Burnt Cork

Beginning in the 1830s and continuing for more than a century, blackface minstrelsy-stage performances that claimed to represent the culture of black Americans- remained arguably the most popular entertainment in North America. A renewed scholarly interest in this contentious form of entertainment has produced studies treating a range of issues: its contradictory depictions of class, race, and gender; its role in the development of racial stereotyping; and its legacy in humor, dance, and music, and in live performance, film, and television. The style and substance of minstrelsy persist in popular music, tap and hip-hop dance, the language of the standup comic, and everyday rituals of contemporary culture. The blackface makeup all but disappeared for a time, though its influence never diminished-and recently, even the makeup has been making a comeback.

Stephen Johnson is director of the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto and author of The Roof Gardens of Broadway Theatre.