{"id":165765,"date":"2015-02-12T14:12:56","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T19:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webadmin.news-harvard.go-vip.net\/gazette\/gazette\/?p=165765"},"modified":"2019-03-07T16:54:06","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T21:54:06","slug":"unmasking-minstrelsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/02\/unmasking-minstrelsy\/","title":{"rendered":"Unmasking minstrelsy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"\"

Replicas of a minstrel banjo (foreground, photo 1) and a banza, an African stringed precursor to the banjo, are on view at the Loeb Music Library exhibition. An 1853 map (detail, photo 2) was borrowed from Harvard's Map Collection for the show. Students used the map to help illustrate minstrelsy's wide reach. Samuel Parler (photo 3), a Ph.D. candidate in music, and the chair of Harvard's Music Department Carol Oja conceived of the minstrelsy seminar and resulting exhibition.\n<\/p>

Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tArts & Culture\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tUnmasking minstrelsy\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\tColleen Walsh\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tExhibition unearths fresh insights by shining light on song style with deeply racist roots\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\t\t

It\u2019s a difficult exhibition to explore, but one that its organizers hope will promote a deeper understanding of America\u2019s brutal history of slavery, segregation, and racism, and their legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnmasking Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in American Popular Culture\u201d is composed of items from the Harvard Theatre Collection<\/a> in Houghton Library<\/a>, which holds one of the world\u2019s most extensive archives of minstrelsy materials. A selection of the library\u2019s charged material, on view in three glass cases and two wall displays on the Loeb Music Library<\/a>\u2019s second floor, offers visitors a disturbing look at the racist history and enduring echoes of blackface minstrelsy in contemporary culture.<\/p>\n

Through a range of photos, music scores, playbills, and other artifacts, the exhibition pulls back the curtain on the 19th century entertainment niche in which white performers darkened their faces with burnt cork and enacted generally demeaning caricatures of African-Americans in song, dance, comedy, and variety acts.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s really important for students, both graduate and undergraduate, to learn how to talk about racial issues, it\u2019s one of the central aspects in a liberal education,\u201d said Carol Oja, the Harvard Music Department<\/a> chair whose seminar last semester, \u201cBlackface Minstrelsy in 19th-Century America,\u201d inspired the student-curated show. \u201cA seminar and an exhibition like this give students an opportunity to learn how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Included in the display is information on Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a white blackface performer and playwright known as \u201cthe father of American minstrelsy.\u201d Rice\u2019s stage caricature \u201cJim Crow\u201d became both a racial slur and the phrase for describing the segregation laws that undercut African-Americans from the end of Reconstruction through the middle of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Other materials point to the long reach of minstrelsy in American popular culture. \u201cDespite its degrading imagery and lyrics,\u201d said Oja, \u201cminstrelsy produced some of the most beloved tunes in the American Songbook.\u201d Well-known melodies with minstrel roots such as \u201cOh! Susanna,\u201d \u201cBuffalo Gals,\u201d and \u201cMy Old Kentucky Home\u201d were printed in 19th- and 20th-century elementary school songbooks.<\/p>\n

Other songs were adopted as state anthems. Virginia\u2019s state song \u201cCarry Me Back to Old Virginny\u201d was only withdrawn in 1997 after complaints about its racist lyrics. Beloved entertainers such as the actor and singer Bing Crosby performed in blackface, and racist depictions of black protagonists endured in radio and television shows through the 1950s and beyond. Even the cartoon character Bugs Bunny was depicted in blackface.<\/p>\n

The exhibition, which runs through May 8, illuminates yet another complex and complicated dimension of blackface minstrelsy: African-Americans who performed in blackface. Following Emancipation, minstrelsy provided African-American entertainers with one of their primary means of work, and many took to the minstrel stage to earn a living, including James A. Bland. Dubbed the \u201cworld\u2019s greatest minstrel man,\u201d Bland not only appeared in blackface, he also composed dozens of popular minstrel songs during the 1870s and \u201980s. (It was Bland who composed \u201cCarry Me Back to Old Virginny.\u201d)<\/p>\n

