august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 theaters that have completed august wilson's american century cycle by christopher rawson professor emeritus, university of pittsburgh theater critic, pittsburgh post-gazette officer, august wilson house keywords august wilson, american century cycle awards, broadway, christopher rawson from the author: the theaters are listed in the order each completed its tenth play in the cycle. dates are when they staged their first and last play in the cycle. in parenthesis is the number of productions pre-broadway. this list is a work in progress: please send corrections or additions to cchr@pitt.edu. 1. goodman theater, chicago, 1986-2007 (7) 2. seattle repertory theatre, 1986-2007 (5) 3. st. louis black rep, ?-2008 4. pittsburgh public theater, 1989-2008 (2) 5. denver center theatre, 1989-2009 6. penumbra theatre, st. paul, 1984-2009 (1) 7. huntington theater, boston, 1986-2012 (8) 8. ensemble theatre, houston, 1985-2012 9. pittsburgh playwrights theatre, 2003-13 10. anthony bean community theatre, new orleans, 2001-13 11. the actors group, honolulu, 2004-15 12. lower bottom playaz, oakland, 2011-16 13. m ensemble, miami, incomplete information 14. american stage, st. petersburg, 2007-2017 15. broadway, 1984-2017 1 16. hattiloo theatre, memphis, 2008-18 17. new african grove, atlanta, 2009-2018 1 counting the off-broadway “jitney” of 2000, new york city completed the cycle in 2007, but broadway itself had to wait until 2017. broadway isn’t a theater company, but in a way it is, so why not award it a plaque, wherever it might hang? a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 author bio mr. christopher rawson is senior theater critic at the pittsburgh post-gazette, an emeritus member of the pitt english department, and an officer of august wilson house. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� theaters that have completed august wilson's american century cycle keywords author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 4 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 welcome to the stage review section of the august wilson journal by patrick maley associate professor of english, centenary university the work of august wilson comes alive most fully in the theater. a poet as much as a playwright, wilson wrote dialogue with musicality and crafted worlds with texture and nuance. he has given to american theater both a gift and a great burden: his plays teem with potential, but a reaching their greatest heights relies on teams of theater professionals. august wilson journal has a commitment to exploring and engaging with productions of august wilson’s work on stages across the country and the world. we would love to hear from scholars and advanced students of wilson who are eager to respond to productions and share their views with the world of wilson scholarship. our reviews strive to be short essays that engage with the productions as objects of analyses. our reviewers are experts speaking to other experts. reviews might consider the production and its approach within cultural, historical, political and aesthetic contexts, and might strive to contextualize the production within the play’s performance history and traditions. in short, performance reviews in august wilson journal intend to unite the fields of wilsonian scholarship and wilsonian theater with the goal of advancing all of our intellectual and aesthetic engagement with wilson’s work and legacy. author bio dr. patrick maley is association professor of english at centenary university where he teaches courses in shakespeare, drama, classical literature, the history of the english language, and the bible. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. patrick maley https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� welcome to the stage review section of the august wilson journal author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 erratum: addington, thomas. "bibliography for august wilson journal: spring 2019." august wilson journal doi:https://doi.org/10.5195/awj.2019.28. michael j. downing editor in addington, thomas. "bibliography for august wilson journal: spring 2019." august wilson journal doi:https://doi.org/10.5195/awj/2019.28, author "thomas addington" was changed to "thom c. addington.” articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ erratum: addington, thomas. "bibliography for august wilson journal: spring 2019." august wilson journal doi:https://doi.org/10.5195/awj.2019.28. august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 4 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 dramaturg interview: soyica colbert on two trains running by melonnie walker dramaturg and social media coordinator for the august wilson society in two trains, we found that wilson’s grappling with questions about self-determination and justice at the heart of the black power and black arts movements continue to inform political and artistic organizations today. − soyica colbert abstract an interview with soyica colbert, dramaturg for arena stage's (washington, d.c.) production of two trains running. keywords august wilson, arena stage, washington, d.c., two trains running, pittsburgh, hill district, dramaturgy, broadway, soyica colbert in the spring of 2018, arena stage in washington, dc, collaborated with seattle repertory theatre to co-produce two trains running in dc. the run was originally scheduled for march 30 through april 29, but, due to its success, was extended through may 6, 2018. the production was directed by juliette carrillo and the production dramaturg was dr. soyica colbert. this play is august wilson’s seventh installment in his ten-play american century cycle, premiering on broadway in 1992. the play is set in 1969 in a neighborhood diner that serves as a gathering place for residents of pittsburgh’s hill district. contextually, the backdrop for this play is the turbulent decade of the 1960s, which encompassed race riots, the ongoing vietnam war, the march on washington, and the assassinations of john f. kennedy, malcolm x, and martin luther king, jr. through the characters in this play, wilson explores themes of unity and pride, contrasting life principles, and how communities and individuals choose to create their path forward. i interviewed dr. colbert about her process for this production of two trains running, and asked her to share her experience working with the cast and crew. i was mel walker soyica cobert a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 4 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 specifically interested in any challenges, surprises, or special requests that may have occurred. mw: what kind of research goals did the director provide for you? such as certain historical context, or certain script references, etc. sc: in consultation with the artistic team at seattle repertory theatre, we provided research about august wilson’s century cycle, two trains running’s place in the cycle, pittsburgh in the 1960s, gentrification, the civil rights movement, the black power movement, and the black arts movement. mw: were there any particular challenges or surprises that came up during the process? sc: the main question we returned to again and again was how the questions of the play resonate with contemporary issues. in two trains, we found that wilson’s grappling with questions about self-determination and justice at the heart of the black power and black arts movements continue to inform political and artistic organizations today. mw: do you