Grace After Midnight

September 17, 2007
Pearson, who stars in HBO's The Wire
, was born ill and underweight from her mother's drug habits, and later worked for a crack dealer in East Baltimore. At age 15 she killed a woman in self-defense and wound up in the Jessup State Penitentiary. She got a wakeup call when the notorious dealers she called “Uncle” and “Father” wound up respectively dead and imprisoned for life. Once out on parole, Pearson took an assembly-line job and “didn't give a second glance,” but after repeatedly getting fired because of her rap sheet, she returned to dealing before a chance meeting gave her a way off the street for good. This isn't a light celebrity bio, but a powerful story of someone trying to find her way in a dark world, realizing she can still choose her life's direction even in tremendously difficult circumstances. Pearson's narrative is spare, even poetic, rendering traumatic moments all the more powerful.

November 1, 2007
Pearson, an actress in the TV drama "The Wire", was born a crack baby in Baltimore and raised in a foster home. Here, with collaborator Ritz, she chronicles living on the streets, dealing drugs, and ending up in prison for killing a woman in self-defense. (Xpress Reviews, 10/21/07)

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