How do scholars, artists, and audiences reconcile being anti-racist with loving Shakespeare?

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.

I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folger Director.

Farah Kareem Cooper is a professor of Shakespeare studies at King's College London

and the Director of Education at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Her new book, The Great White Bard, explores the language of race and difference in plays such as

Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus, and The Tempest.

Kareem Cooper also looks at the ways Shakespeare's work became integral to Britain's imperial project and its sense of cultural superiority. Add to this the fact that Kareem

Cooper is an unapologetic Shakespeare fan. The subtitle of her book is How to Love Shakespeare while talking about race.

Far from casting Shakespeare out of the classroom or the playhouse,

Kareem Cooper shows new ways to appreciate him. And by drawing connections between the plays and

current events, she offers an eyes wide open tour of Shakespeare's continued relevance.

The seed of the idea for the book was planted in 2021 when Kareem Cooper received a letter from a member of the public.

Here's Farah Kareem Cooper in conversation with Barbara Bogave.

If you could, tell me about the letter you received a few years ago that prompted you to write this book.

Well, the letter I received was because I had launched at the Globe in 2021 a series of anti-racist Shakespeare webinars.

And the main purpose of these webinars was really just to get an actor

and a scholar together to talk about every single play that we put on in the theater season in the

context of race and identity. And when we launched them, there was a huge backlash on Twitter

and in some of the more conservative of British newspapers.

And when you say backlash, do you mean like hate mail?

Hate mail, yeah, absolute hate mail.

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