It seems to me that, “Slave Ship,” was not only an attempt for Baraka to portray his own political beliefs, but also his play served to demonstrate how he felt about African Americans during the time in which it was first performed; the Civil Rights era. Plays such as Slave Ship and The Motion of History picture joint action and expose large-scale movement and mobilization. Turner, V. (1974). Baraka’s play, “Slave Ship: A Historical Pageant,” was first performed in 1967 in Newark, New Jersey at the Spirit House theater. Addison Gayle (New York: Doubleday).
Educational Theatre Journal, 20(1), 53–59. •

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-018-9390-z. With the beginning of Black Civil Rights Movements during the sixties, Baraka explored the anger of African-Americans and used his writings as a weapon against racism. Baraka, A. In the same vein, critic Jerry G. Watts in evoking Baraka’s commitment, accents that “Baraka’s political involvements have become legendary”(Amiri Baraka 17).

Neal, L. (1971). Amiri Baraka was an African American writer. eNotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of The Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader. I thought that his use of scents was an extraordinary way to communicate. Cloudflare Ray ID: 5e00b6095bf87482 Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Kairouan University, Kairouan, Tunisia, Unit of Scientific Research and Development, Um Al-Qura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, You can also search for this author in In this play, Baraka uses lighting, smells, music, gesture, and audience participation as a means to depict what it felt like to be on a slave ship from Africa to America during the time of slavery. I agree with Eileen that part of what makes the piece effective is physically joining the audience into the piece. Interview with Robert Macbeth: the black ritual theatre.

The theatre of the absurd. The whole idea driving the play is that African-Americans have spiritually never gotten off the slave ships of the past, and are still being dominated by white people and culture, whether it be giving up African names and religion, to being actively enslaved. In addition to that, Lloyd W.Brown not only conceives of Baraka’s theatre as a theatre of “ideological position”(164) but also describes Baraka as an “impassioned ideologue”(30) and as “a political writer”(Amiri Baraka 168). He wants them to use both their minds and their bodies to respond to the information. Amiri Baraka, “Slave Ship: A Historical Pageant”.

), The black aesthetic (pp. In A. Gayle (Ed. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-018-9390-z, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-018-9390-z, Over 10 million scientific documents at your fingertips, Not logged in © 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. 305–315). In A. Gayle (Ed. New York: Morrow. Pittman, E. (2010). (1978a).

Amiri Baraka, dutchman and the slave (New York: Morrow, 1964), 9. Amiri Baraka was the poet-laureate of New Jersey, but his deepest connection to the state was to the relatively small, densely populated portion comprising the city of Newark, where he lived the majority of his life. Steele, S. (1973). With this in mind, do you think that Amiri Baraka’s intent with his play was to create a piece that showed the struggles of African Americans, with the hope that the audience would be swayed in taking an active political stance by the end? In this play, Baraka uses lighting, smells, music, gesture, and audience participation as a means to depict what it The dramatist, novelist and poet, Amiri Baraka is one of the most respected and widely published African-American writers. It is therefore preferable, for purposes of accuracy and precision, to highlight that the protest in Baraka’s theatre is basically political and only secondarily social, as has been described by Harry J.Elam. Watts, J. G. (2001). The stage direction says that the lights faded, while the music, and voices from the slave ship began to reemerge, singing the song they sang previously in the play, “Rise Up.” From here, the final scene of the play becomes critical in understanding Baraka’s intention when he calls on his audience to make a choice. Molette, C. (1973). Baraka sets up his play by showing the horrors felt amongst many Africans coming to America on slave ships.

Google Scholar. From ritual to theater: the human seriousness of play.

The play immediately offers descriptive stage directions which in turn calls on the reader (or viewer) to.
Prefix, I(1), 33–43. Amiri Baraka: A lot of these Africans they bring in are just intended to be some kind of administrative pawn, but that comes from an era when they thought everything African was militant.

Augusto Boal, Theatre of the oppressed (London: Pluto Press, 2000), ix.

Through this performance, Baraka is demonstrating that white hatred towards blacks, is deep seated and embedded. Clayton Riley, “On black theatre,” in The black aesthetic, ed. Afro-American ritual drama. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Baraka’s play, “Slave Ship: A Historical Pageant,” was first performed in 1967 in Newark, New Jersey at the Spirit House theater.

This change of staging rituals of incompletion and loss to staging rituals of political protest indicates Baraka’s doubts about veiled bohemian values and indefinite avant-gardism.

