By Derk Baartman
Miriam Petty, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radio/Television/Film and African American Studies at Northwestern University, brings her engaging historical perspective on African American performers who ultimately “steal the show” to Celebration! Cinema North on Thursday, May 12 at 7 pm.
Join the Mosaic Film Experience and the West Michigan Film and Video Alliance (WMFVA) for a lecture on history and race in Hollywood—and participate in a discussion of how that impacts diversity in the Industry here in West Michigan.
Stealing the Show Race-ing the Stars: How Race, Stardom and Power in early Hollywood 
relate to today’s world of global entertainment and media is a study of African-American actors in Hollywood during the 1930s, a decade that saw the consolidation of stardom as a potent cultural and industrial force. Petty focuses on five performers whose Hollywood film careers flourished during this period—Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Lincoln “Stepin Fetchit” Perry, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Hattie McDaniel—to reveal the “problematic stardom” and the enduring, interdependent patterns of performance and spectatorship for performers and audiences of color.
This is a free event, but please RSVP here.
