Divas and Democracy

Catalog description

Uncovers the relationship between American diva figures with democratic politics and poetics. “Diva” may evoke a single individual, an exceptional subject that inhabits a world of privilege, glamour, and visibility. This contrasts with ideas of “democracy”, a messy, seemingly disembodied process whereby a multiplicity of opinions and experiences inform the leadership of a community. We situate the figure of the diva in the political contexts that construct, build, listen and adore her/him, and the role that race, gender and sexuality plays in its development. Moreover, we interrogate our own links to divas and democracy through embodied performance and personal narrative.