Staging Black Femininity
The Mount Holyoke College Department of Theatre Arts,
Mount Holyoke College Innovation Fund, and Five-College Multicultural
Theatre Committee present: Staging Black Femininity A Semester-Long
Investigation of Race, Gender, and Representation.
The Mission
Historically, institutional racism has been tightly
wound with representations of race in expressive culture. As spaces
for the public imaginary, theatre and film have contained both reifications
of racist stereotypes as well as reclaimings of subjectivity for
oppressed people of color. Through a series of public lectures,
films and discussions as well as performances of Suzan-Lori Parks'
challenging play Venus, "Staging Black Femininity" hopes
to initiate campus-wide conversations about representations of race,
and, specifically, of the Black Female Body.
Events
Film/Lecture: Daughters of the Dust
(1991)--An evening with Alva Rogers
Bessie award-winner Alva Rogers will screen scenes from Julie Dash's
celebrated film and discuss her own work as an actress, playwright,
and performance artist.
Wed. Sept. 22, 7:00pm, Dwight 101
- Film: The Josephine Baker Story (1991)
Wed. Oct. 6, 7:000pm, Dwight 101
- Film: Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999)
Wed. Oct. 13, 7:00pm, Dwight 101
- Film/Discussion: The Life and Times of Sara Baartman
(1998)
Michelle Stephens on “The Venus Hottentot”
Thurs. Oct. 28, 7:00pm, Cleveland L2
After a documentary film on Sara Baartman, the African woman called
“the Hottentot Venus,” Mount Holyoke Assistant Professor
of English Michelle Stephens will reflect on Elizabeth Alexander’s
poem about Baartman and the French doctor who dissected her after
death.
- Lecture: Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez
Mon. Nov. 8, 7:00 pm, Reese 302
"'Step up step in to see what God hisself don't
wanna look at: The Politics of Abjection in Suzan Lori- Parks'
Venus"
A Mount Holyoke professor will discuss his latest book project,
in which he examines Parks' Venus and the racialized "freak"
in American drama.
The Department of Theatre Artts Presents: Venus
Wednesday, November 3 through Saturday, November 6 ~ 8:00
pm
Sunday, November 7, 2:00
Rooke Theatre, Mount Holyoke College
A Play by Pulitzer Prize winner and MHC alumna Suzan-Lori
Parks
Directed by Julia Whitworth
Venus is based on the tragic and true story of Saartjie
Baartman, an African woman lured to Europe in 1810 and exhibited
nude in a London circus on account of her (purportedly) sizeable
posterior. Her keepers renamed her the "Hottentot Venus."
Venus deconstructs the act of viewing itself in order to examine
racist and sexist acts of objectification and stereotyping. The
play's deliberately ironic tone and considerable humor creates a
disturbing and thought-provoking political vaudeville.
Tickets: $5.00/ $3.00 for students
To reserve: please call 538-2406
Panel Discussion: Staging Black Femininity
Saturday, November 6, 2:00
Rooke Theatre, Mount Holyoke College
Acclaimed playwrights, actors, and directors will
discuss the problems and possibilities of representing race and
gender on stage. Participants include Robbie McCauley, Adina Porter,
Oni Faida Lampley and Andrea Hairston. Moderated by Mount Holyoke's
Executive Director of the Alumnae Association, Rochelle Calhoun.
Admission is free of charge and open to the public.
For more information, contact Professor Julia Whitworth,
Department of Theatre Arts, Mount Holyoke College, at 413-538-2658
or email: jwhitwor@mtholyoke.edu.
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