After a fire destroyed their home in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem, the family moved to the North Bronx in New York — there Sylvia honed her craft.
She was eventually selected to play Dorothy in the road company production, which traveled to Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other cities, receiving excellent reviews along the way.
During the late 1970s, Sylvia became a member of Aquarian Dream and worked with funk, jazz, R&B, and soul vibraphonist Roy Ayers in his group Eighties Ladies.
Her song "You Can't Turn Me Away," the flip side of her single and a track on her solo album, was featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, playing on quiet storm station VCFL.
Erykah Badu also covered the song on her 2010 track "Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY)," which appeared on the album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh).