“With this compelling volume, DeFrantz and Gonzalez provide less a settled corpus of methodologies applied to a canon of academically sanctioned performance genres than an articulation and elaboration of black corporealities, vocalities, and ‘sensibilities’ across a heterogeneous field of performative enunciations--’high’ and pop culture, geographically dispersed and diasporic. . . . This promises to become a key work. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.” — R. Remshardt, Choice
"This is theory that dances. [...] Black Performance Theory convenes 14 scholars and practitioners of Africana performance and bids them dance and groove across national, hemispheric, oceanic, planetary, disciplinary, epochal, formal, and methodological boundaries in pursuit of blackness in motion." — La Marr Jurelle Bruce, The Drama Review
"This crucially important critical volume highlights the collaborative work of the Black Performance Theory Group, emphasizing the significance of black bodies in motion. A moving work!"
— Jennifer DeVere Brody, author of Punctuation: Art, Politics, and Play
"[Black Performance Theory] is a palimpsest of black performance histories, practices, affects, and ideologies. . . . Exceeding iterations of ready-made blackness and overcooked theories of performance, this volume honors the charge to theorize outside the expected and to say something new."
— D. Soyini Madison, author of Acts of Activism: Human Rights as Radical Performance, from the foreword
"I do not know of any other anthology that examines black performance as theory and method, and does so across multiple disciplines and performance genres. Black Performance Theory brings together contributions from important scholars whose work is vital to the ongoing conversation about black performance. It is a must-read for those seeking to understand race through the analytic of performance."
— E. Patrick Johnson, author of Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity