Hattie McDaniel Archives - Chicago Reader

Hattie McDaniel (Gabrielle Lott-Rogers) stands left in front of a bar, in a vibrant blue gown, with a gardenia in her hair. Dottie (Mildred Marie Langford) stands right behind the bar, wearing a black-and-white maid's outfit. She is looking at a piece of paper containing a thank-you speech for the Oscars that the studio wrote for McDaniel.

#OscarsSoWhite

by Kerry Reid February 15, 2023February 15, 2023

This past fall, TimeLine offered a blistering revival of Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind, in which a Black actress in a 1950s Broadway play about lynching (penned and directed by white men, naturally) takes a stand against the insulting stereotypes in the script and the microaggressions in the rehearsal room. They’ve followed that up with […]

Tamberla Perry and Kara Zediker

Second-act troubles afflict By the Way, Meet Vera Stark

by Tony Adler May 8, 2013August 19, 2021

Promising at first, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark falls apart after intermission.

Tamberla Perry plays Vera Stark, a fictional actress whose career resembles those of many African-American women working in early Hollywood.

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark pulls the mask off old Hollywood

by Aimee Levitt May 2, 2013August 19, 2021

Lynn Nottage’s By the Way, Meet Vera Stark pulls the mask off old Hollywood.

Music

Secret History of Chicago Music: Papa Charlie Jackson

by Chicago Reader March 10, 2011August 19, 2021

Papa Charlie Jackson was a groundbreaking blues artist recorded with legends