UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Labor, Pleasure, and Possession in Transnational Black Performance A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy In Theater and Performance Studies by Anndretta Lyle Wilson 2016 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Labor, Pleasure, and Possession in Transnational Black Performance by Anndretta Lyle Wilson Doctor of Philosophy in Theater and Performance Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2016 Professor Robin Davis Gibran Kelley, Co-Chair Professor Sean Aaron Metzger, Co-Chair The study traces histories of African descended sacred music singers and musicians whose work has relied on transatlantic or transnational travel and theorizes performance labor through modes of pleasure and possession. Twentieth century United States examples are drawn from early musical recordings from 1909, concerts from the 1930s, through dramatic literature and theaters including Broadway stages from the 1950s, to internationally popular film and music video renderings of gospel performance through the 1990s. The study concludes with an ethnographic analysis of contemporary francophone African and French African performances in Paris, France that include oral storytelling and “Black American” gospel concerts. ii The dissertation of Anndretta Lyle Wilson is approved. Sue-Ellen Case Robin Davis Gibran Kelley, Committee Co-Chair Sean Aaron Metzger, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2016 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Labor, Pleasure, and Possession ........................................................................................................ i in Transnational Black Performance .................................................................................................. i Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 Labor Legacy .................................................................................................................................... 1 Terms and Definitions ......................................................................................................................... 2 Interpreting Meaning and History ........................................................................................................ 6 Dissertation Outline ........................................................................................................................... 21 Chapter One .......................................................................................................................... 28 Sanctified Pleasure Spaces ............................................................................................................. 28 Marion Williams ................................................................................................................................ 28 Sanctification and Tradition .............................................................................................................. 33 Dirty Work and Background Performance ........................................................................................ 42 Healing Labor .................................................................................................................................... 47 Paris Possession ................................................................................................................................. 54 Televised Pleasure and Indifference .................................................................................................. 61 Movement Over Mortality ................................................................................................................. 66 Contemporary Significance ............................................................................................................... 70 Chapter Two .......................................................................................................................... 74 Service and Circulation ................................................................................................................... 74 The Labor of Jubilee .......................................................................................................................... 77 Countering Evisceration .................................................................................................................... 83 Sounding Repossession ..................................................................................................................... 89 Golden Gate (Jubilee) Quartet ........................................................................................................... 99 Mahalia Jackson .............................................................................................................................. 110 Possession by Naming and Claiming ............................................................................................... 112 Business and Service ....................................................................................................................... 119 Working Body, Still Woman ........................................................................................................... 122 Chapter Three ..................................................................................................................... 130 “She Moves My Soul”: Langston Hughes, Gospel Music, Women, and Theater ............................. 130 Womanist Insubordination and Reproductive Labor ....................................................................... 152 Countering Racially Gendered Labor Identities .............................................................................. 154 Embodied Authorship ...................................................................................................................... 157 Co-conception .................................................................................................................................. 161 Womanist Insubordination .............................................................................................................. 164 Womanist Approach to Directing .................................................................................................... 169 Theater as a Teaching and Learning Space ...................................................................................... 173 Reproductive Labor ......................................................................................................................... 175 Chapter Four ....................................................................................................................... 183 Between Duty and Romance: The Attraction of Sounding “Black” in Paris .................................... 183 Tour of Black Paris: Audible Monuments ....................................................................................... 185 iv Romantic Stories ............................................................................................................................. 190 Affection Critique ............................................................................................................................ 196 Josephine Baker and National Desire .............................................................................................. 199 Monumental Exclusions .................................................................................................................. 201 Black Paris Tour Postlude ............................................................................................................... 203 Reinterpreting Tourist Attraction .................................................................................................... 205 Afro-Americaine Concerts in Paris .................................................................................................. 207 A Strange Attraction ........................................................................................................................ 211 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 232 v VITA M.A. STANFORD UNIVERSITY Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities Program, Dramatic Literature Emphasis, August 2010 B.A. STANFORD UNIVERSITY Political Science, June 2008 PUBLICATIONS Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters 2016 "Langston Hughes’ Front Porch: A Dream House Deferred" in the edited volume Performing the Family Dream House: Space, Ritual, and Images of Home. Edited by Emily Klein, Jen-Scott Mobley, and Jill Stevenson. Forthcoming. 2016 “Scandalous Noises and the Soulful Sound of Black Woman Masculinity” in the edited volume Gladiators in Suits: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Representation in Scandal. Edited by Kimberly R. Moffitt, Simone Puff, and Ronald L. Jackson II. Forthcoming. Encyclopedia and Reference Entries 2016 “Gospel Music” entry. The Sage Encyclopedia of Ethnomusicology. Edited by Janet L. Sturman. Sage Publications, 2016. Forthcoming. Review Essays and Book Reviews 2015 Book review of David Whiteis’ Southern Soul-Blues (2012). Edited by V.P. Franklin. The Journal of African American History, Volume 100, Fall 2015. Performance Program Notes 2015 “The N-Word” in the August Wilson Monologue Competition Los Angeles Regional Finals Program Book (2015). Edited by Leslie Johnson. Published