UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE From Pursuing Innocence to Ensuing Innocence: How Performance Can Empower Youth to Access and Establish Shared Governance in Juvenile Justice A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Drama and Theatre by Tezeru Teshome Committee in charge: University of California San Diego Professor Nadine George-Graves, Chair Professor Julie Burelle Professor Sara C. Kaplan Professor K. Wayne Yang University of California Irvine Professor Frank B. Wilderson III 2019 © Tezeru Teshome, 2019 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Tezeru Teshome is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Chair University of California San Diego University of California Irvine 2019 !iii DEDICATION I dedicate this to my mother who always asks if I remember. !iv EPIGRAPH The intensity with which young people live demands that they ‘blank out’ as often as possible. Dr. Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings !v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page……………………………………………………….……………………….…..iii Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………..……iv Epigraph………………………………………………………………………………………..….v Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………………vi List of Tables………………………………………………………………………..…………..viii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..……..ix Curriculum Vita…………………………………………………………………………..………xi Abstract of the Dissertation………………………………………………………………..……xiv Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………………1 1.1 Theoretical Overview ………………………………………………………………3 1.2 Slavery and Social Death…………………………………………..…….4 1.3 Afro-Pessimism.……………………………………………………………….6 1.4 Racialization of Child Innocence…………………………………………….12 1.5 Impossibility of Black Subjectivity and Emplotment…………………..18 1.6 Overview of Chapters…………………………………………………..24 Chapter 2: The Aesthetic Terrorism of Black Girlhood…………………………..………..…….31 2.1 Black Girlhood Cosmology……………………………………………………….32 2.2 Dialectics of Beauty……………………………………………………………….35 2.3 Ontological and Structural Positionality…………………………………………..42 2.4 The Black Family and Home in Natal Alienation……………………..…………..46 2.5 Pauline…………………………………………………………………………….57 2.6 Cholly………………………………………………………………………….….61 Chapter 3: White Deflection for Black Deviation……………………………………………….70 3.1 White Parasitism……………………………………………………………..……74 3.2 Redeeming Mr. Dunne and the Dishonoring of Drey………………………….….79 3.3 Hope for Racial Unity…………………………………………………………..…87 Chapter 4: Empowering Youth to Seek Structural Access and Not Redemption………………..93 4.1 Saidiya Hartman - Public vs Private………………………………………………96 4.2 Kara Keeling - Unattainable Ontology……………………………………………99 4.3 Racialization and Redemption in the Juvenile Justice System ………………….103 4.4 Geoff Ward - Black Child Savers………………………………………………..109 4.5 Intervention - San Diego Youth Commission……………………………………111 !vi 4.5.1.Constituency Identification………………………………………….115 4.5.2. Constituency Development…………………………………………120 4.5.3. Constituency Advocacy…………………………………………….123 Chapter 5: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..128 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………140 !vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Brief Overview of Stereotypes/Caricatures of Black Girlhood/Youth !viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to the entire faculty and staff of the Drama and Theatre Joint Doctoral Program at UC San Diego and UC Irvine for giving me an opportunity to pursue intellectual and creative interest while fully funded! In the last five years, I have taken seminar and independent courses with world-renowned professors and would like to thank them for broadening and deepening my understanding of performance and scholarship: Drs. Nadine George-Graves, John Rouse, Emily Roxworthy, Janet Smarr, Julie Burelle, Sara C. Kaplan, K. Wayne Yang, Stephen Barker, Jared Sexton, Frank B. Wilderson III, and Anthony Kubiak. I am deeply grateful for my dissertation committee’s professional and intellectual support. In particular, Dr. Nadine George-Graves (Chair) for introducing me to Black Performance Studies, for her copious edits on my dissertation, and her steadfast commitment to excellence and self-confidence as a prerequisite for any endeavor. I hope I can pass down the guidance, encouragement, and straight-up advice she gave me to future mentees and students. Thank you Dr. Frank B. Wilderson III for bringing me closer to The Hold. Thank you Dr. Sara C. Kaplan for guiding me through the many untold stories of slavery, reproductivity, and medicine. Thank you Dr. K. Wayne Yang, for believing in me and my work enough to