Hemispheric Blackface
@ Gallery 400
400 S Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607
Opening Thursday, July 17th, from 5PM - 6PM
Join scholar Danielle Roper as she discusses her latest publication, Hemispheric Blackface: Impersonation and Multiculturalism in the Americas (Duke Press, 2025), with Chicago-based artist Leasho Johnson.
Hemispheric Blackface examines the paradoxes, contradictions, and ambiguities blackface performance occupies in 20th and 21st-century Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Jamaica, Cuba, and Miami. Roper engages with the racial scripts and different renditions of blackness that indigenous, mestizo, and white performers stage to reinforce racial hierarchies and create a sense of belonging across national differences in the Americas. She also looks at how roots theatre in Jamaica, a popular site for intimate gatherings for Jamaica’s Black working class to reflect on their everyday experiences, has carved out a space for Black people to set their own terms of racial enjoyment.
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Tags: Chicago, Danielle Roper, Gallery 400, Hemispheric Blackface, Leasho Johnson, near west side
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