Mellon Fellows Public Program with Dr. Honey Crawford

Please join us as our Mellon Fellow Dr. Honey Crawford presents her research from the archives and collections as a public event at the Stony Island Arts Bank.

About Dr. Honey Crawford

Dr. Honey Crawford is an Assistant Professor of English and Dramatic Literature at New York University. She studies Afro Brazilian cultural performance as both a scholar and a practitioner, and she positions women-driven spectacles of black consciousness in the 20th- 21st century against prevalent discourse on the black diaspora and performance studies. Her research privileges embodied knowledge and oral traditions while investigating attempts to capture or contain these forms in literature and text-centric works.

Her current book project, titled Negra Demais!: Overwhelming Performances of Afro Brazilian Femininity, pays close attention to theatrical traditions that press against the bounds of propriety and indulge in an aesthetic of abundance, identifying a preoccupation with the transgressive potential held in performances of black feminine power.

Dr. Crawford has married her research interests with practical contributions to the field of theatre and performance, most recently as a dramaturgical researcher with Front Row Productions for the forthcoming Broadway production of Black Orpheus. In this role, she works with playwright Nilo Cruz, lyricist Siedah Garret, and composer Carlinhos Brown as a cultural consultant through the development of the script. She previously completed dramaturgical researcher for Lynn Nottage in her adaptation of Vinicius de Moraes’ Orfeu da Conceição, also with Front Row Productions.