Public work
All That Glisters Is Not Gold
It's a widely accepted truth: reading Shakespeare is good for you. But what should we do with all of the bigoted themes in his work? The hosts of NPR Code Switch talk to a group of high schoolers who put on the Merchant of Venice as a way to interrogate anti-Semitism, and then talk to Ayanna Thompson about adaptations of Shakespeare.
Image: LA Johnson/NPR
BlacKKKShakespearean: A Call to Action for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
MLA Profession
by Kimberly Anne Coles, Kim F. Hall, and Ayanna Thompson
Two specters are haunting the study of the literature, culture, and history of the pre- and early modern periods. First, a catastrophic decline in the number of majors across the humanities. Second, the assertion that studying medieval and early modern periods sheds light on the foundational texts of a so-called Western civilization has made the fields attractive to far-right extremists….
Shakespeare and Blackface / Shakespeare and Unfreedom
The keynote address at "Shakespeare and Social Justice: Scholarship and Performance in an Unequal World,” a conference hosted by the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa as part of its 2019 triennial congress.
Videos
“A Thousand Dreadful Things: Shakespeare and the Fear of Black Vengeance,” Public Shakespeare Initiative, The Public Theatre and the Brooklyn Public Library (November, 2020).
“Exploring Othello in 2020,” Salon Seminar Series, Red Bull Theater (October 2020).
“Teaching in the Wake of Racial Violence: A Conversation with Carol Anderson, Ayanna Thompson, and Mako Ward,” The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University (August 2020).
“Teaching Antiracism through Shakespeare” Shakespeare Teachers Conversations, University of Leicester (July 2020).
“Shakespeare and Colonialism” Why Shakespeare?, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (July 2020).
“Introduction to Titus Andronicus.” Shakespeare 2020 Project (February 2020).
“Great Performances: Much Ado About Nothing.” PBS: WNET New York Public Media (November 2019).
“Julius Caesar with Brian Cox,” Shakespeare Uncovered, Season 3, Episode 4, PBS (October 2018).
“Othello in Context,” Othello, dir. Orson Welles (1952), re-stored and re-mastered by The Criterion Collection (June 2017). [Available on DVD]
Podcasts and radio
“Are you suffering from historical amnesia?” Our Opinions Are Correct Podcast (July, 2021)
“Ayanna Thompson - Blackface,” Thoughts from a Page Podcast (May 2021)
“Blackface: a brief history,” History Extra Podcast, BBC History Magazine (May 2021).
“Blackface - Mistrelsy,” Thinking Allowed, BBC Sounds (May 2021).
“Black Pete” Top of Mind with Julie Rose, BYU Radio (December 2020).
“Richard II” Free Shakespeare on the Radio, WYNC and The Public Theater (July 2020).
“Othello with Ayanna Thompson” Bloomsbury Academic Podcast, Bloomsbury Academic (June 2020).
“Shakespeare and Race” Such Stuff: The Shakespeare’s Globe Podcast, Season 5 Episode 6, Shakespeare’s Globe (May 2020).
“What Would Shakespeare Say?” Key Conversations with Phi Beta Kappa, Episode 2, Phi Beta Kappa (October 2018).
“Understanding Peter Sellars,” Shakespeare Unlimited Podcast Series, Episode 106, Folger Shakespeare Library (October 2018).
“Shakespeare and Race,” Such Stuff: The Shakespeare’s Globe Podcast, Episode 4, Shakespeare’s Globe (September 2018).
“Othello,” Lend Me Your Ears Podcast, Episode 5, Slate Magazine (September 2018).
"Othello and Blackface,” Shakespeare Unlimited Podcast Series, Episode 50, Folger Shakespeare Library (June 2016).
“Finding New Life in Othello,” Featured Guest, “On Point,” WBUR (April 2016).
“Our Own Voices with Our Own Tongues: Shakespeare in Black and White,” Shakespeare Unlimited Podcast Series, Episode 19, Folger Shakespeare Library (January 2015).
“Casting Beyond Color Lines” Featured Guest, “Talk of the Nation,” National Public Radio (February 2008).
Interviews
“Diversity and the Middle Ages,” Diverse: Issues in Higher Education (March 2020).
“Behind the Key,” Phi Beta Kappa (January 2019).
Articles
“Extract: Blackface by Ayanna Thompson,” The Arts Desk (May 2021).
“Blackface Is Older than You Might Think,” Smithsonian Magazine (April 2021).
“In a year of Black Lives Matter protests, Dutch wrestle (again) with the tradition of Black Pete,” The Conversation, co-written with Coen Heijes.
“It’s Time to End the Publishing Gatekeeping!” The Sundial, co-written with the RaceB4Race Executive Board (June 2020).
“From Wall Street to Shakespeare,” Transformations (May 2020).
Sample of invited lectures
“Shakespeare and Unfreedom”
Keynote Speaker: Shakespeare and Social Justice Conference (2019)
Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa, Cape Town, South Africa
“Shakespeare and Blackface”
Keynote Speaker: African Center for the Study of the United States (2019)
University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
“The Future of Early Modern Studies”
Invited Speaker: Renaissance Colloquium (2019)
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
“Intersectional Othello: The Deutsches Theater Berlin”
Invited Speaker: Renaissance Colloquium/Race, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Colloquium (2019)
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
“Encountering Othello Anew through the Deutsches Theater Berlin”
Invited Speaker: Renaissance Workshop (2018)
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
“Speak of me as I am: Othello On Stage”
Invited Speaker: Public Shakespeare (2018)
The Public Theater, New York, New York
“Shakespeare Now: Race, Justice, and the American Dream”
Invited Speaker: LA ALOUD (2017)
Library Foundation of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
“Adrian Lester in Conversation with Ayanna Thompson”
Plenary Session: The World Shakespeare Congress (2016)
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
“Productively Racialized: The Deutsches Theater Berlin’s Othello”
Invited Speaker: Medieval/Renaissance Seminar (2016)
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
“In Robeson’s Footsteps: Black and Asian Shakespeare Now”
Invited Panelist: Multicultural Shakespeare in Britain Project (2016)
Tricycle Theatre, London
“Shakespeare, Embodied Learning, and Diversity”
Invited Speaker: Drama Interest Group (2015)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“Desdemona’s Hidden Histories: Women’s Voices Moving in the Night from Africa to America by Way of Shakespeare and Morrison”
Keynote Speaker: Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (2015)
University of California, Los Angeles
“Is Shakespeare Beyond Color?”
Invited Speaker: Summer Noon Lecture (2015)
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR