Awards
Knoxville Arts & Culture Alliance,
Ann and Steve Bailey Opportunity Grant
2021
For Project Support
Creative Capital
Artist Fellow
2019
For Musical Theater
Women of the Year 2017-2019
Iota Phi Lambda Sorority,
Alpha Xi Chapter
2017-2019
For Leadership
East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame
2018
For Playwriting
Doris Duke Foundation Theater Fellows Award
2015
For Theater
Creative Exploration Fund Fellowship
2009
For Theater
Carson-Newman College Education Service to Appalachia Award
2008-2009
For Education
Otto René Castillo Award for Political Theatre
2005
For Political Theater
Circle of Change Awards – Heart of Change Award
2005
For Art and Activism
Long Haul Award – Tennessee Alliance for Progress
For Art and Activism
Arts Council of Greater Knoxville, Artist of the Year
1999
For Art
Professional Organizations
National Black Theater Alliance
Member
(Current)
Women Playwrights International (WPI)
Senior Advisor
(Current)
NEFA
(New England Foundation for the Arts)
Advisor
(Current)
Black Curators in Dance and Performance (BCDP)
Member
(Current)
International African American Museum
Charter Member
Alternate ROOTS
Founding Member
WOCA
(Women of Color in the Arts)
Member
NET
(Network of Ensemble Theaters)
Board Member
(Former)
The Knoxville Arts and Cultural Alliance
Board Member
(Former)
NPN
(National Performance Network)
Southern Regional Representative
Board Member
(Former)
Open Channels: Caribbean Popular Theater at the Crossroad.
An online encounter as part of the Teatro Ma Cuba’s 40th Annual Teller de Teatro Popular
Advisor
(Former)
Press
Yankee Bajan by Linda Parris-Bailey—A Theatrical Review
by Carey Brianna Hart for Sugarcane Magazine
November 15, 2023
"...Yankee Bajan is a powerful and moving theatrical production that confronts timely social issues while exploring themes of family, identity, and the pursuit of a better life. Linda Parris-Bailey offers a thought-provoking and engaging narrative that captivates the audience from start to finish. With its evocative music, exceptional performances, and the fusion of contemporary struggles and ancestral heritage, Yankee Bajan is a must-see play that resonates deeply in our current socio-political landscape."
Yankee Bajan Explores What It Means to Return to Ancestral Roots
by Artburst Miami in Miami New Times
November 1, 2023
“...Parris-Bailey hopes that the play will spark discussions while ultimately causing audience members to look closely at their heritage and how that translates into where they want to be.
‘We have choices,’ she says. ‘We have mobility. We have the ability to decide to be where we are. And I think that sometimes that is lost on many of us. That we think we're kind of stuck where we are...'"
A last hurrah: The Ko Festival of Performance, a Valley summer theater staple since 1992, will end this summer
July 15, 2022
"...Still, the 2022 festival is opening with a production that dovetails nicely with Hamilton’s decision to move on.
'Flushing (Make Room for Someone Else)', which takes place July 22-24, is the story of two theater directors readying to step down from their ensembles and pass leadership to the next generation — sparking a reflection, as program notes put it, on what it means to retire and what it might mean to inherit.”
NEFA 2020 National Theater Project Advisors
April 15, 2020
"NTP is thrilled to welcome four new advisors: Pia Agrawal, Micah Ariel James, Edgar Miramontes, and Linda Parris-Bailey. We are so excited to work with these amazing individuals! Thank you in advance for all that you do for NTP and the field!"
Curating Freedom and Power for Women of Color in Leadership
An Interview with Diane Rodriguez &
Linda Parris-Bailey
September 26, 2019
"We pass the same point many times in our lives but hopefully we’re a little further expanded. That expansion is what makes progress and what gives me hope for the future. We’ll hit this same point in time but we’ll hit it with an expanded knowledge and more experience."
-Linda Parris-Bailey
Moral Injury Killed My Cousin
by VA Suicide Prevention Team Leader, Lynne Santiago
[on Speed Killed My Cousin] "We learn, through the powerful monologues and the dialogue between the characters, that true healing begins from a willingness and ability to tell the story about what happens in war. And we are shown, quite effectively, the generational impact of keeping these secrets.”
SWOPERA: Behind The Scenes of the Spoken Word Opera
Knoxville Weekend
SWOPERA tells a contemporary story of gentrification, one family’s efforts to save their business, Lowell’s Soulfood Cafe, in light of changing community dynamics, and finding unexpected leadership in the youngest member of the family, Lem. The text is delivered in spoken word, poetry and rhyme, accompanied by elements of hip-hop and soul.
The Voices Pour Down: Our Theater ROOTS During The 40th Reunion
by Ashley Sparks
September 19, 2016
For the last 8 months Nicole Garneau and I have searched the bowels of the internet and Kathie deNobriga’s home, ROOTS’ archive, old member directories, and festival program books from the 70’s, to track down all of the founding members and companies listed in the bylaws. Early Friday evening we invited these founding members to come forward: Little Marrowbone Repair Corp., The Road Company, Roadside Theater, Florida Studio Theater, The Play Group, Carpetbag Theater, New World Theater Company, Free Southern Theater, Otrabanda Company, Margaret Gregg, Kelly Hill, and Robin Foster. It was bittersweet seeing this group of elders gathered for the first time in 40 years, re-unioning and re-membering, bringing our history back into the present and adding kindling to the deepest embers of the ROOTS fire.
'River' author's 'refereeing' pays off
by Geoff Gehman of The Morning Call
May 25, 2008
Another River Flows "follows local blacks who settled nurturing neighborhoods, fought urban renewal and are uniting a divided community through tales of feisty faith. Parris-Bailey weaves a kind of Joseph's technicolor coat from archived and collected stories, some of which are spoken by the Spirit Kissed Women, a Greek chorus of soul sisters. She's more than a playwright; she's a referee for cheerleaders for the revolution."
