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Responding to Representations in Musical Theater

Thanks to Jeff Chang for pointing out a recent article in the New York Times that discusses David Henry Hwang’s new musical “Yellow Face.” His new play addresses some of the issues of race, ethnicity and stereotypes that he also dealt with in his musical M. Butterfly in response to Miss Saigon. This reminded me of Julia Eklund Koza’s chapter Unhappy Happy Endings: Cultural Politics in the Broadway Musical Hit Once on This Island (1997; revised 2001) in her book… Read More »Responding to Representations in Musical Theater

From Conscious Hip Hop to Racism in the Jazz Age….

How has music education dealt with hip hop culture or rap music let alone issues of race and class when discussing listenership? Baakari Kitwana author of the recent book “Why White Kids Love Hip Hop”wrote a recent article in the Village Voice that looked at the fact that most “conscious” hip hop shows ( non-commercial and politically progressive) are attended predominantly by white youth. Some people might observe that more often than not, there tends to be a disassociation between… Read More »From Conscious Hip Hop to Racism in the Jazz Age….