For many black performers, the appropriation of the form was a way to rebel against white suppression, said Louis Chude-Sokei, a professor of English and African Studies at the University of Washington<\/a> and author of \u201cThe Last \u2018Darky\u2019: Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBlackface and its meanings and receptions by blacks in particular have not always been static,\u201d Chude-Sokei said during a symposium to mark the opening of the show on Jan. 26. \u201cThese meanings have been active, but they\u2019ve also been activist in multiple ways, not the least of which was that reversal at work in which blacks engaged in a form that was constructed to both mock and exclude them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Grammy-winning vocalist Rhiannon Giddens is reclaiming minstrel music by regularly incorporating the melodies and their history into her repertoire. The lead singer of the old-time string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops<\/a>, Giddens and her group frequently perform music with minstrel origins. The singer took up the minstrel banjo in Loeb Music Library for the exhibition opening, at which her performance included a song that melded an old minstrel tune with original words, and an original, haunting composition based on a slave narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a performer and dealing with these things, it\u2019s difficult, but it\u2019s the most welcome challenge I think I\u2019ve ever had as a musician, because the more that I dig into it, the more that I find echoes that exist today in the music and in what\u2019s going on in contemporary\u201d society, said Giddens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for this. It\u2019s time for this music to come out again more and more, and I am glad we are having these conversations,\u201d she added, praising scholars and musicians for bringing the history and the songs to wider audiences. \u201cIt does take everyone to get this information out there and to get the music and this part of history\u201d to the public.<\/p>\n

Chude-Sokei echoed those sentiments. \u201cIt\u2019s important for the scholarly and musical world to work together on this,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause we have to find a way to make it accessible to people, not without the complicated racial and political content, but for them to feel willing to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvard graduate student Samuel Parler, who helped to conceive the seminar and exhibition, said it was a challenging but important project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of people just don\u2019t know about the history and how much of contemporary popular culture comes out of this racist past,\u201d said Parler, a Ph.D. candidate in music. \u201cTo realize that these negative stereotypes and portrayals of African-Americans have worked historically to justify enslavement, segregation, racial violence \u2026 that\u2019s a big part of my investment in the material and in this exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new exhibition at Harvard\u2019s Loeb Music Library, containing items from the Harvard Theatre Collection in Houghton Library, offers visitors a disturbing look at the racist history and enduring legacy of blackface minstrelsy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105622744,"featured_media":165767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gz_ga_pageviews":13,"gz_ga_lastupdated":"2021-12-28 11:22","document_color_palette":"crimson","author":"Colleen Walsh","affiliation":"Harvard Staff 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Staff Photographer","displayDetails":"","displayTitle":"","categoryId":1360,"mediaAlt":"","mediaCaption":"Replicas of a minstrel banjo (foreground, photo 1) and a banza, an African stringed precursor to the banjo, are on view at the Loeb Music Library exhibition. An 1853 map (detail, photo 2) was borrowed from Harvard's Map Collection for the show. Students used the map to help illustrate minstrelsy's wide reach. Samuel Parler (photo 3), a Ph.D. candidate in music, and the chair of Harvard's Music Department Carol Oja conceived of the minstrelsy seminar and resulting exhibition.\n","mediaId":165767,"mediaSize":"full","mediaType":"image","mediaUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/012015_minstrel_191_605.jpg","poster":"","title":"Unmasking minstrelsy","subheading":"Exhibition unearths fresh insights by shining light on song style with deeply racist roots","centeredImage":true,"className":"is-style-full-width-text-below","mediaHeight":403,"mediaWidth":605,"backgroundFixed":false,"backgroundTone":"light","coloredBackground":false,"displayOverlay":true,"fadeInText":false,"isAmbient":false,"mediaLength":"","mediaPosition":"","posterText":"","titleAbove":false,"useUncroppedImage":false,"lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/012015_minstrel_191_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Replicas of a minstrel banjo (foreground, photo 1) and a banza, an African stringed precursor to the banjo, are on view at the Loeb Music Library exhibition. An 1853 map (detail, photo 2) was borrowed from Harvard's Map Collection for the show. Students used the map to help illustrate minstrelsy's wide reach. Samuel Parler (photo 3), a Ph.D. candidate in music, and the chair of Harvard's Music Department Carol Oja conceived of the minstrelsy seminar and resulting exhibition.\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/012015_minstrel_191_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Replicas of a minstrel banjo (foreground, photo 1) and a banza, an African stringed precursor to the banjo, are on view at the Loeb Music Library exhibition. An 1853 map (detail, photo 2) was borrowed from Harvard's Map Collection for the show. Students used the map to help illustrate minstrelsy's wide reach. Samuel Parler (photo 3), a Ph.D. candidate in music, and the chair of Harvard's Music Department Carol Oja conceived of the minstrelsy seminar and resulting exhibition.\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/012015_minstrel_191_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Replicas of a minstrel banjo (foreground, photo 1) and a banza, an African stringed precursor to the banjo, are on view at the Loeb Music Library exhibition. An 1853 map (detail, photo 2) was borrowed from Harvard's Map Collection for the show. Students used the map to help illustrate minstrelsy's wide reach. Samuel Parler (photo 3), a Ph.D. candidate in music, and the chair of Harvard's Music Department Carol Oja conceived of the minstrelsy seminar and resulting exhibition.