After watching a dramatic and raw performance, of the brutalities suffered by African Americans in the hands of white people, the audience is then physically invited on stage to join the actors in what Baraka calls, “an actual party.” In the midst of this “party,” the head, of the African American preacher, is thrown onto the stage. The motion of history & other plays. New York: PAJ Publications. In terms of his political beliefs, he was a Black Nationalist and later became a Marxist. The scene ends abruptly with the stage direction, “Then black (page, 145).” The seemingly innocent “party,” that the audience was invited to join, comes to an immediate halt, leaving them literally in the dark to make their own choice of whether or not to join Baraka’s stance on Black Nationalism. (1964). Esslin, M. (1988). Turner, V. (1967). London: Penguin Books. He is calling on his audience to make a choice of where they stand in terms of race relations at that time. Or do you think that Baraka could have written this play with a different ending that was less involved with his own political beliefs and more open for interpretation? Nelson, H. (1968). Part of what makes this an effective piece is that Baraka is trying to make the audience feel something visceral. “Slave Ship,” implies that in order for change to occur it must stem from within the African American community itself, without help from white people. Performance & security by Cloudflare, Please complete the security check to access.

The second option would be for African Americans to join Baraka’s fight against white people, in order to create their own independent solutions to solving race inequality. In terms of his political beliefs, he was a Black Nationalist and later became a Marxist. He wants his African American audience members to feel a sense of disdain towards white people, rather than trying to work with them in creating equality.

On black theatre. Ritual, politics, and power. Sollors asserts that in Baraka’s writings, “politics wins out over qesthetics”(Populism 246). Part of Springer Nature. Sollors, W. (1978).

Baraka’s theatre is a political theatre. When one thinks of the word “prop,” physical objects such as, “Guns and cartridges,” “Heavy chains,” “Drums,” or “Rattles and tambourines (page, 132),” come to mind. On page 145 of the play, the stage direction reads, “(Lights come up abruptly, and people on stage begin to dance, same hip Boogalooyoruba, fingerpop, skate, monkey, dog…Enter audience; get members of audience to dance.

The play immediately offers descriptive stage directions which in turn calls on the reader (or viewer) to feel the performance rather than solely seeing it. Or was he purposefully trying create a piece that would evoke disdainful emotions towards white people in order to justify his own political ideologies?

Journal of African American Studies Azouz, s. Amiri Baraka’s Theatre of Ritual: from Staging Rituals of Unfulfilment to Performing Rituals of Political Praxis. Kertzer, D. (1988).

Historical memory and embodied politics as public interventions in Amiri Baraka’s slave ship. Whereas ritual in Dutchman and The Slave convey unfulfilment and ruin, the kinaesthetic activity in the later plays bring action and agitation to the centre stage. Published under the author's earlier name: LeRoi Jones Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2011-10-27 17:38:25 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA145503 … Whether this works to indoctrinate them into his political views or alienate them does not particularly matter, as everyone can walk away from it feeling as though they have experienced something. If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware.

PubMed Google Scholar. Some reflection on the black aesthetic.

Along with portraying smells, he is also urging the audience to join in with the bodies. Residing a middle ground, Black Nationalism has first meant for the dramatist individualism then belonging and engagement in the black resistance for civil and civic freedoms and liberties. The plays Dutchman and The Slave show the transition from rituals of the scapegoat, through rituals of the ascendance of the new king, to rituals of initiation. Comaroff, J., & Comaroff, J. Also, he advocated scientific socialism with his revolutionary inclined poems and […] By getting the audience to get up and dance, before throwing in a head and cutting the lights, he is engaging them in a way where their reactions aren’t moderated or intellectual, but emotional and physical. Black World, 22(6), 4–12. Translated by Hugh Rorrison. When the party reaches some loose improvisation, et cetera, audience relaxed, somebody throws the preacher’s head into center of floor, that is, after dancing starts for real. Baraka is suggesting that African Americans who try to work with white people in hopes of creating equality and assimilation, are going against what he believes the African American movement should be.

(2000). Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. To same music Rise Up. Moreover, Baraka in an interview with Melhem considers himself primarily as “a political activist”(Heroism 232). Poet, writer, teacher, and political activist Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones in 1934 in Newark, New Jersey. One way he tries to convince his audience comes at the end of the play, when a white man referred to as “white voice,” is killed by the chorus group of African American slaves. The first would be to go against Baraka’s beliefs, and work with the whites to find potential solutions in solving race relations. Dutchman and the slave. The political theatre: a history 1914–1929. - 189.50.84.167.

New York: Doubleday. (1978b). Ithaca: Cornell University Press. The word political is comprehensive in that it entails the social, the economic, the cultural, and the ideological. [1] was made into a film in 1967, starring Shirley Knight and Al Freeman Jr.Dutchman was the last play produced by Baraka under his birth name, LeRoi Jones. Baraka, A. For me, it feels as though Baraka’s main intention with this play, “Slave Ship,” was to construct some kind of enemy out of the white man, or “white voice,” as a means to justify his own political beliefs.