A Reading directed by Donya K. Washington
Date: Friday, April 20
Time: 7:30 PM
Admission: $7 (0r $75 for admission to all Congress events; more on that here)
***Location: The Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Avenue
Part of The 2012 Congress of Curious Peoples
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and The Coney Island Museum
Sarah Baartman, the so-called Hottentot Venus, is one of the most tragic and often-cited figures in the history of the spectacle. In her 1996 play about Baartman, entitled Venus, Suzan-Lori Parks “finds poetry and comedy, as well as drama and meaning, in one of the most embarrassing episodes in our collective history: the life of the Venus Hottentot, a South African woman who, due in part to her enormous posterior, was exhibited in a cage throughout Europe and exploited professionally by the doctor who loved her.”
Tony Kushner called Parks “one of the most important dramatists America has produced” and Coney Island USA is happy to be able to offer our visitors a reading of Venus, directed by Donya K. Washington in the Coney Island Museum.