Call for Papers

the Black Theatre Review
Vol. 4, No. 1, the redux

Our stories and achievements had been carried by the wind and buried in the soil. It had been whispered as bedtime stories, spoken from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, and woven throughout our songs and poems of resistance and survival. America did not have to tell us who we were to this country; we told them.

Dr. Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead
ASALH President

tBTR is pleased to accept submissions for its fifth publication, Vol. 4 No. 1, to be published in September 2025 online. We invite authors to reflect on the Labor of Black Theatre Pedagogies in historically white colleges and universities.

When this call for submissions was initially made on the eve of Black History Month, the submission window for the tBTR special issue on "The Role of Theatre at Historically Black Colleges and Universities" had just closed and two conflicting conversations on the national political stage began. First, the U.S. Department of Defense decreed that 'Identity months [are officially] dead…', then the White House called on public officials to observe Black History Month as appropriate. In February 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, President of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, established Negro History Week because he understood the importance of teaching about the life, history and contributions of African descended peoples in America. Nearly a century later, the continued future of the national recognition of Black History Month is at stake, and the lives, history, and contributions of the underrepresented, underserved, and historically minoritized peoples are under siege…again.

The original final date to submit papers to tBTR for publication consideration was March 7th. However, on that same day The New York Times released a list of nearly 200 words and phrases that were marked as language in conflict with anti-DEI executive orders of the current administration. At the federal level, the use of these terms have been cautioned against, or targeted for elimination from public-facing websites and school curricula, and are red flags in grant proposals causing them to undergo closer scrutiny. As leaders of an online, open-access journal with Blackness and language at its center, we felt it was appropriate to extend and expand the call for submissions through March 24th. Hence Vol. 4 No. 1, the redux.

Just as the wind, soil, bedtime stories, pulpits, songs and poems carry "our stories and achievements" throughout the U.S., Africa, and Diaspora as Dr. Whitehead proclaims in the epigraph above, Black Theatre Pedagogies have played a vital role in articulating experiences, challenges, acts of resistance, and aspirations of African descendants within HBCUs and historically white colleges and universities. Beyond preparing students to be culture bearers and executors of the tradition in graduate programs, the profession, and beyond, the critical study and production of Black Theatre in educational settings increases dramaturgical multilingualism, which leads to more culturally competent theatre criticism and production work. Additionally, the operationalization of Black Theatre Pedagogies can be a medium for the introduction, reproduction, and revitalization of Africanist cultural practices that can offer support mechanisms for navigating hostility within and beyond educational institutions. Furthermore, and specific to historically white colleges and universities, Black Theatre Pedagogies empower underrepresented participants to remake worlds where they are historically underserved and minoritized, with their voice and in their image.

In the tradition of Black expressivity, the theme for Vol. 4 No.1 responds not only to the 2025 ASALH theme of Black History Month, 'African Americans and Labor,' but also to the tBTR special issue on "The Role of Theatre at Historically Black Colleges and Universities." We invite the submission of historical accounts, case studies, scholarly notes, interviews, photographs and other digitized forms of creative scholarship that make the labor of Black Theatre Pedagogies more visible within historically white colleges and universities. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following:

• Black Theatre curricular development,
• Black Theatre and placemaking (departmentally, on the broader campus, and/or within the community surrounding the institution),
• Historical accounts of Black Theatre pedagogy and performance in historically white colleges and universities,
• Profiles of faculty laboring in the educational vineyards to preserve the Black theatrical traditions of the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora, or profiles of successful alumni,
• Strategies for successfully navigating the lack of resources—real or imagined—in advancing Black Theatre pedagogy and performance,
• Sustainable interventions for the institutionalization of Black Theatre Pedagogies in the face of declining college enrollment, threats to the arts and humanities, and DEIA reform efforts by the current U.S. administration,
• Explorations of the impact of the loss of identity/aesthetic studies such as Black Theatre on educational theatre programs,
• Reflections on the challenges and invisible taxes of undertaking Black Theatre Pedagogies on faculty leaders, and
• Testimonials on the power of Black Theatre Pedagogies, its contributions to healing, building resilience, identity making, and the development of a lifelong commitment to arts and letters.

Additionally, we invite educators, scholars, practitioners, and artists to contribute personal reflections, anecdotes, or musings (250-500 words) on the current state of Black theatre in higher education, considering the growing challenges it faces today. These challenges may include, but are not limited to, underrepresentation, institutional barriers, funding disparities, and the future of Black voices in the academy. We encourage contributions that engage with personal experiences, critical reflections on pedagogy, the impact of cultural shifts, and the continued relevance of Black theatre as a site for resistance, community building, and cultural preservation.

Photograph Submissions
tBTR is accepting photographic submissions of past and present productions at historically white colleges and universities. All submissions must include the production title, director, location, names of those photographed, the photographer (if known), and 2-3 sentence performance summary.

Book Review, Performance Review, Notes, and Works of Multimedia
We also seek to publish book and performance reviews, illustrative casebooks, and notes from the field that document institution building, teaching, practice and production-based experiences, technical and design notes, and works of multimedia related to this issue.

Submission Guidelines
The last date for submissions is March 24th, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Please refer to the tBTR website for specific article section guidelines. Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word, standard format (1-inch margins, double-spaced, and single column), and in Times New Roman 12-point font. Submissions should use footnotes and comply with The Chicago Manual of Style (18th ed.), using notes and bibliography system. Please upload your full manuscript on our website. Early submissions will receive preference in the review and publication process.

Omiyẹmi (Artisia) Green, MFA	Michelle Cowin Gibbs, PhD
Editor-in-chief	Managing Editor