AFR 19
Black Storytelling From Page To Stage Winter 2025

Some of the most impactful Black artists have chosen multiple genres and interwoven genres to write stories about Black life. For example, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple began as a novel, then became a film and a musical. With for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, Ntozake Shange wrote a choreopoem that merged dance with music and poetry. It was performed on the theatrical stage and was later adapted twice into film. These multi-genre stories of Black life have stood the test of time and captured the interest of diverse communities of fans. In advance of the course, Professor Rashida K. Braggs will choose one Black performance text that is relevant to winter study 2025. Students will engage with this text through multiple genres, including written and staged forms. The course will feature student discussion, writing and analysis of Black performance. Additionally, students will explore acting, moving, writing and film approaches that they will apply to the course text. In this way, students will not only learn by viewing, listening and discussing Black art, but by creating it too. Homework will include reading and viewing Black performance texts, short written responses to contribute to discussion, and rehearsal for in-class performances. The ending course goals are to see a performance of the featured text and for students to share their own performative interpretations of it. No prior performance experience is required, only an openness and curiosity about creating Black performance.