"This book invites us to revise existing genealogies of black theater and offers us the provocative idea of classical theory of drama as a handmaiden for the theater of civil disobedience. Like the best ideas it is bold and original and, on reading, makes perfect sense." - Emily Greenwood, Professor of Classics, Yale University "Situating Aristotle's Poetics as a major intertext, Rankine demonstrates that perhaps the most radical form of classical reception is that which sets things in motion-both in the movements of actors on stage and in the conscience of those watching." - Denise Eileen McCoskey, Associate Professor of Classics, Affiliate, Black World Studies, Miami University ".this book will be thought provoking and richly rewarding for specialists in classical and/or black literature." - Choice "The reader is challenged to move beyond the moral constraints of Aristotlelian drama and adopt a consciousness that involves recognizing the interplay of various sociopolitical forces and how they operate simultaneously to create an environment where convention, rather than principle, is challenged." - Chy Sprauve, Lehman College, Journal of African American Studies.