\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tArts & Culture\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tUnmasking minstrelsy\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tColleen Walsh\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2015-02-12\">\n\t\t\tFebruary 12, 2015\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t6 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tExhibition unearths fresh insights by shining light on song style with deeply racist roots\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>It\u2019s a difficult exhibition to explore, but one that its organizers hope will promote a deeper understanding of America\u2019s brutal history of slavery, segregation, and racism, and their legacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnmasking Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in American Popular Culture\u201d is composed of items from the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/collections\/harvard-theatre-collection\">Harvard Theatre Collection<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\">Houghton Library<\/a>, which holds one of the world\u2019s most extensive archives of minstrelsy materials. A selection of the library\u2019s charged material, on view in three glass cases and two wall displays on the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/loeb-music\">Loeb Music Library<\/a>\u2019s second floor, offers visitors a disturbing look at the racist history and enduring echoes of blackface minstrelsy in contemporary culture.<\/p>\n<p>Through a range of photos, music scores, playbills, and other artifacts, the exhibition pulls back the curtain on the 19th century entertainment niche in which white performers darkened their faces with burnt cork and enacted generally demeaning caricatures of African-Americans in song, dance, comedy, and variety acts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, it\u2019s really important for students, both graduate and undergraduate, to learn how to talk about racial issues, it\u2019s one of the central aspects in a liberal education,\u201d said Carol Oja, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.music.fas.harvard.edu\">Harvard Music Department<\/a> chair whose seminar last semester, \u201cBlackface Minstrelsy in 19th-Century America,\u201d inspired the student-curated show. \u201cA seminar and an exhibition like this give students an opportunity to learn how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Included in the display is information on Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a white blackface performer and playwright known as \u201cthe father of American minstrelsy.\u201d Rice\u2019s stage caricature \u201cJim Crow\u201d became both a racial slur and the phrase for describing the segregation laws that undercut African-Americans from the end of Reconstruction through the middle of the 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>Other materials point to the long reach of minstrelsy in American popular culture. \u201cDespite its degrading imagery and lyrics,\u201d said Oja, \u201cminstrelsy produced some of the most beloved tunes in the American Songbook.\u201d Well-known melodies with minstrel roots such as \u201cOh! Susanna,\u201d \u201cBuffalo Gals,\u201d and \u201cMy Old Kentucky Home\u201d were printed in 19th- and 20th-century elementary school songbooks.<\/p>\n<p>Other songs were adopted as state anthems. Virginia\u2019s state song \u201cCarry Me Back to Old Virginny\u201d was only withdrawn in 1997 after complaints about its racist lyrics. Beloved entertainers such as the actor and singer Bing Crosby performed in blackface, and racist depictions of black protagonists endured in radio and television shows through the 1950s and beyond. Even the cartoon character Bugs Bunny was depicted in blackface.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibition, which runs through May 8, illuminates yet another complex and complicated dimension of blackface minstrelsy: African-Americans who performed in blackface. Following Emancipation, minstrelsy provided African-American entertainers with one of their primary means of work, and many took to the minstrel stage to earn a living, including James A. Bland. Dubbed the \u201cworld\u2019s greatest minstrel man,\u201d Bland not only appeared in blackface, he also composed dozens of popular minstrel songs during the 1870s and \u201980s. (It was Bland who composed \u201cCarry Me Back to Old Virginny.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>For many black performers, the appropriation of the form was a way to rebel against white suppression, said Louis Chude-Sokei, a professor of English and African Studies at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washington.edu\">University of Washington<\/a> and author of \u201cThe Last \u2018Darky\u2019: Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlackface and its meanings and receptions by blacks in particular have not always been static,\u201d Chude-Sokei said during a symposium to mark the opening of the show on Jan. 26. \u201cThese meanings have been active, but they\u2019ve also been activist in multiple ways, not the least of which was that reversal at work in which blacks engaged in a form that was constructed to both mock and exclude them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now Grammy-winning vocalist Rhiannon Giddens is reclaiming minstrel music by regularly