Honey Crawford’s research interests include global feminisms, critical race theory, public spectacle, and protest. She specializes in Afro Brazilian cultural performance as both a scholar and practitioner, exploring intersections between ritual performance and self-making through a repertoire that includes carnival, media activism, radical theatre, and the performance of everyday life. She earned her PhD in theatre studies from Cornell University in 2017 where she was also a New York Public Humanities Fellow.
Honey is currently developing her dissertation into her book manuscript, Negra Demais! Overwhelming Performances of Afro Brazilian Femininity. This project takes an interdisciplinary approach, positioning women-driven spectacles of black consciousness in the 20th- 21st century against prevalent discourse on the black diaspora and performance studies. Paying close attention to theatrical traditions that press against the bounds of propriety and indulge in an aesthetic of abundance, this book identifies a preoccupation with the transgressive potential held in performances of black feminine power.
She has married her research interests with practical contributions to the field of theatre and performance, most recently as the dramaturgical researcher for Lynn Nottage’s adaptation of Vinicius de Moraes’ Orfeu da Conceição as interpreted by Marcel Camus’ 1959 film adaptation Orfeu Negro. This forthcoming Broadway production will partner Nottage with director George C. Wolfe in a musical retelling of the Greek classic embedded in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro during carnival. Previous research on Boalian applied theatre methods and the São Paulo’s hip hop scene have been published in Black Camera Journal and La Verdad Reader of Hip Hop Latinidades respectively.
While at Cornell University, Honey taught Perspectives on Brazil: Culture, History, Identity in the Department of Romance Studies and Riot Acts: Public Performance and Protest in the Department of Performing and Media Arts.