Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen

Starting in the 1880s, Black performers and those invested in telling stories centering Black people, attempted to counter the dehumanizing and harmful stereotypes created by white people to portray Black characters. Shows began touting “all colored revues” to indicate that a cast was made up of actual Black performers rather than white people in blackface, simultaneously implying that these spectacles were meant to build stories around the perception of authentic Black experiences. As film gradually replaced theater as the most popular form of entertainment in the 20th century, movies had the ability to reach wider audiences, curating narratives that exercised the storytelling abilities and talent of their “all colored casts.”

Because theatrical performances are rarely recorded and many of the movies that featured all-Black casts are now considered “lost films” (films where no copies are known to survive), advertising posters are sometimes the only remaining evidence of some of the most important productions made with Black talent between the 1870s and the 1940s. The posters in this exhibition provide a guide for viewers to consider how Black storytelling transferred and transformed from the stage to the screen. Moreover, these posters document the historical detail of innovative efforts by Black talent to represent life and experiences for Black audiences through their own creative perspectives.