A Blueswoman Matters: A "Preaching the Blues" Book Talk and Review of Netflix's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

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Preaching the Blues: I Call BS on Rand Paul's Obstruction of the Emmitt Till Anti-lynching Act!

On June 3, 2020, Senator Rand Paul single-handedly thwarted passage of the Emmitt Till Anti-Lynching Act to extend a longstanding Congressional tradition of obstructing the passage of anti-lynching legislation since 1918. Despite his (fallacious) protestations to the contrary, we are grateful that we can reference anti-lynching plays written by Harlem Renaissance era playwright Georgia Douglas Johnson (1877?-1966) in which she effectively documents a cross-generational, whiteness tradition of anti-lynching legislation obstruction.

In Preaching the Blues: Black Feminist Performance in Lynching Plays (Routledge, 2020), I conduct close readings of two of Johnson’s plays related to anti-lynching legislation, And Yet They Paused (1938) and A Bill to Be Passed (1938). Johnson, anti-lynching drama’s most prolific author, depicts Congress’ unwillingness/inability to pass anti-lynching legislation, including the strategies (i.e. filibustering, stalling and breaking for recess) by which white men stall the process. Through her plays, Johnson also documents a 1936 lynching in Duck Hill, Mississippi, in which two black men were tortured to death using flamethrowers, an event which occurred at the exact same moment that Congress met to consider anti-lynching legislation presented by Joseph Gavagan (D-New York). The concurrent scene depicted by Johnson repeats itself when Paul delivered his Congressional filibuster during the exact same moments as George Floyd’s high profile memorial services. Bystanders recorded a Minneapolis police killing Floyd by excessive use of force, sparking international #blacklivesmatter protests.

Johnson’s plays also provide critical perspective from Black church officials who observe that the white Congressmen avoid passing anti-lynching legislation out of their desire to get re-elected as opposed to facilitating American justice. These Congressmen know that their constituents expect a quid pro quo exchange of their votes for impunity in lynching Blacks. In fact, in other anti-lynching plays, government officials and their constituents formed bonds over performing lynching together. In this way, Johnson ties lynching directly to Americans politics even though rhetorical performances such as Senator Paul’s seek to obscure a connection.

In contrast to unethical whiteness performances, Johnson depicts Black church members strengthening their community ties by singing traditional “ring shout” hymns in which they invoke Biblical images such as Joshua and the Battle of Jericho and Moses versus Pharoah. Black American citizens sustain their (long-suffering) belief in a possibility of justice through their culturally specific Christian practice.

Anti-lynching plays clarify lynching as a complex of interrelated whiteness performance practices used to deny Black Americans their full citizenship. Together, lynching and politics work as extralegal means by which white politicians and their constituents bond. Although Rand Paul’s illogical explanation tries to mask a longstanding whiteness tradition of obstructing passage of anti-lynching legislation, Georgia Douglas Johnson’s plays effectively document the practice for our reference more than eighty years later.

BlackPlayBook Prize: 2020-2021 Iman Arts Sacred Cypher Creative

2020-2021 Iman Arts Sacred Cypher Creative: Dr. Maisha Akbar

"Preaching the Blues: Black Feminist Performance in Lynching Plays" book talk- Auburn Research Library March 7, 2020

Blackplaybook Publication release date: October 16, 2019. Available for pre-order now

https://www.routledge.com/Preaching-the-Blues-Black-Feminist-Performance-in-Lynching-Plays/Akbar/p/book/9781138479616

BlackPlayBook Production: Fort Valley State University performs as part of the Douglass Theatre's HBCU Art Series.

Blackplaybook Production: Black drama and HBCU performance

Blackplaybook Production: Fort Valley State University's Joseph Adkins Players student drama group will perform as a part of the historic Douglass Theater's first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Art Series on February 21, 2019 at 7pm.

The student drama group will present plays written by black playwrights that challenge negative portrayals as well as contribute to a canon on black and American theatre.

