Floodplains of the Undercommons: A Pressing Paradox

Author

Marya Errin JonesFollow

Publication Date

Spring 5-12-2024

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Recognizing that Black cultural erasure is aggressively trending even after efforts to decolonize local ecologies, this writing complements my thesis play, Pressing and explores playwriting as a form of survivance. In this text, I find correlations between the headwaters of the storytelling that restore and refresh the place I call the floodplains. The floodplains hold memories nourished by the rich alluvium of the past, while converging with the actions and energies of the present. This work I explore is indelibly shaped like a shoreline, by the fast-moving rivers of the Black radical traditions and the scholarship of Saidiya Hartman and Fred Moten. Back radical traditions and the books that hold Black history are subject to erasure, and modern book banning. Therefore, I pose the question: if all that survived of my life was this play what would remain in the floodplains? I begin by examining Hartman’s theory of “the afterlife of slavery,” in Chapter 1 (SIDE A), where I confront the resounding echo of Aunt Hester’s Scream, its impact on me as an artist, and the development of the play. I introduce the concept of the floodplain to describe the connection between Black life in the past, and the imminent currents of the future. Building upon Moten and Stefano Harney’s theory of the Undercommons, in Chapter 2, I argue that acts of freedom can lead to new enclosures—a nesting doll of carcerality. Chapter 3 returns to the idea of the floodplain, describes how Pressing was devised in the floodplains of in the work of Harman, Moten, and Harney, and how world-building in the play is nourished by the alluvial silt of time and the paradoxical dynamics of resistance that ebb and flow in the play. The last chapter (the B SIDE) explores the overflow of theatre and music that seeps through every seam of the construction of the play.

Degree Name

Dramatic Writing

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Theatre & Dance

First Committee Member (Chair)

Dr. Dominika Laster

Second Committee Member

Dr. Belinda Wallace

Third Committee Member

Donna Jewell

Fourth Committee Member

Erik Ehn

Language

English

Keywords

theatre, performance studies, playwriting, black women, diaspora

Document Type

Dissertation

Recommended Citation

Jones, Marya Errin. "Floodplains of the Undercommons: A Pressing Paradox." (2024). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/thea_etds/63