co- publish. Some of the material we published is included in Chapter Two, The Aesthetic Terrorism of Black Girlhood and Chapter Five, Conclusion. Thank you Dr. Julie Burelle, for always having my back and being a great example of junior faculty. A special thanks to Marianne McDonald, Todd Salovey, and Steve Chappel, and Alexis Dixon for their mentorship, encouragement, and generosity. Thank you to Marybeth Ward for your resourcefulness and personal insight in helping me navigate UCSD throughout the years. Thank you to the professors outside of UCSD who have also contributed to my doctoral career. Thank you to Dr. Judy Bauerlein for giving me an opportunity at California State !ix University San Marcos. Thank you to Kathy A. Perkins who encouraged me to apply to Performance Studies doctoral programs and who continues to be a catalyst for so many young scholar-practitioners. Thank you Dr. Sandra L. Richards for her copious edits on an essay I published with Routledge. A special thank you to the San Diego Juvenile Justice. In particular, Kim who also helped me edit this dissertation and Yvette, Sarah, and Lynn for leveraging my ideas. I am forever grateful for the friendships I maintained and made during my doctoral journey. I am grateful for my cohort Jon Reimer and academic peer Sam Mitchell for being great friends and for so many carpools to UCI and San Marcos. To my UCI friends - Selamawit Terrefe, Jasmine Montgomery, and Mehra Gharib - I appreciate you all for the intellectual support and camaraderie. Thank you Mlondolozi Zondi and Tyrone S. Palmer for inviting me to share my work at Northwestern University. Thank you Travell, for always making me laugh and for being an opening in the sky, flowing sunlight - as you once told me. Thank you Michael for your mentorship, friendship, laughs, inspiration, and dance. Thank you Richie for introducing me to Hare Krishna, sharing a love for Stevie Wonder, and being a spiritual guide. Thank you Mark for all the fun trips, kicking up dust, and helping me when you could. Thank you Richard Win for reminding me to always hope and have faith. Thank you Charles for seeing more within me. Thank you Dave for always showing up and being consistent. Thank you Bianca for our artistic partnership and growing friendship. Thank you Seble, for being my soul-sista. Thank you Stephen for being my cheerleader and so much more. Thank you to Kuumba Lynx - Jacinda, Jaqunda, Lady Sol, and Julio - for the love, music, opening my eyes.Thank you to all my shorties and students. Thank you to my family, whose love is like no other. Chapters 2 and 5, in part, have been submitted for publication of the material as it may appear in Small Axe Journal, 2019, Teshome, Tezeru; Yang K., Wayne. Tezeru Teshome was the primary investigator and author of this paper. !x VITA EDUCATION 2012 Bachelor of Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 2019 Doctor of Philosophy, University of California San Diego FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Drama (Film, Prose, Plays) Critical Theory, Critical Youth Studies, Black Feminist Theory, Black Studies, Juvenile Justice, Civic Engagement PUBLICATIONS Teshome, Tezeru and Yang K., Wayne. “Not Child but Meager: Sexualization and Negation of Black Childhood.” Small Axe 01 November 2018. 22 (3 (57)): 160–170. Teshome, Tezeru. "Black Plight in Flight.” The Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance ed. A. Perkins, Kathy; L. Richards, Sandra; Craft Renée, Alexander; and Thomas, F. DeFrantz. Abingdon: Routledge, 06 Dec 2018: (291-194). TEACHING 2012-2013 City Year Chicago, Illinois 2015-2019 Teaching Assistant, University of California San Diego 2018 Lecturer, California State University, San Marcos 2013 2018 Associate Lecturer University of California San Diego !xi YOUTH ADVOCACY 2013-2014 Youth Board Operations Consultant for Illinois Collaboration on Youth and Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission 2016 - PRESENT San Diego Juvenile Justice Commissioner DEVISED FILM & THEATRE 2015 Hold My Hand (Theatre) 2015 Mama Knows Best (Film) 2016 Native Son (Theatre) 2016 black suffering/white pleasure (Theatre) 2017 black suffering/white pleasure (Film) 2018 Hide: A Redress of Lonely (Theatre) 2018 Still Rude (Film) PRESENTATIONS 2017 Program of African Studies Conference Northwestern University 2017 South African Theatre Conference in Brussels, Belgium Université Libre de Bruxelles 2017 American Theatre for Higher Education Conference Las Vegas, NV 2018 Landfall: On the Cultural Representation of Slow Violence UC Irvine 2018 In Motion: Performance and Unsettling Border Northwestern University !xii 2018 American Theatre