Author: Steven

  • Queridos Blanquitos: The Hidden Racism of Nuestra América NACLA Report on the Americas New York, New York 2014-11-19 Ed Morales Columbia University, New York, New York In Justin Simien’s debut film Dear White People, a passing comment about Puerto Ricans exposes the contradictory status of mixed-race people in the “post-racial” Americas. There is a moment…

  • Let’s Talk About Race (in Latin@ Communities) NACLA Report on the Americas New York, New York 2014-10-16 Melissa M. Valle, Ph.D. candidate Columbia University, New York, New York While many trivialize race in Latin@ communities as abstract and irrelevant, Afro-Latin@s are still fighting a definitive racial hierarchy. They say that the Devil’s greatest trick is…

  • bell hooks, Rethinking Everything, and Colorism – Hidden Power of Words Series, #13 Andrew Joseph Pegoda, A.B.D. 2014-11-22 Andrew Joseph Pegoda Department of History University of Houston, Houston, Texas bell hooks continues to transform my thinking and understanding of all things related to critical theory and History. I have completely fallen in love with her…

  • AN OCTOROON: THE OCTOROON an essay by James Leverett The Soho Repository New York, New York 2014-04-01 James Leverett, Professor (Adjunct) of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Yale School of Drama There is melodrama in every tragedy, just as there is a child in every adult.” –Eric Bentley, Life of the Drama A Suggested Walk I…

  • What is Dion Boucicault’s THE OCTOROON? The Soho Repository New York, New York 2014-03-17 James Leverett, Professor (Adjunct) of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Yale School of Drama Professor of Dramatic Criticism James Leverett from The Yale School of Drama joins us in this video to give context and background to Dion Boucicault’s 1859 melodrama The…

  • ‘Did Somebody Say “Mulatto”?’ Speaking Critically on Mixed Heritage The Huffington Post The Blog 2014-11-21 A. B. Wilkinson, Assistant Professor of History University of Nevada, Las Vegas Photograph: Ken Tanabe One of the main characters in the award-winning film Dear White People is a mixed “black and white” college student who works to make sense…

  • Amber Gray on ‘An Octoroon,’ at Soho Rep

  • Racial divide: It’s a social concept, not a scientific one The Washington Post 2014-11-03 Nancy Szokan Most scientists agree that race is not a biological concept. As Wikipedia defines it, in an extremely lengthy and extravagantly footnoted entry that surely has been edited and re-edited many times, “Race is a social concept used to categorize…

  • Old Times There Are Not Forgotten The New York Times 2014-05-04 Ben Brantley, Chief Theater Critic ‘An Octoroon,’ a Slave-Era Tale at Soho Rep Some people are paralyzed by self-consciousness. The playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is inspired, energized and perhaps even set free by it. You could say that he transforms self-consciousness into art, except then…

  • ‘A Chosen Exile,’ by Allyson Hobbs [Senna Review] The New York Times Sunday Book Review 2014-11-21 Danzy Senna A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life By Allyson Hobbs; Illustrated. 382 pp. Harvard University Press. $29.95. One of the best birthday presents anybody ever gave me was a “calling card” by the…