In the early nineteenth century, Black people were frequently mocked and distorted on American stages.
In minstrel performances, white actors used blackface to depict dehumanizing and exaggerated caricatures of African Americans for white viewers. However, Black artists were constructing a counter-narrative even during these gloomy instances of cultural appropriation and ridicule. They dispelled misconceptions and changed the conversation about what it means to be Black in America by exposing realities about the world via their genuine storytelling and movement.
This history serves as a reminder that representation in the performing arts is about more than just amusement; it’s also about challenging social prejudices, valuing diversity, and giving voice to the complex Black experience. This endeavor has traditionally been led by Black theater artists and dancers, who use their art to empower, educate, and amuse audiences.
In Houston, this tradition is still flourishing. It serves as a reminder that the tales we tell and the art we produce bind our history, present, and future together.
Multidisciplinary artist, performer, and organizer Jasmine Hearn is a perfect example of how Black performance art is changing. Hearn, who was up in Acres Homes, has studied interpretative dance and storytelling in great detail. Memories Fleet: A Return to Matr is a migration project that Hearn created that centers on the surviving memories of their Black dance matriarchs in Houston.
An album, feast, online archive, anthological catalog, and site-specific experience are presented through the utilization of the stories to produce original sound soundtracks, choreographies, and clothing. Hearn began to inquire about things like memory storage. What aspects of our past do we recall? How can the lives of mothers be preserved?
I still dance because it helps me remember [and] imagine. Hearn said, “How can I keep up the Sankofa practice of thinking back on my origins so that I can visualize where I need to be and where I want to be?” as methods of carrying on the family tree and taking into account who is pursuing me.
According to Hearn, Black artists flourish when they work together. Hearn recently collaborated with Dr. Lindsay Gary, the executive director and founder of Dance Afrikana, who organized the Kuumba Festival, which honored the artistic spirit of the African diaspora. The festival showcased the variety of Black dances across the diaspora through dance performances, workshops, and community engagement activities.
According to Hearn, a lot of people in the field still utilize this competitive tool, which I believe doesn’t foster healthy connections. This leads to a mindset of shortage and might lead to ways of isolation.
According to Gary, Dance Afrikana is a recovery of our tales and traditions that goes beyond simple movement. Black people are able to bridge the gap between the past and present through dance, enabling others to identify with the rhythms, movements, and stories they portray.
It enables a deeper connection between people and their heritage and history. Gary stated that we cannot truly comprehend hip-hop dancing if we do not comprehend the connection between West African dances and hip-hop. We cannot overlook the chronology, because we are all impacted by one another’s cultures. The situation is not one-sided.
The Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement are two examples Gary uses as inspiration for her fight to amplify Black stories through dance. Gary noted Houston native and dance legend Debbie Allen as a perfect example of howracism almost derailed her careerbut never stopped her from becoming one of the greats we see today.
Black artists have paved the way in many ways and opened so many doors. Black artists have contributed to things being desegregated to stages and theaters, she said. There s only room for us to build on other people s legacies that they ve left for us.
Access to resources, funding, and opportunities is essential for Black artists to continue to thrive. For over a decade, Denise O Neal has made it her purpose to elevate theatre production as a go-to resource for artists of color. She is the executive director ofFade To Black, a short play festival that showcases new works by African-American playwrights.
The festival is produced by her minority-led non-profit organization, Shabach Enterprise. It is volunteer-supported, culturally diverse, and community-based, employing over 600 local artists of color and producing more than 150 performances.
It s about collaboration alliances favor who you know. You could be a really great writer and not know the right people or have the right system around to propel your work forward, O Neal said. That was the disconnect between some of my African-American playwrights and some of [the] white playwrights.
From June 8-14th, Fade to Black will introduce its first Arts Festival to kick off the Juneteenth holiday. The festival is Houston s first and only national short play festival to spotlight new 10-minute plays of African-American playwrights.
The playwrights have a director, a cast, this community that we bring to support them, so when it gets to the stage, it is its best rendering, she said. It s in that hope that someone will see them and say, Hey, that was a good piece. Do you have something longer? Or do you have something that I could produce? That s how it starts.
Theatre was an avenueTyler Perry entered before becoming a filmmaker and the first Black studio mogul. His writing evolved into a creative outlet that led to 24 feature films, 20 stage plays, 17 television shows and two New York Times best-selling books. O Neal hopes to provide the space to nourish Black talent but to keep them homegrown.
Sometimes artists feel that in order to be successful, they need to leave Houston to go to New York or Los Angeles, and Houston has so much to offer, she said. There is nothing wrong with graduating up in your career, but to say that I must completely abandon Texas to progress and never return is concerning.
Nonetheless, the Black performing arts space is growing, and O Neil said the expansion needs all hands on deck and more people at the table for sustainability and to create a better quality of life where the dreams of Black artists aren t positioned as a past time or a side gig but a way to provide for themselves and their families.
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