A bona-fide gumbo girrrrrl, the Baton Rouge, LA native grew up in a world of spectacle, shuttled between Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Ventress, LA, her family seat. The family celebrated life, from birth to death, specific to each setting. (And with Mardi Gras as the base line, how exactly does one define hyperbole?) A prolific writer, Tsehaye Hébert has served as a lead teaching artist, artist-in-residence, consulted or taught at Chicago’s premier arts organizations. Born to a family of bibliophiles, Hébert was educated in the Baton Rouge parochial school system at St. Francis Xavier, where her mother taught for 50 years and at St. Joseph Academy, where she attended high school. Her love of story further developed at the Lincoln Theatre, which her father managed along with the Lincoln Hotel. She briefly attended Louisiana State University before relocating to New York City, where she studied at the National Black Theatre with the legendary Barbara Ann Teer. Hébert earned the Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and the MFAW from School of the Art Institute Chicago (Chicago, IL). An award-winning playwright, in 2015, Hébert was named the Alliance-Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award winner for The C. A. Lyons Project, included in Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre’s 2015 season and is also included in the National New Play Network.