The Mammy Project

Many people have been interested in minstrelsy, especially the caricature mammy. There is something compelling, I think, about Mammy. I don't know what it is yet- maybe we see a bit of her in ourselves. Maybe we see her in the people that we know and love. Or in media- on the television screen, in works of art, on a pancake box. But where did she come from? How did she become so popular? And what is America's deal with Mammy? These are some of the questions that The Mammy Project raises (and then some).

The Mammy Project is a one woman show, a project by a woman named Michelle Matlock. Here is the trailer of the show that is on their website:



And here's a link to the website: http://themammyproject.com/

It's pretty interesting. You should check it out. Especially the photo gallery.

Mammy, mammy, my lil mammy.

This scene was the inspiration for the first mammy monologue I did for my play "The Mammy Statue". I will add it here just to give a writing sample for the sort of thing I'm trying to do. But first, the things that interest me about this scene:
- What role is blackface playing here? He doesn't actually look like a black man. In fact, he looks scary. Why weren't people scared of this?
- The way that he is moving his body.. very over-the-top motions. Also the gloves...
- There is a very creepy obsession with mammy that is accepted in our culture. "I'd walk a million miles for one of your smiles" this feels like the passion one would have for a lover, not a mother figure.

Also, here is a cheap rendition someone did of this song. But look how he blends in with the black background. The only things that are showing up are the whites of his eyes, around his mouth, his gloves, the red of his shirt. How can we play with that for some sort of visual/puppet-like effect? How can we scare the audience with this?



Also, here's the monologue. Keep in mind that I am playing with how frightening these caricatures are. Overall, my aim of (sexual)liberation is to get the audience comfortable. Give them a reason to laugh and get past the "proper" response towards blackface and minstrelsy in order to get into a deeper discussion about race. Right. So:

She opens one eye, then closes it. She opens the same eye again, then both, and darts her eyes back and forth, then looks forward at the audience and smiles mischievously. She puts a finger to her mouth, as to hush the audience, and then overdramatically tiptoes toward Adanne to see if she is awake. She is very aware of the audience, and is definitely “playing it up” for their sake. Once she has ensured that Adanne is sleeping, she does a little “shuffle and step” towards the living room/kitchen area, where she finds a broom. She picks up the broom, and now her steps have become a full-fledged dance. She hums while dancing, and then breaks out into song.

MAMMY. Mammy, mammy, my little mammy, my heartstrings are tangled around Alabammy.

During Mammy’s song and dance, she works her way back to downstage center, her mood changes from jovial to somber. She takes her broom, aims it at the audience like a gun. There is a beat before she begins to speak.

MAMMY. Whose mother am I? Whose mother am I? Seems like since my creation, someone decided I had to be a mother. I never got a childhood- no time to play when you’re caring after babies. And whose babies were they? I don’t remember letting any man climb up on top of me. (No man ever tried. Too obsessed with my breasts and not with my other parts.) And who loved me, loved all of me? Every tooth, every stretch mark, every pubic hair? Not you. You don’t even know me. You’ve never even heard my voice before this, didn’t even care if I had a voice. (slight pause) You don’t even know my name. Go on, try and remember my name. I dare you.

(Excerpt from "The Mammy Statue")

Petey Wheatstraw: TheDevil's Son In Law

Check out the birth scene. Birthing a watermelon? OMG. I will come back to this in a second.

stereotypes today

so this isn't minstrelsy but is definitely a skit that plays off of stereotypes that people have abt black ppl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNbUKIkRieM

Pickaninies pt.1

In my searching I've found myself particularly fixated on these images. There's something particularly unsettling for me in these that I can't quite articulate.

First Post

Hey, all.

This is the official blog for JD Stokely & Najee Haynes-Follins' Div III show, The (Sexual) Liberation of Mammy. Here, they (along with special guest members of the production team!) will post images, texts, videos, etc that have been inspiring their work with minstrelsy. It will not be a happy, uplifting sort of blog.

Stay updated.
- stokes.