VENUS by Suzan-Lori Parks

THE PAN-AFRICAN THEATRE ENSEMBLE
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Presents

VENUS by Suzan-Lori Parks
in The African Community Theatre @ Kent State University

Directed by
D. Amy-Rose Forbes-Erickson

A satirical tale of agency, voyeurism, and a circus freak show.

Venus by Suzan-Lori Parks (b. 1963) recalls the true and historic account of Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman (1790-1815) who was kidnapped from her Khoikhoi people in South Africa in 1810 and paraded in freak shows in London and Paris. Baartman, dubbed “The Hottentot Venus,” was forced to publicly display her genitalia and buttocks, considered “abnormal” by European standards in the early nineteenth century. With a satiric and witty Brechtian style, Parks peels away the layers of ironies, tragedy, agency, and access to Baartman’s body in freak shows and medical experiments. Through visual metaphors for fetish and voyeurism, this production of Venus explores Baartman’s objectification and the perils of historic and contemporary spectacles by black women in popular culture. 

Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most acclaimed African American playwrights and novelists. She has received numerous prestigious awards, and is the first African American woman recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and the MacArthur Genius Award.

African Community Theatre (ACT)
Oscar Ritchie Hall, Room 230
Department of Pan-African Studies
Kent State University

March 16, 17, 18, 2017 –8pm and March 19, 2017 –2pm
Talk Back on Saturday, March 18, 2017