How and why was outdated racial content - and specifically blackface minstrelsy - not only permitted, but in fact allowed to thrive during the 1930s and 1940s despite the rigid motion picture censorship laws which were enforced during this time? Introducing a new theory of covert minstrelsy, author Brynn Shiovitz illuminates Hollywood's practice of capitalizing on the Africanist aesthetic at the expense of Black lived experience. This talk will focus specifically on Busby Berkeley's unique use of the camera as a means of choreographing female sexuality and Eddie Cantor's blatant gender-bending and use of blackface. These two Depression-era performances, in tandem, allowed such "perversions" to elide the newly-established Hays Code which forbid "undue exposure" and "pansy gags" of any kind. Q&A to follow. Books will be available for sale at the event.

About the Author
Brynn Shiovitz, PhD is a writer, scholar, educator, and dancer. She received her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in Culture and Performance and is currently a lecturer in dance at Chapman University. Instagram and Twitter: @movingsounds

Website:

www.movingsoundscape.com