Sunday Serendipity

jace, thank you.  here’s some word fantasy for you in return

By Emily Dickinson          

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

Jamie, even a bigger scandal was one that was banned in most of the south for decades….they didn’t think it fittin’  ms. fontaine cozying up to mr. belafonte

here’s wiki: Island in the Sun is a 1957 De Luxe in CinemaScope drama film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Robert Rossen. It features an ensemble cast including James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie, Stephen Boyd, Patricia Owens, John Justin, Diana Wynyard, and Basil Sydney. The film is about race relations and interracial romance set in the fictitious island of Santa Marta. Barbados and Grenada were selected as the sites for the movie based on the 1955 novel by Alec Waugh. The film was controversial at the time of its release for its portrayal of an interracial romance.

Theme title from the 1957 movie Island In The Sun starring Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge.

Jamie, speaking of roiling racial roles, another and much older “scandal” of stage and screen was Shakespeare’s othello.   from the guardian story
Othello: the role that entices and enrages actors of all skin colours
[….]

The actor-activist Paul Robeson …. first played the Moor in London in 1930, the reviews were disparaging, with many in the audience outraged by the sight of Robeson kissing Peggy Ashcroft, but Robeson felt it was his destiny to play what he termed a “tragedy of racial conflict”.

When he returned to the role on Broadway in 1943, one reviewer declared that “no white man should ever dare play the part again”. With the notable exception of Patrick Stewart, who played Othello as part of an otherwise African-American cast in a “photonegative” production in Washington DC in 1997, most actors in Britain and America have heeded the advice.