/peh-TO-lah/ (EPAP post)

May 1, 2019, 7:30-9pm Emerson Paramount Center, Robert J. Orchard Stage /peh-LO-tah/ a futbol framed freedom suite: Marc Bamuthi Joseph/The Living Word Project I saw /peh-TO-lah/ Wednesday night at the Emerson Paramount Orchard Stage. This “freedom suite” looks at black joy and freedom through the lens of soccer - “the official sport of this spinning...

Chalk & Cheese

I really enjoyed Zora Neale Hurston’s witty and accessible style. I spent a lot of time thinking about her piece “Art and Such” (- unrelated, but I liked reading it in its manuscript form) and what has changed since she wrote it in the 1930s. Although she writes that the 1930s are “as different from...

Project check-in #1: Liv

Which text have you found most compelling and/or would like to examine further? I think Souls of Black Folk was easiest to connect with, probably because I was able to understand his writing/the concepts more than other texts. I found Uncle Tom's Cabin compelling too, as easier to understand. The denser texts about performance are...

Golden Apples

There were a lot of big and interesting ideas in the excerpts of The Souls of Black Folk that we read. I feel like these chapters brought together a lot of ideas on which we’ve been working. Doubleness appeared often - not just between the Veil and the other world, but in the divergence of...

An Overflowing Vessel

Post # 3 - Uncle Tom Week 1 In this week’s reading, I was most struck with Topsy being referred to as “an empty vessel” in which Ophelia could pour values and education. This is particularly resonant in Stowe’s version, but appears in Aiken and Burnot’s adaptations to a certain extent as well. St. Clare...

Tyranny of Theives

For my post on the Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown I decided to focus on how Henry, even from a very young age, learned about and witnessed the performance and thievery of his master. He recounts that as a toddler his mother would sit him on her lap “and, pointing to the...

“Slay trick, or you get eliminated” (“Formation,” Beyonce)

Olivia Baker - January 16, 2019 I focused (for the most part) on the beginning of Childish Gambino's "This is America," from approximately 50s-1m20s. As Childish sings “don’t catch you slippin’ up” he dances, but his moves go from joyful to staggering as his facial expressions do the same, suggesting that the dance is painful...