Part installation, part performance, and completely mesmerising, The Black History Museum…According to the United States of America invited audiences to experience life as a Black American throughout history. This world premiere employed powerful and satirical visual art, performance, sound installation and dance, to transform HERE’s entire building into a theatrical museum. An experience unlike any other, The Black History Museum… asked audiences to see the American notion of ‘Blackness’ through new lenses, on the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery.
Role: Production Manager and Scenic Construction
Produced by: Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative and HERE Arts Center
Photography: Paula Court
Conceived and Directed: Zoey Martinson
Writers: Zoey Martinson, Kareem M. Lucas, Jonathan Braylock, and Robert King with additional text by Shenovia Large
Choreography: Francesca Harper Composition
Sound Design: Avi Amon
Scenic Design: D’Vaughn Agu
Costume Design: Ari Fulton
Lighting Design: Ayumu Poe Saegusa
Projection Design: Brittany Bland
Dramaturg: Arminda Thomas
Stage Manager: Alex B. West
Assistant Stage Manager: Josephine Rose Ronga
Visual Art Installations: Brandan “B-mike” Odums, Shariffa Ali, Paula Champagne, Liliana Hendricks, Laetitia Ky, Yusef Miller and Kalin Norman
Performers: Marcia Berry, Taylor Boyland, Langston Darby, Toni Ann DeNoble, Telly Fowler, Tabatha Gayle, Robert King, Kareem M. Lucas, Latra Wilson and Landon Woodson
Production Manager: Clementine Seely
Technical Director: Steven Brenman
Associate Choreographer: Eriko Iisaku
Assistant Lighting Designer: Eden Florence Guill
Costume Assistant: Sarah Gallegos
Sound Programmer: Westie Productions
Researcher: A.J. Muhammad
Casting Director Actors: Katie Houben
Casting Casting Director Dancers: Josephine Ronga Marketing for Smoke & Mirrors: Augustus Cook
Scenic Construction: Sunbunker, Clementine Seely
Costume Fabrication: Timmy Schues
Master Electrician: Ayumu Poe Saegusa
Assistant Master Electrician: Spencer Wolfe
Audio Visual Lead Technician: Eamon Goodman
Supported by HERE staff and crew
"It is not bleak, it is not hit you over the head dogmatic, it is funny and endearing and damn clever, taking what we know and twisting it, uncovering what we thought we knew and shining a light on it, stating the obvious in surprising ways. I urge you to see this remarkable piece of theatre, art, music, dance. Having seen many of the shows currently on and off-broadway about race in this country, this one is one of the BEST if not THE BEST, entertaining, educational, engaging and submerging you in the whole experience." - The Front Row Center
"...part theater, part museum — an impressively ambitious collaborative effort by a veritable army of African-American artists." - New York Theatre
"The Black History Museum, like many works of art, requires its audience to put some of themselves into the piece. This production is meant to be experienced. In my head, I heard my relatives." - TheatreReviewsFromMySeat.com
"...amusing, stimulating, upsetting, and unique experience." - TheatreScene.net