Baker Artist Portfolios

Sheila Gaskins is a Teaching Artist, Activist, Playwright, Stand-Up Comic, Arts. Advocate, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Facilitator, and Healer. She is a proud native of Baltimore, Maryland.

She is the author of her first book of poetry and prose, A Whistling Girl and a Crowing Hen Never Comes to a Very Good End and Other Things My Mama Said.

In 2022, Gaskins was the recipient of a The Grit Fund grant.  She was awarded a Professional Development Grant from Alternate Roots. Her project, Puppets, Masks and Crankies - Shifting the Story is in collaboration with Maura Dwyer and Tara Carisol. The goal of the project is to expose children and adults to the art of Puppetry, Masks and Crankies. Puppetry,Masks and Crankies are some of the oldest forms of storytelling.

“You are empowered when you can tell your own story.”- Gaskins

Sheila Gaskins was featured in The Baltimore Sun’s 10 People Who Make Baltimore Better.  She received The Village That Vanished - Remember, Rekindle, Reclaim, Restore Award from the National Great Blacks In Wax Museum.

Gaskins is a principle writer for the Community based play, U Thought I Was Him, directed by Troy Burton, ( 2022). The play centers Black men in America and their need for Global acceptance and humanity. U Thought I was Him centers Police Brutality and LGBTQIA+ issues in Baltimore. U Thought I was Him, a mixtape, made its debut at The Arena Playhouse, November 11th thru 27th, 2022. The play’s development and creation process involved a series of community dialogues that led to a writer’s room, to auditions, rehearsals, then the performance. The Arena Playhouse is the oldest continuously running Community Theatre in the United States.

Gaskins was the subject in two recent books: Conversations with Healers: Baltimore City by. Miranda Ellis Hontz and Creatives of Color: A Portrait Collection of the Unsung Heroes. in the Baltimore Art and Cultural Community by Precious Blake. She was a Keynote Speaker for From: Building to Bridge: Redefining:the Peale Center for Baltimore. 

Her credits include HBO’s -The Wire, The Corner, BET Comic View, NBC’s-Last Comic Standing, The movie - The Salon with Vivica A. Fox.

This is Sheila Gaskins' second year directing the play Sanford & Son and she believes it is a labor of love working with such raw talent that exists in the Baltimore area.
Gaskins admits when she is not using Art to improve the lives of everyone around her and beyond; she enjoys hot steamed crabs and blowing bubbles.

I stand on the shoulders of all the artists and advocates that stood before me as I attempt to recapture an era in Baltimore city where love, peace and equality was shared and respected for all by all. I understand the tall task at hand and I am willing to do the work. I love Art, I love life, I love people, I love community and I love Baltimore, always have and I always will.- respectfully submitted Sheila Gaskins