Kellen Hoxworth

@kellenhoxworth

Assistant Prof. of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University at Buffalo. Transoceanic Blackface: “Blackface Geographies”:

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Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· 20d

“The Invented Choreographies of the Tomahawk Chop” by Kellen Hoxworth

A bass drum begins a slow, constant rhythm. The brass layer a recurring melody.
Suddenly, tens of thousands of fans throughout the stadium add their voices to the cacophony, belting the "war chant" of the Florida State University (FSU) Seminoles while performing a simple, repeated physical gesture of a chopping motion. Holding their right arms forward perpendicular to their chests, they swing their forearms through the air with their hands held in flat vertical lines that mimic axe blades. This is the Tomahawk Chop, a ubiquitous feature of athletic compe-
titions at FSU that has spread throughout US sports, specifically among fans of teams featuring mascots based in stereotypes of Indigenous peoples. Through its easily repeatable actions, the Chop choreographs an "invented tradition" of
regional and national belonging while silencing Indigenous protests.

The Tomahawk Chop has become a popular ritual for US sports fans, with its
chant and its minimalistic choreography thoroughly woven into the fabric of US sports and popular culture. Attesting to its permeation of US popular culture, in 2003, hip hop artists P. Diddy, Nelly, and Murphy Lee released the song "Shake Ya Tailfeather" which sampled the Tomahawk Chop war chant in its chorus. Most recently, during the 2020, 2021, and 2023 NFL Super Bowl championship games featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and the 2021 MLB World Series featuring the Atlanta Braves, spectators reveled in raucous performances of the Chop that were broadcast to over 100 million households across the United States.

Despite (or because of) its ubiquity, the Chop is often framed as a cherished tradition vital to fans' communal identities: as a former student at FSU asserted in its defense during a class discussion, "It's just something we do." I responded to this student by sharing my own experiences as a white Canadian-American settler who grew up in Kansas City…

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Jul 8

Adrian Dantley is the lone exception:

A screenshot of the 82-0 game with the following result:

82-0 record

PG Magic Johnson
SG LeBron James
SF Adrian Dantley
PF Elvin Hayes
C Hakeem Olajuwon

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Jun 3

81-1:

The 82-0 game, with this team reaching a tantalizingly close 81-1:

PG Luka Dončić (DAL 2020s)
SG Stephen Curry (GSW 2020s)
SF Dominique Wilkins (LAC 1990s)
PF Alonzo Mourning (MIA 1990s)
C Wilt Chamberlain (PHI 1960s)

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Dec 27

Brian Robert’s reviewed Transoceanic Blackface in the Journal of American History, where he observes: “Hoxworth argues, convincingly, that blackface served both as pedagogy for understanding social relations of imperialism and as part of the ‘furniture’ of empire.”

“Hoxworth argues, convincingly, that blackface served both as pedagogy for understanding social relations of imperialism and as part of the ‘furniture’ of empire. Its lessons, coded in plantation melodies, earthy dialect, and grotesque caricatures of ethnic otherness, offered theatrical evidence that colonized nonwhites were inferior, incapable of self-government, and happiest when subjugated. Blackface provided familiarity, a kind of racist safe space in the tense world of empire building.”

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Sep 20

We said goodbye to our 10 year-old puppy Nova this week. He was our close companion ever since we rescued him when he was six months old. Across multiple moves (one cross-country) and major life events, he never left our sides. He was the best boy, and he will be missed.

An amazing companion — a tannish brown Shepherd mix rescue dog with an adorably long black snout that was starting to get large patches of grey.

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Jul 30

Fund the humanities

Screenshot of the New York Times Spelling Bee game showing it claiming that “canto” is “not in [the] word list.”

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Jul 23

Live shot of the White House.

A screenshot of The Simpsons, where Bart colllains that even the class nerd Martin is making jokes about him. It’s edited to read:

“(CHILDREN LAUGHING) NOW, THE DEMS ARE SCORING OFF ME. OH, THAT’S IT.”

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Jul 19

*me and my book project

A scene from the film version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? where Elizabeth Taylor yells at Richard Burton, who cowers in response.

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Jul 15

A still from the 2017 Black Mirror episode “Nosedive” showing Bryce Dallas Howard smiling way too big in the mirror as her socially-generated “score” appears next to her face.

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Jul 11

Credit for original post to @tomwalker.bsky.social:

Screenshot of a BlueSky post by @TomWalker:

KOKO: Koko birkin bag. Practical Koko possession bag.
RESEARCHER: No, Koko. You can’t have a Birkin bag.
KOKO: Good Birkin good Koko give beautiful Koko deserve gorilla
RESEARCHER: Koko, we simply can’t afford a Birkin bag. It is an unjustifiable expense.
KOKO: jealousy professor

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· May 30

The erasure of bisexuality has gone too far.

Screenshot of the New York Times Spelling Bee game on May 30, 2025, that says the word “bicon” is “not a word.”

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· May 29

I think I need to stage an intervention with my two year-old about his pine cone problem.

A pile of literally dozens of pine cones in my backyard.

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· May 28

Shot/chaser.

Screenshot of a May 27, 2025 NPR story by Rob Stein with the headline, “RFK Jr. says COVID shots no longer recommended for kid, pregnant women.”

