New Books in Performing Arts
Episodes
Daphne A. Brooks, "Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound" (Harvard UP, 2021)
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound (Harvard University Press, 2021) by Dr. Daphne Brooks is a lyrical mast...
I. Stavans and J. Lambert, "How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish" (Restless Books, 2020)
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild...
Studying LBGT Organizing in China: A Conversation with Caterina Fugazzola
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode of Ethnographic Marginalia, Sneha Annavarapu talks with Dr. Caterina Fugazzola, Earl S Johnson Instructor in Sociology at the Un...
Howard Sherman, "Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century" (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021)
15 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Howard Sherman's Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021) provides a fascinating tour of c...
Tavia Nyong’o, "Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life" (NYU Press, 2028)
05 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tavia Nyong’o's Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life (NYU Press, 2018), examines a broad range of artists and disciplines, from Adrian ...
Linda C. Ehrlich, "The Films of Kore-eda Hirokazu: An Elemental Cinema" (Palgrave, 2019)
05 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Films of Kore-eda Hirokazu: An Elemental Cinema (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019) draws readers into the first 13 feature films and 5 of the documentar...
Kimberly Mack, "Fictional Blues: Narrative Self-Invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White" (U Mass Press, 2020)
05 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The familiar story of Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, who sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in exchange for guitar virtuosit...
M. C. Riggio et al, "Festive Devils of the Americas" (Seagull Books, 2015)
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The devil is a defiant, nefarious figure, the emblem of evil, and harbinger of the damned. However, the festive devil—the devil that dances—turns ...
Diana Taylor, "¡Presente!: The Politics of Presence" (Duke UP, 2020)
29 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Diana Taylor's ¡Presente! The Politics of Presence (Duke University Press, 2020) examines what it means to be presente in the context of protest, t...
Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder, "Access All Areas: The Diversity Manifesto for TV and Beyond" (Faber and Faber, 2021)
29 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How can we create a more equal media industry? In Access All Areas: The Diversity Manifesto for TV and Beyond, Marcus Ryder and Sir Lenny Henry, b...
Andrea Bohlman, "Musical Solidarities: Political Action and Music in Late Twentieth-Century Poland" (Oxford UP, 2020)
26 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Musical Solidarities: Political Action and Music in Late Twentieth-Century Poland (Oxford University Press, 2020) by Andrea Bohlman is a study of the...
Maya Stovall, "Liquor Store Theatre" (Duke UP, 2020)
25 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For six years, anthropologist and artist Maya Stovall enacted a series of dance performances outside of liquor stores in the McDougall-Hunt neighbor...
Mario Telò, "Archive Feelings: A Theory of Greek Tragedy" (Ohio State UP, 2020)
22 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, I interview Mario Telò, professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, about his new bo...
André Gregory, "This Is Not My Memoir" (FSG, 2020)
20 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
André Gregory's not-memoir This Is Not My Memoir (FSG, 2020) is a fascinating trip through theatre history as seen through the eyes of one of its ...
Guojun Wang, "Staging Personhood: Costuming in Early Qing Drama" (Columbia UP, 2020)
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Much is known about the Qing sartorial regulations and how the Qing conquerors forced Han Chinese males to adopt Manchu hairstyle and clothing. But wh...
David Chaffetz, "Three Asian Divas: Women, Art and Culture In Shiraz, Delhi and Yangzhou" (Abbreviated Press, 2019)
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The “diva” is a common trope when we talk about culture. We normally think of the diva as a Western construction: the opera singer, the Broadway a...
Bringing the Story to the Streets: If God is Dead, How Does the Passion Survive?
13 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the Passion of Christ has lived through the ages in the Netherlands despite secularism growing in the popular narrative of the nation. In...
Mike Anthony, "Life at Hamilton: Sometimes You Throw Away Your Shot, Only to Find Your Story" (Waterside, 2020)
13 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Mike Anthony moved to New York City to become an actor, he’d imagined being under the bright lights of Broadway, living a life full of fame and...
Gerry Smyth, "Sailor Song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas" (U Washington Press, 2020)
12 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sailor Song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas (University of Washington Press, 2020) by performer and scholar Gerry Smyth includes lyrics ...
