Featured
Jane Kuenz on James Smethurst’s *Behold the Land*, Kristin Waters’s *Maria W. Stewart and the Roots of Black Political Thought*, and Derrick P. Alridge et. al.’s *The Black Intellectual Tradition*
In a signal moment in Behold the Land, his account of the rise of Black Arts in the South, James Smethurst describes the improvisational work required of actors at the Free Southern Theater performing before rural audiences who might, at any point, tire of watching, and instead “actively respond” to the play by calling out to the actors or, as one man did, walking onto the stage and remaining there for the rest of the performance (68). While a staple of avant-garde theater of the era, the collapse of boundaries between stage and world resonates differently among those who may Read more
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