1964, A Year in African American Performance History

This book examines the Civil Rights Movement from the perspective of a single year, 1964.
The book analyses specific events that occurred in 1964 as benchmarks of the Civil Right Movement, making the case that 1964 was a watershed year. Each chapter considers individually politics, rhetoric, sports, dramatic literature, film, art, and music, breaking down the events and illustrating their importance to the social and political life in the United States in 1964. This study emphasizes 1964 as a nodal point in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, arguing that it was within this single year that the tide against racism and injustice turned markedly.
This book will be of great interest to the scholars and students of civil rights, theatre and performance, art history, and drama literature.

List of contents

1. Introduction: Why 1964? 2. Words of Fire: Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King, and the Rhetoric of African American Performance 3. Performing Manhood: Muhammad Ali and the 1964 Heavyweight Championship 4. Expectation, Melancholy, and Loss: Intellectualism in Funnyhouse of a Negro and Dutchman 5. Neorealism and Cinematic Love: Nothing but a Man, One Potato, Two Potato, and the Working Class 6. Romare Bearden, the 1964 Photomontage Projections, and the Art of "Making Strange" 7. Heat Wave: Feminism, Crossover, and Motown Music 8. Conclusion: Change Is a Long Time Coming

About the author

David Krasner has taught acting, directing, and theatre history for nearly 50 years. He is currently Chair of Theatre at Five Towns College in Long Island, New York, where he oversees the BFA Program in Musical Theatre, Acting, and Design/Tech.

Product details

• Authors: Krasner David
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 26.12.2025
• EAN: 9781032670621
• ISBN: 978-1-032-67062-1
• No. of pages: 256
• Illustrations: schwarz-weiss Illustrationen, Raster,schwarz-weiss
• Series: Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > General, dictionaries; DRAMA / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, ART / Art & Politics, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Civil Rights, SPORTS & RECREATION / Boxing, ART / Performance, LAW / Gender & the Law, Theatre Studies, History of the Americas, Performance Art, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination, Museology & heritage studies, Museology and heritage studies, HISTORY / African American & Black, ART / American / African American & Black, DRAMA / American / African American & Black, Civil Rights;African American History;Performance