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Independently Studied

Hey y'all -

So, here's a quick list of works I thought folx could be interested in covering for next semester.

Though the actual "syllabus", whatever that means, is still to be determined, I really like the idea of creating works that culminate in a final show off-campus, which we could all help book/promote.

Anyway, here are my top few works, that I know I could spend a lifetime talking / thinking about.


Literature
A Brief History of Seven Killings (Marlon James, 2014)
Citizen (Claudia Rankine, 2014)
Another Country (James Baldwin, 1962)
Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2015)
We Were 8 Years in Power (Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2017)
Blood Meridian (Cormac Mccarthy, 1985)


Operas
Dust (Robert Ashley, 1998)
Margaret Garner (Toni Morrison, 2005)
Your Money My Life Goodbye (Robert Ashley, 1998)


Dust is about neurotypicality / marginalization, so it seems most relevant, but alternatively we could venture into the Now Eleanor's Idea tetralogy, which encompasses 4 separate and distinct but interconnected operas, including:

Improvement (Don Leaves Linda) (1985)
eL/Aficionado (1987)
Now Eleanor's Idea (1993)
Foreign Experiences (1994)


Films
Whose Streets? (Sabaah Folayan, Damon Davis, 2017)
When the Levees Broke (Spike Lee, 2006)
Ethnic Notions (Marlon Riggs, 1986)
After the Night (Basil de Cunha, 2013)
Pariah (Dee Rees, 2011)
Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler, 2013)
Shadows (John Cassavettes, 1959)
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
Tout va Bien (Jean-Luc Godard, 1972)
I, A Negro (Jean Rouch, 1958)
Cannibal Tours (Dennis O'Rourke, 1988)
Them and Me (Stephanie Breton, 2001)




Comments

  1. This is a great living-life-list, Zach! And YES to Dust (I was the dramaturg for a restaging of Dust by chorégraphes Megan Bridge in Philadelphia a few years ago)

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