Younggiftedandfat ─ An Autoethnography of Size, Sexuality, and Privilege

Young, Gifted and Fat is an autoethnography of ‘performing thin’ – on the stage and in life. Sharrell Luckett’s story of weight loss and gain and playing the (beautiful, desirable, thin) leading lady showcases an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to issues of weight and self-esteem, performance, race and gender. Sharrell structures her project with letters, interviews, testimony, journal entries, dialogues, monologues, and deep theorizing through and about the abundance of flesh. She explores the politics of Black culture, and particularly the intersections of her lived and embodied experiences. Her body and body transformation becomes a critical praxis to evidence fat as a feminist issue, fat as a Black-girl-woman issue, fat as an ideological construct that is as much on the brain as it is on the body. She is theorizing fat as physical, psychological, and political struggle—taking up head-space as much as physical space.

Sharrell D. Luckett is Assistant Professor of Theatre & Performance Studies Scholarship at Muhlenberg College. She is an award-winning professor, director, and performer, and founding Artistic Director of the Performance Studies & Arts Research Collective. Her interdisciplinary research is situated in performance theory, Black studies, and Women’s studies. She is currently touring her solo show, YoungGiftedandFAT. www.sdluckett.com / www.younggiftedandfat.com.