News and Events: Archive:
New! Black Drama: 1850 to the Present

The latest Libraries resource can't be upstaged.

The Black Drama database, now accessible from the Libraries website but still being completed, will contain the full text of 1,200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 100 playwrights from North America, English- speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard-to-find, or out of print. Nearly a quarter of the collection will consist of previously unpublished plays by writers such as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Femi Euba, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others. Each play is extensively and deeply indexed, allowing both keyword and multi-fielded searching. The plays are accompanied by reference materials, significant ancillary information, a rich performance database, and images.

The database encompasses text of plays, brief biographical notes, production information, playbills, stills, photographs, and other ephemera from a wide range of sources. Includes a wide range of finding tools, allowing users to search by author, year of publication, performers, setting, theater company, etc.

Users can access Black Drama from the frontpage of the Libraries website, either through IRIS or by following the path Indexes and Databases pages / Arts and Humanities / Literature.