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In This Place, In This Voice

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Seldom get to write in this place, in this voice. Here goes.  Where?

 Going to witness Sleeping Weazel's presentation of "3/Fifths" Trapped in a Traveling Minstrel Show this weekend at the Calderwood Pavilion.  Why?

 Because Minstrelsy dominated American culture for three-quarters of a century--from the 1840s, when minstrel shows became the 'hot ticket' in every city, town, and hollow across the United States of America. 

 And the more white entertainers realized there was money to be made by stereo/typing cash-poor (mostly) Southern blacks, minstrel shows 'went viral'--infecting the American bloodstream with antibodies that continue to poison our system to this day.

 Black performers gained acceptance with white audiences in the United States by 'blacking up.' If you didn't put on blackface, you didn't get to take the stage in otherwise "white only" houses. In other words, you didn't even get to play.  

 At first blush, James Scruggs' "3/Fifths" adds his critique of the Black artist "trapped in a traveling minstrel show" to a long line of academic, theatrical, and cinematic explorations of the highly racialized context of American cultural production.

"At first blush" implies there's more, and so layers will be added to this post in anticipation of the "Carnival of Atrocities" Mr. Scruggs' "Supremacyland" holds in store.  

 Join us at the Calderwood this weekend, and we'll dish afterward. 
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