This women's history month, Donna & Jonathan are graced with the presence, knowledge and insight of Danielle Bainbridge - Assistant Professor of Theatre at Northwestern University, where she also holds courtesy appointments in Performance Studies and African American Studies. Her writing has been featured in Killens Review of Arts & Letters, Moko Magazine, and The Mechanics’ Institute Review Online.

Discovering the journey Danielle took from adolescence to adulthood, we come to the writing of her most recent book debut CURRENCIES OF CRUELTY: Slavery, Freak Shows, and the Performance Archive that explores how formerly enslaved people and disabled individuals were commodified through 19th- and 20th-century freak shows, examining figures like conjoined twins Millie Christine McKoy and Chang and Eng Bunker to reveal the intersection of slavery, disability, and performance. Through innovative archival theory and the concept of the "future perfect" archive — a system that anticipates what will have been rather than simply documenting the past — Bainbridge challenges established ways of documenting labor, freedom, and human worth, demonstrating how archival practices have historically represented enslaved and disabled performers as commodities and spectacles while devaluing them as people, showing how records of subjugation continue to shape current understandings of value and visibility.

Purchase the Book:

https://nyupress.org/9781479829569/currencies-of-cruelty/

Code for 30% off NYUAU30

Watch on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/TNvfUl2Qh_s?si=gHRafSVaqyJRH_f3

Contact Danielle:

[email protected]

https://bsky.app/profile/daniellebainbridge.bsky.social

Instagram:

@quirkyprofessor_

@NowWeKnowThePodcast

@DonnaJaneen