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Struggling to Cross the Race and Class Divide: Sistren's Theatrical and Organizational Model of Collectivity1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2010

KARINA SMITH
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Abstract

This article analyses Sistren Theatre Collective's theatrical and organizational collective model by contextualizing the company's commitment to collectivity in terms of political and social shifts in Jamaica during the 1980s. Despite the importance of collective organizing as an important form of resistance to neo-liberalism, the article examines how race- and class-based divisions within Jamaican society were reproduced within Sistren. I argue that this was because collectivity masked the differences between the members of the group, rather than allowing for discussions on how these differences could be negotiated and the divides crossed.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 64 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2010

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References

NOTES

2 See, for example, Peggy Antrobus, ‘The Rise and Fall of Feminist Politics in the Caribbean Women's Movement 1975–1995’, the Lucille Mathurin Mair Lecture, the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, University of the West Indies Mona, 9 March 2000; Andaiye, ‘The Angle You Look from Determines What You See: Towards a Critique of Feminist Politics in the Caribbean’, the Lucille Mathurin Mair Lecture, the Old Library, University of the West Indies Mona, 6 March 2002; and Colon, Alice and Reddock, Rhoda, ‘The Changing Status of Women in the Contemporary Caribbean’ in Brereton, Bridget, ed., General History of the Caribbean (London and Oxford: UNESCO, 2004), pp. 465–505Google Scholar; Reddock, Rhoda, ‘Diversity, Difference and Caribbean Feminism: The Challenge of Anti-racism’, Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, 1 (April 2007), pp. 1–24Google Scholar.

3 Beverley Elliot, Vivette Lewis, Lorna Burrell, May Thompson, Lillian Foster, Pauline Crawford, Beverley Hanson, Cerene Stephenson, Jerline Todd, Beverley Anderson, Lana Finikin, Rebecca Knowles and Jennifer Williams.

4 Christine Bell, ‘Sistren Getting Ahead’, Sunday Gleaner Magazine, 20 May 1979, p. 1.

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6 Esther Figueroa, ‘Jamaican Women's Theatre: An Interview with Honor Ford-Smith (Part 2)’, Off Our Backs: A Women's News Journal (April 1987), pp. 10–12, here p. 12.

7 See Ford-Smith, Honor, Ring Ding in a Tight Corner: A Case Study of Funding and Organizational Democracy in Sistren, 1977–1988 (Toronto: Women's Program, ICAE, 1989)Google Scholar; Antrobus, Peggy, The Global Women's Movement: Origins, Issues and Strategies (London and New York: Zed, 2004)Google Scholar.

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9 Antrobus, ‘The Rise and Fall of Feminist Politics in the Caribbean Women's Movement’, pp. 7–8.

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13 Cobham, Rhonda and Ford-Smith, Honor, ‘Introduction’, in Bellywoman Bangarang by Sistren and Honor Ford-Smith (Amherst: unpublished, 1990), p. xivGoogle Scholar.

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29 Honor Ford-Smith, ‘The Journal of a Theatre Collective: Drama for Struggle and Research’ (Kingston: publisher unknown, n.d.), p. 6.

30 Mervyn Morris, ‘Deserves a Wide Audience Rev. of Bandoolu Version’, Daily Gleaner, 4 April 1979, p. 4.

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46 Michael Reckord, ‘Sisters in Trouble’, Daily Gleaner, 29 January 1982, p.4.

47 Joycelin Massiah, ‘On the Brink of the New Millennium: Are Caribbean Women Prepared?’, the Lucille Mathurin Mair Lecture, Centre for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, Mona, 1998, p. 9.

48 Ford-Smith, Ring Ding in a Tight Corner, p. 58; Sistren Theater Collective, ‘Women's Theater in Jamaica’, p. 50.

49 Sistren Theater Collective, ‘Women's Theater in Jamaica’, p. 50.

50 Brown, Women Organising, p. 6.

51 Sudbury, Julia, ‘Other Kinds of Dreams’: Black Women's Organisations and the Politics of Transformation (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), p. 100Google Scholar.

