The Bard Continues to Exert Influence Over American Politics

Wayne State Unversity

Shakespeare in American Life is a series of documentaries narrated by Sam Waterston and produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library that examines the Bard’s work in American culture.

This hour, Shakespeare is a Black Woman explores the ways in which Shakespeare’s work has intertwined itself with American racial, class and academic politics, as well as domestic and foreign policy. Shakespeare’s been evoked for political purposes throughout American history, and we’ll hear anecdotal tales by way of John Adams, who often  quoted Shakespeare in his journals. Clinton Administration Attorney General Janet Reno had her staff read King Lear as a team-building ensemble The program will feature Reno and other prominent American politicians, such as Vice President Walter Mondale and former Senator Alan Simpson.

There has long been a serious discussion of who “owns” Shakespeare. Who has the authority to interpret Shakespeare? British citizens only?  American patriots? What about African-American actors who were arrested for performing a Shakespearean play on the even of Emancipation? We’ll hear about the push for “colorblind” casting in the 1970s and the reaction against it by prominent African-American intellectuals in the 1990s.

Shakespeare in American Life: Shakespeare as a Black Woman delves into the cross-section of the bard’s work with racial and sexual identity in America. 

After listening, head over to the DIA to check out a rare copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, a collection of his plays published seven years after his death. The show, “First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare,” is on display through April 3.

Organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Cincinnati Museum Center and the American Library Association, the traveling exhibition honors the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. The museum  hosts the show in collaboration with Wayne State University, as well as the Detroit Public Library, which will exhibit second and fourth folio editions from their collection.

 Click here to learn more and listen to the series Shakespeare In America Life.