Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen at Poster House

Poster House, the first museum in the United States dedicated to the global history of posters, will present four new exhibitions for the spring 2026 season. The two main exhibitions, Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen and Love & Fury: New York’s Fight Against AIDS, will open to the public on March 13, 2026 and close on September 6, 2026.

Act Black examines how posters documented, promoted and shaped Black performance traditions from the late nineteenth century through the rise of cinema in the early twentieth century. Beginning in the 1880s, Black performers and producers used posters to distinguish authentic Black-led productions from minstrel shows and white performers in blackface, often advertising “All Colored Revues” as both a cultural and political assertion.

Although many early stage and screen productions were constrained by prejudice and stereotype, they also marked critical developments in Black American cultural expression. Playwrights, composers and performers expanded emotional range and narrative complexity on stage, while early filmmakers carried these efforts into motion pictures during the 1920s. As theater gave way to film as the dominant mass entertainment, posters became essential tools for visibility, survival and self-definition.

Because many theatrical performances were never recorded and a significant number of early all-Black films are now considered lost, posters often serve as the only remaining evidence of these works. The exhibition traces how Black storytelling transitioned from stage to screen and documents the creative strategies used by Black artists to represent their communities on their own terms.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).