incorporating the melodies and their history into her repertoire. The lead singer of the old-time string band the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolinachocolatedrops.com\">Carolina Chocolate Drops<\/a>, Giddens and her group frequently perform music with minstrel origins. The singer took up the minstrel banjo in Loeb Music Library for the exhibition opening, at which her performance included a song that melded an old minstrel tune with original words, and an original, haunting composition based on a slave narrative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing a performer and dealing with these things, it\u2019s difficult, but it\u2019s the most welcome challenge I think I\u2019ve ever had as a musician, because the more that I dig into it, the more that I find echoes that exist today in the music and in what\u2019s going on in contemporary\u201d society, said Giddens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time for this. It\u2019s time for this music to come out again more and more, and I am glad we are having these conversations,\u201d she added, praising scholars and musicians for bringing the history and the songs to wider audiences. \u201cIt does take everyone to get this information out there and to get the music and this part of history\u201d to the public.<\/p>\n<p>Chude-Sokei echoed those sentiments. \u201cIt\u2019s important for the scholarly and musical world to work together on this,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause we have to find a way to make it accessible to people, not without the complicated racial and political content, but for them to feel willing to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harvard graduate student Samuel Parler, who helped to conceive the seminar and exhibition, said it was a challenging but important project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of people just don\u2019t know about the history and how much of contemporary popular culture comes out of this racist past,\u201d said Parler, a Ph.D. candidate in music. \u201cTo realize that these negative stereotypes and portrayals of African-Americans have worked historically to justify enslavement, segregation, racial violence \u2026 that\u2019s a big part of my investment in the material and in this exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>It\u2019s a difficult exhibition to explore, but one that its organizers hope will promote a deeper understanding of America\u2019s brutal history of slavery, segregation, and racism, and their legacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnmasking Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in American Popular Culture\u201d is composed of items from the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/collections\/harvard-theatre-collection\">Harvard Theatre Collection<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\">Houghton Library<\/a>, which holds one of the world\u2019s most extensive archives of minstrelsy materials. A selection of the library\u2019s charged material, on view in three glass cases and two wall displays on the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/loeb-music\">Loeb Music Library<\/a>\u2019s second floor, offers visitors a disturbing look at the racist history and enduring echoes of blackface minstrelsy in contemporary culture.<\/p>\n<p>Through a range of photos, music scores, playbills, and other artifacts, the exhibition pulls back the curtain on the 19th century entertainment niche in which white performers darkened their faces with burnt cork and enacted generally demeaning caricatures of African-Americans in song, dance, comedy, and variety acts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, it\u2019s really important for students, both graduate and undergraduate, to learn how to talk about racial issues, it\u2019s one of the central aspects in a liberal education,\u201d said Carol Oja, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.music.fas.harvard.edu\">Harvard Music Department<\/a> chair whose seminar last semester, \u201cBlackface Minstrelsy in 19th-Century America,\u201d inspired the student-curated show. \u201cA seminar and an exhibition like this give students an opportunity to learn how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Included in the display is information on Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a white blackface performer and playwright known as \u201cthe father of American minstrelsy.\u201d Rice\u2019s stage caricature \u201cJim Crow\u201d became both a racial slur and the phrase for describing the segregation laws that undercut African-Americans from the end of Reconstruction through the middle of the 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>Other materials point to the long reach of minstrelsy in American popular culture. \u201cDespite its degrading imagery and lyrics,\u201d said Oja, \u201cminstrelsy produced some of the most beloved tunes in the American Songbook.\u201d Well-known melodies with minstrel roots such as \u201cOh! Susanna,\u201d \u201cBuffalo Gals,\u201d and \u201cMy Old Kentucky Home\u201d were printed in 19th- and 20th-century elementary school songbooks.<\/p>\n<p>Other songs were adopted as state anthems. Virginia\u2019s state song \u201cCarry Me Back to Old Virginny\u201d was only withdrawn in 1997 after complaints about its racist lyrics. Beloved entertainers such as the actor and singer Bing Crosby performed in blackface, and racist depictions of black protagonists endured in radio and television shows through the 1950s and beyond. Even the cartoon character Bugs Bunny was depicted in blackface.