Andy Boyd, "The Trade Federation or Let's Explore Globalization Through the Star Wars Prequels" (NoPassport, 2020)
12 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
New Books in Performing Arts own Andy Boyd has written a new play about a young experimental playwright named Andy Boyd who pitches Georges Lucas h...
Mark Nowak, "Social Poetics" (Coffee House Press, 2020)
30 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Nowak's Social Poetics (Coffee House Press, 2020) is a history of the poetry workshop "from below and to the left." Inspired by previous worke...
Jenn Shapland, "My Autobiography of Carson Mccullers: A Memoir" (Tin House Books, 2020)
28 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jenn Shapland's My Autobiography of Carson McCullers (Tin House Books, 2020) is a fascinating cross-genre book that combines elements of traditional...
Trevor C. Pederson, "Psychoanalysis and Hidden Narrative in Film: Reading the Symptom" (Routledge, 2018)
28 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Psychoanalysis and Hidden Narrative in Film: Reading the Symptom (Routledge, 2018) proposes a way of constructing hidden psychological narratives of ...
Tom Boniface-Webb, "Modern Music Masters: Oasis" (MMM, 2020)
23 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the first book in the Modern Music Masters series, Tom Boniface-Webb examines the Manchester band Modern Music Masters-Oasis (MMM, 2020). Founde...
Dan Callahan, "The Camera Lies: Acting for Hitchcock" (Oxford UP, 2020)
22 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In The Camera Lies, published in 2020 by Oxford University Press, author Dan Callahan spotlights the many nuances of Hitchcock's direction throughout...
Edwin Wilson, "Magic Time, a Memoir: Notes on Theatre & Other Entertainment" (Smith & Kraus, 2020)
22 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Edwin Wilson's book Magic Time, a Memoir: Notes on Theatre & Other Entertainment (Smith & Kraus, 2020) is a spirited memoir of a long and fruitful...
Laurent Fintoni, "Bedroom Beats & B-Sides: Instrumental Hip-Hop & Electronic Music at the Turn of the Century" (Velocity Press, 2020)
21 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Bedroom Beats & B-Sides: Instrumental Hip-Hop & Electronic Music at the Turn of the Century (Velocity Press, 2020), Laurent Fintoni explores t...
Stanley J. Rabinowitz, "And Then Came Dance: The Women Who Led Volynsky to Ballet's Magic Kingdom" (Oxford UP, 2019)
18 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Stanley Rabinowitz once again immerses us into the world of ballet and Akim Volynsky with his book And Then Came Dance: The Women Who Led Volynsk...
Noel John Pinnington, "A New History of Medieval Japanese Theatre: Noh and Kyōgen from 1300 to 1600" (Springer, 2019)
15 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Noel Pinnington's A New History of Medieval Japanese Theatre: Noh and Kyōgen from 1300 to 1600 (Palgrave, 2019) traces the history of noh and kyō...
Waleed F. Mahdi, "Arab Americans in Film: From Hollywood and Egyptian Stereotypes to Self-Representation" (Syracuse UP, 2020)
15 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It comes as little surprise that Hollywood films have traditionally stereotyped Arab Americans, but how are Arab Americans portrayed in Arab films, an...
Timothy Hampton, "Bob Dylan: How the Songs Work" (Zone Books, 2020)
11 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Timothy Hampton's Bob Dylan: How the Songs Work (Zone Books, 2020) is a fascinating and meticulous study of Bob Dylan's songwriting craft. Hampton d...
Ashley E. Lucas, "Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration" (Bloomsbury, 2020)
08 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The world of theater performances is often thought of as being composed of wealthy persons who received elite educations at art institutions all so th...
Oluwakemi M. Balogun, "Beauty Diplomacy: Embodying an Emerging Nation" (Stanford UP, 2020)
04 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Even as beauty pageants have been critiqued as misogynistic and dated cultural vestiges of the past in the US and elsewhere, the pageant industry is g...
Harmony Bench, "Perpetual Motion: Dance, Digital Cultures, and the Common" (U Minnesota Press, 2020)
02 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Harmony Bench's Perpetual Motion: Dance, Digital Cultures, and the Common (Minnesota UP, 2020) traces the changing ways dance is distributed and cre...
