Synopses & Reviews
Review
"I do not know of any other anthology that examines black performance as theory and method, and do so across multiple performance genres and disciplines. Black Performance Theory brings together contributions from important scholars whose work is vital to the ongoing conversation about black performance. It will be a must-read for those seeking to understand performance as an analytic for understanding race."—E. Patrick Johnson, author of Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity
Review
andquot;This crucially important critical volume highlights the collaborative work of the Black Performance Theory Group, emphasizing the significance of black bodies in motion. A moving work!andquot;
Review
andquot;[
Black Performance Theory] is a palimpsest of black performance histories, practices, affects, and ideologies. . . . Exceeding iterations of ready-made blackness and overcooked theories of performance, this volume honors the charge to theorize outside the expected and to say something new.andquot;
Review
andldquo;With this compelling volume, DeFrantz and Gonzalez provide less a settled corpus of methodologies applied to a canon of academically sanctioned performance genres than an articulation and elaboration of black corporealities, vocalities, and andlsquo;sensibilitiesandrsquo; across a heterogeneous field of performative enunciations--andrsquo;highandrsquo; and pop culture, geographically dispersed and diasporic. . . . and#160;This promises to become a key work. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;This is theory that dances. [...] Black Performance Theory convenes 14 scholars and practitioners of Africana performance and bids them dance and groove across national, hemispheric, oceanic, planetary, disciplinary, epochal, formal, and methodological boundaries in pursuit of blackness in motion.andquot;
Synopsis
Black performance theory is a rich interdisciplinary area of study and critical method. In this collection of new essays, some of its pioneering thinkers demonstrate the breadth and depth, innovation, and critical value of black performance theory.
About the Author
Thomas F. DeFrantz is Professor of African and African American Studies, Dance, and Theater Studies at Duke University. He is a dancer, a choreographer, and the author of
Dancing Revelations: Alvin Aileyand#39;s Embodiment of African American Culture.
Anita Gonzalez is Professor of Theater at the University of Michigan. She is a director, a choreographer, and the author of Afro-Mexico: Dancing between Myth and Reality.
Table of Contents
Foreword / D. Soyini Madison
Acknowledgments
Introduction. From andquot;Negro Experimentandquot; to andquot;Black Performanceandquot; / Thomas F. DeFrantz and Anita Gonzalez
Part I: Transporting Black
1. Navigations: Diasporic Transports and Landings / Anita Gonzalez
2. Diasporic Spidering: Constructing Contemporary Black Identities / Nadine George-Graves
3. Twenty-First-Century Post-Humans: The Rose of the See-J / Hershini Bhana Young
4. Hip Work: Undoing the Tragic Mulata / Melissa Blanco Borelli
Part II: Black-En-Scandegrave;ne
5. Black-Authored Lynching Dramaand#39;s Challenge to Theater History / Koritha Mitchell
6. Reading andquot;Spiritandquot; and the Dancing Body in the Choreography of Ronald K. Brown and Reggie Wilson / Carl Paris
7. Uncovered: A Pageant of Hip Hop Masters / Rickerby Hinds
Part III: Black Imaginary
8. Black Movements: Flying Africans in Spaceships / Soyica Diggs Colbert
9. Post-logical Notes on Self-Election / Wendy S. Walters
10: Cityscaped: Ethnospheres / Anna B. Scott
Part IV: Hi-Fidelity Black
11. andquot;Rip It Upandquot;: Excess and Ecstasy in Little Richardand#39;s Sound / Tavia Nyongand#39;o
12. Donand#39;t Stop and#39;til You Get Enough: Presence, Spectacle, and Good Feeling in Michael Jacksonand#39;s This Is It / Jason King
13. Afro-sonic Feminist Praxis: Nina Simone and Adrienne Kennedy in High Fidelity / Daphne A. Brooks
14. Hip-Hop Habitus V.2.0 / Thomas F. DeFrantz
Bibliography
Contributors
Index