{"id":40765,"date":"2015-04-06T01:13:36","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T01:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=40765"},"modified":"2015-04-07T15:31:12","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T15:31:12","slug":"boutte-play-to-explore-questions-of-race-and-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=40765","title":{"rendered":"Boutt\u00e9 play to explore questions of race and identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boutt\u00e9 play to explore questions of race and identity<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Illinois State University<\/a>
\n2015-03-25<\/p>\n

Eric Jome<\/strong><\/a>, Director of Media Relations<\/p>\n

When Duane Boutt\u00e9<\/a>, an assistant professor in the School of Theatre and Dance, read James Weldon Johnson\u2019s<\/a> novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man<\/em><\/a>, the story struck a familiar chord. It also served as further inspiration for Boutt\u00e9 to develop a play based loosely on his own family history.<\/p>\n

Johnson was an author, songwriter, professor, lawyer, diplomat and civil rights leader in the early 20th century. The executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People<\/a> (NAACP) in the 1920s, Johnson also composed the lyrics to Lift Ev\u2019ry Voice and Sing<\/em><\/a>, a song the NAACP promoted as a black national anthem.<\/p>\n

The book\u2019s plot revolves around the life of a man struggling with his own racial identity. The un-named main character leads an idyllic childhood in the American south, taking piano lessons and developing a love for the music of Chopin<\/a>. His world is changed when he learns that his mother is of mixed race, even though she passes for white<\/a>. He eventually comes to terms with his heritage, but ultimately decides to keep his true identity a secret, even from his children.<\/p>\n

Boutt\u00e9 was immediately intrigued. Johnson\u2019s novel explored themes of identity that resonate deeply with him. His family tree, rooted in Louisiana<\/a>, includes black and white branches. \u201cI have maternal and paternal grandparents of mixed race, but they always identified as black,\u201d he said. \u201cThroughout American history, mixed-race children were more often raised by the black branch and shunned by the white. My great-great-grandfather in Louisiana established his own family cemetery so that both black and white family members could be buried in the same area, but I\u2019ve always been struck by stories about a few mixed-race relatives of ours who simply passed for white.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boutt\u00e9 play to explore questions of race and identity Illinois State University 2015-03-25 Eric Jome, Director of Media Relations When Duane Boutt\u00e9, an assistant professor in the School of Theatre and Dance, read James Weldon Johnson\u2019s novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the story struck a familiar chord. It also served as further inspiration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,8,6462,20],"tags":[19816,19817,7180,1307,1392],"class_list":["post-40765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-duane-boutte","tag-eric-jome","tag-illinois-state-university","tag-james-weldon-johnson","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}