{"id":248678,"date":"2025-05-20T07:17:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T07:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/som2nypost.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-may-20-2025-malcolm-xs-100th-an-opera\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T07:17:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T07:17:26","slug":"americanstudies-may-20-2025-malcolm-xs-100th-an-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/som2nypost.com\/?p=248678","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: May 20, 2025: Malcolm X\u2019s 100th: An Opera"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[May 19th<\/sup><\/a> marks the
\n100th<\/sup> birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X<\/a>. So this
\nweek I\u2019ll AmericanStudy a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm,
\nleading up to a special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm here in
\n2025!]<\/p>\n

On two
\ndistinct and equally important ways to contextualize the opera X:
\nThe Life and Times of Malcolm X<\/a><\/i> (1986). <\/span><\/p>\n

As an Appendix
\nto his collection Silent
\nInterviews<\/i><\/a> (1994; the Appendix begins on page 298 of that PDF), the
\nnovelist and critic Samuel
\nR. Delany<\/a> included an extended November 1986 conversation with the composer
\nAnthony Davis<\/a> on the occasion
\nof his then-new opera X<\/i>. It\u2019s a really wonderful and illuminating
\ninterview, and so in lieu of a full first paragraph I\u2019d ask you to check that
\nout if you would, and then come on back for some further thoughts of mine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Welcome
\nback! The starting point for Delany\u2019s interview with Davis is a mutual recognition
\nthat Black people have long been subjects of operas, both around
\nthe world<\/a> and in the United
\nStates<\/a> specifically, but very rarely have had the opportunity to compose such
\ncultural works (at least not ones that have seen the light of day). Perhaps that
\ngenuinely groundbreaking nature of Davis\u2019s opera (which was co-written with two
\nfamily members, as the libretto is by his cousin
\nThulani Davis<\/a> and the story by his brother
\nChristopher Davis<\/a>) helps explain why it seems to have frustratingly
\nvanished in its own moment; certainly it helps explain why the opera has made a
\ntriumphant
\ncomeback in the 2020s<\/a>, although I shudder to think about its fate in the Age
\nof Trump. In any case, I have to believe that Malcolm would have loved that he
\nwas the subject of such a controversial and crucial cultural work, even if he
\nmight have sneered a bit at the upper middle class (if not upper class)
\npretensions of the genre overall (it seems that Malcolm sneered<\/a>
\nat his co-author Alex Haley\u2019s own such upbringing, anyway).<\/span><\/p>\n

At the
\nsame time, I think it\u2019s vital that we not limit our lens on X<\/i> to questions
\nof race and representation\u2014there\u2019s a reason, after all, why a good deal of the conversation
\nbetween Delany and Davis focuses instead on the genre and traditions of opera,
\nand on related questions of music, performance, staging, and more. I\u2019ll admit
\nto knowing very little about the apparently two-century history of American operas<\/a>; and I have only
\nrecently started to learn more about the pioneering African American composer William
\nGrant Still<\/a>, who, along with his fellow and somewhat better-remembered
\ncomposer Scott
\nJoplin<\/a>, penned groundbreaking operas in the early 20th<\/sup> century. (I
\nwould add another groundbreaking early 20th<\/sup> century work, Zitkala-\u0160a\u2019s
\nSun
\nDance Opera<\/a><\/i> [1913], to that list as well.) All of which is to say, for those
\nAmericans\u2014and I would count myself in this unfortunate category, at least until
\nvery recently\u2014who see opera as an almost entirely foreign art form, there\u2019s a
\nlong and fascinating legacy of American opera to be recovered and restaged, and
\nX: The Life and Times of Malcolm X<\/i> deserves a prominent place in that pantheon.
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Next
\nMalcolmStudying tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Representations or other sides of Malcolm X you\u2019d highlight? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[May 19th marks the 100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. 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