Christina Baker – författare

Sonic Strategies for Performing the Modern Nation highlights what author Christina Baker refers to as the “sonic strategies” employed by contemporary performance artists in Mexico in response to the violence surrounding the government’s so-called War on Drugs. The introduction (which opens with the scene of the 2007 reenactment of the Grito, or “cry,” of independence) presents the theme, and each subsequent chapter focuses on the works of one or more performance artist. Taken together, the case studies illuminate how critiques of the nation’s rising death tolls, governmental corruption, and gendered violence very literally sound whether in MÚsica de balas, a post-dramatic piece by Hugo Salcedo, CompaÑÍa Teatro Penitenciario’s journey to theatre by way of incarceration, the lamentations of the nation’s Antigones, satirical revisions of Mexican Golden Age Film in the cabaret piece Nosotras las proles, or the story of transfemicide in CÉsar EnrÍquez's La Prietty Guoman by way of U.S. pop music.Written in an accessible style grounded in theatre studies, but interdisciplinary by design, Sonic Strategies for Performing the Modern Nation will appeal to literary critics, students, (ethno)musicologists, and theater and performance scholars alike. ​By paying close attention to both planned and spontaneous sounds within live and textual experiences, Sonic Strategies for Performing the Modern Nation contends that conscientious listening practices highlight dynamic practices that reside beyond the linguistic and embodied gesture.

Sonic Strategies for Performing the Modern Nation highlights what author Christina Baker refers to as the “sonic strategies” employed by contemporary performance artists in Mexico in response to the violence surrounding the government’s so-called War on Drugs. The introduction (which opens with the scene of the 2007 reenactment of the Grito, or “cry,” of independence) presents the theme, and each subsequent chapter focuses on the works of one or more performance artist. Taken together, the case studies illuminate how critiques of the nation’s rising death tolls, governmental corruption, and gendered violence very literally sound whether in MÚsica de balas, a post-dramatic piece by Hugo Salcedo, CompaÑÍa Teatro Penitenciario’s journey to theatre by way of incarceration, the lamentations of the nation’s Antigones, satirical revisions of Mexican Golden Age Film in the cabaret piece Nosotras las proles, or the story of transfemicide in CÉsar EnrÍquez's La Prietty Guoman by way of U.S. pop music.Written in an accessible style grounded in theatre studies, but interdisciplinary by design, Sonic Strategies for Performing the Modern Nation will appeal to literary critics, students, (ethno)musicologists, and theater and performance scholars alike. ​By paying close attention to both planned and spontaneous sounds within live and textual experiences, Sonic Strategies for Performing the Modern Nation contends that conscientious listening practices highlight dynamic practices that reside beyond the linguistic and embodied gesture.

Beginning with her critically acclaimed independent feature film Eve's Bayou (1997), writer-director Kasi Lemmons's mission has been to push the boundaries that exist in Hollywood. With Eve's Bayou, her first feature film, Lemmons (b. 1961) accomplished the rare feat of creating a film that was critically successful and one of the highest-grossing independent films of the year. Moreover, the cultural impact of Eve's Bayou endures, and in 2018 the film was added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry as a culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant film. Lemmons's directing credits also include The Caveman's Valentine, Talk to Me, Black Nativity, and, most recently, Harriet, making Lemmons one of the most prolific and long-standing women directors in Hollywood.As a black woman filmmaker and a self-proclaimed black feminist, Lemmons breaks the mold of what is expected of a filmmaker in Hollywood. She began her career in Hollywood as an actor, with roles in numerous television series and high-profile films, including Spike Lee's School Daze and Jonathan Demme's Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs.This volume collects fifteen interviews that illuminate Lemmons's distinctive ability to challenge social expectations through film and actualize stories that broaden expectations of cinematic black femaleness and maleness. The interviews reveal Lemmons's passion to create art through film, intimately linked to her mission to protest culturally and structurally imposed limitations and push the boundaries imposed by Hollywood.

Beginning with her critically acclaimed independent feature film Eve's Bayou (1997), writer-director Kasi Lemmons's mission has been to push the boundaries that exist in Hollywood. With Eve's Bayou, her first feature film, Lemmons (b. 1961) accomplished the rare feat of creating a film that was critically successful and one of the highest-grossing independent films of the year. Moreover, the cultural impact of Eve's Bayou endures, and in 2018 the film was added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry as a culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant film. Lemmons's directing credits also include The Caveman's Valentine, Talk to Me, Black Nativity, and, most recently, Harriet, making Lemmons one of the most prolific and long-standing women directors in Hollywood.As a black woman filmmaker and a self-proclaimed black feminist, Lemmons breaks the mold of what is expected of a filmmaker in Hollywood. She began her career in Hollywood as an actor, with roles in numerous television series and high-profile films, including Spike Lee's School Daze and Jonathan Demme's Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs.This volume collects fifteen interviews that illuminate Lemmons's distinctive ability to challenge social expectations through film and actualize stories that broaden expectations of cinematic black femaleness and maleness. The interviews reveal Lemmons's passion to create art through film, intimately linked to her mission to protest culturally and structurally imposed limitations and push the boundaries imposed by Hollywood.