Exhibitions

Taking the Stage

September 24, 2016 – Permanent
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Costume for Glinda the Good Witch in The Wiz on Broadway, 1975

National Museum of African American History and Culture
1400 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC

4th Floor, Culture Galleries

See on Map Floor Plan

This exhibition explores the history of African Americans in theater, film, and television in order to celebrate their creative achievements, demonstrate their cultural impact and illuminate their struggles for equal representation on the stage of American entertainment. Visitors will see how African Americans transformed the ways they are represented onstage by challenging racial discrimination and stereotypes and striving to produce more positive, authentic and diverse images of African American identity and experience. Together these stories suggest how African American performing artists also paved the way for broader social change. Stories include Paul Robeson’s role in Othello, Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf and the Black Stuntmen’s Association in Hollywood.