ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Cooke’s duties as instructor, director, and creator of the University Players in 1931 and the Atlanta University Summer Theatre, which was also housed and founded on Spelman College’s campus in 1934, making it the nation’s first African American summer stock theatre and school. This chapter explores, in particular, Cooke’s early initiatives toward uncovering and authenticating a Black and/or African aesthetic that could be found in all the art forms of members of the entire African Diaspora in Africa and throughout the Western world.
