ABSTRACT

This chapter examines publicity photographs of Black female US opera singers touring internationally during the Cold War. The photographs reveal a consistent pose taken by the divas: rather than looking directly at the viewer, they glance up, down, or to the side. This pose may be read as an allegory for encounters between US Blackness and the cultural politics of the Cold War. Although Black divas were often pressed into the role of cultural ambassador, they held this role ambivalently, as one of their reasons for touring internationally was their racially motivated exclusion from professional US opera companies.