Paul Robeson and the Cold War Performance Complex: Race, Madness, Activism

232 Pages·2012·5.364 MB·English

by  Tony Perucci

PAUL ROBESON AND THE COLD WAR PERFORMANCE COMPLEX
THEATER: THEORY/TEXT/PERFORMANCE
Series Editors: David Krasner and Rebecca Schneider
Founding Editor: Enoch Brater
Recent'litles:
The Stage Life ofP rops by Andrew Sofer
Playing Underground: A OriticalHistory oft he 1960s OffO ff-Broadway
Movement by StephenJ . Bottoms
Arthur Miller's Ammica: Theater and Culture in a Time ofC hange
edited by Enoch Brater
Loo/Ung Into the Abyss: Essays on Scenography by Arnold Aronson
Avant-Garde Perjimnance and the Limits ofC riticism: Approaching the
Living Theatro, HapjJenings/Fluxus, and the Black Arts Movement
by Mike Sell
Not the Other Avant-Garde: The TmnsnationalFoundations ofA vant-Garde
Performance edited byJ ames M. Harding andJobn Rouse
The Purpose ofP laying: Modern Acting Theories in Perspective
by Robert Gordon
Staging Philosophy: Intersections of Theater; Perfurmance, and Philosophy
edited by David Krasner and David Z. Saltz
Critical Theory and Performance: II£vised andEnlargedEdition
edited byJ anelle G. Reinelt andJoseph R. Roach
lI£flections on Beckett: A Centenary Celebration
edited by Anna McMullan and S. E. W!lmer
Performing Conques~ Five Centuries ofT heater; History, and Identity in Tlaxcala, Mexico
by Patricia A. Ybarra
The President Electric: Rnnald &agan and the Politics ofP erformance
by Timothy Raphael
Cutting Perjimnances: CollageEvents, FeministArtists, and the American Avant-Gtmle
byJames M. Harding
IUusive Utopia: Theater; Film, and Everyday Perjimnance in North Korea
by Suk-Young Kim
Embodying Black Experience: StiUness, Critical Memory, and the Black Body
by Harvey Young
spaces:
No Safe &-casting Rnce, Ethnicity, and Nationality in Ammican Theater
by Angela C. Pao
Arland and His Doubles by KimberlyJ annarone
The Problem of the Celor[b/ind]: Rndal Transgression and the Politics of
BlackPerfurmance by Brandi Wilkins Catanese
The Sarah Siddons AndioFiles: IInmanticism and the Lost Voice
by Judith Pascoe
Paul Rnbeson and the Celd War Performance Complex: Rnce, Madness, Activism
by Tony Perucci
Paul Robeson and
the Cold War
Performance Complex
RACE, MADNESS, ACTIVISM
Tony Perucci
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS
Ann Arbor
Copyright © 2012 by Tony Perucci
All rights reserved
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part,
including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying
permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright
Law and except by reviewers for the public press),
without written permission from the publisher.
Published in the United States of America by
The University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
cPrinted on acid-free paper
2015 2014 2013 2012 4 3 2 1
ACIPcatalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Perucci, Tony.
Paul Robeson and the Cold War performance complex : race, madness,
activism / Tony Perucci.
p. cm. — (Theater: theory/text/performance)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-472-07168-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-472-05168-
7 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-472-02820-7 (e-book)
1. Robeson, Paul, 1898–1976—Political activity. 2. Performance
art—Political aspects—United States. 3. Freedom and art—Political
aspects—United States. 4. Politics and culture—United States.
5. Cold War—Social aspects—United States. 6. United States. Congress.
House. Committee on Un-American Activities. 7. Racism—United
States—History—20th century. 8. United States—Race relations.
9. Anti-communist movements—United States—History—20th century.
I. Title.
E185.97.R63P47 2012
782.0092—dc23 2011037283
For Soyini: with love and thanks

they say you’re crazy
’cause you not crazy enough
to kneel when told to kneel . . .
’cause you expose their madness
—Assata Shakur

Acknowledgments
Getting Paul Robeson and the Cold War Performance Complexinto print pro-
vides me with the fortunate opportunity to thank those who have helped
me and the project along the way. In my mind, I have often rehearsed my
appreciation to so many, and am pleased to get a chance to share this with
readers. This book began as a performance project in 1997, when D. Soyini
Madison suggested that I create a performance piece on Paul Robeson for
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of African
American Research. From the very first day of graduate school through
advising on the master’s thesis and to this day, Soyini has taught me an
inexpressible amount about the politics of performance, the interrelations
of race and political economy, and the radical potential of the “perfor-
mance of possibility.” Soyini’s brilliant writing and teaching as well as her
loving support have enabled my accomplishments in myriad ways. Fred
Moten, who advised me through the dissertation process and throughout
my time at NYU Performance Studies, taught me to look at radical black
performance (i.e. black performance) in ways that I could never have
imagined. The sophistication and complexity of Fred’s genius demanded
reconsideration of every presumption about race, performance, and even
research. Fred has continued to advise me on this project as we serendip-
itously have found ourselves in the same/different city year after year—
New York, Irvine, Los Angeles, Durham—and I thank him for his patient
and consistent pressure to pursue the ungraspable.
At Northwestern University, Dwight Conquergood, David Downs,
Paul Edwards, Frank Galati, and Craig Kinzer introduced me as an un-
dergraduate to the possibilities of both the aesthetics and the politics of
performance. The Department of Communication Studies at the Univer-
sity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opened up academia and intellectual
life to me in ways that I could not have anticipated. Soyini Madison, Della
Pollock, Beverly Long, and Paul Ferguson enriched my understanding of
the politics and poetics of performance in theatrical spaces and everyday
life, while Michael Eric Dyson, Gerald Horne, and Wahneema Lubiano