Hemispheric Blackface: Danielle Roper in Conversation with Leasho Johnson

Join us Thursday, July 17, 2025, 5–6 p.m. as author and scholar Danielle Roper discusses her recently published book "Hemispheric Blackface: Impersonation and Nationalist Fictions in the Americas." She is joined by Chicago-based artist Leasho Johnson whose work graces the cover of the book.

"Hemispheric Blackface" examines blackface performance and its relationship to twentieth- and twenty-first-century nationalist fictions of mestizaje, creole nationalism, and other versions of postracialism in the Americas.

Rather than framing Blackface as either liberatory or oppressive, Roper considers diverse modes of racial enjoyment—subjection, ambivalence, resistance, and Black enjoyment of Blackface—to explore how performance is used to navigate shifting understandings of racial equality.

Learn more: https://gallery400.uic.edu/event/hemisphericblackface/

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