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibition, which runs through May 8, illuminates yet another complex and complicated dimension of blackface minstrelsy: African-Americans who performed in blackface. Following Emancipation, minstrelsy provided African-American entertainers with one of their primary means of work, and many took to the minstrel stage to earn a living, including James A. Bland. Dubbed the \u201cworld\u2019s greatest minstrel man,\u201d Bland not only appeared in blackface, he also composed dozens of popular minstrel songs during the 1870s and \u201980s. (It was Bland who composed \u201cCarry Me Back to Old Virginny.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>For many black performers, the appropriation of the form was a way to rebel against white suppression, said Louis Chude-Sokei, a professor of English and African Studies at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washington.edu\">University of Washington<\/a> and author of \u201cThe Last \u2018Darky\u2019: Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlackface and its meanings and receptions by blacks in particular have not always been static,\u201d Chude-Sokei said during a symposium to mark the opening of the show on Jan. 26. \u201cThese meanings have been active, but they\u2019ve also been activist in multiple ways, not the least of which was that reversal at work in which blacks engaged in a form that was constructed to both mock and exclude them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now Grammy-winning vocalist Rhiannon Giddens is reclaiming minstrel music by regularly incorporating the melodies and their history into her repertoire. The lead singer of the old-time string band the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolinachocolatedrops.com\">Carolina Chocolate Drops<\/a>, Giddens and her group frequently perform music with minstrel origins. The singer took up the minstrel banjo in Loeb Music Library for the exhibition opening, at which her performance included a song that melded an old minstrel tune with original words, and an original, haunting composition based on a slave narrative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing a performer and dealing with these things, it\u2019s difficult, but it\u2019s the most welcome challenge I think I\u2019ve ever had as a musician, because the more that I dig into it, the more that I find echoes that exist today in the music and in what\u2019s going on in contemporary\u201d society, said Giddens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time for this. It\u2019s time for this music to come out again more and more, and I am glad we are having these conversations,\u201d she added, praising scholars and musicians for bringing the history and the songs to wider audiences. \u201cIt does take everyone to get this information out there and to get the music and this part of history\u201d to the public.<\/p>\n<p>Chude-Sokei echoed those sentiments. \u201cIt\u2019s important for the scholarly and musical world to work together on this,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause we have to find a way to make it accessible to people, not without the complicated racial and political content, but for them to feel willing to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harvard graduate student Samuel Parler, who helped to conceive the seminar and exhibition, said it was a challenging but important project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of people just don\u2019t know about the history and how much of contemporary popular culture comes out of this racist past,\u201d said Parler, a Ph.D. candidate in music. \u201cTo realize that these negative stereotypes and portrayals of African-Americans have worked historically to justify enslavement, segregation, racial violence \u2026 that\u2019s a big part of my investment in the material and in this exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>It\u2019s a difficult exhibition to explore, but one that its organizers hope will promote a deeper understanding of America\u2019s brutal history of slavery, segregation, and racism, and their legacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnmasking Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in American Popular Culture\u201d is composed of items from the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/collections\/harvard-theatre-collection\">Harvard Theatre Collection<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\">Houghton Library<\/a>, which holds one of the world\u2019s most extensive archives of minstrelsy materials. A selection of the library\u2019s charged material, on view in three glass cases and two wall displays on the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/loeb-music\">Loeb Music Library<\/a>\u2019s second floor, offers visitors a disturbing look at the racist history and enduring echoes of blackface minstrelsy in contemporary culture.<\/p>\n<p>Through a range of photos, music scores, playbills, and other artifacts, the exhibition pulls back the curtain on the 19th century entertainment niche in which white performers darkened their faces with burnt cork and enacted generally demeaning caricatures of African-Americans in song, dance, comedy, and variety acts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, it\u2019s really important for students, both graduate and undergraduate, to learn how to talk about racial issues, it\u2019s one of the central aspects in a liberal education,\u201d said Carol Oja, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.music.fas.harvard.edu\">Harvard Music Department<\/a> chair whose seminar last semester, \u201cBlackface Minstrelsy in 19th-Century America,\u201d inspired the student-curated show. \u201cA seminar and an exhibition like this give students an opportunity to learn how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Included in the display is information on Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a white blackface performer and playwright known as \u201cthe father of American minstrelsy.