How Did Eleanor Traylor Contribute To Afro-American Theatre

Hate: The Life and Works of James Baldwin “I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain” (Baldwin, 2012/1955, p. 745). James Baldwin is one of the most thought inducing writers of his time. Marked by his experiences in the realms of racial, sexual, and religious struggles Baldwin’s life and works have opened the eyes of the American people, as well as many others, to these sensitive subjects that we have struggled with. James Arthur Baldwin was born James Arthur Jones in 1924, in Harlem, to Emma Berdis Jones.

The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater was created after a famous performance, led by Alvin Ailey and a group of African-American dancers in March 1958, dramatically changed how individuals viewed American dance. The theater’s goal was to celebrate the African-American culture and preserve the legacy of modern dance, which has since, been achieved through performances, “for an estimated 25 million people at theaters in 28 states and 71 countries on six continents[...] (by) more than 235 works by over 90 choreographers,” (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater). Alvin Ailey, born in Texas, grew up knowing that his experiences living in the South would have some influence on his works later on his life. In Los Angeles, Ailey began to dance when he discovered the beauty of dance by the performances of Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. Soon after, his friend persuaded Ailey to join a class in one of the first racially-integrated dance studios which existed in the United States, led by Leston Horton.

Research Paper for Alvin Ailey Biography Born in Texas, on January 5, 1931, Alvin Ailey was one of the greatest black modern dancer-choreographer in the United States whose works continue to resonate with audiences worldwide. His mother was only 17 years old when he was born, and his father left the family soon after his birth, so Alvin grew up poor in Navasota, the small Texas town with his mother. Despite the racism and poor economic conditions, Ailey enjoyed the abundance of entertainment available to blacks, and inspired by the black church services he attended as well as the music he heard at the local dance hall. At the age of twelve, after finishing the school year in Texas, Ailey moved to Los Angeles, California, with his mother.

In early 1900, Patrick “Pat” Chappelle founded The Rabbit’s Foot Company (or, The Rabbit Foot Minstrels) as a roaming, tented minstrel company. Chappelle, equipped with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and notable talent as a banjo guitarist, was to become the figurehead of one of the most successful vaudevillian entities in U.S. history, and, perhaps most importantly, the first exclusively black-owned and operated traveling variety shows in the country. Despite this evolution to “variety show,” The Rabbit’s Foot Company “came forth in the unmistakable form of a minstrel show.” To define, minstrel shows oft manifested as sketch, musical, and variety performances that targeted and mocked black people using blackface and exaggerated stereotypes

Minstrelsy first emerged in the early 1800s and became excessively popular. In today's world we have access to media of all sorts including the Internet, television, etc. In a time when none of this was accessible, minstrelsy became the go-to approach to intertwine current politics with entertainment. In other words, it was a earlier version of Saturday Night Live (SNL). Some aspects of minstrelsy would be considered harmless by today's culture.

The broad topic of my research is the influence of Carl Van Vechten and other white patrons on the artists of the Harlem Renaissance. At the time of the Harlem Renaissance African Americans lacked the social and economic institutions to support a full cultural uplift on the scale that was required to make an impact. Many turned to prominent and rich white patrons with connections to the arts in order to get their messages across. Many of these white patrons gave financial support like Charlotte Mason Osgood who helped Langston Hughes through college and financially supported him during the early stages of his career. Others like Carl Van Vechten used their positions in popular magazines to promote these new artists and held parties to introduce

According to Eric Lott (Love and Theft: The Racial Unconscious of Blackface Minstrels), blackface both in minstrel show and later in movies “spread misconceptions and stereotypes, and was used as a tool to define what constituted ‘blackness’”. One of the impact of The Birth of a Nation was the revival of the Ku Klux Klan. Those stereotypes were composed of a negative portrayal of African-Americans, represented as “idiotic, classless, child-like, unsophisticated, ignorant, violent, sexually aggressive, depraved and morally bankrupt characters” (The impact of negative stereotypes and representations of African-American in the media and African-American incarceration, by Tamara Thérèse Johson) and archetypes popular in the days of slavery and of the minstrel show became even more popular with the new medium of cinema that spread those visions to a larger audience (beginning right in the early 1900's). Donald Bogle describes five archetypes usually used to depict African-American characters, legacy of blackface and minstrel shows, in films. These archetypes consisted of the

This story used as a main justification and impose of slavery

Soon after its founding, the American Negro Theatre won attention and praise for its first major production, a staging of Abram Hill 's On Striver 's Row. Between 1940 and 1949, the American Negro Theatre produced a total of nineteen plays, of which twelve were based on original

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Or: A Closer Look At The Form and Construction Of Storytelling To The Tune Of The Blues Throughout history, many cultures have passed down stories through oral tradition. Though the manner in which spoken word is delivered has changed over time, the fundamental core of the timeless tradition has stayed the same; Words have power. They can be used to spread joy, hope, and keep entire cultures alive. August Wilson’s play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, focuses on the power of the blues to tell the stories of numerous African-American individuals, as they struggle to find meaning and justice in an unfair society dominated by a hateful majority.

The Harlem Renaissance was a period that greatly focused on the arts. African Americans were among the top influencers of the artistic movement of the Harlem Renaissance. African American playwrights and actors began to gain recognition and opened a door into theater for other African Americans. Among the most influential artists in theater in the Harlem Renaissance were Regina Anderson, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Willis Richardson, and Paul Robeson. These pioneers of African American theater paved the way for future African American acting companies, and they used theater as a means to reflect the current issues that African Americans faced during the Harlem Renaissance.

In 1971, Alvin Ailey choreographed Cry, a three part work solo dance set to gospel music that describes an emotional journey filled with struggle, hardships, defeat, survival and joy. It was intended as a birthday present to Alvin’s mother and a dedication to all black women everywhere. The first part of the dance is the struggle of trying to maintain pride irrespective of the opposition faced from outside. The second part reveals the sorrow within after the woman’s pride has been shattered into pieces and finally the third part is a spirited celebration of finding strength and joy in God. Even though cry was dedicated to only black women, i argue the notion that all women both black and white of the nineteenth century could relate

Slavery is still a concept that the horror and brutality that is learned about in books become just another set of facts to be assimilated impassively to continue working through large course loads of material to be memorized. Dispassionate and clinical summations of the lives of the allowed for the harshness of the existences of those in bondage to become words on a page since modern society is not exposed to those experiences any longer. However, first-hand recollections by former slaves, such as Mary Prince and Olaudah Equiano, somehow make the realities conveyed to become less opaque and more tangible. Mary Prince and Olaudah Equiano were both subjected to being slaves based on the color of their skin.

Arthur Miller brings slavery and racism and in his play, “The Crucible” which are the very common themes in black literature. Tituba lives under the triple oppression of these two things. Under the slavery system, she has to work outside from her homeland Barbados, which makes it hardly possible for her to return. “Negro slave enters. Tituba is in her forties.

The famous play shows the audience the life it was like to live as a black female, and shows the struggles that the Young family faced being the first African American family to move into a white neighborhood. This play is considered a