NATIONWIDE: The grantmaking and learning initiative Critical Minded has released a new 159-page report titled Topdogs and Underdogs: Critics of Color and the Theatrical Landscape, an incisive, groundbreaking study of the structural challenges facing American critics of color in the United States, with a specific focus on contemporary theatre critics, which concludes with an urgent call for change. At a time when legislative and institutional support for both diversity initiatives and free speech is being aggressively rolled back, Topdogs and Underdogs makes an impassioned argument for the fundamental value of criticism in a democratic society.
“This report was prepared with the aim of teasing out the nuances and details of the issues confronting critics of color within this landscape, as well as to suggest strategies for addressing them,” said Sharon Mizota, one of the report’s primary authors, in a statement. “We hope that anyone who is invested in the survival and vibrancy of our arts ecosystems—artists, editors, producers, publishers, administrators, educators, philanthropists, publicists, etc.—will find it useful in informing and guiding the decisions they make about who and what they champion and support.”
Authored and researched entirely by critics of color and split into two primary sections, the report begins with a systematic analysis of existing literature on arts criticism by critics of color in the U.S. Authors Mizota and Oliver Wang look at 162 previous studies, books, and articles from the past 25 years addressing a wide range of issues facing critics of color, chief among them being economic precarity, professional fragmentation, and institutional gatekeeping. This part of the report sets the stage for future research into the experiences of critics of color in particular artistic or cultural disciplines.
The second section of the report is based on 16 in-depth interviews conducted by and with contemporary theatre critics of color from across the country and at different stages of career development. These interviews provide personal, on-the-ground perspectives on the systemic challenges facing critics in general and critics of color in particular. The choice to make theatre a focal point of the report was based on the economic and existential challenges the medium and its community faced before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Theatre criticism, compared to other disciplines, also has a relatively direct impact on both ticket sales and the length of run of any individual production, thus providing a useful lens through which to understand both specific and general trends within the criticism profession as a whole.
In its entirety, the report concludes that critics of color across cultural disciplines need pathways to sustainable careers. Though existing, short-term residencies and fellowships remain important, they are ultimately stopgap measures that do not address the systemic decline of living wages in the publishing and journalism industries. While there is an unprecedented circulation of cultural content appearing online and in print, much of it is under- or uncompensated, leaving viable careers in criticism to an ever-shrinking group of privileged elites.
Said Rashid Shabazz, executive director of Critical Minded, in a statement, “This report was started in 2023 and finished in October 2024. Though the current political climate of books bans, legislative attacks on DEI efforts, free speech, and freedom of expression protections can make the timing of the report seem all the more urgent, the systemic conditions it analyzes are anything but new. The importance of Topdogs and Underdogs resides not only in its historical research and sociological analysis, but in its advocacy for criticism as a public good and for the essential insights that critics of color can provide.”
Coinciding with the release of the report will be a five-part podcast series that will aim to expand its reach and provide accessible ways to engage with its content and findings. The hope of the authors and researchers of Topdogs and Underdogs—along with its funder, Critical Minded—is that the report will increase awareness and galvanize support so that the systemic disadvantages faced by critics of color can be meaningfully and lastingly addressed.
One way Critical Minded is addressing these deficits is by partnering with American Theatre to fund reporting at new-play festivals and convenings, in a program that will roll out over the next three years. As the nation’s only general-circulation magazine devoted to theatre, American Theatre magazine has developed relationships with journalists of all backgrounds and lived experiences throughout the country, and is positioned to amplify a multitude of voices.
Founded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation and Ford Foundation, Critical Minded launched with a national convening of critics in 2017, with the mission of building the resources and visibility of cultural critics of color through direct support to publications and individuals, research, advocacy, and convening. It emerged from the belief that engaging critically with the ideas and images that surround us is a prerequisite for transforming our cultural landscape and preserving democracy. To read Topdogs and Underdogs and other reports from Critical Minded, go here.
