Milestones in Black American Theatre and Performance

“Shaped from the same spirit and conceptual kiln that gave birth to Monica Ndounou’s establishment of Black Theatre Day in 2021, Milestones in Black American Theatre and Performance continues the vital—yet still underexplored—investigations of and within African American theatre that have preceded this volume, offering readers (fellow artists, scholars, teachers, students, and theatre aficionados), new knowledge and formative analysis to help forge a more robust understanding of Black theatre, past and present, concisely highlighting revelatory truths while also demanding our attention to activate efforts for the continuing strength and survival of our artistic futures.
Through decisive and illuminating considerations of our theatrical past, Graves and Ndounou offer an accessible, yet richly informed entry into America’s Black theatre history, daring to take on topics that not only offer under-examined historic insights, but also raise queries that promote engaging dialogue and advocacy for communal reckonings, revisions, and renewals.
Milestones does its deep thought-work not only through its elevated collection of concise, individual essays, but also by grounding Optimal Conceptual Theory through the inclusion of several ‘curated community conversations,’ thereby broadening its considerations by astutely activating the synergy and knowledge that is uniquely empowered by collective wisdom.
Unique to this volume is its insistence on foregrounding scholarly investigations within a Black cultural sphere. Among many examples: while acknowledging linearity and networks of influence, the happenings featured in Milestones are not wholly organized by a chronological framing; rather Milestones duly recognizes the cyclical dynamics and relationships that shape the experience of Black cultures and communities.”
Faedra Chatard Carpenter

There is something especially meaningful about a book that asks us to remember. Milestones in Black American Theatre and Performance does just that, bringing together more than two hundred years of Black theatre and performance in ways that are illuminating, accessible, and deeply needed. Monica White Ndounou and Eve Graves have gathered essays and conversations that remind us of the breadth of this history and of the many people whose creativity and commitment have sustained Black theatre across generations. From performers and playwrights to designers, educators, directors, and institutions, this collection brings into view the work that has too often remained outside the larger story of American theatre.
Just as importantly, the book does not leave us in the past. Its attention to students, artists, educators, and contemporary theatre communities makes clear that knowing our history is part of imagining what comes next. Milestones is a generous and important contribution to the field, one that will give readers much to learn from, return to, and carry forward.
Nicole Hodges Persley, Ph.D. Professor of Africana and American Studies, University of Kansas