Let’s not make the mistake of confusing “Stealing the Show” with the popular reality TV show of the same name.
“Stealing the Show” is the literary work of scholar Miriam Petty, an assistant professor in the Department of Radio/Television/Film and African American Studies at Northwestern University, who will be a guest of Mosaic Film Experience and the West Michigan Film and Video Alliance.
The book is the basis for this insightful lecture on the history and way race was presented in Hollywood and the genre of American film during the 1930s.
Petty takes the audience on this night through a series of stories centered around actors Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Lincoln “Stepin Fetchit” Perry, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Hattie McDaniel, all of whom worked during a time period when the consolidation of stardom began to gain traction within the culture, transforming the industry into a powerful force upon which images of race are still being untangled to this day.
The “Stealing the Show” lecture successfully maps how these actors navigated the Hollywood star system where “problematic stardom” and the enduring, interdependent patterns of performance and spectatorship for performers and audiences of color emerged in America and later the world.
Miriam Petty was last in Grand Rapids as a presenting speaker at the 2015 TEDxGrand Rapids.
Admission: Free but register here.