UC Irvine’s Illuminations initiative hosted Thomas DeFrantz and Quran Karriem’s performative lecture, “White Privilege,” at the Experimental Media Performance Lab in tandem with a panel discussion moderated by Claire Trevor School of the Arts Dean Tiffany Ana López on Jan. 24 and Jan. 25.
DeFrantz, a professor of theater and performance studies at Northwestern University, wrote, directed and performed in “White Privilege” alongside music composer and performer Karriem. Behind the scenes for UCI’s performance, lighting designer Rin Mizumoto, sound engineer Jeremiah Turner and senior sociology student Harrison Tate-Pascua contributed to the show’s sound and lighting composition.
“Is everyone always automatically expected to share the concerns of people of color? Do we all really have to pay attention to race, religion, sexuality, ethnicity? What constitutes ‘white privilege?’” DeFrantz’s Talking | Dance series asks. “If I’m not interested in being part of some solution, am I really part of the problem? What if I’m a maker/audience/presenter who happens to be interested in love or formal structure or myth or universal qualities of empathy? What am I to do now?”
The performance’s accompanying discussion panel — held a day before the performance — aimed to introduce audience members to DeFrantz and Karriem as well as the performative lecture’s subject material.
“So this [performance] turned into a series of performances that take questions of Black ontology or Black possibility,” DeFrantz said during the panel. “Obviously Afro-pessimism as well, also Afro-futurism in questions of relational, a kind of relational aesthetic between Black creativity and all other sorts of creativity that intersect and collide with it.”
“White Privilege” is a project from Slippage which defines itself as, “a global think tank exploring connections between performance, history and technology,” led by DeFrantz at Northwestern University.
The performance encouraged audience members to accept discomfort by staging the production in an almost completely pitch-black room. Light emanated solely from cornered switch panels and small overhead spotlights, allowing a quiet glow to circulate the space. DeFrantz swayed toward the back of the stage behind grey tables, where he eventually remained seated for the duration of the performance. As he danced, synthetic sounds played alongside him, moving in coordination with his body.
As DeFrantz continued dancing, he revealed a smooth, grapefruit-sized white ball moving in the palms of his hands. The plastic ball, named the Synth Ball, is meant to represent all facets of white privilege. As the ball moved, technology within it sent signals — almost like a cellphone — to a soundboard matching a pitch created by Karriem and generating noise based on its movement. According to DeFrantz, it is the only one of its kind in existence.
“I had this idea of, what if we could invert this relationship between gesture or movement and music. It’s not just like there’s music happening and the dancer has to kind of hit that. What if we kind of inverted that relationship?” Karriem said.
Before the performance began, DeFrantz explained the Synth Ball to the audience and issued a disclaimer about the show, calling it “polemical” with a “deep register of discomfort.”
“What would it be like to hold white privilege in your hands?” DeFrantz asked the audience.
“It enrages me that we still have to do this — that we have to gather together to work through the terms of white privilege, white domination, white supremacy and our responsibilities to each other as artists and people,” DeFrantz said to the audience. “That we seem to move so little into understanding our lives as the antiracist, proto-feminist, queer-affirming beings we aspire to be. That we need these resets, these provocations and disruptions, these moments to swim in reflection.”
The performance included a compilation of six monologues, each explaining separate ideas to define white privilege as a whole.
Throughout the monologues, Karriem played his soundboard, adjusting frequencies and volumes from the Synth Ball and other music while sound pulsed through booming speakers with increasing intensity.
“I really liked how sharp the sound was, if that makes sense, for the synth. It was very discordant with everything that was going on, just like with the text. It was [a] beautiful, beautiful contrast,” fourth-year drama student Martina Sanchez told New University.
Twice during the performance, DeFrantz paused to allow audience members a moment to reflect. Some shared their thoughts on the ball, on power or on feelings regarding events beyond the performance.
“I really, really love the overall oral experience of everything. I liked the live sort of composition combined with almost like an essay-format speech,” second-year drama student Meili Monk told New University. “I also grew up in very traditional formats of theater, and oftentimes where audience participation is in some way to serve the audience and actually bring a comfortable discomfort.”
As the monologues neared their conclusion, the performance transitioned from outlining problems to encouraging solutions.
“First, check yourself. Resist exercising your privilege. Stop organizing the world as you will and assigning value to whim,” DeFrantz said.
Annia Pallares zur Nieden is a Features Intern for the winter 2025 quarter. She can be reached at anniap@uci.edu.
Edited by Kaelyn Kwon and Jaheem Conley