Performance pedagogies for African American literature: Teaching Shange at Ole Miss

Radical Teacher, Winter, 2002 by Ethel Young-Minor

Many of the students who were initially angry with me for choosing the text reread it before returning to class. They reported that they were able to gain new meaning and appreciation for Shange's project. They finally seemed able to understand (or get) what I had unsuccessfully attempted to convey in the language of theory and criticism all semester: that African American texts carry emotional weight often designed to work towards better self-definition and cultural pronouncement, and that the texts are not usually focused on negating other cultures. Students seemed encouraged by our collective risk-taking and were more willing to share diverse opinions in subsequent classes that semester. I was especially surprised by positive reactions from graduate students, whom I expected to feel imposed upon and insulted by my request for them to perform in an academic setting. Several wrote about the experience as one that challenged their perceptions of graduate education.

Because of the significant positive impact of performance on my ability to reach students that semester, and because I continue to use it to break through classroom silences, I have few regrets about my decision to use drama. In fact, only two drawbacks are significant enough to share with teachers considering integrating performance moments into their classes. The first challenge is the amount of time students have to spend preparing for a few moments of in-class performance. We use large amounts of time to brainstorm as a class about identity politics. Groups then meet together during class time to prepare their performances, and we spend class time generating performance moments, interjecting ourselves and our realities into the text.

Performance also takes away from my introductions to the unique influences of each writer. To counteract my own insecurities about not providing enough critical information during class time, I provide students with handouts containing specifics about the text: performance/publication dates, the artists' thoughts about writing and the text being read, excerpts from various interviews, and selected reviews.

The second concern I face using this model is wondering what my colleagues must think when they hear that I am staging performances in advanced literature courses. As an untenured professor, it is important that my colleagues know that I take my work inside and outside of the classroom seriously. Therefore, I am somewhat unnerved by student conversations with other professors about my pedagogical style. These worries are somewhat allayed when I take the focus away from colleague responses and concentrate on the power of student responses. In this first group of students who performed Shange, the response papers, which blend personal reflection and critical analysis, were more personal than those submitted for any other text. Robert, one of the white males who was especially difficult to deal with in the initial class discussion, shared:

given our volatile class discussion on this work, one would think that I have a great deal of reaction for this work. In reality, while I hold on to some of my initial and admittedly defensive reactions, I find that a more comprehensive reading of this work and additional time for reflection has tempered my initial response. It is this very ability to add meaning to my reading of a work through class discussion, involving the sharing of others' perspectives, and re-reading of the work itself that both encourages me to continue the study of literature and discourages blindly clinging to any belief....