\u201d Rice\u2019s stage caricature \u201cJim Crow\u201d became both a racial slur and the phrase for describing the segregation laws that undercut African-Americans from the end of Reconstruction through the middle of the 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>Other materials point to the long reach of minstrelsy in American popular culture. \u201cDespite its degrading imagery and lyrics,\u201d said Oja, \u201cminstrelsy produced some of the most beloved tunes in the American Songbook.\u201d Well-known melodies with minstrel roots such as \u201cOh! Susanna,\u201d \u201cBuffalo Gals,\u201d and \u201cMy Old Kentucky Home\u201d were printed in 19th- and 20th-century elementary school songbooks.<\/p>\n<p>Other songs were adopted as state anthems. Virginia\u2019s state song \u201cCarry Me Back to Old Virginny\u201d was only withdrawn in 1997 after complaints about its racist lyrics. Beloved entertainers such as the actor and singer Bing Crosby performed in blackface, and racist depictions of black protagonists endured in radio and television shows through the 1950s and beyond. Even the cartoon character Bugs Bunny was depicted in blackface.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibition, which runs through May 8, illuminates yet another complex and complicated dimension of blackface minstrelsy: African-Americans who performed in blackface. Following Emancipation, minstrelsy provided African-American entertainers with one of their primary means of work, and many took to the minstrel stage to earn a living, including James A. Bland. Dubbed the \u201cworld\u2019s greatest minstrel man,\u201d Bland not only appeared in blackface, he also composed dozens of popular minstrel songs during the 1870s and \u201980s. (It was Bland who composed \u201cCarry Me Back to Old Virginny.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>For many black performers, the appropriation of the form was a way to rebel against white suppression, said Louis Chude-Sokei, a professor of English and African Studies at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washington.edu\">University of Washington<\/a> and author of \u201cThe Last \u2018Darky\u2019: Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlackface and its meanings and receptions by blacks in particular have not always been static,\u201d Chude-Sokei said during a symposium to mark the opening of the show on Jan. 26. \u201cThese meanings have been active, but they\u2019ve also been activist in multiple ways, not the least of which was that reversal at work in which blacks engaged in a form that was constructed to both mock and exclude them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now Grammy-winning vocalist Rhiannon Giddens is reclaiming minstrel music by regularly incorporating the melodies and their history into her repertoire. The lead singer of the old-time string band the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolinachocolatedrops.com\">Carolina Chocolate Drops<\/a>, Giddens and her group frequently perform music with minstrel origins. The singer took up the minstrel banjo in Loeb Music Library for the exhibition opening, at which her performance included a song that melded an old minstrel tune with original words, and an original, haunting composition based on a slave narrative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing a performer and dealing with these things, it\u2019s difficult, but it\u2019s the most welcome challenge I think I\u2019ve ever had as a musician, because the more that I dig into it, the more that I find echoes that exist today in the music and in what\u2019s going on in contemporary\u201d society, said Giddens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time for this. It\u2019s time for this music to come out again more and more, and I am glad we are having these conversations,\u201d she added, praising scholars and musicians for bringing the history and the songs to wider audiences. \u201cIt does take everyone to get this information out there and to get the music and this part of history\u201d to the public.<\/p>\n<p>Chude-Sokei echoed those sentiments. \u201cIt\u2019s important for the scholarly and musical world to work together on this,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause we have to find a way to make it accessible to people, not without the complicated racial and political content, but for them to feel willing to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harvard graduate student Samuel Parler, who helped to conceive the seminar and exhibition, said it was a challenging but important project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of people just don\u2019t know about the history and how much of contemporary popular culture comes out of this racist past,\u201d said Parler, a Ph.D. candidate in music. \u201cTo realize that these negative stereotypes and portrayals of African-Americans have worked historically to justify enslavement, segregation, racial violence \u2026 that\u2019s a big part of my investment in the material and in this exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>It\u2019s a difficult exhibition to explore, but one that its organizers hope will promote a deeper understanding of America\u2019s brutal history of slavery, segregation, and racism, and their legacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnmasking Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in American Popular Culture\u201d is composed of items from the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/collections\/harvard-theatre-collection\">Harvard Theatre Collection<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\">Houghton Library<\/a>, which holds one of the world\u2019s most extensive archives of minstrelsy materials. A selection of the library\u2019s charged material, on view in three glass cases and two wall displays on the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/loeb-music\">Loeb Music Library<\/a>\u2019s second floor, offers visitors a disturbing look at the racist history and enduring echoes of blackface minstrelsy in contemporary culture.