African Americans and Shakespeare

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.8 • 878 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2015

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom! Freedom, high-day, freedom!" —THE TEMPEST(2.2.192-193) In this second of two podcasts on Shakespeare and the African American experience, "Freedom, Hey-Day! Hey-Day, Freedom!" examines some of the many ways—including, but not limited to, performance—that black Americans have encountered, responded to, taken ownership of, and sometimes turned away from Shakespeare's words. Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, narrates this expansive, interview-filled look at the intersection between African American life and Shakespeare, from stage productions to personal and academic encounters with the texts. Kim Hall is a professor of English at Barnard College. Caleen Sinnette Jennings is a professor of theater at American University in Washington, DC. Bernth Lindfors is professor emeritus of history at the University of Texas. Francesca Royster is a professor of English at DePaul University. Shane White is a professor of history at the University of Sydney in Australia. -------------------- From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. Edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. We had help gathering material for the Shakespeare Unlimited series from Esther French. We also had help from Britta Greene and Anne Marie Baldonado at Fresh Air with Terry Gross, who gave us their 1987 recording of August Wilson. Original music composed and arranged by Lenny Williams. The title of this episode uses an alternate spelling ("hey-day") in quoting Caliban's exclamation; it is "high-day" in the Folger Digital Texts edition of THE TEMPEST.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.
0:06.5	I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers Director.
0:09.2	This podcast is titled Freedom, Heyday, Hey Day, Freedom.
0:14.4	It is one of two podcasts exploring a uniquely American intersection between Shakespeare and society.
0:20.5	The choices made by African-American actors and scholars who, over the years, have performed,
0:26.5	taught, and studied Shakespeare.
0:28.9	As you will hear, like so much else surrounding American race relations,
0:33.1	the African-American performance of Shakespeare is inextricably bound up with the American experiences of slavery, freedom, Jim Crow segregation, and the battle for equal rights.
0:44.8	This podcast focuses in part on two fascinating times in that long American history.
0:51.3	One story begins in the 1820s when freedom first came to the enslaved African
0:56.1	Americans of New York. The other encompasses the long period of change stretching from the 1950s
1:02.9	to today. Our narrator is Rebecca Shear. Here's an anecdote to consider as we start. It's from
1:09.8	Kim Felicia Hall, a professor of English who teaches Shakespeare at Barnard College.
1:14.4	I'll just say when students come to my class and they're shocked that I'm black, that's a kind of subtle message.
1:20.6	And I had a student one time who came and wanted to know where my degree was from.
1:27.0	Who does Shakespeare belong to in America?
1:30.4	We like to say everyone, but does he?
1:33.3	I don't think people are told specifically you're not allowed to interpret Shakespeare,
1:38.1	but I think there are kind of subtle messages.
1:41.0	Shakespeare is not for you or Shakespeare is not.
1:43.9	They kind of exclude Shakespeare from your
1:45.6	cultural heritage. That message of exclusion is something that Hall, who also teaches Africana
	...

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