Black Artistry: Strategies of Performance in the Black Diaspora

Charting a course from colonial America to contemporary London, this course explores the long history of Black performance throughout an Atlantic diaspora. Defining performance as "forms of cultural staging," from Thomas DeFrantz and Anita Gonzalez's Black Performance Theory, this course takes up scripted plays, live theatre, devised works, performance art, and cinematic performance in its survey of the field. We will engage with theorists, performer, artists, and revolutionaries such as Ignatius Sancho, Maria Stewart, William Wells Brown, Zora Neale Hurston, Derek Walcott, Danai Gurira, and Yvonne Orji. We will address questions around Black identity, history, time, and futurity, as well as other essential strategies Black performers have engaged in their performance making. The course includes essential methodological readings for Black Studies as well as formational writings in Black performance theory and theatre studies. Students will establish a foothold in both AAAS (theory & methodology) and in performance history (plays and performances). As a WIM course, students will gain expertise in devising, drafting, and revising written essays.