Check out the Course Reserves.

Oxford African American Studies Center

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: the Black Experience in the Americas. Ref. E185 .E54 2006.

The Cambridge Companion to the Harlem Renaissance. PS153.N5 C345 2007

The Harlem Renaissance: an Historical Dictionary for the Era. Oversize: NX511.N4 H37 1984

The Concise Oxford Companion to African-American Literature

Dictionary of Literary Biography

The Oxford Dictionary of Plays. PN1625 .P38 2005

The Cambridge Guide to Theatre

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance

 

A Sourcebook of African-American Performance: Plays, People, Movements. PN2270.A35 S68 1999

Afro-Americana Imprints 1535-1922

A. Use Library Catalogs to find books

1. Tufts Libraries Catalog

2. WorldCat (beyond Tufts)

B. Searches & Results

(note the search pattern; modify to your own needs)

 

1. Path of Discovery in the Catalog:

1. Find a title/author (assigned readings/Course Reserves);

2. Apply the descriptive language of the Catalog record in further searches

e.g. find this required text in the Catalog; follow the subject headings such as American drama -- African American authors, African American Theater to more books on your topics:

Title	African-American Performance and Theater History: a Critical Reader / edited by Harry J. Elam, Jr., David Krasner.
Publisher	Oxford [England]; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Subject	African American theater.
	American drama -- African American authors -- History and criticism.
Added Author	Elam, Harry Justin.
	Krasner, David, 1952-

 

2. More Searches & Results:

African American Theater

African American theater.

African American drama

American drama African American authors

African Americans in the performing arts.

 

Theater Africa

Black Theater

African Drama

 

 

on the topic of "African Americans on Stage":

 

Subject: And Subject: And Any Field: And
Material Type:	All Books/Journals

 

 

 

By and About Playwrights

 

"August Wilson"

 

"Maishe Maponya"

 

Sample findings at Tisch:

Profiles of African American Stage Performers and Theatre People, 1816-1960. Ref. PN2286 .P46 2001

The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960: a Comprehensive Guide to Early Black Theatre Organizations, Companies, Theatres, and Performing Groups. Ref. PN2270.A35 P48 1997

African American Writers. / Valerie Smith, editor in chief. Ref. PS153.N5 A344 2001

Best literature by and about Blacks. Ref. PS153.N5 R53 2000

African American authors, 1745-1945: Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Ref. PS153.N5 A32 2000

Black theatre: the making of a movement. Tisch Media Center: FDV4947

Black playwrights, 1823-1977:  an Annotated Bibliography of Plays. Z1231.D7 H37

The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s. PS153.N5 S56 2005

The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era. E185.61 .B6 2006

Forgeries of Memory and Meaning: Blacks and the Regimes of Race in American Theater and Film Before World War II / Cedric J. Robinson. PN1995.9.N4 R58 2007

 

Black Theatre and Performance: a Pan-African Bibliography. Ref. PN2969.Z99 G7 1990

ARTstor

Image Quest (rights-cleared images)

Library of Congress Performing Arts Encyclopedia

New York Public Library Picture Collection

New York Public Library Web Gallery of Images American Memory
Google LIFE Photo Archive 1750s -

Writing about Literature (handout from Writing Center at UNC.)

A Short Guide to Writing about Literature by Sylvan Barnet. (2009 11th ed.) Tisch Reference: PE1479.C7 B3 2009

MLA Style (for citing sources)

A. Production of a Play (performance history):
The original production, a particular noteworthy production, or, significantly varying productions of the play; considering some basic elements in a production, including:

–the Venue of the production

–the Costumes

–the Set design

–the Lighting design

–How each of them individually or all of them collectively work together to produce a certain interpretation, create a certain impressions, affect the show?

B. You focus on the play as literary works or as cultural artifacts?
Examine the contextual questions about the play:

1. The time period in which the play was written

2. The playwright's biography and other works

3. Contemporaneous works of theater (plays written or produced by other artists)

4. The language of the play, plot and conflict, character, nonverbal language

5. What particular theoretical or critical question that the play engages?

Sources:

Writing Center at UNC (handouts)

Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide to Writing About Literature.

A. Use Subject Databases for Journal Articles:

1 & 2. JSTOR and Project Muse

JSTOR is a favorite with its full texts in core journals of all disciplines. Project Muse does not include exactly the same JSTOR journals, but it has more recent and current articles on many topics.

 

Expand your search into more databases and from various perspectives

3. African American Periodicals, 1825-1995

4. Academic OneFile
All subjects; a convenient Quick Start. Here are some sample findings.

 

 

5. Drama (MLA)

For drama criticism and theatre history

6. Performing Arts (IIPA)

For theater reviews

 

7. America: History and Life

 

8. Africa Studies

 

9. When use GoogleScholar, set your Library Links to access Tufts full texts.

B. Finding Full Texts

1. Click on the button in your search results screen to a window of three sequential options:

a. link to the digital full text when available;

b. link to a Library Catalog search for the print journal;

c. link to ILliad for requesting the article when the above two options are negative.

2. Search for a journal directly here:

a. Tufts Library Catalog (including e-journals)

b. Electronic journals list

c. Use ILliad to request your article, if Tufts does not have your journal.

C. Request Articles/Books

Set up for your ILliad account

Use ILLiad, our Interlibrary Loan Service, to request articles, books and other materials that are not available at Tufts.

A. Current:

Book, Movie, Music, Play, And Video Reviews (in LexisNexis)

Factiva (more international coverage)

Alt-PressWatch (1970 -present)

Ethnic NewsWatch (1959-present)

 

B. Historical

African American Newspapers - 19th Century

 

African Newspapers, 1800-1922

African American Newspapers 1827-1998

 

American Newspapers (1690 - 1922)

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (1860-1922)

 

Times Digital Archive  (1785 - 1985)

New York Times Online Archive
(1851 - 3 years before current date)

Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)

American Periodicals (1740 - 1940)

British Humanities Index (1962- )
British Periodicals (1680s - 1930s)

 

 

OpinionArchives

     Some of the oldest continuously published magazines in America, including American Spectator, Commentary, Commonweal, Dissent, Harpers Magazine, NACLA, The Nation, The National Review, The New Republic, New York Review, and The New Yorker.

 

In print:

New York Theatre Critics' Reviews. (1944 to 1994)
Ref. PN1601 .N4
(Continued by National Theatre Critics Reviews.
Ref. PN 2000 .N3)

Tip: Use the Year End Index, either in the front or in the back page in the binder.