David Adjmi, "Lot Six" (Harper, 2020)
30 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Lot Six (Harper 2020) is a moving and hilarious memoir from playwright David Adjmi. The book traces Adjmi’s search for his identity, during which h...
Victoria Phillips, "Martha Graham's Cold War: The Dance of American Diplomacy" (Oxford UP, 2019)
24 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Victoria Phillips adeptly tells the story of Martha Graham's role as diplomat, arts innovator, and dancer. Her book Martha Graham's Cold War: The...
George Musgrave, "Can Music Make You Sick?: Measuring the Price of Musical Ambition" (U Westminster Press, 2020)
20 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It is often assumed that creative people are prone to psychological instability, and that this explains apparent associations between cultural product...
Liza Black, "Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, 1941-1960" (U Nebraska Press, 2020)
20 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Behind the braided wigs, buckskins, and excess bronzer that typified the mid-century "filmic Indian" lies a far richer, deeper history of Indigenous l...
Charles L. Leavitt IV, "Italian Neorealism: A Cultural History" (U Toronto Press, 2020)
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Italian Neorealism: A Cultural History (University of Toronto Press, 2020), Charles Leavitt steps back from the micro-histories focusing more nar...
Eithne Quinn, "A Piece of the Action: Race and Labor in Post–Civil Rights Hollywood" (Columbia UP, 2019)
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What is the history of equal rights in Hollywood? In A Piece of the Action: Race and Labor in Post–Civil Rights Hollywood (Columbia UP, 2019), Ei...
Terry Baum, "One Dyke’s Theater: Selected Plays 1975-2014" (Exit Press, 2019)
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Terry Baum’s book One Dyke’s Theater: Selected Plays 1975-2014 (Exit Press, 2019) collects plays and solo scripts from throughout the career of ...
Arlene Davila, "Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics" (Duke UP, 2020)
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics (Duke UP, 2020), Arlene Dávila draws on numerous interviews with artists, dealers, and curators to ...
Southeast Asian Performance, Ethnic Identity and China’s Soft Power: A Discussion with Dr Josh Stenberg
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From glove puppets of Chinese origin and Hakka religious processions, to wartime political theatre and contemporary choirs and dance groups, the diver...
Kevin Mattson, "We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America" (Oxford UP, 2020)
11 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America (Oxford UP, 2020), Kevin Mattson d...
Jeremy M. Glick, "The Black Radical Tragic: Performance, Aesthetics, and the Unfinished Haitian Revolution" (NYU Press, 2016)
10 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What if the Haitian Revolution, perhaps the only “successful” Black revolution in history, weren’t over? On this episode of the New Books Networ...
Julia S. Charles, "That Middle World: Race, Performance, and the Politics of Passing" (UNC Press, 2020)
09 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this chronologically and thematically ambitious study of racial passing literature, Julia Charles highlights how mixed-race subjects invent cultura...
Megan Sandberg-Zakian, "There Must Be Happy Endings: On a Theater of Optimism and Honesty" (3rd Thing Press, 2020)
06 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Megan Sandberg-Zakian’s There Must Be Happy Endings: On a Theater of Optimism & Honesty (3rd Thing Press, 2020) makes a powerful case for “militan...
Emily J. Lordi, "The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 1960s" (Duke UP, 2020)
30 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Soul is one of those concepts that is often evoked, but rarely satisfactorily defined. In The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 19...
Warren Hoffman, "The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical", 2nd edition (Rutgers UP, 2020)
28 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Warren Hoffman’s The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical, 2nd edition (Rutgers UP, 2020) explores the ways that race and racism have shap...
Bonny H. Miller, "Augusta Browne: Composer and Woman of Letters in Nineteenth-Century America" (U Rochester Press, 2020)
26 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Born around 1820, Augusta Browne was a pianist, organist, composer, music pedagogue, entrepreneur, music critic, and writer. In Augusta Browne: Compos...
Neil Shister, "Radical Ritual: How Burning Man Changed the World" (Counterpoint, 2019)
26 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Written from Neil Shister’s perspective as a journalist, student of American culture, and six-time participant in Burning Man, Radical Ritual: How B...
