Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture
Dr. Patricia Akhimie on “The Goodness of the Night: Editing Othello”
Booking and details
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Dates Sat, Apr 27, 2024, 7pm
Venue
Folger Theatre
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Tickets Free, registration required
The lecture will take place at Folger Theatre. Reception to follow at 8pm in the Great Hall. Join us in-person or stream the lecture live on YouTube.
Join us for the Folger Institute’s annual Shakespeare’s Birthday Lecture with Dr. Patricia Akhimie, Director of the Folger Institute.
Every year, in commemoration of William Shakespeare’s birthday, the Folger invites a scholar to speak about Shakespeare and early modern life.
Dr. Patricia Akhimie on “The Goodness of the Night: Editing Othello”
Dr. Patricia Akhimie, Director of the Folger Institute, will explore the ways strategic editing choices, such as omission and correction, produce and perpetuate racial stereotypes in Shakespeare’s Othello. These editing practices have both obscured the lived experiences of readers and redoubled the effect of racist words, phrases, and ideas that identify others as different and lesser—in the text, on the stage, and in the world. By exposing the race-making effects of textual editing, Dr. Akhimie’s work empowers a more diverse set of readers and thinkers to engage with Othello.
Live stream the lecture
Dr. Patricia Akhimie
View full biographyRelated
Scholar Patricia Akhimie named Director of the Folger Institute
Press release: November 17, 2022
“Racist Humor and Shakespearean Comedy” – An excerpt from The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race
Patricia Akhimie writes about racist humor in Shakespeare’s comedies in this excerpt from her essay in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race.
Shakespeare's Language and Race, with Patricia Akhimie and Carol Mejia LaPerle
Dr. Patricia Akhimie and Dr. Carol Mejia LaPerle explore the ways that Shakespeare’s language—think descriptors like “fair,” “sooty,” and “alabaster”—constructs and enshrines systems of race and racism.
ASL interpretation
ASL interpretation will be provided. For other accessibility accommodations, contact Visitor Experience at visitorservices@folger.edu.