Strangeness and Subversion at the Shaftesbury: <i>In Dahomey</i> in London in 1903

Moving away from the identity politics inherent in revisionist biographies of ex- enslaved African Americans abroad, I would like to refocus the vehicle and situation of the Black performance collective that presented In Dahomey abroad. In this, I will refer to the show’s reception rather than deconstruct elements of its script, its songs, or its dancing. I am attempting to recover indigenous narratives of struggle, resistance, and capitualation that drove the company which toured the United Kingdom from the 26th of December 1903 to the 4th of June 1904. For the purposes of this discussion, my thoughts will centre on this account on the 23rd of October 1903, by the drama correspondent for the Times."The resultant impression left on our mind was one of strangeness, the strangeness of the “coloured” race blended with the strangeness of certain American things...we can remember nothing quite so strange as In Dahomey. Probably [the] sole design was to show us the African unenslaved, the African in his native majesty, by way of contrast to the Americanized African of the subsequent scenes. Their spectacle is just a little painful – painful and strange.

Excess Baggage: Transatlantic Identity, Belonging and Performance Diasporas, 1850 - 1910

What follows, in four case studies, is an interrogation of the role that identity played in performance in the transatlantic cultural world between 1850 and 1910. I look at performers because their transnational struggles and assimilations of belonging were, and remain, visible precisely as they engaged with theatricality and performativity in the production of saleable and exchangeable cultural commodities. Identity and belonging are etched into the theatrical diasporas that these people traversed and, I argue, are clearly visible situations that should be taken into account when considering their historical narratives. Investigating their situations in this way is new work, which I hope will open doors to a deeper understanding and a more inclusive historicisation of performance and performers at the Fin de Siècle. Theoretically I both argue from a cultural materialist position in considering performance cultures and commodities and with social science paradigms when considering assimilation typologies and strategy. Situating typologies of transnational belonging and social science strategies of integration within a cultural history of performance is new work, which relies on the post-modern turn toward interdisciplinary historical analysis. Indeed, the fields of identity studies and immigration studies are relatively new. In introducing recent theory to the very rich material life of late nineteenth century performance culture I hope to extend the life of the argument that there is much to know and rewrite in narratives of the players of this period. <br/

Slavery’s sojourners: the trans-Atlantic crossing of William and Ellen Craft (1850 – 1869)

The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in the United States made even the free territory of the northern states unsafe for escaped slaves. Slaves could be captured and returned to the South at any time without benefit of trial. By late September of 1850 America was no longer a place where any black person could live safely. William and Ellen Craft were two such slaves, who chose – with the help of Trans-Atlantic abolitionists – freedom in temporary exile. Moving out of Boston, through Canada and across the Atlantic, they arrived in Liverpool late in 1850. They toured Scotland and England at various intervals, appearing publicly with William lecturing both for the Abolitionist cause and for the Uplift of their race. In 1861, William published a book (Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom), Uncle Tom’s Cabin draws on their experience, and they are often mentioned in critical and social commentary of the day. William and Ellen Craft represented the dark-side of the American socio-political identity to a self-consciously newly emancipated Britain. Slave narrative emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as a popular autobiographical genre in which escaped slaves recounted their literal and emotional journeys from slavery to freedom. Authors of slave narratives were primarily concerned with gaining adherents to the abolitionist cause by convincing white readers of their intelligence and humanity – and, by extension, the intelligence and humanity of all enslaved black Americans. Although they had Agents, in both Canada and Britain who, under the banner of abolitionism, acted on their behalf, the mechanisms with which Ellen inveigled freedom for both herself and her husband – her passing as white and cross-dressing as a man – are the very actions, not people, that brokered their freedom. Here, transgressive tropes of passing and transvestitism acted as brokers in the abstract. The paradox in this exchange is that once their freedom was thus brokered and they were safe inside British borders, they both: submitted to a type of re-enslavement in the re-enactment of their narrative on the lecture circuit; and they consciously transgressed class boundaries by appearing to assimilate into the prescriptive hegemony of the aspiring middle-classes. The later was reflected in their choice of address, schooling, social circle, and business interests. This paper is interested in addressing both their re-enslavement and transgression on this side of the Atlantic. Specifically, and for example, I argue that Ellen’s performance of and identification with the idea of ‘The True Woman’ or the ‘Cult of the True Woman’ brokered an empowerment and an increase in status from which a middle-class identity could be construed. Also, that William’s performance of their private pain in lecture halls for the abolitionist cause re-inscribed slavery on their public bodies. <br/

Black power’s epigram: Transatlantic radicals at the turn of the Ccentury

In October of 1903 the Williams &amp; Walker touring collective opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London in In Dahomey – the most economically and critically successful of all the turn of the century black theatricals. Its success does not entirely chime with its content: the show was entirely anchored by the ‘Uplift’ of a race, the subversion of imperialism, and diasporic identities seeking legitimate power. To succeed, the politically active cast engaged in a double-consciousness of presentation to ‘sell’ a show whose main premise was the legitimation of PanAfricanism and repatriation. This paper speculates on their engagement with European and American radicals of their time and argues their place in the cultural geography of transatlantic racial radials in the twentieth century. My thoughts are that personal pain led them to act collectively to subvert popular entertainment in a two-way cathartic dance of resistance. The Company’s success placed them, on their return, at the pinnacle of Harlem Renaissance’s elite, a group of people and an epoch that burnt fast and died young. However, the strides they made toward radicalising their brethren and uplifting their race were quite long ones. I see their story as an epigram to the narrative of their race’s politicisation and expressions of Black Power later in the century

Porous Protest and Rhetorical Performance: Democratic Transformation at Occupy

What follows considers whether harnessing word (argument) and action (occupation) constitutes a transformative democratic performance. In this, I am not seeking to replace the Aristotelian concept of performance, nor its transformative aspect, but I do ask how appropriate it is to confine mimetic acts of protest to an Aristotelian dialectic. The “efficacy debate” is a central issue for practitioners and scholars of political performance and I shall not question the truth of such claims that to be a performance the event must transform its audience in some way. Rather, I question, as others have, the ability for the performance of protest to effect any kind of political change. My argument is that Occupy’s politics emerge out of its performance of rhetorical devices and strategies that put democracy on display

It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine):: New Urban Gothicism at the Edge of Armageddon

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