2025 Fuller Award Ceremony for Jackie Taylor

Jackie Taylor, the author of more than 100 plays and musical bios, thousands of poems, a screenplay, and two books, has been selected as the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s 2025 Fuller Award recipient in honor of her lifetime achievements. Taylor will be celebrated at a ceremony on Monday, October 20, at her Black Ensemble Theater (4450 N. Clark Street). The ceremony is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Details about the speaking lineup will be posted shortly.  

Born August 10, 1951 in Chicago, Taylor was raised in the Cabrini Green housing project. Taylor founded BET in 1976, a year after she made her Hollywood acting debut in the now classic film Cooley High. From the start, Taylor seemed determined to give life to stories that represented Black people, especially women, as three-dimensional characters. As a toddler, according to History Makers, Taylor made up and acted out stories in her closet.  In her early years at St. Joseph Elementary School, Taylor started writing plays, poetry, and stories, and by the time she was in 7th grade, she had started directing plays.

Taylor majored in theater with an education minor, and after earning her B.A. from Loyola University in 1973, she began working with Free Street Theater. In addition to her acting break in 1975's Cooley High she produced and starred in television and film - as well as in theatrical productions with such companies as the Goodman Theater, Organic Theater and Victory Gardens Theater. Early in her career, Taylor concluded that Hollywood’s depiction of African Americans would continue to be largely negative. She wanted to control the image of herself and other Black Americans, which led to her founding of BET. Since the start, Taylor has written, produced, and directed stories that cut across racial and cultural lines. Her mission, she says, is to bring people together.

Among Taylor’s many writing credits are The Other Cinderella, The Hoochie Coochie Man: Muddy Waters (co-written with Jimmy Tillman), The Marvin Gaye Story, The Jackie Wilson Story, All In Love Is Fair, I Am Who I Am (The Story of Teddy Pendergrass), Don’t Make Me Over (The Story of Dionne Warwick), Don’t Shed A Tear (The Billie Holiday Story), Somebody Say Amen, At Last: A Tribute To Etta James, and Precious Lord Take My Hand. She has had featured roles in several major films, including Hoodlum, Barbershop 2, The Father Clements Story, Losing Isiah and To Sir With Love: Part 2, and worked with such greats as Sidney Poitier, Laurence Fishburne, Vanessa Williams, Bill Dukes, Glynn Thurman, and Lawrence Hilton Jacobs.  

BET, approaching a half-century as a thriving, innovative theater company, is recognized throughout the country for its outstanding original productions and exceptional educational outreach programs. On September 10, 2010, Taylor broke ground on the new 20-million-dollar Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center, which opened on November 18, 2011. The Free To Be Village development, introduced in 2023, aims to expand the existing campus, in part to offer affordable housing to artists in the community and establish an education program. The project’s goal is to reinforce and grow the theater’s mission of reducing inequality in the arts. 

Taylor earned a master’s degree in education and receive an honorary doctorate degree from DePaul University. She has worked for the Chicago Board of Education, the Illinois Arts Council, and Urban Gateways. Through the years, Taylor has taught every grade level from kindergarten through major universities. She served as president of the African American Arts Alliance and is on the board of the Betty Shabazz International Schools.

The City of Chicago honored her by naming a street after her, Jackie Taylor Street, and Governor Pat Quinn declared March 27, 2009, Jackie Taylor day in Illinois.

Taylor’s many awards include a Special Jeff Award for her cultural contributions and a League of Chicago Theater Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been named as an outstanding performer, director, and business woman by dozens of media outlets, including New City, Chicago Defender, Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times. She and her work have been featured in Jet, Variety, the New York Times, The Washington Post and Essence.

Taylor is the mother of Tynea Wright and grandmother of Tayden McGowan.

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame selection committee consisted of past Fuller Award recipient Patricia Smith, Linda Bubon, Yoland Nieves, Ugochi Nwaogwugwu, and Keehnen Owens. During the stringent selection process, the committee considered dozens of outstanding candidates, evaluating the quality of their literary output, the strength of their Chicago connections, and their greater contributions to our city’s literary life.

We will close registration when the theater reaches capacity, so don't delay.