Staging Black Queer Lives

Tabitha is thrilled to be teaching "Staging Black Queer Lives", this fall at The New School. This course will be taught virtually for both undergraduates and graduate students. Please contact Tabitha if you are interested in the syllabus. 

Course Description: ​This course centers dramatic texts and performances that stage and explore the histories, experiences, and stories of Queer Black people in the United States. The study of Black Theatre is often dominated by plays written by and/or about cis-heterosexual Black men. This course seeks to disrupt this imbalance by focusing on plays, playwrights, and performances that are often marginalized in the study of Black Theatre. The course will be arranged chronologically and thematically. The first part of the course will explore major periods in U.S. Black life, including but not limited to Enslavement, The New Negro Movement, the Black Arts Movement, and the Black Lives Matter Movement. The second part of the course will be arranged around major themes in Black Queer life and art such as interracial desire, sexuality, and religion.  We will juxtapose performance texts with historical and theoretical readings, giving students the  space to engage critically and creatively throughout the course. The purpose of this course is to contribute to the archive of Black Queer stories. This course is not an exhaustive history of Black Queer Theatre but should serve as an entry point to exploring the archive. The course is discussion-based and is designed for upper-level undergraduate and/or graduate students. Black Queer people have always played a major role through art and activism in the United States. This course seeks to address the gaps in both Black Performance Studies and mainstream Queer Studies.