Instructor: Paredez, D Areas: V / G
Unique #: 35955 Flags: Cultural Diversity
Semester: Fall 2013 Restrictions: n/a
Cross-lists: AFR 372E, MAS 374 (pending approval) Computer Instruction: No
Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.
Description: In recent years, numerous public discussions and critical commentaries have focused on the purported tensions between Black and Latino communities. By examining Black and Latino artistic products and cultural practices from the 1940s to the present, the historical trajectory of this course encourages students to challenge recent constructions of Black/Latino relations as inherently conflictual. We will pay particular attention to both thematic resonances between Black and Latino art and to actual Black/Latino artistic collaborations in theatre, dance, performance art, performance poetry, music, fashion and style. We will also study works by Afro-Latino artists whose art disrupts the discrete categories that often separate the two communities. Throughout the course, students will 1) chart a history of collaborations and resonances between Black and Latino artists; 2) identify Black and Latino aesthetic styles and traditions; and 3) develop and practice analytical skills for approaching the question: "What is Black and/or Latino performance?"
Texts to be selected from the following among others: (description approved by DP for posting as is, 3/11/13; no narrowing down of texts yet.)
Elam, Harry. Taking It to the Streets: The Social Protest Theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri Baraka
Gamson, Joshua. The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco
shange, ntozake. for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
Baraka, Amiri/Jones, Leroi. "AM/TRAK." Jazz Poetry Anthology. Eds. Sascha Feinstein & Yusef Komunyakaa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.
_____. Dutchman. New York: Harper, 1971.
7_____. "A Jazz Great: John Coltrane." Black Music. New York: W. Morrow, 1967. 56-62.
_____. "The Revolutionary Theatre." http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/blackarts/documents.htm.
Flores, Juan. "Cha-Cha with a Back Beat: Songs and Stories of Latin Boogaloo." Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meanings in Popular Music. Ed. Lise Waxer. New York: Routledge, 2002. 75-100.
Fusco, Coco. "Performance and Power of the Popular." Let’s Get It On: The Politics of Black Performance. Seattle: Bay Press, 1995. 158-176.
George-Graves, Nadine. "Basic Black." Theatre Journal 57.4 (2005): 610-612.
Habell-Pallán, Michelle & Mary Romero, "Introduction." Latino/a Popular Culture, Ed. Habell-Pallán & Romero. New York: New York University Press, 2002. 1-7.
Hall, Stuart Hall. "What is this Black in Black Popular Culture?" Black Popular Culture. Ed. Gina Dent. Seattle: Bay Press, 1992. 20-33.
Jacques, Geoffrey. "CuBop! Afro-Cuban Music and Mid-Twentieth Century American Culture." Between Race and Empire: African Americans and Cubans Before the Cuban Revolution. Eds. Lisa Brock & Digna Castenada-Fuertes. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. 249-265.
Kelley, Robin D. G. "The Riddle of the Zoot: Malcolm Little and Black Cultural Politics During World War II" Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class. New York: Free Press, 1994. 161-182.
Lott, Eric. "Double V, Double Time: Bebop's Politics of Style." Jazz Among the Discourses. Ed. Krin Gabbard. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995. 243-255.
McCauley, Robbie. Sally's Rape. Moon Marked and Touched by Sun: Plays by African-American Women. Ed. Sydne Mahone. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1994. 211-238.
_____. "Thoughts on My Career, The Other Weapon, and Other Projects." Performance and Cultural Politics. Ed. Elin Diamond. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Muñoz, Jose. "Performing Disidentifications." Disidentifications: Queers o Color and the Performance of Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,1999. 1-13.
Neal, Larry. "The Black Arts Movement." http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/blackarts/documents.htm.
Pagán, Eduardo Obregón. "Chapter 5: Dangerous Fashion." Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. 98-125.
Parks, Suzan-Lori. "Black Math." Theatre Journal 57.4 (2005): 576-583.
_____. "An Equation for Black People Onstage. The American Play and Other Works. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1995.19-22.
Perdomo, Willie. "Nigger-Reecan Blues." Where a Nickel Costs a Dime. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996. 19-21.
Ramírez, Catherine. "Crimes of Fashion: The Pachuca and Chicana Style Politics," Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 2:2 (Spring 2002): 1-35.
Rivera, Raquel. "It's Just Begun" & "Whose Hip Hop?" New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone. New York: Palgrave, 2003. 49-96.
Sanchez, Sonia. "a/coltrane/poem." Jazz Poetry Anthology. Eds. Sascha Feinstein & Yusef Komunyakaa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991. 183-186.
El Teatro Campesino, "Los Vendidos." The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama. 3rd Edition. Ed. W.B. Worthen. New York: Heinle & Heinle, 1999. 1008-1012.
Troyano, Alina. "The Conquest of Mexico as Seen Through the Eyes of Hernan Cortes' Horse." I, Carmelita Tropicana: Performing Between Cultures. New York: Beacon Press, 2000. 173-76.
_____. Milk of Amnesia. I, Carmelita Tropicana: Performing Between Cultures. New York: Beacon Press, 2000. 52-71.
Valdez, Luis. "Notes on Chicano Theatre." Early Works: Actos, Bernarbe, and Pensamiento Serpentino. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1994. 6-10.
Requirement and Grading: In addition to regular attendance and active participation, there are THREE ASSIGNMENTS required for this course:
1) Creative Response 25%
2) Performance Analysis 25%
3) Final Project 50%
a. Presentation component 20%
b. Written component 30%
1) Creative Response
DUE: During the second week of class, each student will sign up for a day to share their response.
A response to the performance/music/play/dance/style that is in a form other than a written analysis. This could be visual art: a collage, a drawing, a painting; sculpture or a "prop" or tool or machine; music or sound; food; movement, gesture, or dance; or another written form: poetry, for example. The purpose of this approach is to encourage a different, perhaps more intuitive response to and analysis of the performance. Also, please include a short (less than one page typed, double-spaced) explanation of your response.
2) Performance Analysis
DUE: On the day we discuss the performance you are analyzing.
A 2-3-page, typed, double-spaced paper (around 500-750 words) in which you offer your own original interpretation of a performance form or cultural style studied this semester. Your essay should begin with Observation: What do you read or see or hear or feel? Then expand to Analysis: How does this observation connect to other elements of the performance or cultural artifact or create a pattern? And finally move to: Interpretation: What is significant about this observation? What does it mean? How does it contribute to the total meaning of the performance or cultural product?
3) Final Project
The final project is comprised of the following steps:
1) Proposal Draft (1 page typed abstract)
2) Presentation/Performance (15 min)
3) Completed Written Project (10-15 pp)
This project provides each seminar participant the opportunity to critically investigate and/or creatively produce Black or Latino performance. The project includes both an oral and written component. The oral component can take the form of a scholarly presentation or lecture, an original performance, an art installation, or an interactive workshop. The written component can take the form of a theoretical or historical research paper, an original script accompanied by an introductory "Artist's Statement," or a curatorial essay. We will explore other options as the semester proceeds.
