The CSHE and the BSIEL presents ‘Go Slow, Now’: Black Patience, Anti-Black Violence, and the Radical Possibilities of Black Theatre, part of the 2024-2025 Black Study in Education Lab Webinar Series.
This talk considers how theatre–like television and photography–was vital to the cultural and political fronts of the Civil Rights Movement. It explores how Black artists and activists used theatre to stage a radical challenge to a violent racial project that I call Black Patience: a project that has historically forced black people to wait for freedom as a way to shore up anti-blackness and white supremacy. Mounting plays like Waiting for Godot, A Raisin in the Sun, and Blues for Mister Charlie, these cultural workers used theatre to re-articulate the radical demand for “freedom now” that became the vital refrain of the movement. By exploring theatre's intervention into the violent cultures of Black Patience, we can revisit some of the most pressing concerns in the fields of Black studies with fresh insights, while unfurling the importance of time to Black politics, Black art, and to modern racial formation.
Recorded Webinar
Featured Speaker
Julius B. Fleming, Jr.
Julius B. Fleming, Jr. is and Associate Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also serves as Interim Director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program. He earned a Ph.D. in English and a graduate certificate in Africana studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014. Specializing in Afro-diasporic literatures and cultures, he has particular interests in performance studies, Black political culture, diaspora, and colonialism, especially where they intersect with race, gender, and sexuality.