Lissette Lopez Szwydky, "Transmedia Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century" (Ohio State UP, 2020)
26 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of New Books in Literary Studies we speak with Lissette Lopez Szwydky, author of the new book Transmedia Adaptation in the Nineteenth ...
Lisa B. Thompson, "Underground, Monroe, and the Mamalogues: Three Plays" (Northwestern UP, 2020)
23 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Lisa B. Thompson is equally renowned as a scholar of African and African-American studies and as a playwright. Her latest book Underground, Monroe, an...
Robert Bartlett, "Against Demagogues: What Aristophanes Can Teach Us about the Perils of Populism and the Fate of Democracy" (U California Press, 2020)
21 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With Against Demagogues: What Aristophanes Can Teach Us about the Perils of Populism and the Fate of Democracy (University of California Press, 2020),...
Eric San Juan, "The Films of Martin Scorsese: Gangsters, Greed, and Guilt" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020)
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Few mainstream filmmakers have as pronounced a disregard for the supposed rules of filmmaking as Martin Scorsese. His inventiveness displays a reactio...
Chinua Thelwell, "Exporting Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in South Africa and Beyond" (U Massachusetts Press, 2020)
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Exporting Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in South Africa and Beyond (U Massachusetts Press, 2020) by Dr. Chinua Thelwell is a rich, well-researched, a...
Ahalya Satkunaratnam, "Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict: Practicing Bharatanatyam in Colombo, Sri Lanka" (Wesleyan UP, 2020)
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“How can dance be sustained by its practitioners in the unstable political and geographical landscape of war?” Satkunaratnam asks this through her...
Yvonne Rainer, "Revisions: Essays by Apollo Musagète, Yvonne Rainer, and Others" (No Place Press, 2020)
14 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Yvonne Rainer is one of the most influential living choreographers. After studying with Merce Cunningham she co-founded the Judson Dance Theater, a ce...
Joel Miller, "Memoir of a Roadie: Axl Said I made a Great Cup of Tea…" (2020)
13 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, Memoir of a Roadie: Axl said I made a great Cup of Tea…Scott Weiland liked The Carpenters…and Ozzy Drinks Rosé (2020) Joel Mill...
William P. Seeley, "Attentional Engines: A Perceptual Theory of the Arts" (Oxford UP, 2020)
12 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How do we distinguish art from non-art artifacts, and what does cognitive science have to do with it? In Attentional Engines: A Perceptual Theory of t...
Dave O’Brien, "Culture is Bad for You: Inequality in the Cultural and Creative Industries" (Manchester UP, 2020)
12 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It would be hard to overstate the importance of culture. It teaches us, heals us, rips us apart and puts us back together in new and surprising ways. ...
Jill Richards, "The Fury Archives: Female Citizenship, Human Rights, and the International Avant-Gardes" (Columbia UP, 2020)
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In The Fury Archives: Female Citizenship, Human Rights, and the International Avant-Gardes (Columbia UP 2020), Jill Richards radically rewrites our un...
Joshua Chambers-Letson, "After the Party: A Manifesto for Queer of Color Life" (NYU Press, 2018)
02 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In After the Party: A Manifesto for Queer of Color Life (NYU Press, 2018) Joshua Chambers-Letson invites you to a party featuring Eiko, Nina Simone, J...
Fabian Holt, "Everyone Loves Live Music: A Theory of Performance Institutions" (U Chicago Press, 2020)
29 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Everyone Loves Live Music: A Theory of Performance Institutions (University of Chicago Press), Fabian In Everyone Loves Live Music: A Theory of Per...
Karen Quigley, "Performing the Unstageable: Success, Imagination, Failure" (Methuen Drama, 2020)
28 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From the gouging out of eyes in Shakespeare's King Lear or Sarah Kane's Cleansed, to the adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilog...
Bruce Isaacs, "The Art of Pure Cinema: Hitchcock and His Imitators" (Oxford UP, 2020)
28 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Art of Pure Cinema: Hitchcock and His Imitators (Oxford University Press) is the first book-length study to examine the historical foundations and...
Silviana Wood, "Barrio Dreams: Selected Plays" (U Arizona Press, 2016)
22 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Silviana Wood is a legend of Chicano theatre. Through her involvement with Teatro Libertad, Teatro Chicano, and El Teatro Nacional de Atzlán she has ...
