Artwork by Nell Painter
The artists we feature on State of the Arts are all impressive, and offer an abundance of inspiration. Many have won awards as well—from Grammys and Tonys to a myriad of other honors. Today, we’re celebrating the achievements of four award-winning women: jazz vocalist Samara Joy, writer and artist Nell Irvin Painter, multi-media artist Deborah Jack, and playwright Alice Childress.
“She has something in her, and I will just call it soul—something that you feel.”
– Jazz advocate Dorthaan Kirk on Samara Joy
We always love it when the award-winners appear on State of the Arts first! In 2023, we produced a feature on jazz singer Samara Joy—she was 22 years old at the time. Since then, she’s had an epic run at the Grammys, taking home five, including Best New Artist!
Here in Jersey, Samara won the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition at NJPAC, the award that launched her career. It scored her a manager, and shortly afterwards she had her first record deal.
“I just kept talking. I just kept writing… And finally, I’m getting through.”
– Nell Irvin Painter
Nell Irvin Painter has had quite the career–or two. She was a revered history professor at Princeton University, then, after retiring, she went to art school. In 2006, State of the Arts visited Nell at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers where she was a full time student. Nell later chronicled her experience in the best-selling Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over. Last year, we featured her newest book, I Just Keep Talking, a collection of essays and art.
Nell Irvin Painter has been awarded a 2025 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She can add this to her list of honors, including her 1986 Candace Award in History from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women.
“Art is a really powerful tool. I’m drawn to… pulling out feelings: that’s the human part, that’s where we connect to things.”
– Deborah Jack
Deborah Jack is a St. Maarten and Jersey City-based artist working with film, photography, poetry, and sound. State of the Arts featured Deborah’s stunning new, immersive video installation a sea desalts… earlier this year at the city-wide Prospect.6 triennial in New Orleans. The installation included footage of coastlines in St. Maarten, Louisiana, and Maine. While there, we caught a special performance by Deborah at the closing ceremony.
Among other awards, Deborah Jack was granted a 2023 Soros Arts Fellowship, which she dedicated to exploring memory, culture, and climate justice. She also received a 2024 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts!
“When a playwright is able to clearly articulate a truth about humanity, that will never get old.”
– Director Brandon J. Dirden on writer Alice Childress
Lastly, playwright Alice Childress (1912-1994). In 1957, she would have been the first Black woman to have a play on Broadway, but she refused to make the ending “happier.” She was ahead of her time, and now her work is having a well-deserved renaissance on Broadway and in regional theaters across America, including both Two River Theater and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. You can read more about her fascinating career in our article “Women’s History Onstage.”
In 2022, over 70 years after she wrote her first play, Alice Childress was awarded a posthumous Drama Desk Award: the Harold Prince Lifetime Achievement Award.
We congratulate all the award-winners featured on State of the Arts, past, present, and future! Their work is the true reward, and we are all richer for it.
