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  4. 20/05/2009

20/05/2009

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Last broadcast on Mon, 25 May 2009, 00:15 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).

Synopsis

'Slumming' was the name given to the thousands of white middle class voyeurs crossing boundaries of race, class and sexual orientation to trip into the worlds of the poor on their dorstep. There they learnt to drop the restraints of respectability and savoured an often salatious sense of sex and discovery in the period of prohibition. The jazz raged, the 'pansies' preened, but after the party what was the effect on the communities they visitied? Laurie talks to the author of Slumming, Chad Heap, and the writer Bonnie Greer about the impact that the wild white adventuring in urban areas had on sexual and racial politics in America.

Professor Chad Heap

Professor Chad Heap is Associate Professor of American Studies at George Washington University

Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife 1885-1940
Publisher: Chicago University Press
ISBN-10: 0226322432
ISBN-13: 978-0226322438

Find out more about Chad Heap

Bonnie Greer

Bonnie Greer is a Chicago born playwright and critic.

Entropy
Publisher: Picnic Publishing Ltd
ISBN-10: 0956037038
ISBN-13: 978-0956037039

Find out more about Bonnie Greer

Music played in the programme

Track 1 Title: The Mooche
CD: Hot From The Cotton Club - Duke Ellington
Artist: Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
Label: EMI CDP / 7482742

Track 7 Title: Crescendo In Drums
CD: Cab Calloway 1939 - 1940
Artist: Cab Calloway
Label: CLASSICS 595

Track 2 Title: Drop Me Off In Harlem
CD: Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book
Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
Label: VERVE 837 036 / 2

Broadcasts

  1. Wed 20 May 2009
    16:00
  2. Mon 25 May 2009
    00:15

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30 minutes

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