Bethany Klein, "Selling Out: Culture, Commerce and Popular Music" (Bloomsbury, 2020)
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How does the music industry work in the modern world? In Selling Out: Culture, Commerce and Popular Music (Bloomsbury, 2020), Bethany Klein, a Profess...
Jack Santino, "Public Performances: Studies in the Carnivalesque and Ritualesque" (UP Colorado, 2017)
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Public Performances: Studies in the Carnivalesque and Ritualesque (University Press of Colorado) offers a deep and wide-ranging exploration of relatio...
Anne García-Romero, "The Fornes Frame" (U Arizona Press, 2016)
15 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In The Fornes Frame: Contemporary Latina Playwrights and the Legacy of Maria Irene Fornes (University of Arizona Press, 2016) playwright and theatre s...
Laura Westengard, "Gothic Queer Culture: Marginalized Communities and the Ghosts of Insidious Trauma" (U Nebraska Press, 2019)
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Gothic Queer Culture: Marginalized Communities and the Ghosts of Insidious Trauma (University of Nebraska Press), Laura Westengard examines the int...
Co-Authored: A Discussion of "The Party Decides"
09 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Party Decides is the most (only?) meme'd book in the history of political science. It's the one MTV called the biggest loser after the South Car...
Ronak K. Kapadia, "Insurgent Aesthetics: Security and the Queer Life of the Forever War"(Duke UP, 2019)
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Insurgent Aesthetics: Security and the Queer Life of the Forever War (Duke University Press), Ronak K. Kapadia theorizes the world-making power of ...
Chantal Bilodeau, "Forward" (Tanlonbooks 2018)
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past ten years, Chantal Bilodeau has made a name for herself a playwright singularly dedicated to writing plays about the issue of climate ch...
Annie-B Parson, "Drawing the Surface of Dance: A Biography in Charts" (Wesleyan UP. 2019)
31 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing the Surface of Dance: A Biography in Charts (Wesleyan UP, 2019) collects thirty years of “charts” by renowned choreographer and co-founder...
Adam Broinowski, "Cultural Responses to Occupation in Japan: The Performing Body During and After the Cold War" (Bloomsbury 2016)
25 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Cultural Responses to Occupation in Japan: The Performing Body During and After the Cold War (Bloomsbury 2016), Adam Broinowski analyzes the emerge...
Kareem Khubchandani, "Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife" (Michigan UP, 2020)
24 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife (University of Michigan Press, 2020) follows queer South Asian men across borders into gay neighborhoods, nigh...
F. Henry and D. Plaza, "Carnival Is Woman: Feminism and Performance in Caribbean Mas. (UP of Mississippi, 2019)
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Through a feminist perspective, Carnival Is Woman: Feminism and Performance in Caribbean Mas (University Press of Mississippi, 2019) examines the pres...
Steven C. Smith, "Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood’s Most Influential Composer" (Oxford UP, 2020)
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
During a seven-decade career that spanned from 19th century Vienna to 1920s Broadway to the golden age of Hollywood, three-time Academy Award winner M...
L. D'Amour and K. Pearl, "Milton: A Performance and Community Engagement Experiment" (53rd State Press, 2019)
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 2012, Lisa D'Amour and Katie Pearl--known collectively as PearlDamour--began visiting five small American towns named Milton. From these visits eme...
Lauren Michele Jackson, "White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation" (Beacon, 2019)
19 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation (Beacon, 2019), Lauren Michele Jackson analyzes Christi...
Kimberly Brown Pellum, "Black Beauties: African American Pageant Queens in the Segregated South" (History Press, 2020)
17 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Florida A&M University professor and former Miss FAMU Kimberly Brown Pellum, Ph.D., recently released her book, Black Beauties: African American Pagea...
Rae Linda Brown, "Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price" (U Illinois Press, 2020)
14 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 1933, the Chicago Symphony performed the Symphony in E Minor by Florence B. Price. It was the first time a major American orchestra played a compos...
