Combination Skin by Lisa Jones

Combination Skin by Lisa Jones

Combination Skin is a play by Lisa Jones which is anthologized in Contemporary Plays by Women Colors anthology. Jones called this piece of works as play about color and race; it uses skin color to make its point. The main character of this play is Vendetta Goldwoman, a Master of Ceremony of a television program.

In a play, we usually try to figure out what the theme is, who the characters are, where the setting is, and so on, to know what the drama is all about. Actually, drama is not only about the characters, setting, theme, or story, drama is also about what the issue that the drama brings. To know what the issue the drama brings, we can try to figure out what is underneath the dialogue, some things that mentioned on the script. It may not a part of the drama, but there must be a reason why the playwright mention it on the script.

This essay will try to elaborate what and why the things are mentioned on Lisa Jones’ Combination Skin, what the relation between those references and the drama and why Lisa Jones mention those references on the drama.

Madame Bovary               

“Vendetta: Don’t coy with me, Madame Bovary. Your parents are from New Orleans, aren’t they? Combination Skin is your life story, isn’t it? You’re an incest victim, aren’t you? And every night you dream of being raveged b a runaway buck from way down Bama, don’t you?” (P. 316)

There is a scene when Vendetta called Specimen Number One as “Madame Bovary”. Madame Bovary is a novel by French writer, Gustave Flaubert. Madame Bovary is his debut novel. This novel tells about the life of Emma Bovary, a doctor’s wife who has extramarital sex (or adulterous affairs). Emma Bovary didn’t want to live her boring life; she lives beyond her measure in order to escape her boring life.

Emily Bronte

“Specimen Number One: ... yes! And sure enough, I learned to write about THE black experience. And now, though I am not Emily Bronte, the Emily Brontes of the world do buy my books.” (P. 318)

Emily Bronte is an English novelist, the author of Wuthering Heights. Lately, Wuthering Heights being her first and also one and only novel of her. She firstly published her work with pseudonym Ellis Bell, she published her novel by her real name at thirty, a year before she died.

Kathleen Cleaver

“Specimen Number Two (Painfully genuine): This bio is dedicated to Kathleen Cleaver and Queen Mother Moore, my black sisters in the struggle... Some say I’m just a misbegotten voodoo chile of the Aquarian age, with the lion spirit of Judy Mowatt and Billie Holiday’s victim beauty. But I know one thing; I’m a strong black woman. I’ve moved mountains. And my foremothers, also strong black women, have moved them too. Let me tell you their names, Sojourner Truth, Phyllis Wheatley, Rosa Parks...” (P.320-321)

Kathleen Neal Cleaver is American Law Professor. She is well-known because she was activist of Black Panther Party, a black revolutionary socialist party. She once lived in exile before went to Yale University. After had Bachelor Arts degree from Yale, she continued her study by went to Yale Law School. She was working as Senior Research Associate at the Yale Law School, and then worked as Senior Lecturer in the African American Studies department at Yale University, and as senior lecturer in Emory University School of Law.

Queen Mother Moore

Queen Mother Moore was born in Louisiana. She is an African-American civil rights and black activist who is a friend of Marcus Garvey, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, and Jesse Jackson. Sheis founder of the Republic of New Afrika. After moved to Harlem, New York, she ever becomes leader of UNIA, Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.

Judy Mowatt

Judy Mowatt is the member of  I Three, backing vocal trio for Bob Marley and TheWailers. Beside joining I Three she also singing solo. Her album, Black Women (1980) called as the greatest reggae album by female musician. She received OD, Order of Distinction, an award in the Jamaican honours system that similar with British honours system for Jamaicans.

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday born with Eleanora Fagan as her name. She is jazz singer and song-writer. She has “Lady Day” as her nickname. When she was young she once becoming a victim of sexual harassment. She considered as one of the world’s greatest jazz female musicians along with Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald.

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth is an African-American human rights activist as well as abolitionist, abolitionism is a movement to end slavery in American War. She well-known with her speech about gender inequality in Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851, Ain’t I A Woman?.

Phyllis Wheatley

Phyllis Wheatley is African-American poet. She’s known as the second African-American poet and also first African-American woman whom her woks get published. She was sold as a slave on her childhood age and being brought to North America. Later, she was purchased by Wheatley family who taught her to read and write, so she became a poet.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks is African-American civil rights activist who called as “the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement” in United States Congress. December 1st and February 4th are celebrated as “Rosa Parks Day”, since February 4th is her birthday and December 1st is the day when she was arrested.

Jazz

In the history of Jazz, Jazz firstly invented by African-American community Southern America in around late 19th or early 20th century. The important elements of Jazz are blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and swung note (swing). The root of jazz is ragtime. At first, Jazz was the mix of classic music with African and slave folk songs and has strong cultural influences from West African culture.

From above explanation we can conclude that most of references which mentioned in this play are about women and black people. We can see how Lisa Jones emphasizes women and race as the main issue. These issues delivered by the complexity characters of Vendetta Goldwoman, Specimen Number One, and Specimen Number Three. These references also shows how this play wants to deliver a message about women and black who want to go beyond of their limit, we can see it on how the play mentions about Madam Bovary and Emily Bronte, how the play uses jazz songs as musical background in mostly part of the play which represent about African-American music, how some of black and women activist, writer, and orator are mentioned in the play. 

Works Cited

(n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia .

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/history_of_jazz.htm

Jones, L. (n.d.). Combination Skin.