About
Carla Blank is a writer, editor, director and dramaturge. Her two volume textbook anthology of theater and dance activities, "Live On Stage! (1996, 2000)" was co-authored with Jody Roberts. She is author and editor of the 20th century historical reference "Rediscovering America: The Making of Multicultural America, 1900-2000 (2003)" which carries the imprimatur of Before Columbus Foundation. Her non-fiction book, "Storming the Old Boys’ Citadel: Two Pioneer Women Architects of Nineteenth Century North America (2014)," was co-authored with Canadian architectural historian Tania Martin.
With Ishmael Reed, she co-edited the anthologies "Bigotry on Broadway (2021)" and "Pow-Wow: Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience, Short Fiction, From Then to Now (2009)," and was contributing editor on three other anthologies edited by Reed: "Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900-2002 (2003)"; "MultiAmerica, Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace (1997)"; and "Califia, The California Poetry (1979)".
She is Editorial Director of Ishmael Reed Publishing Company where among the most recent titles she has supervised through production are "Paper Gods and Rebels (2013)," a collection of poetry by Genny Lim; "Courtesans of Founder Hill (2015)" and "Rock Piles Along the Eddy (2017)," the first and second poetry collections by Alaskan Inupiaq and Tlingit writer Ishmael Hope; the posthumous publication of "King Comus," a novel by William Demby (2018); and "Guayacan," a new poetry collection by Victor Hernandez Cruz (2023).
Featured Work
"Bigotry on Broadway, an anthology"
How do intellectuals and scholars from minorities feel about the portrayal of ethnic groups on Broadway? How would we know? Few have the power to rate the good shows, and the flops, and be heard. The American critical fraternity is an exclusive club.
Ishmael Reed and Carla Blank have invited accomplished--but rarely heard from--writers to reflect on the question: How do intellectuals and scholars from minorities feel about the portrayal of ethnic groups on Broadway? Lonely Christopher, Tommy Curry, Jack Foley, Emil Guillermo, Claire J. Harris, Yuri Kageyama, Soraya McDonald, Nancy Mercado, Aimee Phan, Betsy Theobald Richards, Shawn Wong, and David Yearsley responded with reviews of Madame Butterfly, the Irving Berlin songbook, Oklahoma, South Pacific, Miss Saigon, Flower Drum Song, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Color Purple, The Book of Mormon, West Side Story, and Hamilton.
