Black revolutionary theater dramatized the murder of King’s nonviolent gospel

Evidence

Nonviolence was a nonstarter. Slave Ship’s third movement was a call to arms. The warrior god Ogun summoned, the plantation slaves break their chains and occupy the platform’s upper deck. The audience is also liberated, able to comfortably sit up straight and follow the action at least until it spread throughout the theater. Cast members roamed free, exhorting each other “Rise, Rise, Rise, Cut these Ties, Black Man Rise” and inviting Black spectators to join in the chant. Then, after gunning down a nonviolent, integrationist preacher many took to be a stand-in for Martin Luther King Jr., the slaves tore down the cross and decapitated an Uncle Sam effigy. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1504

Categorization

• XREF: The onstage killing of a King-figure sits against the reader’s shelf claims about cultural stagnation inheriting 60s avant-garde forms — this is the radical edge of the scene-to-market story.