Object Performance in the Black Atlantic: The United States

This study explores the connection between traditional African puppets, masks, and performing objects and contemporary African American puppetry by examining the material culture of object performance. It argues that the lines of material culture continuity between African and African American object performance run through objects that performed in ritual rather than theatrical capacity. The book outlines the spaces where the African American object performance complex persisted through the period of slavery, traces how African Americans began to reclaim object performance in the era of Jim Crow segregation, and details how increased educational and economic opportunities along with new media technologies enabled African Americans to use performing objects as a powerful mode of resistance to the objectification of Black bodies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 300 pages
Publication date: 28 July 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Since slaveholders forbade the creation of African-style performing objects, is there a discernible link between traditional African puppets, masks, and performing objects, and contemporary African American puppetry? This study investigates the issue by examining the entire performance complex surrounding African performing objects and analyzing the material culture of object performance.

Object Performance in the Black Atlantic contends that since human beings can assign personal, private meanings to objects acquired for personal use, such as dolls, vessels, and quilts, the lines of material culture continuity between African and African American object performance run through objects that performed in ritual rather than theatrical capacity.

This book is divided into three parts. The first part outlines the spaces where the African American object performance complex persisted throughout the period of slavery. The second part traces how African Americans began to reclaim object performance in the era of Jim Crow segregation, and the third part details how increased educational and economic opportunities, along with new media technologies, enabled African Americans to use performing objects as a powerful mode of resistance to the objectification of Black bodies.

This is an essential study for any students of puppetry and material performance, particularly those concerned with African American performance and performance in North America more broadly.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032054872