scholarly journals The Violence of Duality in Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro

Author(s):  
Quan Manh Ha ◽  
Conor Hogan

Adrienne Kennedy’s psychodrama Funnyhouse of a Negro personifies in her protagonist, Sarah, the internalized racism and mental deterioration that a binary paradigm foments. Kennedy also develops the schizoid consciousness of Sarah to accentuate Sarah’s hybridized and traumatized identity as an African American woman. Kennedy’s play was controversial during the Black Arts Movement, as she refrained from endorsing black nationalist groups like Black Power, constructing instead a nightmare world in which race is the singular element in defining self-worth. In her dramatized indictment of both white supremacy and identity politics, American culture’s pathologized fascination with pigmentation drives the protagonist to solipsistic isolation, and ultimately, to suicide. Kennedy, through the disturbed cast of Sarah’s mind, portrays a world in which race obsession triumphs over any sense of basic humanity. The play urges the audience to accept the absurdity of a dichotomized vision of the world, to recognize the spectral nature of reality, and to transcend the devastation imposed by polarizing rhetoric.

Author(s):  
Nadine George-Graves

The career of acclaimed tap dancer Jeni LeGon is remarkable not only for her style but also for the ways in which she navigated the racial politics of the 1930s Hollywood film industry. This chapter examines how identity politics affected LeGon’s movements on and off both stage and screen. Hollywood lacked the political will to commit to LeGon, but she countered with a black will to maintain control and subjectivity. As a light-complexioned African American woman cast in a variety of ethnic roles she demonstrates the fungibility of black and brown bodies. When she presented as both cutesy and powerhouse, and when she performed male lines of business in pants, she troubled conceptions of gender. That the same body read subservient in white films and leading lady in black films tells us about not only the practices of an industry but also the audience’s phenomenological experiences of race.


Hypatia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Gloria J. Wilson ◽  
Joni Boyd Acuff ◽  
Venessa López

The verb “to conjure” is a complex one, for it includes in its standard definition a great range of possible actions or operations, not all of them equivalent, or even compatible. In its most common usage, “to conjure” means to perform an act of magic or to invoke a supernatural force, by casting a spell, say, or performing a particular ritual or rite. But “to conjure” is also to influence, to beg, to command or constrain, to charm, to bewitch, to move or convey, to imagine, to visualize, to call to mind, or to remember. —Rachael DeLue 2012, para 1. When we create with our Brown hands, feminine energy, and full spirits, we conjure. To exist, survive, and thrive in these bodies is a continuous act of conjuring. Our walks conjure. Our smiles conjure. Our tears conjure. Our laughs conjure. Our words conjure. Our artworks are conjurings. We, a Black/Filipina-American woman, a Dominican-American, and a Black-American woman, are guided by our solidarity with one another and all other Black and Brown female identifying persons whose raced and gendered subjectivities exist both inside and outside of colonization, white supremacy, and patriarchy. We bring to life our colored imaginations and curiosities, and share them with the world. We are united by our need for safety, autonomy as beings, dissolution of trauma, and desire to ask, “What would happen if I…?” Imaginative, curious Women of Color (WoC) founded the underground railroad, guided captured Africans and Tainos to the mountains, ignited the Civil Rights Movement, organized laborers and immigrants, birthed the #BlackLivesMatter Movement, conceived the #MeToo Movement, and so much more. Like our kindred counterparts, we have an unrelenting urge to examine, question, wonder, desire, speak to, lead, be curious, and “conjure.” As practicing artists and art educators, our critical arts-based practices are grounded in intersectional feminisms like Womanism, Black Feminist Theory, and Chicana Feminist Theory, which allow us to do these very things.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 36-42
Author(s):  
Dr. K. Radah ◽  
G. Gayathri

African American women have been silenced and kept ignorant by the dominant culture and it is the human need to create and maintain a true self in a social context. However, such an endeavor becomes an ordeal for those who are doubly oppressed, for those who are muted and mutilated physically and psychically through the diabolic crossfire of caste/race, sex and colonialism. This paper focuses on, an African American Woman, throughout her journey of life, seeking completeness in terms of family, society and community level.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn M. Callahan

ABSTRACT In this paper, I offer personal insights based on my experiences (thus far) in an evolving academic accounting career model. While I value all aspects of an academic career responsibilities (teaching, research, and service), this narrative focuses primarily on the role of accounting scholarship and, broadly, the impact of diversity on the same. I offer these perspectives and personal experiences from the unique vantage point as an African American woman, focused first on contributing to top-tired accounting scholarship, and more recently on roles as an administrator of an accounting department and business college. While my academic journey is unique by objective measures (often dubbed “trailblazing” by others), I offer suggestions that may be useful to any academic who is dedicated to success in our field. Given the evolving accounting model and challenges ahead, my overriding goal remains to encourage junior accounting colleagues to persevere, as an accounting academic career is richly rewarding.


