Singer-songwriter Danielle “INEZ” Walker and choreographer Staycee Pearl are already forceful figures in the region’s arts community.
Now, they can take their artistry to a new level. Each woman received the Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Award and a $20,000 grant during a virtual ceremony Monday. INEZ was honored as an emerging artist; Pearl received the established artist award.
At age 3, INEZ loved watching her father play the drums and learning the notes on a Casio keyboard, a gift from her grandparents. Her musical roots are generational — she is the grand-niece of John “J.C”. Moses, a Hill District drummer known as a modern jazz pacesetter who played with giants Stanley Turrentine, Bud Powell and Dexter Gordon.
The 30-year-old artist from Homewood dedicated her award to her aunt, Geraldine Coleman, who died Nov. 16, and with whom she shared a love of Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.
“I mirror her in so many ways. I love to laugh. I love a good groove,” she said in a telephone interview.
This award comes a year after INEZ was named 2020 Artist of the Year by radio station WYEP 91.3 FM. She has performed at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, the Downtown Con Alma, Club Cafe on the South Side and Hazelwood Green. In 2019, she released her debut album, “Voicemails and Conversations.”
The $20,000 grant, she said, will fund her second recording, which will be more introspective and include elements of hip-hop, soul and rhythm and blues.
“I want to bring it into the live recording space. My dream is to have more orchestral elements. I would like to work with a chamber group or a symphonic ensemble.”
She describes her vision for the new recording this way: “If you were to drop Tchaikovsky in a room with me, Missy Elliott and Quincy Jones, what would it sound like?”
Her day job is in the finance department of PLS Logistics Services in Cranberry and she works remotely. Besides singing and writing songs, she plays the drums and is a sound engineer. She is an audio arts instructor at YMCA Lighthouse in Homewood, where she teaches songwriting and production engineering to students ages 12-23.
A 2009 graduate of Perry Traditional Academy, INEZ earned a degree in music production through an online program offered by Berklee College of Music in 2018.
Staycee Pearl
Staycee Pearl is the co-artistic director of PearlArts, STAYCEE PEARL dance project and Soy Sos. The 54-year-old Shadyside woman founded her company in 2009 and collaborates with her husband, Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl, a producer and sound engineer, to create multimedia works that incorporate dance and soundscapes.
This year, her company began a residency at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty and will stay there through 2023.
“They treat us like family there,” she said, adding that she also enjoys working in the Dance Alloy studios that are just four blocks from the Kelly Strayhorn.
The choreographer will spend some of her award money on a retreat for herself, her husband and her company of dancers.
“I need to refresh and rejuvenate. I want to use this time to do that,” Pearl said in a telephone interview, adding that the pandemic made her question why she does what she does.
Now, “I feel stronger about what I do and I feel like I haven’t done enough,” she said, adding that she would like to be more of an advocate for the arts.
Her newest work, “CIRCLES,” took two years to create and focuses on the joy and celebration of Blackness.
“Because it’s so personal, it became a Black female celebration. Artists are young, vibrant people. They need to know the joy of life,” she said.
The cyclical nature of life interests her.
“I really wanted to take our process and turn it inside out and process joy and life and brightness instead of highlighting the trauma that’s inflicted on us,” Pearl said.
In her acceptance remarks, she thanked Kyle Abraham, a nationally known choreographer from Pittsburgh who has worked with her company. She recalled that his solo, “Pookie Jenkins,” “put him on the world map.”
“He has just been, honestly, the best friend to me,” she said.
Pearl is working on a commissioned work for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre that is slated to be performed in 2022. Next fall, she hopes to create a newly staged work.
“I would love for our next work to be something we premiere in another city. It would be nice to premiere it during a residency in that place and then bring it home during the holidays next year.”
Marylynne Pitz is a Pittsburgh-based arts journalist.
First Published: December 19, 2021, 11:00 a.m.