Purchase tickets now :  https://douglasstheatre.myboxoffice.us/program/joseph-adkins-players-1279 For more information, contact Dr. Maisha Akbar at akbarm@fvsu.edu 

BlackPlayBook Production: "We Go High: A Salute to President Barack and Michelle Obama" presented by FVSU's Joseph Adkins Players

We Go High: A Black History Month Salute to President Barack and Michelle Obama

"In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them."

"In the long run, there is not much discrimination against superior talent. Carter G. Woodson" (1875-1950), Founder of Negro History Week (now Black History Month)

In celebration of Black History Month 2017, Fort Valley State University’s Joseph Adkins Players student drama group proudly presents, “We Go High.”

Through spiritual, speech, poetry, song, drama and dance, “We Go High” salutes Barack and Michelle Obama’s eight year tenure as President and First Lady of the United States. As the first African American couple ever to do so, “Barack and Michelle” (as we affectionately refer to them) effectively modeled “superior talent” as leaders of the free world. Although there may be debate about their contributions immediately following his administration, in the long run, President Obama’s legacy is sure to be highly regarded.

Not only have the Obamas shared with the American public an admirable record of service, we are also graced with their speeches, words of wisdom to which we can refer whenever needed. As students and scholars, we can read, share, examine and recite Michelle’s and Barack’s speeches as we educate ourselves to understand, in the words of Carter G. Woodson, “what’s best for us.” Even further, we might use their speeches as blueprints for how to become superior talents who would lead, speak, teach, sing, dance and inspire. Who knows what heights we might achieve when we rise above petty concerns of the majority to “go high” as Black history figures in our own rights.

Under the direction of Maisha S. Akbar, Ph.D., JAP performs on a “play-ground” of performance, scholarship, and activism. JAP is active in national organizations such as the National Communication Association (NCA) and Black Theatre Network (BTN). JAP’s organizational motto is “Saving the Drama for the Stage.” 

BlackPlayBook Production: "How to Avoid the Service Trap" Workshop

Am looking forward to presenting 5th Annual Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference. If you can't make it to the conference, be sure to sign up for my ebook, "How to Avoid the Service Trap" on right side of blog.

BlackPlayBook Review: "Hidden BlackPlay" or Why I am Looking Forward to BET’s “The Quad”

The same year Whitley Gilbert and DeWayne Wayne graduated from Hillman College, a fictional Historically Black College and University (HBCU) on NBC’s A Different World, I, in real life, graduated from Southern University and A&M College (Baton Rouge, LA) , where Dr. Delores Spikes served as University President. Throughout my matriculation as an undergraduate, I greatly admired Dr. Spikes’ superior administration. However, I can now admit that I took for granted her leadership. It never occurred to me that Dr. Spikes, as a “hidden figure”^[1] of Louisiana STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, must have dealt with sexism and racism along her “trailblazing” journey. She was not only the first Black woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from Louisiana State University, but Dr. Spikes was also the first woman in the United States to serve as president of a university system. Even further, Dr. Spikes went on to earn national accolades and other prominent positions in higher education.

Fast forward more than twenty years to my own position as a tenured professor (and founding program director) of theatre and performance studies at an HBCU. Now, I am intimately familiar with cultural forces affecting women’s leadership opportunities. In the more than ten years since I have been working at an HBCU, I have yet to work under a Black woman HBCU president in a permanent position. As documented by Marybeth Gasman as well as other references such as a www.hbcudigest.com article entitled, "Where Have All the Black Women HBCU Presidents Gone?"recent years have seen a severe reduction in the number of Black women HBCU presidents, many due to (premature?) dismissal, but also to retirement and untimely death.  

In my position as an HBCU art professor, I simultaneously perform as scholar, instructor, administrator, fundraiser, director, advocate, performer, collaborator, etc., compounding my insight into intersectional forces at HBCUs that expect women’s service yet do not promote her into leadership positions. Not only do I face undervaluing because of my gender, but I also face marginalization due to my field of study.

