African Diasporic Migrations from Rural to Urban Space: Alice Childress' Reconstruction of Home in Her Plays Gullah and Sea Island Song
Event Type
Presentation
Location
EHFA 137
Start Date
5-3-2020 9:00 AM
End Date
5-3-2020 10:20 AM
Description
One of the greatest tragedies of Alice Childress' death in 1994 is that while remembering the power of her work in "Rainbow Jordan" and "A Hero Ain't Nothing but a Sandwich," which tell of the reality of black life in the North, people often forget the strength of Childress' own Southern roots and sense of belonging to the Gullah community which are evident in her plays. Much like many South Carolinians who moved North to New York, Childress reconstituted a homeplace with her grandmother in the "Up South." She moved as a child and joined a group of Lowcountry blacks in Harlem who practiced her Gullah culture. Despite the North having become her permanent place of residence, the Lowcountry was always Childress' home. This sense of belonging was conveyed in her novel "A Short Walk" and her play "Wedding Band," but is most evident in the musicals "Gullah" (1984) and "Sea Island Song" (1977). In fact, the play "Gullah" was an outgrowth of the play "Sea Island Song," which saw its one and only theatre performance in Columbia, SC at the Trustus Theater and through individual presentations at schools and colleges as part of the South Carolina Arts Commission learning series. This paper reclaims Childress' often overlooked Gullah identity by exploring these two unpublished plays and plumbing archival documents. Moreover, by examining how Childress dealt with being a "native daughter in a foreign land," it is obvious that she lived without borders.
Recommended Citation
Claiborne, Corrie, "African Diasporic Migrations from Rural to Urban Space: Alice Childress' Reconstruction of Home in Her Plays Gullah and Sea Island Song" (2020). International Gullah Geechee and African Diaspora Conference. 2.
https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/iggad/2020/thearts/2
African Diasporic Migrations from Rural to Urban Space: Alice Childress' Reconstruction of Home in Her Plays Gullah and Sea Island Song
EHFA 137
One of the greatest tragedies of Alice Childress' death in 1994 is that while remembering the power of her work in "Rainbow Jordan" and "A Hero Ain't Nothing but a Sandwich," which tell of the reality of black life in the North, people often forget the strength of Childress' own Southern roots and sense of belonging to the Gullah community which are evident in her plays. Much like many South Carolinians who moved North to New York, Childress reconstituted a homeplace with her grandmother in the "Up South." She moved as a child and joined a group of Lowcountry blacks in Harlem who practiced her Gullah culture. Despite the North having become her permanent place of residence, the Lowcountry was always Childress' home. This sense of belonging was conveyed in her novel "A Short Walk" and her play "Wedding Band," but is most evident in the musicals "Gullah" (1984) and "Sea Island Song" (1977). In fact, the play "Gullah" was an outgrowth of the play "Sea Island Song," which saw its one and only theatre performance in Columbia, SC at the Trustus Theater and through individual presentations at schools and colleges as part of the South Carolina Arts Commission learning series. This paper reclaims Childress' often overlooked Gullah identity by exploring these two unpublished plays and plumbing archival documents. Moreover, by examining how Childress dealt with being a "native daughter in a foreign land," it is obvious that she lived without borders.
Comments
Theme: The Arts: Music/Theater Gullah Gechee Diaspora; Moderator: Scott Bacon, Coastal Carolina University