Black Comedy - Nine Plays

This first-of-its kind collection includes a wide range of works, from an early examination and critique of American society after World War II to plays that reflect socio-political concerns that kept pace with historical events, like the sit-in demonstrations, the bus boycotts, black nationalism, and the women's liberation movement

A hybrid of comedic forms including satire, farce, comedy of manners, romantic comedy, dark comedy, and tragicomedy are presented through vernacular language, stand-up performance art, masks, broad humor, as well as the minstrel show

The humor of African-American life is inextricably tied to the humor on the African-American stage, its character shaped by the contradictions of being Black and Bewildered and Bothered in the New World

It is a humor that breathes sanity and humanity in the midst of profound circumstances

To find logic in this existence is at the heart of the African-American comic odyssey

This Collection presents writers who understand the mythic comic paradigm articulate the rage, the panic, the contradictions of a New World existence

This is the work of generations healing the wounds

Essays, articles and interviews complement this critical edition