<\/p>\n<p>Through a range of photos, music scores, playbills, and other artifacts, the exhibition pulls back the curtain on the 19th century entertainment niche in which white performers darkened their faces with burnt cork and enacted generally demeaning caricatures of African-Americans in song, dance, comedy, and variety acts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, it\u2019s really important for students, both graduate and undergraduate, to learn how to talk about racial issues, it\u2019s one of the central aspects in a liberal education,\u201d said Carol Oja, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.music.fas.harvard.edu\">Harvard Music Department<\/a> chair whose seminar last semester, \u201cBlackface Minstrelsy in 19th-Century America,\u201d inspired the student-curated show. \u201cA seminar and an exhibition like this give students an opportunity to learn how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Included in the display is information on Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a white blackface performer and playwright known as \u201cthe father of American minstrelsy.\u201d Rice\u2019s stage caricature \u201cJim Crow\u201d became both a racial slur and the phrase for describing the segregation laws that undercut African-Americans from the end of Reconstruction through the middle of the 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>Other materials point to the long reach of minstrelsy in American popular culture. \u201cDespite its degrading imagery and lyrics,\u201d said Oja, \u201cminstrelsy produced some of the most beloved tunes in the American Songbook.\u201d Well-known melodies with minstrel roots such as \u201cOh! Susanna,\u201d \u201cBuffalo Gals,\u201d and \u201cMy Old Kentucky Home\u201d were printed in 19th- and 20th-century elementary school songbooks.<\/p>\n<p>Other songs were adopted as state anthems. Virginia\u2019s state song \u201cCarry Me Back to Old Virginny\u201d was only withdrawn in 1997 after complaints about its racist lyrics. Beloved entertainers such as the actor and singer Bing Crosby performed in blackface, and racist depictions of black protagonists endured in radio and television shows through the 1950s and beyond. Even the cartoon character Bugs Bunny was depicted in blackface.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibition, which runs through May 8, illuminates yet another complex and complicated dimension of blackface minstrelsy: African-Americans who performed in blackface. Following Emancipation, minstrelsy provided African-American entertainers with one of their primary means of work, and many took to the minstrel stage to earn a living, including James A. Bland. Dubbed the \u201cworld\u2019s greatest minstrel man,\u201d Bland not only appeared in blackface, he also composed dozens of popular minstrel songs during the 1870s and \u201980s. (It was Bland who composed \u201cCarry Me Back to Old Virginny.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>For many black performers, the appropriation of the form was a way to rebel against white suppression, said Louis Chude-Sokei, a professor of English and African Studies at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washington.edu\">University of Washington<\/a> and author of \u201cThe Last \u2018Darky\u2019: Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlackface and its meanings and receptions by blacks in particular have not always been static,\u201d Chude-Sokei said during a symposium to mark the opening of the show on Jan. 26. \u201cThese meanings have been active, but they\u2019ve also been activist in multiple ways, not the least of which was that reversal at work in which blacks engaged in a form that was constructed to both mock and exclude them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now Grammy-winning vocalist Rhiannon Giddens is reclaiming minstrel music by regularly incorporating the melodies and their history into her repertoire. The lead singer of the old-time string band the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolinachocolatedrops.com\">Carolina Chocolate Drops<\/a>, Giddens and her group frequently perform music with minstrel origins. The singer took up the minstrel banjo in Loeb Music Library for the exhibition opening, at which her performance included a song that melded an old minstrel tune with original words, and an original, haunting composition based on a slave narrative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing a performer and dealing with these things, it\u2019s difficult, but it\u2019s the most welcome challenge I think I\u2019ve ever had as a musician, because the more that I dig into it, the more that I find echoes that exist today in the music and in what\u2019s going on in contemporary\u201d society, said Giddens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time for this. It\u2019s time for this music to come out again more and more, and I am glad we are having these conversations,\u201d she added, praising scholars and musicians for bringing the history and the songs to wider audiences. \u201cIt does take everyone to get this information out there and to get the music and this part of history\u201d to the public.