Allyson Nadia Field, "Acts of Love: Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History" (U California Press, 2026)

About this episode

Allyson Nadia Field discusses her book on the significance of the film 'Something Good—Negro Kiss' and its impact on Black cinematic history.

In 1898, vaudeville actors Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown joyously embraced in a short silent film titled Something Good—Negro Kiss. The first known film to portray African American affection, it was lost for over a century until its rediscovery inspired contemporary audiences with a powerful and enduring depiction of Black love. More than a missing piece in an untold history of Black cinematic performance, Something Good—and the magnetism of Suttle and Brown—attests to the power of Black performance on stage and screen from the nineteenth century to today. In Acts of Love: Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History (University of California Press, 2026), Allyson Nadia Field tells the story of Something Good and recovers the forgotten yet fascinating lives of its performers and their world. Drawing a vivid picture from sparse historical records, Acts of Love examines popular culture's negotiation of blackness to reconsider the intersections of minstrelsy, vaudeville, and cinema in ragtime America. This book not only presents the story of Something Good, its performers, and the drama of its rediscovery; it shows how the rediscovery of this short early film changes our…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Allyson Nadia Field

Topics covered

• Black performance
• film history
• African American culture
• vaudeville
• cinema
• rediscovery

Keywords

• Black love
• cinematic performance
• minstrelsy
• ragtime America
• cultural history
• film rediscovery

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of California Press

Books & works: Acts of Love: Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History, Something Good—Negro Kiss

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