Karen Patel, "The Politics of Expertise in Cultural Labour: Arts, Work and Inequalities" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020)
12 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How has social media changed inequality in the cultural industries? In The Politics of Expertise in Cultural Labour: Arts, Work and Inequalities (Rowm...
Barry Witham, "From Red-Baiting to Blacklisting: The Labor Plays of Manny Fried" (SIU Press 2020)
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From Red-Baiting to Blacklisting: The Labor Plays of Manny Fried (SIU Press 2020) collects three plays by Manny Fried alongside a thorough explanation...
Jennifer Atkins, "New Orleans Carnival Balls: The Secret Side of Mardi Gras, 1870-1920" (LSU Press, 2017)
10 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In New Orleans Carnival Balls: The Secret Side of Mardi Gras, 1870-1920 (LSU Press, 2017), Dr. Jennifer Atkins draws back the curtain on the origin of...
Caridad Svich, "Mitchell and Trask’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch" (Routledge, 2019
03 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mitchell and Trask’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Routledge, 2019) is Caridad Svich’s love letter to the 1998 musical that introduced the world to i...
Sunny Stalter-Pace, "Imitation Artist: Gertrude Hoffman’s Life in Vaudeville and Dance" (Northwestern UP, 2020)
31 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gertrude Hoffman is one of many entertainers who were big stars in vaudeville before World War I, but whose celebrity faded as the American public was...
Vanita Reddy, "Fashioning Diaspora: Beauty, Femininity and South Asian American Culture" (Duke UP, 2016)
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Vanita Reddy, in her book Fashioning Diaspora: Beauty, Femininity and South Asian American Culture (Duke University Press, 2016), locates diaspori...
Kevin J. Byrne, "Minstrel Traditions: Mediated Blackface in the Jazz Age" (Routledge, 2020)
29 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Blackface minstrel show is typically thought of a form tied to the 19th century. While the style was indeed developed during the Antebellum period...
Mary Kathryn Nagle, "Sovereignty" (Northwestern UP, 2020)
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Sovereignty (Northwestern University Press, 2020) playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle weaves together two stories separated by 170 years but joined by a ...
Telory Arendell, "The Autistic Stage: How Cognitive Disability Changed 20th-Century Performance" (Sense Publishers, 2015)
24 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In The Autistic Stage: How Cognitive Disability Changed 20th-Century Performance (Sense Publishers, 2015) (Sense Publishers, 2015), Telory Arendell cr...
Manuel Betancourt, "Judy Garland's Judy at Carnegie Hall" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020)
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Judy Garland's Judy at Carnegie Hall (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), Manuel Betancourt explores what makes Judy Garland’s landmark album great, and...
Nasser Rahmaninejad, "A Man of the Theatre: Survival as an Artist in Iran" (New Village Press, 2020)
14 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nasser Rahmaninejad’s A Man of the Theatre: Survival as an Artist in Iran (New Village Press) provides a fascinating glimpse into the political and ...
C. Jester and C. Svich, "Fifty Playwrights on their Craft" (Bloomsbury, 2018)
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Fifty Playwrights on their Craft (Bloomsbury, 2018), Caroline Jester and Caridad Svich talk to writers from the US, the UK, and countries around...
Marianna Ritchey, "Composing Capital: Classical Music in the Neoliberal Era" (U Chicago Press, 2019)
08 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What is the place of classical music in contemporary society? In Composing Capital: Classical Music in the Neoliberal Era (University of Chicago Press...
Creshema R. Murray, "Leadership Through the Lens: Interrogating Production, Presentation, and Power" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
06 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Television informs our perceptions and expectations of leaders and offers a guide to understanding how we, as organizational actors, should communicat...
Grace Elizabeth Hale, "Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture" (UNC Press, 2020)
03 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture (University of North Carolina Press), Grace Elizabeth Hale ...
François Clemmons, "Officer Clemmons: A Memoir" (Catapult, 2020)
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Officer Clemmons: A Memoir (Catapult, 2020), François Clemmons tells the story of how he became the first ever African-American recurring characte...
Greg Garrett, "A Long, Long Way: Hollywood’s Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation" (Oxford UP, 2020)
24 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In his powerful new book, A Long, Long Way: Hollywood’s Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation (Oxford University Press, 2020), Greg Garr...