Future Perfect Performance Practices on the 19th-Century Stage

Drawing on her book Currencies of Cruelty: Slavery, Freak Shows, and the Performance Archive, this talk explores how archival records of Black and enslaved performers reveal complex relationships between slavery, performance, and value. By examining the lives and afterlives of conjoined twins Millie Christine McKoy and their contemporaries, Dr. Bainbridge proposes new ways of understanding and documenting enslaved labor through the archive.

Danielle Bainbridge is an Associate Professor of Theatre, Black Studies, and Performance Studies at Northwestern University. She holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in English and Theatre and a PhD in American Studies and African American Studies from Yale University. She is the author of two books: Currencies of Cruelty: Slavery Freak Shows and the Performance Archive (NYU Press 2026) and Dandelion: A Memoir in Essays (Jaded Ibis Press 2025). From 2017-2020, she was the co-creator, researcher, writer, and host of the PBS Digital Studios web series "The Origin of Everything.” The channel she co-founded with PBS Digital Studios in 2017, “PBS Origins,” has over 721,000 subscribers and 53+ million views on YouTube to date, as well as 75,000+ followers on Facebook. Her memoir Dandelion was a semi-finalist for several manuscript prizes, including: the 2016 Kore Press memoir award, the 2023 St. Lawrence Book Award from Black Lawrence Press, and the 2024 creative nonfiction prize from Autumn House Press. It was the runner-up for the 2024 Gournay Prize from Ohio State University Press. Dandelion won the inaugural 2024 Uplift Voices Nonfiction Prize from Jaded Ibis Press (judged by Myriam Gurba). It is currently shortlisted for the William Saroyan Prize presented by Stanford University Libraries and a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Foundation's Legacy Award in Nonfiction. She has received residencies and fellowships from Tin House, the Banff Centre, the Adirondack Center for Writing, VONA, and Ragdale. Her media work has received 3 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and 1 NAACP Image Award nomination.

Hosted by the Department of History’s Access, Belonging, and Community Committee.