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...

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...

Project Check in #1 (Due 3/11 @ 4pm)

Project Check in One.  Please post your responses to the below question/prompts by Monday, March 11 at 4:00 pm. Which text have you found most compelling and/or would like to examine further? Which concepts/theories (i.e. liminality, mastery of form, etc.) do you find most intriguing? What kind of performance and/or art are you most interested...

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...

The Unshakable Descendants

The characterization of the black child, is something which particularly struck me in my reading of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Jayna Brown’s piece. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin the drama between Ophelia and Topsy, is whether she can enact an education for her, this is reminiscent of Brown’s argument that Topsy is “drawn in Stowe’s novel...

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...

Black Patti’s Troubadours

 Read:  Trav, S.D.  "Sissieretta Jones: The 'Black Patti'" Travalanche.wordpress.com.  Accessed Feb 9, 2019. "Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones." Wikipedia.com Accessed Feb 9, 2019.

Uncle Tom Multimedia Packet 2

  LOOK & LISTEN: "program 243: Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble: Still Shakin' That Thing." The Jim Cullen Riverwalk Jazz Collection. Stanford University.  Accessed Feb 9, 2019. zilbernet. "(I Ain't Gonna Be No Topsy) Topsy -Mae Barnes." June 10, 2011. YouTube. Accessed Feb 9, 2019. " turley2. "Ida Forsyne Tribute in 1955."  (The New York Age. Saturday, Jan. 15, 1955. page...

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...

UTC: Multimedia Packet Week 1

For Tuesday (February 5th) please read, peruse, and/or watch items A-M listed below. Historical Context: Black Performance and Performing Blackness Emery, Lynne Emery. "Chapter 5: Juba and Jim Crow" Black Dance from 1619 to Today. Princeton: Princeton Book Company, 1988. 179-202. A- Ch 5 Juba and Jim Crow in Black Dance Excerpts from the Original...