2020 ◽  
Vol 154 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S41-S42
Author(s):  
E Ozluk ◽  
R Shackelford

Abstract Introduction/Objective First described by Rosai and Dorfman in 1969, Rosai-Dorfman Disease (RDD) is an uncommon, idiopathic, reactive lymph node process with an unknown etiology. It may involve extra-nodal organs including the skin, bone, soft tissue, and eyes. However, breast involvement is rare and RDD confined to breast without nodal involvement is extremely uncommon. Methods Here we present a case of RDD confined to breast. The patient was a 51-year-old African American woman who was found to have an irregular, solid left breast mass on routine mammogram, which had speculated irregular margins and measured of 37.0 x 32.0 x 32.0 mm. She did not have any symptoms, nor any palpable lymph nodes. The clinician stated that the lesion was highly suspicious for a breast malignancy and requested a fine needle aspiration (FNA) of the mass, followed by total excision. Results An FNA was interpreted as atypical histiocytic cells in a mixed lymphoid background. Histopathologic examination revealed an ill-defined mass with sheets of histiocytes, plasma cells, and a mixed lymphocytic population, with occasional germinal centers. Some of the histiocytes were spindle shaped and associated with storiform collagen deposition. The histiocytes had single and multiple nuclei and exhibited occasional emperipolesis. Immunohistochemical staining with S100 diffusely highlighted the histiocytes, whereas CD1a was negative. CD3 and CD20 immunostains were positive for mixed-type lymphocytic infiltration. Cytokeratin staining was performed and reassuringly stained only the benign ductal cells. A diagnosis of RDD of the breast was made, based on these histopathologic findings. Conclusion We report an example of an extra-nodal RDD involving the mammary gland that was initially suspected to be breast carcinoma. RDD may still be a diagnostic challenge, especially in a patient with suspected carcinoma. It is the pathologist’s role to lead the clinician to the proper diagnosis and render a correct histopathologic diagnosis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. e241147
Author(s):  
Terry Shin ◽  
Thanh Duc Hoang ◽  
Mary Thomas Plunkett ◽  
Mohamed K M Shakir

One pitfall in 24-hour urine collection is the input of incorrect urinary volume by the reference laboratory. This may lead to an incorrect diagnosis of pheochromocytoma or paraganglioma. A 48-year-old African-American woman was seen in the clinic for an elevated 24-hour urine metanephrine screen during workup for secondary hypertension. Urine volume was found to be incorrectly inputted by the lab as 9750 mL rather than 975 mL. The urinary metanephrines were then recalculated and the 24-hour urinary metanephrines resulted within normal limits. This case highlights this unique and potentially under-recognised error in testing with 24-hour urine volume collection.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Jiramongkolchai ◽  
Tin Yan Alvin Liu ◽  
J. Fernando Arevalo

We report a case of peripheral retinal neovascularization and vitreous hemorrhage in the setting of HIV retinopathy that can serve to extend the clinical spectrum of this condition. A 53-year-old African-American woman with AIDS was referred for decreased vision in the left eye and was found to have peripheral retinal neovascularization and vitreous hemorrhage. She had a workup that was negative for etiologies of retinal ischemia. Peripheral laser photocoagulation was used to treat areas of nonperfusion. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of peripheral retinal neovascularization and vitreous hemorrhage in the setting of HIV retinopathy, and it can serve to extend the clinical spectrum of this condition.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Ashamalla ◽  
Marita S. Teng ◽  
Joshua Brody ◽  
Elizabeth Demicco ◽  
Rahul Parikh ◽  
...  

We are reporting a case of a 62-year-old African American woman with a history of gastric MALT lymphoma successfully treated with radiation who presented with a laryngeal MALT lymphoma 4 years after her original diagnosis. She received definitive radiation with a complete response. The case presented is unique for the rare presentation of a MALT lymphoma in the larynx, especially in light of the patient’s previously treated gastric MALT lymphoma years ago.


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