The Colored Museum

The scene opens with bright, colorful light illuminating a “glamourous, gorgeous” Black man and woman, Guy and Girl, posing while disco music plays. As they pose, their pictures are projected onto the walls of the museum. The music quiets, and the images fade away as they speak to the audience.

They say that they could not “resolve the contradictions of our existence” or “resolve yesterday’s pain” (9). As a result, they chose to live their lives exclusively inside Ebony Magazine. They describe their life inside the magazine as one where everyone is beautiful and only wears fabulous clothes. There, no one says anything profound, meaningful, or contradictory. They describe how they now simply pose as part of advertisements.

They then list the drawbacks of this fabulous life: constant smiling, no social life, no sex. They describe feeling suffocated, not human anymore, and that everything is simply rehearsed. They describe a new kind of pain that “comes from feeling no pain at all” (10). 

Then, they snap back into a positive energy, encouraging the audience to join them in this life of no contradictions. They speak together mechanically, “[…] smile/click smile/click. No pain” (10). The adopt a final pose as the music fades.