<\/p>\n<p>Chude-Sokei echoed those sentiments. \u201cIt\u2019s important for the scholarly and musical world to work together on this,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause we have to find a way to make it accessible to people, not without the complicated racial and political content, but for them to feel willing to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harvard graduate student Samuel Parler, who helped to conceive the seminar and exhibition, said it was a challenging but important project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of people just don\u2019t know about the history and how much of contemporary popular culture comes out of this racist past,\u201d said Parler, a Ph.D. candidate in music. \u201cTo realize that these negative stereotypes and portrayals of African-Americans have worked historically to justify enslavement, segregation, racial violence \u2026 that\u2019s a big part of my investment in the material and in this exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":99466,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2012\/01\/music-scholar-john-milton-ward-94\/","url_meta":{"origin":165765,"position":0},"title":"Music scholar, John Milton Ward, 94","author":"harvardgazette","date":"January 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"John Milton Ward, Harvard\u2019s William Powell Mason Professor of Music from 1961 to 1985, died quietly at home in Cambridge on Dec. 12. He was 94 years old.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/jmw-90thbirthday1_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/jmw-90thbirthday1_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/jmw-90thbirthday1_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":68758,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2001\/05\/a-century-of-histrionic-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":165765,"position":1},"title":"A century of histrionic history","author":"gazetteimport","date":"May 17, 2001","format":false,"excerpt":"The Harvard Theatre Collection is celebrating its 100th anniversary this month with an exhibition titled One Hundred Years, One Hundred Collections. The exhibition will showcase representative items from the collections holdings, which in their entirety touch upon every imaginable aspect of the performing arts. In addition to the mainstream genres\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":152686,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/02\/bach-to-bach\/","url_meta":{"origin":165765,"position":2},"title":"Bach to Bach","author":"harvardgazette","date":"February 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Joint exhibitions at Houghton Library and Loeb Music Library mark the 300th anniversary of composer C.P.E. Bach\u2019s birth and the first publication of his complete works, as well as discoveries and acquisitions that were made along the way.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/bach2_605_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/bach2_605_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/bach2_605_1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":219052,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2000\/03\/major-bach-exhibition-mounted-by-students-at-houghton-loeb-libraries\/","url_meta":{"origin":165765,"position":3},"title":"Major Bach Exhibition Mounted by Students at Houghton, Loeb Libraries","author":"gazetteimport","date":"March 9, 2000","format":false,"excerpt":"The life of Johann Sebastian Bach, from his music to his personal relationships with sons, students, and other contemporaries, is documented with selected original materials in an exhibition called \"The Man from Whom All True Musical Wisdom Proceeded: Johann Sebastian Bach.\" The exhibit at the Houghton Library and Eda Kuhn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":168624,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/04\/for-those-with-a-head-for-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":165765,"position":4},"title":"For those with a head for history","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A sample in images from the abundance of hats \u2014 Panama, pillbox, porkpie, and more \u2014 in Harvard\u2019s holdings.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/hats_01_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/hats_01_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/hats_01_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":182206,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/04\/role-for-activism-in-shakespeare\/","url_meta":{"origin":165765,"position":5},"title":"Speaking up through Shakespeare","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"An exhibit at Houghton Library marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death includes artifacts that recognize the acting and activism of black Shakespearean actors.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/black_shake_ira-aldridge1_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/black_shake_ira-aldridge1_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/black_shake_ira-aldridge1_1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165765"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267315,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165765\/revisions\/267315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165765"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=165765"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=165765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}