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Essay Archive - Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess symbolizes the end of the black musical tradition that
flourished in the early part of this century. The play showed the height of
white appropriation of what had previously been a black cultural form. All
the creative talent backstage was white. This development had been
occurring slowly, throughout the 1920's, but black artists had often worked
in a variety of creative capacities.
"Porgy and Bess" became a "black musical" in its most minimal sense,
only as a definition of the color of the cast members. Neither the plot nor
the music was of black origin.
Mus....
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