"Porgy And Bess" Offered A Big Opportunity For Her
Angelou gained entry to a touring company for Porgy and Bess when performers saw her singing in a club and inquired if she could dance. She passed up the opportunity to play the lead in a Broadway production of House of Flowers in order to join the company because it allowed her to travel all across Europe. With Porgy and Bess, Angelou traveled to countries like Italy, France, Egypt, Greece, Israel, and the former Yugoslavia, expanding her perspective beyond the 1950s' segregated United States.
In the end, Angelou's account does not celebrate moments of collective success in the service of the nation-predetermined state's goals, but rather in conversation with a complicated and frequently paradoxical transnational Americanism. The Porgy and Bess cast embraced the chance to travel the world and perform in prestigious settings to adoring audiences despite having the difficult task of somehow reflecting a figuratively and psychologically split body politic. The text by Maya Angelou serves as a tribute to a talented African American ensemble who redefined the purpose of their tour on their own terms while still receiving payment and praise for their cultural labor. In addition to providing an important record of black feminist modernist performance, her performances on the international stage and her tragic autobiographical tale also defamiliarize US racism and segregation at the turn of the century.
