Poster House Exhibition Traces Black American Stage and Screen History Through Promotional Art

Poster House in New York is currently presenting 'Act Black: Posters From Black American Stage and Screen,' an exhibition curated by Es-pranza Humphrey. The show features promotional materials from performances with all-Black casts, documenting the evolution from minstrel shows to Black-produced entertainment. Drawing from the museum's archives and private collections, the exhibition explores how these posters served as documentation for productions where recorded media has been lost. The display includes rare items like 'Williams and Walker' (1903) and 'The Original Georgia Minstrels' (c. 1872), tracing visual history from plantation-era influences to Hollywood and Harlem entertainment. The exhibition runs through September 6.