"In her prophetic fury sewed the work": Remembering Sybil's Handkerchief and Magical Artistries in Djanet Sears' Harlem Duet

Abstract

This paper examines the history of black women artistries, postcolonial magic, and music within Canadian playwright Djanet Sears’ 1997 Toronto production Harlem Duet. In a modern re-adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello, Sears’ Harlem Duet resituates literary historical symbols, like the infamous handkerchief, and Shakespearean hidden characters within a diasporic and empowered space of agency, intergenerational trauma, and reclamation. With the maternal theoretical foundation of Alice Walker’s work “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” this paper matrilineally connects Harlem Duet’s protagonist Billie with the artistic creator – the sybil/witch – of Shakespeare’s handkerchief and with famous blues artists like Billie Holiday. Using the handkerchief as a starting point, this paper analyzes both fictional and historical maternal generations in order to demonstrate this empowered history of artistic creation and music within diasporic spaces and communities.