Blackness, Performance, Freedom
The Carters’ APES**T music video opens with black man with angel wings on the steps of the Louvre. He wears ripped jeans and sneakers and no shirt. Later, two black women sit on the floor, facing away from each other, linked by white fabric on both of their heads. They are placed in front of…
The Fits (2015) shows an 11-year-old girl, Toni, as she joins a dance team, the Lionesses. Before she joins and during her early days of being on the team, she spends time with her older brother at the school’s boxing gym. She trains along side him in addition to helping out at the gym by…
Plays are not meant to be read, but to be staged. Of course, in the process of staging a play, or studying text for academic analysis, the play must be read. This reading provides a different, clearer understanding of the playwright’s intentions. Instead of wondering about the director’s or designer’s work, we as readers are…
Childish Gambino’s “This is America” has been seen in two major iterations: in the song’s music video, released in May 2018, and in the film Guava Island, released in April 2019. Both are performed by Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover); in Guava Island it is performed by Glover’s character, Deni. The two performances resemble each…