Screenshot of a May 27, 2025 CBS News story by Sara Moniuszko with the headline, “COVID variant NB.1.8.1 hits U.S. What to know about symptoms, new booster vaccine restrictions.”

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· May 8

Megan Lewis has reviewed Transoceanic Blackface in Theatre Journal. She writes: “[Hoxworth’s] degree of detail and excellent footnotes are models of historical performance research.”

Throughout the book, Hoxworth provides an “expansive material archive" with copious case studies and visual reprints as well as data on numbers of performances, length of show runs, and audience demographics that support his thesis of the proliferation and ubiquity of transoceanic blackface (204). His degree of detail and excellent footnotes are models of historical performance research. His prose is dense and theoretical and, as such, may be more suitable for advanced graduate study rather than a generalized undergraduate audience. Transoceanic Blackface: Empire, Race, Performance is a deftly researched, thorough, and compelling analysis of a fraught theatrical form. Hoxworth's book offers readers a better grasp of blackface minstrelsy, not just as the "privileged preserve and national shame of US American popular culture," as it has been un-derstood, but as a global phenomenon, central to the "ongoing transnationality of whiteness" in the imperial project (205).

MEGAN LEWIS
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Mar 29

nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014707...

The front cover of Transoceanic Blackface: Empire, Race, Performance by Kellen Hoxworth. There are black lines tracing historical shipping lanes which created a negative white image of the outlines of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, and North America.

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Mar 20

(Nodding): doi.org/10.1353/aq.2...

An excerpt from Kellen Hoxworth’s essay “Football Fantasies”:

“Yet this fantasy is not one of political sovereignty but one that remakes all governance in the modern of economic sovereignty. Instead of the political sovereignty guaranteed by a state or a king, fantasy participants ensure their subjective sovereignty through the economic dictates of the ROI (return on investment). In this well-rehearsed confusion of sovereignties, sport and politics alike become intensified fields of competition for derivative value extracted from others. Anyone who fails to perform—to direct their behavior toward the production of human capital and the return of the sovereign owner’s investments—becomes disposable. Nonproductive human capital—dead weight—must be eliminated to reinvest in productive stock. The ROI is dead; long live the ROI.”

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Mar 14

Sandra Graham reviewed Transoceanic Blackface in CHOICE, praising my “unraveling of the dense intertextuality among blackface performances” as “virtuosic.”

A screenshot of Graham’s review, which reads:

“Drawing from archives in Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Britain, Canada, India, Jamaica, South Africa, and the US, Hoxworth (Univ. at Buffalo) argues that blackface played a key role in forging racial identities among colonized subjects, furnishing white audiences with ‘racial scripts’ of white supremacy. He convincingly shatters the argument that blackface was a uniquely American performance practice, demonstrating that its roots lay in blackface characters from 18th-century British comedies. These plays were not only restaged in the American colonies but circulated as scripts and images, giving rise to economies of blackface throughout the Anglophone empire from the late 1700s into the 20th century. Chapters on the global itineraries of the Jim Crow character; ensemble performances in the Antipodes and India; travesties of Othello; and yellowface performances illustrate the capaciosuness of blackface to adapt to local circumstances. Hoxworth’s unraveling of the dense intertextuality among blackface performances is virtuosic. His unavoidable reliance on colonial archives means that the voices of the colonized are rare. Drawing on theory from cultural studies, performance studies, and theater, the writing is often more dense than it needs to be be. Nevertheless, the book serves as an impressive foundation to what promises to be a fertile field for future research.

Summing up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through faculty; professionals.”

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Feb 17

It’s way too early, but here’s my 2025 WNBA fantasy team:

Roster for a WNBA fantasy team with the following players:
Guard: Kayla McBride
Guard: Kelsey Mitchell
Forward: Napheesa Collier
Forward: Norma Ogwumike
Forward: Aaliyah Edwards
Utility: Jordin Canada
Bench: (Forward) DeWanna Bonner
Bench: (Forward) Alyssa Thomas
Bench: (Guard) Julie Vanloo

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· May 9

Some news:

A photograph of the book cover of Transoceanic Blackface: Empire, Race, Performance by Kellen Hoxworth.

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Dec 9

The scope of the project is global, so some of the texts/performances are minstrel standards that were staged widely (“Jump Jim Crow” and burlesques of Othello). I also look at forgotten 18th-c. blackface plays, songs, and imagery (Ch1), blackface dance (Ch3), and brown-/yellow-face and drag (Ch5).

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Dec 9

Page proofs!

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Nov 29

Using only a restaurant, tell us where you went to college.

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Oct 18

My review of the 2022 Stratford Festival production of Wole Soyinka's "Death and the King's Horseman" is out in the latest issue of Theatre Journal: doi.org/10.1353/tj.2...

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Oct 12

Author copy just arrived in the mail!

The cover of The Routledge Anthology of Women’s Theatre Theory and Dramatic Criticism.

Kellen Hoxworth@kellenhoxworth· Aug 6

The Palgrave Handbook of Theatre and Migration is now available, and it includes my chapter on "Fin-de-siècle Black Minstrelsy, Itinerancy, and the Anglophone Imperial Circuit"!