The infinite layers of the “I” make it so that a person’s identity cannot be reduced to an essential, finite “I”. It is the space between this is who I am and this is who I perform that Naila Keleta-Mae explores in her book, Performing Female Blackness.
The book is framed with Keleta-Mae’s venture into motherhood. She begins with chapters written during her first pregnancy in 2009 and ends with a letter to her two children.
“Sometimes I am seized by fear. You have brown skin in a country where brown skin is seen as inferior,” she writes.
“I love you, and perhaps what is most difficult is knowing that the profound love I have for you cannot protect you from what it means to look like us in this country,” she writes.
The book is clearly a work of love—a meditation both on what it means to be a person with a body read as female and Black in Canada, as well as the perpetual performance required of them.
In her exploration, Keleta-Mae provides analysis of her own and others’ lived experiences, some of her own written works and silence as seen in Dionne Brand’s At the Full and Change of the Moon. She uses both autobiography and autoethnography to tie her lived experiences with research and reach meaningful conclusions.
Keleta-Mae posits the theory of translucency—the idea that people must see themselves as humans first. This theory stems from standing in front of a mirror with her father, who encouraged her see herself first as a person in a country that sees people like her as less than human.
It is in this awareness of performing that a person can control, to an extent, the performance that one puts forward of oneself depending on the audience and environment.
As she shows in her analysis of At the Full and Change of the Moon, the inner and outer dialogue of people in bodies read as female and Black can have a large discrepancy.
Keleta-Mae explores the use of silence as a rhetorical device in the novel and shows it not only as a sign of resignation and passivity, but also a method of control.
Through the three main characters, Keleta-Mae posits the importance of controlling the information that a person chooses to share. She states that, while silence may be interpreted as deception, it is an important tool for people that are oppressed or not in a a position where they can be confrontational.
The greatest example of translucency Keleta-Mae gives is the character of Marie Ursule in the novel. Despite the inhuman treatment she receives while enslaved, she never lets go of her own humanity.
“Marie Ursule deploys a performance of translucency—of being seen by her dominators and not seen, of seeing herself as human in the face of inhuman treatment,” she writes.
Keleta-Mae’s theory of translucency holds merit, in my opinion. The idea that silence and withholding of information can be necessary to survival is not new. I have been in positions before where staying silent was either the safe choice or the one that showed resistance.
The book also touched on other topics that fed into the main theory—these included an exploration of performance poetry and theatre, the importance of serious critique of Black feminist literature, reggae dance hall culture and Black churches, among other topics.
While there is a connection between the topics presented and the theory posited, the discourse in the book is somewhat disconnected. It is difficult at times to follow the thought process behind the theory of translucency and how it connects to each example.
At times, it felt as if the book was presenting two separate theses that were closely related, but ultimately separate ideas—one exploring this is who I perform and one exploring translucency—with examples that were closely but not explicitly linked to either or both.
While I appreciate the importance of the theory put forward and the potential strength behind it, the book reads as incomplete—the ideas are there, but there is something still left to be said, some key connection yet to be made.
Still, this is a valuable read. I especially appreciated the insight into the connection between the audience and the performer. Keleta-Mae considers both Black and non-Black audiences.
Performing Female Blackness is relatable, I think, to anyone who has experienced some sort of marginalization or oppression. Even if you cannot relate, it is an exercise in compassion and empathy worth the effort of dissecting this moderately dense and immensely important work.
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