#CiteBlackWomen
A love letter to Dr. Ayanna Thompson
In grad school (the first time, I’m on round four though I don’t typically count the failed film school era–I have since redeemed myself), I was desperate to learn more about the history of Black actors performing Shakespeare. At that time my love for Shakespeare felt isolating, it felt wrong, like a betrayal, so I wanted to learn more. I wanted to know I wasn’t alone, that other Black artists had contended with *the Bard. That’s when I discovered Errol Hill’s Shakespeare in Sable. Published in 1984, his text is foundational reading, I would argue, for any Shakespeare lover or scholar, certainly for those interested in the intersection of race and performance. Discovering that book was a gift to my brain, heart, and soul. Already out of print in the early aughts, I snagged a beat-up used copy which I treasure and still refer to regularly.
This was 2005. Denzel Washington was starring on Broadway in Julius Caesar. His performance and take on Shakespeare were met with some of the same racist coded language used on those before him (i.e. James Earl Jones, Paul Robeson, Ira Aldridge). Hill’s book was over twenty years old and there was a gap in the literature (ok…as much as I pretend I’m not, I am an *academic* y’all, the jargon is gonna sneak in sometimes). To be clear, there is no shortage of scholarship on Shakespeare, even race and Shakespeare. There is a shortage of scholarship on Black artists’ relationship to and with Shakespeare. Enter Dr. Ayanna Thompson.
I was deep in research on Shakespeare and the Black theatre aesthetic (I am still deep in that research, it might prove to be my life’s work) when I discovered Ayanna’s book Colorblind Shakespeare. For the first time in my academic journey, I found a Black scholar whose research interests aligned with mine. She was doing the work of engaging with contemporary Shakespeare performances and actors of the global majority. Ayanna’s essay on colorblind casting spoke straight to me. I have been a fan girl ever since. Now all of her books sit on my shelf. She joins Hill as foundational reading for anyone in the field. I quote her vigorously to anyone who will listen and I greedily take any opportunity to be in conversation with her.
Ayanna has been dubbed the “Othello whisperer” for her keen insight and deep expertise on the play. In 2020, at the height of shelter in place (or stay that ass at home as I like to call it), Redbull Theatre hosted Ayanna, a cohort of actors, and me in a deep dive of Othello. The four-part seminar was conducted via Zoom and streamed for the world to participate. The actors rotated through the roles as we interrogated if and how Othello could be engaged today.
Today, Ayanna is the Executive Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies housed at the Arizona State University campus in Tempe, AZ. She travels the world lecturing on race in the early modern period, Blackface performance, and Shakespeare and is always asked about Othello. She is also a theatre practitioner, serving as dramaturg or script consultant on a number of Shakespeare plays. Ayanna is one of my academic heroes. She is a testament to why representation matters in all fields. I am because she is.
*The #CiteBlackWomen movement is a social and academic campaign that urges scholars, writers, and creators to intentionally credit and center the intellectual and creative contributions of Black women in their work. Founded by Dr. Christen Smith, an anthropologist, and scholar of Black feminist theory, this movement emerged from the recognition that Black women’s labor and intellectual contributions are often overlooked, undervalued, or outright erased in academia, cultural production, and other fields.
Coming in January! Episode 1 of Not Without Right: a Shakespeare in the Public Domain podcast releases January 3, 2025.
Thank you to the paid Blackfuturist Shakespearean subscribers who make the podcast possible!
Colorblind Shakespeare | #affliatelink
Passing Strange | #affliatelink
The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race | #affliatelink