Marginalizing art at HBCUs is pretty much an oxymoron since these campuses function as site- specific, cultural performance spaces, especially with regard to their educational missions and practice of Black performance traditions (i.e. performing bands, dancing dolls and choirs, Divine Nine etc.). It is precisely for these reasons, however, that HBCUs provide rich backdrops for films and television shows depicting Black coming of age stories, as exemplified by Spike Lee’s School Daze (1988), as well as film and television versions of Drumline (and others). Furthermore, HBCU campuses are perfect frames for hashing out conflicts unique to black communities such as (economic) class issues or light skinned vs. dark skinned privilege.

Art and HBCU life once again collide in BET’s newest offering, The Quad , which depicts another fictional HBCU, Georgia A&M University, as a nexus of Black life. However, unlike off-screen where women presidents are currently hard to find, “The Quad” features a Michelle Obama inspired woman president, Dr. Eva Fletcher, who is cogently played by theater, television and film actress, Anika Noni Rose.

The Quad explicitly foregrounds HBCUs’ remarkable positions as Black performance sites through the network’s website where viewers can interact with the show by “enrolling” in the fictional university. Viewers can also watch videos in order to get to know the show’s featured performers including students, an athletic director and band director, as well as Madame President herself.    

Although I’m not yet sure of Dr. Fletcher’s academic background, The Quad performs meta communication in casting Rose, who is a real-life graduate of an HBCU theatre program (Florida A&M University). In doing so, the show moves toward explicit recognition of HBCUs as performance spaces where an African American woman (i.e. radical black feminist) visual or performing artist would be a most obvious choice as president.

Additionally, The Quad performs intertextually by casting Jasmine Guy as a university board member. Guy is a well- known alumnus of HBCU based television and film projects, having starred in both A Different World (as aforementioned, Whitley Gilbert), as well as School Daze. 

Can the image of President Fletcher effectively provide groundwork for new possibilities in HBCU leadership? Could The Quad cause powers that be to consider a woman art professor for an HBCU president position? Of course, we can’t say for sure now. However, I, for one, am excited about the creativity that the show re-presents to HBCU’s community of alumni, faculty, staff, students and supporters.  

 

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^[1] This term references the 2017 feature film release by the same name.

FVSU to offer Theatre Minor

June 12, 2015 – Fort Valley State University Joseph Adkins Players give their time, talent and heart to ensuring that their theater performances are on-mark for opening night. In the fall, those thespians will have an opportunity to receive classroom credit in exchange for their efforts thanks to a new theater minor program that was recently approved during a faculty senate meeting.

According to Dr. Maisha Akbar, an associate professor of fine arts, the minor program was launched to create a direct link between Fort Valley State University and Georgia’s $5.1 billion film and television production industry. Currently, the state ranks number two after California for film production.

“The Theatre/Performance Studies minor will prepare the students with the skills that will result in a broadening of student job opportunities, including those that are supported by Governor Nathan Deal’s allocation of a portion of the 2015 state budget,” Akbar said. “Additionally, the proposed minor will effectively update the departmental/college/university curriculum to reflect current trends that integrate art.”

Akbar expects to have 15 to 40 students within her minor program during the first year, whose primary majors will be largely composed of drama students, as well as mass communications students who want to supplement their programs with Theatre/Performance Studies curriculum.

Students will need to earn 18 hours in order to receive a minor in theater studies. Students can choose Oral Interpretation (THEA 1203) Survey of Theatre History (THEA 2424), Theatre Practicum (THEA 4473).
Akbar says the new program helps increase students options and opportunities in regard to art-based educational training.

“These activities are not only attractive to students but provides much needed outlets for their talents and interests,” she said. “Theatre/Performance Studies is important in other fields of study as it offers students essential tools for understanding art and culture. These tools include creative thinking and critical analysis, the study of cultural/performance practices, as well as foundational skills upon which students can pursue careers in media research, scholarship and teaching and/or professions in the media and new media industries.”

