Out of Place, Out of Control: Transgression in Pearl Cleage’s Bourbon at the Border and Flyin’ West

Pearl Cleage (1948–), a self-identified Black nationalist and radical feminist, uses her plays to investigate the role of place in the Black experience. This article focuses on Bourbon at the Border (1997) and Flyin’ West (1992) to examine Cleage’s idea of Black geography through transgressions of spatial boundaries and the law. By considering the presentation of crime in both plays as ultimately constituting spatial acts, this article scrutinizes the main characters’ geographical movement and asserts the significant role of place in the social construction of criminality. In the end, both plays reveal that transgression aims for utopia, an imagined place; therefore, even though transgression is a symbol of resistance, it works only temporarily and as a limited tactical choice. Cleage’s Black theatre thus uses themes of crime and violence to highlight the profound sorrow of the African diaspora. This interpretation emphasizes the value of her understanding of racial issues related to place, and it offers a unique perspective that contrasts with analyses that often overlook these dimensions.