Week 16- From the Plantation to Hollywood: Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself

This week, we are discussing the Chitlin' Circuit and the binary created between "legitimate" black theater and the "Chitlin' Circuit." Tyler Perry can be read as one of the most successful playwrights in African American Theatre history. His plays and videos have grossed over 75 million dollars. Considering Dubois' assertion that black theater should be " by, about, for and near" black people, how do you think Perry answers this call? Some prompts to consider are as follows: Is it possible to understand African American theater as theater that speaks to specific African American experiences within the larger scope of Black Theater created around the world? How do you think that Perry speaks to the immediate concerns, trials, triumphs and tribulations of everyday black people? How does this play address many of the key themes discussed by African American playwrights? How does Perry bridge the ideals of Parks and Dubois in his work?

Week 15 - Hip-Hop Theater and Performance- Kamilah Forbes' Rhyme Deferred and Danny Hoch's Jails, Hosptials and Hip-hop

This week we are reading Kamilah Forbes' Rhyme Deferred and watching Danny Hoch's Jails, Hospitals and Hip-hop, two theatrical works that are heavily influenced by Hip-Hop music and culture. As you blog this week on Hip-Hop Theater and Blackness, what connections can you make between Hip-hop theater and expressions of Blackness in Hip-hop music and culture? In what ways does Hip-Hop Theater rely upon African American expressive culture in Hip-hop to define itself? If Hip-Hop Theater is a diverse matrix of cross-racial, ethnic, and class exchanges, how does Hip-Hop's relationship to Blackness offer opportunities to diverse groups to understand African American experiences through Hip-Hop Theater? Think of the ways the four elements of Hip-hop, MCIng, Breaking, Graffiti and DJing, are used both literally and figuratively by these artists.

Week 14- Queering Blackness Robert O'Hara's Insurrection: Holding History

This week we are reading Robert O'Hara's Insurrection: Holding History and viewing Marlon Riggs's Tongues Untied.
In Insurrection, O'Hara questions the normative heterosexuality of slavery by centering the story of a gay black man as he complicates how history is remembered and recorded. Riggs presents the stifled stories of same sex loving black men, their familial and social relationships and ways that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has shaped the lives of queer black men. As you blog about queering blackness, think about how Ron and Marlon's stories shape your ideas of American history, theater and performance? How do these complicate how we understand blackness and its representation in American Theatre? In what ways do these stories "queer" dominant narratives about blackness, American history and sexual difference?

Week 13- Black is, Black Ain't: Hair and Color Politics in African American Theatre/Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman

This week, we are reading Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman and watching Chris Rock's Good Hair. In both of these works, we see connections to the ways that the hair and skin color of African Americans can be read as important facets of
identity negotiation. African Americans relationship to their skin color and hair texture has a direct correlation to how they perceive themselves and how they are perceived by dominant society. In Yellowman skin color is the basis for intraracial tension. Alma and Eugene must negotiate their relationship within social constraints that they inherit from their families based on the color of their skin. In Chris Rock's Good Hair , we see Black women of all skin colors discuss their hair as a site of oppression and empowerment.

As you blog on the key themes of Hair and Color Politics, think about the ways that Alma and Eugene identify with their hair and skin color as living parts of their identities? What opportunities are enabled or foreclosed by their skin color and/or hair texture? How are the characters defined by their skin color and the social and cultural stigmas and/or entitlement associated with them? How do you understand hair and skin color as representing "political" identifications?