52 Ford-Smith, Ring Ding in a Tight Corner, p. 27.

53 Sistren Theater Collective, ‘Women's Theater in Jamaica’, p. 44.

54 Ryman, Cheryl, Sistren Theatre Collective 1987–1992 Evaluation Report (Kingston: The Membership Committee, the Association of Development Agencies (ADA), March 1993), p. 54Google Scholar.

55 Ford-Smith, ‘Ring Ding in a Tight Corner’, p. 244.

56 Landry, Charles et al. , What a Way to Run a Railroad: An Analysis of Radical Failure (London: Comedia, 1985), p. 37Google Scholar.

57 Figueroa, ‘Jamaican Women's Theatre: An Interview with Honor Ford-Smith (Part 2)’, p. 12.

58 Allison, Helen, Sistren Song: Popular Theatre in Jamaica (London: War on Want, 1986), p. 11Google Scholar.

59 See, for example, French's, Joan article on the process of creating The Case of Miss Iris Armstrong: ‘Organizing Women through Drama in Rural Jamaica’, Ideas and Action, 138 (1985), pp. 1–5Google Scholar.

60 Ford-Smith, Ring Ding in a Tight Corner, p. 80.

61 Ford-Smith, Ring Ding in a Tight Corner, p. 82.

62 Ibid.

63 Mordecai, Martin and Mordecai, Pamela, Culture and Customs of Jamaica (London: Greenwood, 2000), p. 4Google Scholar.

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67 Ford-Smith, Ring Ding in a Tight Corner, p. 77.

68 Ford-Smith, Ring Ding in a Tight Corner, p. 77; Ryman, Sistren Theatre Collective 1987–1992, pp. 37–8.

69 Mishra, Yamini and Singh, Nalini, ‘An Insight into Feminist Organizations’, in Alpizer, Lydia, Payne, Noel and Russo, Anahi, eds., Building Feminist Movements and Organizations: Global Perspectives (London and New York: Zed, 2007), pp. 35–43, here p. 38Google Scholar.

70 Thomas, Deborah, in her book Modern Blackness: Nationalism, Globalization, and the Politics of Culture in Jamaica (Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, 2004), pp. 130–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar, describes how the same type of class antagonism underpinned leadership disputes in the Mango Mount Community Council, a community organization in the greater Kingston area. Thomas called the town Mango Mount to protect the privacy of her case study participants.

71 Andaiye, ‘The Angle You Look from Determines What You See’, p. 11.

72 Ryman, Sistren Theatre Collective 1987–1992, p. 54.

73 Wilson, Gladstone, ‘The Sistren Theatre Collective (Jamaica)’, in Lewis, Peter, ed., Alternative Media: Linking Global and Local (Paris: UNESCO, 1993), pp. 41–9, here p. 45Google Scholar.

74 Rhoda Reddock, ‘Diversity, Difference and Caribbean Feminism’, p. 5.

75 Sistren, , ‘Learning Lessons in the Caribbean’, Sistren, 11, 2 (1989), pp. 11–14, here p. 11Google Scholar.

76 Gilbert, Helen, ed., (Post)Colonial Stages: Critical and Creative Views on Drama, Theatre & Performance (Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire: Dangaroo Press, 1999), p. 234Google Scholar; Sistren Theatre Collective, Buss Out (Kingston: unpublished, 1989)Google Scholar.

77 Michael Reckord, ‘“Buss Out!” Is Real-Life Drama’, Daily Gleaner, 10 April 1989, p. 8.

78 Ibid., p. 8.

79 Bogues, Anthony, ‘Michael Manley, Trade Unionism, and the Politics of Equality’, in Mars, Perry and Young, Alma H., eds., Caribbean Labor and Politics: Legacies of Cheddi Jagan and Michael Manley (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004), pp. 40–63, here p. 58Google Scholar.

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81 Ryman, Sistren Theatre Collective 1987–1992, p. 39.

82 Sistren Theatre Collective, Sistren Theatre Collective homepage, 2010, at www.sistrentheatrecollective.com; Akter, Afreen, ‘Sistren: The Vanguard of Popular Theater in Jamaica’, Signs, 33, 2 (Winter 2008), pp. 431–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.