What is black embodiment? Black feeling? Black performance? This course explores these questions, among others, by taking up three major cultural movements: New Negro/Harlem Renaissance; Black Arts Movement; and contemporary 'post-blackness.' We will study black drama, performance art, visual art, and film. Major writers and artists might include Marita Bonner, Zora Neale Hurson, Adrienne Kennedy, Alice Childress, Ntozake Shange, Amiri Baraka, Aleshea Harris, Brendan Jacobs-Jenkins, Barry Jenkins, and Jackie Sibblies Drury. We will also read theories of identity formation, racialized experience, and black life, among other prevailing concerns in Black (Performance) Studies.
English Department