Bert Williams

Available for over a year

When it comes to blackness, what are society’s expectations? Writer Colin Grant examines this question, interweaving his own experience growing up in Luton with the story of Bert Williams, a black vaudevillian in early 20th-century America. A gifted, intelligent comedian, Williams was forced to further ‘black up’ and performatively dumb down to meet the expectations of the white audiences and theatre producers of the day. His talent was extraordinary, and he went on to become the highest paid entertainer in America. But was it too big a price to pay for success? Colin Grant looks at Bert Williams's place in the history of minstrelsy and explores whether Williams’s experience shares common ground with the gangsta rappers - and ordinary black people - of today. Produced by Kirsty Pope A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 3