For more information on the program, contact Akbar at (478) 825-6989 or email akbarm@fvsu.edu.

Fine Arts J.A.P. celebrates performance, scholars and launch of theater minor

February 20, 2015 - Next fall, Fort Valley State University actors, actresses and theater enthusiasts will have the opportunity to earn credit for their participation in performances on campus. The university is launching a theater minor in Fall 2015. To celebrate the development of the program, the Joseph Adkins Players will be holding a special, invitation-only performance at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 5. A reception will follow after the performance.

Dr. Maisha Akbar, FVSU associate professor of fine arts, is helping to create the new offering for students. Akbar says that she is completing a proposal to establish the program on campus.

"Theater skills are applied communications skills," Akbar said. "They are marketable. They not only have the performance aspect, but the technical aspect as well. Students in the drama club have attended lighting, writing and film workshops. We've had very dynamic activities, so this new theater minor is our way of giving back."

Akbar says that the new minor builds upon the work that the drama club has done on campus. According to Akbar, the drama club has held a production every semester, and the March 5 event will spotlight their past and future productions.

"The event includes two productions that we've done before -- A Safe (by Georgia Douglass Johnson) and Selfies.  We will also preview the production that we're doing in the fall, which is Steel Magnolias," Akbar said.

Once the minor program is established on campus, students will need to earn 15 credit hours in theater to earn a minor.

"Establishing a theater minor furthers the work our dedicated and talented faculty are doing in raising the profile of the Arts at FVSU and in the community," said Dr. Uppinder Mehan, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

BlackPlayBook Production: Your Blues Ain't Like Mine: A Drama Suite for Social Justice

FVSU’s Joseph Adkins Players Student Drama Group presents “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine: A Drama Suite for Social Justice”

The Fort Valley State University Joseph Adkins Players (JAP) proudly presents “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine: A Drama Suite for Social Justice” as our Spring 2014 production.  This production is our artists’ response to the circumstances surrounding the recent shooting deaths of young African Americans including Trayvon Martin, Reneisha McBride, Jonathan Ferrell and Jordan Davis.  “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine” is made up of two one act lynching plays that include “Saving White Face” which was adapted by Dr. Maisha S. Akbar (JAP faculty advisor) from Bebe Moore Campbell’s best -selling novel, Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine (1992). In fact, Campbell’s estate granted Dr. Akbar special permission to produce this show.  The second play, “Safe” (1929), was written by Harlem Renaissance writer Georgia Douglas Johnson.  Johnson depicts incidents around the1899 lynching of Sam Hose. Hose, whose murder was one of the most infamous lynchings in American history, was a native of Marshallville, Georgia, which is only 10 miles away from The Fort Valley State University campus.

Through this performance, JAP foregrounds the anti-lynching activism that was spearheaded by Ida B. Wells Barnett; as well as that of the NAACP, the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching  (ASWPL) and many other visual and literary artists who sought to interrogate cultural fictions that were (re)produced to justify the extralegal murders of countless African Americans.

Under the direction of Dr. Maisha S. Akbar, Fort Valley State University’s Joseph Adkins Players (JAP) student drama group performs on a “play-ground” of performance, scholarship and activism.  In addition to delivering cutting edge productions, JAP members use theater to engage in scholarly research and consider issues of social justice.   JAP operates as an official student group that represents FVSU at national theater and communications conferences such as those of the National Communication Association (NCA), the Black Theatre Network (BTN).  JAP’s organizational motto is, “Saving the Drama for the Stage.”

JAP thanks you for your continued support of our shows. Follow us on twitter @JAP_FVSU. Enjoy the show!

Best regards,

Maisha S. Akbar, Ph.D., JAP Faculty Advisor

Akbarm@fvsu.edu

www.Blackplaybook.com; @ablackplaybook