Description

Historical summary written by Dr. Kate Ramsey (University of Miami History Department): Program for Haiti: A Drama of the Black Napoleon, Presented by the Federal Theatre Project, Works Project Administration, at Daly’s Theatre, New York, New York. This program documents one of the most notable dramatic productions presented by the Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939) of the United States Works Project Administration. The play Haiti: A Drama of the Black Napoleon premiered in New York City at Harlem's Lafayette Theatre in March 1938, and later moved to Daly's Theatre on Broadway, as reflected here. This was four years following the end of the 1915-1934 U.S. occupation of Haiti, at a time of considerable literary, theatrical, and wider artistic interest in Haiti-focused work. Originally written by William DuBois, a white New York Times journalist and editor, the play was transformatively re-worked by Maurice Clark, African American director of the Federal Theatre Project's Harlem unit. Mary Renda, in her book "Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915-1940," notes that what had been originally, "a morality play about the grave dangers of miscegenation," became by the time the play premiered to popular acclaim in Harlem, "a dramatization of the black struggle for freedom." The production of Haiti: A Drama of the Black Napoleon was one of the plays criticized by members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Un-American Activities, in advance of the Federal Theatre Project's defunding in 1939.

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University of Miami Libraries

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Sunshine State Digital Network