1001 Black Men–#374

This is another drawing from my series of Black men in suits. This is a composite of several drawings of men I saw in the audience when I recently attended the musical Scottsboro Boys.*

Ajuan Mance

*In case you were wondering, the production was done very respectfully, despite its controversial use of blackface minstrelsy. If it wasn’t for the controversy, though, it probably never would have even made it to Broadway. Despite the previous accomplishments of its creators, whose earlier musicals are simply brilliant and edgy, this one felt thin, cautious, and unusually restrained…which a 21st-century musical in which it’s white creators blackface minstrelsy as a visual metaphor probably should be. Nevertheless, the show was not, ultimately, successful. The printed program, however, was outstanding! Seriously.

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