Fellows and Fellow Travelers:
We've had some discussion, in the car and around the office, about
the Langston Hughes play. I want to raise, again, in principle, the
idea of "performance studies" that we pay attention to the audience as
well as the performance on stage in thinking critically/analytically
about a cultural event. I offer you this small exchange between Chris
Scott and me and I invite your comments as well.
Peter
Christopher D. Scott wrote:
I completely agree with you about the laughter at last night's
performance. It was interesting to listen to who laughed when. And
how telling that the Baldwin joke got the most laughs. I do think
that has a lot to do with the stigmas surrounding black masculinity
and the literary one-upmanship between Baldwin, Hughes, and other
black writers. For my own purposes, I'm more interested in Hughes as
a "queer" writer, neither fully straight nor fully gay. In fact, it's
that unknowability or slipperiness of Hughes' sexuality that I discuss
in relation to a veiled reference to a Langston Hughes poem in one of
the Japanese texts I'm working on. I met with David Moore and
discussed Hughes, among other things, but I think our approaches are
somewhat different. And I'm certainly not trying to "out" Hughes.
Rather, I think we have to critique how racism and homophobia work in
conjunction with one another.
I can imagine that the audiences are predominantly white at these kind
of events. I also find it interesting that most of the work is
performed in English. I noticed that the Japanese playwright whose
work is being performed later this week was there last night (I didn't
meet him), but I wonder how much of it he understood. It's a shame
because McCarthyism had such disastrous consequences for the US
Occupation of Japan and the future of the JCP....
Anyway, lots to think about, as you said.
Chris
Chris:
As for Hughes/Baldwin, etc. Hughes' sexuality has been an
interesting issue at Mac, where David Moore, who has been working
on him/his work for some time, denies that Hughes was gay. I
thought that Gavin L/playing Hughes/playing Baldwin was over the
top. On the one hand, it did comment, interesting on competition
and tension among Black writers. Have you seen reviews of the new
bio of Ralph Ellison by Arnold Rampersad? He seems to present
Ellison as bitterly competitive with other Black writers. I also
have some disturbing commentaries on Richard Wright in Paris,
written by a guy I have gotten to know who knew Wright well and
fell out with him. Of course, it was the white literary and
political establishment which planted the seeds of competition
among these writers... Back to the play, on the other hand, I was
uncomfortable with the laughter in the audience during that scene.
Attending theater about Black people in the TC always leads to
uncomfortable moments smidst predominantly white audiences. Had
it not been for the Mellon students and Rose Brewer (U of M) and
her students, the audience would have been entirely white. What
does that say about the Playwrights Center?
So much to chew on...
See you soon. Love and Solidarity, Peter
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_______________________________________________
Mellon Myers Undegraduate Fellowship Program at Macalester (http://macmmuf.org)
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