At Howard; Black in American Theater

Roberts-Williams, Sybil

Professor Sybil Roberts-Williams speaks to a group of students about the history and development of Black Theatre in America. She begins with "Black Vaudeville" and the Hyer Sisters, Anna Madah and Emma Louise. She moves into Ernest Hogan's development of the farcical "coon song"; which was later appropriated and abused by white Americans. She also discussed the philosophical divide of what Black Theatre should be first distinguished by Marion Cook and Bob Cole and later picked up by W.E.B. DuBois and Alain Locke. The rise of "Back to Africa" musicals, the Black Aesthetic, Hip-Hop Theatre, and the eventual development of Spoken Word as performance are also discussed.