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Summary:

Abstract: Starting in 1966, African American activist Stokely Carmichael and other political leaders adopted the phrase "Black Power!" The slogan captured a militant, revolutionary spirit that was already emerging in the work of playwrights, poets, musicians, and visual artists throughout the Black Arts movement of the mid-1960s. But the story of those theater artists and performers whose work helped bring about the Black Arts revolution has not fully been told. Readying the Revolution: African American Theater and Performance from Post-World War II to the Black Arts Movement explores the dynamic era of Black culture between the end of World War II and the start of the Black Arts Movement (1946-1964) by illuminating how artists and innovators such as Jackie Robinson, Lorraine Hansberry, Ossie Davis, Nina Simone, and others helped radicalize Black culture and Black political thought. In doing so, these artists defied white cultural hegemony in the United States, and built the foundation for the revolutionary movement in Black theater that followed in the mid 1960s. Through archival research, close textual reading, and an analysis of visual and aural performance artifacts, author Jonathan Shandell demonstrates how these artists negotiated a space on the public stage of the United States for cultivating radical Black aesthetic exploration and a spirit of courageous antiracist resistance. Readying the Revolution provides new insights into the activism and accomplishments of African American artists whose work helped lay the groundwork for a Black Nationalist cultural revolution, but whose influence has yet to receive its due recognition.

Author/Creator:

Shandell, Jonathan , author

Contributors:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan) , publisher, http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/pbl

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Readying the revolution: African American theater and performance culture from post-World War II to the Black Arts Movement [by Shandell, J.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: Readying the revolution [by Shandell, J.] (Ann Arbor, Michigan : University of Michigan Press, [2025] — ISBN 9780472077182; LCCN 2024033126)

Related Series:

Theater--theory/text/performance

Subjects:

African American theater — History — 20th century

Theater — Political aspects — United States — History — 20th century

African Americans in the performing arts — History — 20th century

Black Arts movement — History

Black Arts movement — Political aspects

Arts and society — United States — History — 20th century

African American theater — Political aspects — History — 20th century

1900-1999

Theater — Political aspects

Theater

African Americans in the performing arts

Black Arts movement

Arts and society

African American theater

United States

Genres:

History

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 163-174) and index.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Description based on: Print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Digital Characteristics:

text file

Call Numbers:

PN2270.A35 S536 2025eb

ISBNs:

9780472904808 (ebook other)
0472904809
9780472077182 (hardcover) [Invalid]
9780472057184 (paperback) [Invalid]

Other Standard Numbers:

Digital Object Identifier: 10.3998/mpub.12830358

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2024033127

OCLC Numbers:

1446452490