Z U L U
Here, I confront tensions and "stinging social commentary" with a sly humor and biting satire. I transform American political figures, illustrious and infamous one namers like: Cheney, Hillary, Bush, McCain, and Condi, into blackface members of the Krewe of Zulu. Starting in New Orleans as the Mutual Aid and Benefit Society, the club's primary focus was as a form of insurance in black communities.
In 1909 as a response to blatant white supremacy in Louisiana around Carnival, the Zulu's dressed in blackface as tongue-in-cheek response to images of Black people as minstrels. The iconic Pythian Temple staged a vaudeville production "There Never Was and There Never Will Be A King Like Me" in which the performers depicting South African Zulu People in blackface and grass skirts. The Zulus sought to flip the connotation of the caricature to depict royalty and strength as African-Americans were living and thriving in the face of violence following Reconstruction and the ascension of Jim Crow.
