Publications and Research

My scholarly research is focused on the intersection of African American Theatre and historyMemory, history and the largely under-investigated impact of white supremacy on family is a guiding force in my work as a researcher. Using story to create an entry point for self and community introspection and interrogation are the twin light bearers that fuel me to continue to craft stories that center the underrepresented African American experience.  My scholarship is driven by a commitment to document and preserve under researched narratives in the history of theatre.

Howard Players Theatre History Archive Research Project

Howard Players Theatre History Archive 1909-2019

Howard Players Theatre History Archive is a publicly accessible digital humanities research project that documents the Howard Players theatrical production from 2019-1909.

This research repository makes public for the first time a comprehensive digitized snapshot of the evolution of the Howard Players theatrical production spanning more than 100 years. 

I started this research project in 2018 when I presented my preliminary research findings at the Black Theatre Network conference.  

Take Good Care: Hidden History of Black Women Educators in the Isaac G. Bailey Papers

The Isaac G. Bailey colletion of papers are archived at Emory University in Atlanta GA. It wasn't until 2019 that I discovered that Isaac G. Bailey and all of his children were related to me and my Bailey family. Since 2019 I have traveled to Emory multiple times to conduct research. During this research I was delighted to learn that my Bailey ancestors had a significant tie to the institution I've served and worked at for 25 years, Howard University. In fall 2025 I will be curating an exhibit at Emory University in Atlanta, to illuminate the treasures found in the Isaac G. Bailey papers. 

Isaac G. Bailey Sr.

Isaac G. Bailey Sr. 1903 Letter - The Impact of Seeing John Bown's Monument

Isaac G. Bailey Sr.

Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey Thurman - How Her Brother Was Saved From Being Lynched

Sue Bailey Thurman, Greece

Maude Bailey

Dorcas Bailey

Lizzie Woods

Sue Elvie Bailey

Nannie Burroughs, ca. 1900Courtesy Library of Congress (2005683660)

Mary McLeod Bethune

Jane E. Scruggs

Routledge Companion to African American Theatre & Performance

The Howard University Players: From Respectability Politics to Black Representation 

Status: Published 

Press: Routledge Press, 2018

Hart is honored to have contributed her scholarly research in the 2018 Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance in the chapter, The Howard University Players: From respectability politics to Black representation.

ABSTRACT: 

Howard, like many HBCUs, held fast to the belief that respectability politics, or the presentation of Eurocentric acceptable standards of appearance and behavior, would protect Black people from prejudices and systemic injustices. This chapter examines how the “respectability” framework shaped the plays produced by the Howard Players from 1919 to the mid-1960s; it also reviews how this paradigm of respectability shifted as a result of the Black Power movement of the 1960s into the 1970s.

Howard Players 1950's. Front row: Owen Dodson, James Butcher, Anne Cook, John Lovell(Moorland Spingarn Research Center photo credit)

The Howard University Players

The following two essay's will fill the gap in the underrepresented research areas of the life and contributions to the Howard Players of luminary Howard University professors, Alain L. Locke, known as "the Father of the Harlem Renaissance" and T. Montgomery Gregory.

Articles

Status: Work in Progress

Status: Work in Progress

This research will be of significant value to scholars doing research on: Black Theatre, The Howard Players, Historic context of theatre in Washington DC, History of Howard University, Theatre History, Theatre in Higher Education, Alain Locke, T. Montgomery Gregory and playwrights of the Harlem Renaissance, among others. 


Prior Presentations, Interviews & Panelist

TV Interview on WJLA (ABC7) Washington DC (2021)

A look back on the Howard Players: the oldest Black student acting group in the country

by Robert Burton/ABC7Thursday, February 11th 2021

Click here to watch recorded segment. 

WASHINGTON (ABC7) — In honor of Black History Month, ABC7 is putting the spotlight on the oldest Black student acting group in the country.

The Howard Players of Howard University were official established 114 years ago, 1907. However, the groundwork began year before that by Carlie Franklin Cook. Cook, a descendant of slaves, taught elocution at Howard in in the 1890’s.

Notable members of the acting group include Phylicia Rashad of The Cosby Show, Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison and Chadwick Boseman a.k.a. The Black Panther.

The Howard Players changed the game for black theatre as it was nearly nonexistent in the early 1900’s in Washington D.C.

Howard Professor of Theatre Arts Denise Hart told Good Morning Washington’s Robert Burton this group gave Black people a chance to see themselves on the stage.

“Once the Howard Players began to have seasons and produce, Black people of means, who had the finances and the desire could come and see theater produced for, by and about African Americans and black folk” says Hart.

“It gave an avenue for other people, not only Black people, to see the narrative, the stories centered around the Black experience”

Howard Players 1911THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (comedy) written by William Shakespeare. Presented at the New Howard Theatre. March 2-3, 1911.(Moorland Spingarn Research Center photo credit)

Beyond Respectability Politics at Historically Black Colleges

2018 Television Presentation 

This essay was presented at BlacademicsTV 2018 in front of a live audience and recorded at University of Austin at Texas. 

In this essay I discuss the concept of black excellence and its historic relationship to respectability politics on the campus of HBCU's. 

The episode is now part of Season 7, episode 7 which airs on Blackademics Television on national PBS stations. 

Blackademics TV is a unique opportunity for me to utilize my expertise as a writer and my knowledge of public-focused dramaturgy. Public-focused dramaturgical efforts function to contextualize and offer frameworks for interpretation, critique and analysis. 

 (Blackademics televised program on PBS).

Black Theatre Network Conference Presentation 

Black Theatre Network Conference

Archival Research Presentation at the 2018 conference of my initial research for eventual lecture series and book focused on the Howard Players. 

For the delivery of the presentation of my research at the 2018 Black Theatre Network Conference I utilized my expertise in public-focused dramaturgy. Public-focused dramaturgical efforts function to contextualize and offer frameworks for interpretation, critique and analysis.  

I created and executed a slide presentation that moved the audience through select time periods in the 108 year production history oftentimes sharing information that had not been previously shared publicly. 

I also posed questions to the audience inviting them to critique their perspectives on the evolution of black theatre, as well as shared the ongoing questions I seek to answer as I continue to conduct my research. 


The Black Theatre Network conference is an  annual conference which serve as a national forum for the exchange of ideas between professionals, educators and students of Black Theatre.