life of meaning and to making decisions that are true to yourself. Much like the habit of knowing when not to listen to other people, knowing yourself requires tuning out distractions like over-socializing or replaying other people’s chatter in your mind. It requires self-inquiry and self-confrontation, These things don’t sound sexy in a world where self-help books often create glamorous images of assuming the lotus position as fragrant incense burns on the mantle. The ancient Kemetic adage to “know thyself” is usually not cute. It can be frightening (when things that need to change start falling away unexpectedly), exhausting (“am I crying again?!”), and disorienting (“who will I be if I’m not the person I was?”). But the result means living with more authenticity, courage, and knowledge that the end rewards the means.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My work as a writer informs all of my other professional and career accomplishments.

I had always loved writing as a child, but it wasn’t until I was a teenager that my 9th grade English teacher, Mr. Morris, let me know I could choose writing as a career. He encouraged me, supported all my endeavors, and I’m sure he’s the reason I received the NYS Association of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Writing when I graduated.

In high school, after seen the Jacksons’ CAN YOU FEEL IT music video, I new I wanted to write for film and television. To that end, I chose to major in the Program in the Arts, with a concentration in Writing, in college. As PIA majors we worked collaboratively on projects and productions throughout the semester, which gave me my first taste of producing. After graduation, I pursued a Masters degree in Media Studies in the video production track. My solo video projects (a music video for a friend’s song) received an honorable mention in the SONY Visons of US video competition in 1989. As more and more studio creative departments moved back to the west coast from NYC, I knew I had to make that move myself.

So in 1989, I moved to Los Angeles where I worked on writing samples while also working (for money) as a temp at various studios, then as a production assistant and writers assistant on the TV series, MARTIN. By the end of the first season, I had attracted interest of an agent. While working as a production assistant on the SINBAD SHOW pilot, the agent sent my writing samples to the producers. About four weeks later, I received the call that I had been hired on SINBAD as a staff writer.

It was not an easy road. The Sinbad Show did not return for a second season and I did not work for a year after that. I finally got another staff writing job on BUDDIES (a short-lived ABC sitcom starring Dave Chapelle). Luckily, my episode was one of the few that was aired, but, again, I didn’t work for a year after the series was cancelled. Finally, I was hired as a Story Editor on a UPN series, GOODE BEHAVIOR, starring Sherman Hemsley. Another series that did not get renewed for a second season.

What I learned (that I wish a more senior Black writer had told me) was that Black writers in TV were hired for shows about Black people, but rarely for shows that didn’t center a Black cast. I was able to challenge this hiring practice, and other forms of racism and inequity, as Chair of the Writers Guild of America’s Committee of Black Writers from 1999 to 2003, the committee’s most productive and high-profile period at the time.

Rather than waiting for my Blackness to be en vogue again to the studios and networks, I began teaching screenwriting in UCLA Extension’s Writers Program. I also began doing more editorial writing, and increasing my study and practice of dream work (this began in the early 1990s, when I noticed that by dreams had become more vivid and memorable as I was working on a major rewrite of one of my screenplays). I recognized a direct relationship between creativity/creative work and the psyche. Twenty years after receiving my BA, I enrolled in a doctoral program in depth psychology to study the psyche and dreams in a more formal, structured setting. I earned my PhD in depth psychology in 2012.

Now, I interface college/university teaching with screenwriting and script consulting, scholarly writing, and ongoing dream work research.

What sets me apart from others is my facility in several writing genres, and the ability to translate this in a relevant progression into several career fields.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Wine, tea, food, and shopping are my go-to fun times!

We’re definitely heading to Leimert Park for some coffee, tea, and bites at ORA (formerly Hot & Cool Cafe’). I would try not to cry about Eso Won’s absence. No bookstore comes close, in my opinion.

We’d also have to shop at The Grove and find a great exhibition of Black art at Art & Practice, the California African American Museum, or Band of Vices gallery.

Wine would be in order at Alta Wine Shop or Happy Hour at Post & Beam.

A comfy evening in talking and watching movies with take-home Cuban food from Versailles is also always a good option.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to shout all my school besties (from elementary to graduate school) for being both constant rocks _and_ soft places. We are separated by miles, but are always close to each other at a soul level.

Dr. Edward Bruce Bynum has been a long-time inspiration and mentor. He was a supporter of my 2016 dream research and, before that, his book, THE AFRICAN UNCONSCIOUS, provided much needed and invaluable Africana focus with regard to psychology and dream work.

The Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations has been a space that has allowed me to exercise and learn from scholarship of like-minded, diversely focused master teachers.

Lastly, I must shout out my most valued teachers who poured into me so that I could become the writer, artist, and scholar that I am:
My parents, Alice and William (Maa Kheru); James C. Morris (Maa Kheru); Mabel Thomas (Maa Kheru); and Margaret Quander (Maa Kheru). May they be pleased!

Website: https://theemeraldrock.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @SDJohnson515

Facebook: @TheEmeraldRock

Youtube: @TheEmeraldRock

Other: Interview with Sharon D. Johnson: “Telling Georgiana Lambe’s Story in Sanditon Season 2” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/telling-georgiana-lambes-story-in-sanditon-season-2/

Image Credits
Sharon D. Johnson