A Sourcebook of African-American Performance: Plays, People, Movements (review)

In 1968, Larry Neal's groundbreaking article "The Black Arts Movement" appeared in the summer issue of The Drama Review (TDR). Neal's call for the rise of a "black aesthetic" helped the Black Arts Movement (BAM) define itself as one that was "radically opposed to any concept of the artist that alienates the artist from his/her community" (54). Neal declared that BAM must condemn the western notion of art for art's sake. His article inspired great debate that continues through the present day. In A Sourcebook of African-American Performance: Plays, People, Movements, editor Annemarie Bean's intention is to revisit Neal's declaration through a more careful examination of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and the New Black Renaissance of the 1990s. To do so Bean has selected a montage of intellectually stimulating interviews, essays, articles and plays previously published in TDR. In her introduction, she argues that the text should have a spiral effect whereby visions of African American performance will be broadened rather than stifled and contained. The various forms of performance highlighted in this four-part book include but are not limited to professional, college and community theatre, concert dance, step shows, musicals, and performance art. To introduce each section, Bean relies heavily on respected scholars, writers, and performers who attempt to elucidate the multidimensional aspects of black theatre and performance.

In the introduction to Part One, "Theatrical In(ter)ventions of the Black Arts Movement," playwright Ed Bullins asserts that award-winning playwright August Wilson has helped to globalize black theatre. "His voice will carry the American Black Theatre Movement into the twenty-first century" (11). This part of the book also doubles as an anthology dedicated to BAM plays. Explosive dramas like Bullins's Clara's Ole Man (1968); Amiri Baraka's Home on the Range and Police (1968); and Sonia Sanchez's The Bronx is Next (1968), all written the year of Martin Luther King's assassination, call attention to the frustration felt by black Americans in urban areas. Most notably through their volatile characters, Baraka and Sanchez expose tumultuous confrontations between police and members of the black community. In addition, Barbara Lewis's interview "Ritual Reformulations: Barbara Ann Teer and the National Black Theatre of Harlem" (1998) explicates how institutions addressed a "social function of art" throughout BAM (55). For instance, Teer, formerly a professional dancer and actress on Broadway, committed herself to community building in Harlem, where she used ritual to create a "God-conscious art" (68). This section of the book emphasizes how critical it was for art to provide black America with the tools it needed to rebuild its communities in the midst of chaos.

An engaging aspect of Bean's A Sourcebook is the attention given to the plays, people and movements beyond New York City. In Part Two, "Free Southern Theater and Community Activism," she reminds readers of the South's role in BAM. This section illustrates the way in which black arts institutions like Free Southern Theater (FST) placed civil rights at the center of their discourse. Founded in 1963 in the "Black-belt South," FST presented plays that raised questions about the human condition. The theatre institution built its relationship with communities by touring around Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia. FST charged no admission in spite of the constant economic hardships it faced, as John O'Neal, one of FST's founders, declared that he did not want FST to be driven by money. O'Neal's voice is prominent throughout this section of the text and the legacy of FST is further displayed through the inclusion of a series of interviews with other FST contributors. These pieces unfold like performances as the participants passionately discuss a range of issues, from community responses to FST's early productions of Purlie Victorious, Waiting for Godot, and In White...