Speakers

Margaret "Shug" Avery

“The Color Purple"

Academy award nominee Margret Avery is committed to helping at-risk teenagers and battered women in the greater Los Angeles area. Avery says that “the work is especially rewarding because it has the capacity to change lives.”

Ms. Avery, an Oklahoman native has had to fight her entire life. Life for Avery has been a struggle for survival since her pre-mature birth. Her tenacity and unwillingness to accept the status quo in the movie industry has enabled her to garner roles that would not necessarily go to black actresses. Her credits include Which Way is Up, Magnum Force, Hell Up in Harlem, White Man’s Burden and her Oscar-nominated work in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple.

In 1998 she and award-winning actor Blair Underwood co-hosted and presented the critically acclaimed docudrama, Sister, I’m Sorry: An Apology to Our African-American Queens. Avery holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco and a master’s degree in marriage, family and child therapy. Ms. Avery is committed to empowering women and she speaks through out the country on issues that impact the lives of women.