Nat Turner in Jerusalem

On February 16th, I saw Nat Turner in Jersusalem at Hiberian Hall in Roxbury, MA, presented by the Actor’s Shakespeare Project.  Written by Nathan Alan Davis and directed by Benny Sato Ambush, the play tells the story of Nat Turner’s final night in prison before execution. Played by Brandon G. Green, Turner passes the night...

Project Check-In #1

Which text have you found most compelling and/or would like to examine further?I think I found Uncle Tom’s Cabin and our discussion of Topsy most interesting, particularly the clips from the 30s and 40s that showed black face as apart of Hollywood. Which concepts/theories (i.e. liminality, mastery of form, etc.) do you find most intriguing?I’m...

Sexuality in Black Female Performance

Reading about the various iterations of Topsy, I was struck by just how often she was played not only by a white woman, but a fully grown white woman. In fact, the Caroline Howard, who played Topsy in the original iteration of Aiken's popular adaptation, performed the role for years. What were the effects of...

A Taste for Excess

Reading The Escape Artist by Daphne Brooks, I was struck by the repeated mentions of Henry Box Brown's body. Repeatedly, in newspaper articles of the time, he is referred to as "'bejewelled, "portly," and "overdressed"' or as "a bejewelled and oily negro."" For critics, his bodily presentation went along with the "excesses of the panoramic exhibition." Some critics...

Mastery of deFORMATION

In Beyonce's Formation music video, she moves away from her mastery of the form of dance to it's deformation. Baker explains that while the mastery of form "conceals [and] disguises," much of the work and emotion that goes into art, the deformation of mastery " is a go(uer)rilla action in the face of acknowledged adversaries"...