have a favorite scene or section of dialogue from two trains running? sc: there are several powerful moments. my favorite line is when memphis says, “freedom is heavy. you got to put your shoulder to freedom. put your shoulder to it and hope your back hold up.” the moments of intimacy between sterling and risa are also striking because they point to political collaboration emerging by way of friendship and trust. mw: can you tell our readers about other relevant events that took place around 1969, when this play is set, that may have influenced the characters, or even the playwright? sc: in june 1966, carmichael declared that “1966 [was] the year of the concept of black power.” soon after, sncc, headed by stokely carmichael, rejected its historical strategy of nonviolence and embraced the notion of black power which emphasized black nationalism and self-reliance. this led to the decline of interracialism within the organization. on october 15, 1966, in the wake of the assassination of malcolm x, huey p. newton and bobby seale founded the black panther party for self-defense in west oakland, california. in 1968, wilson co-founded the black horizon theater company with friend rob penny in the hill district of pittsburgh. martin luther king, jr. was assassinated in 1968. as we note in the dramaturgical workbook, the black power era was the time period when wilson came of age as an artist. as a result, this play is not only a reflection on the decade but also the contexts that formed him as an artist. mw: did you have any personal revelations about the play as you were researching it? sc: it is striking how play resonates so profoundly with ongoing questions about spatial justice and gentrification in washington d.c. mw: during your interactions with the cast and crew, what were the definitive themes about two trains running that you felt a need to emphasize, or particular ideas that you wanted to highlight? sc: because we worked on the notebook for the seattle rep. production first, we did not have much opportunity to interact with the cast and crew for that production. we did enjoy w a l k e r : d r a m a t u r g i n t e r v i e w : s o y i c a c o l b e r t o n t w o t r a i n s r u n n i n g a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 4 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 collaborating with the literary managers at seattle rep and arena stage to develop the workbook and respond to questions from the artistic teams. mw: in scheduled talkbacks, or engaging with the audience, what can you tell our readers about audience response? sc: in a talkback at arena stage, two of the student research assistants, skylar luke and taurjhai purdie, answered questions about the play and its history. it was useful to hear how audiences responded to the politics of the play and to the way it foreshadows many of ongoing struggles of urban america regarding corporatization of businesses and segregation.” mw: are there any other plays in august wilson’s american century cycle that you have served as dramaturg for, or would like to? sc: i have not served as a dramaturg on any of wilson’s other plays but would welcome the opportunity. mw: thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us. dr. soyica colbert is the chair of the department of performing arts, director of theater and performance studies and an associate professor of african american studies and theater and performance studies at georgetown university. she is the author of the african american theatrical body: reception, performance and the stage (cambridge up, 2011) and black movements: performance and cultural politics (rutgers up, 2017). dr. colbert has published articles and essays in american theatre, african american review, and the collection of essays edited by alan nadel, entitled, august wilson: completing the twentieth-century cycle. works cited wilson, august. two trains running. theatre communications group. 2007. author bio ms. melonnie walker is a dramaturg and social media coordinator for the august wilson society. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� dramaturg interview: soyica colbert on two trains running abstract keywords works cited author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 stage review of gem of the ocean round house theatre; bethesda, maryland november 28-december 30, 2018 directed by timothy douglas by leticia ridley ph.d. candidate, university of maryland, college park the wooden planks that covered the stage, including the high ceilings and the back wall adorned with candles, captured the magnitude of its presence within the community and the mysticism that sits inside of it. − leticia ridley abstract a review of august wilson's gem of the ocean, staged at the round house theatre in bethesda, maryland, from november 28-december 30, 2018. keywords august wilson, gem of the ocean, timothy douglas, goodman theatre, round house theatre round house theatre’s production of gem of the ocean exemplified the brilliance, artistry, and significance of august wilson’s work in the american theater. produced fifteen years after its original production at chicago’s goodman theatre, gem resonated with american audiences, not only by artfully grappling with the effects of american slavery and the unfulfilled promises of emancipation, but also by reminding us of the persistent ways that the law continues to overpolice and regulate black life. wilson’s characters dramatize how african american history can simultaneously empower and confine the black community, a sentiment best described by solly two kings’s question: “what is freedom if you can’t do nothing with it?” staged on a traditional proscenium, the production reinforced the audience’s role as voyeurs of the lives of these characters— complemented aptly by the historically credible costuming—that situated us to the post-emancipation era. under the direction of timothy douglas, a frequent director of wilson’s work (he has directed nine of wilson’s american century cycle plays at major us regional theatres), round house’s production captured the specificity and musicality in wilson’s rich dialogue. the lush language of wilson became specifically activated during the scene where citizen attempted to voice his attraction to black mary. as citizen barlow and black leticia ridley a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 mary, justin weaks and stori ayers captured the texture of their characters. this could primarily be seen through citizen’s muttered and breathy speech or in black mary’s swift and stoic responses to citizen’s words of affection. the wooden planks that covered the stage, including the high ceilings and the back wall adorned with candles, captured the magnitude of its presence within the community and the mysticism that sits inside of it. douglas also masterfully grasped the camaraderie among these characters and the refuge that they take with one another, capturing an important implicit claim of gem: that sanctuary is not merely a physical, but is also a community of people. this is best reflected in the action taken collectively by the residents and visitors of the house to help solly escape from caesar. while the production represented the largeness of 1839 wylie avenue through its design choices, the direction solidified the notion that aunt ester’s home is not entirely immune from the intrusion of outside forces. instead, it is the relationships built inside of the house that protect its residents. solly, played charismatically by alfred wilson, showed this most explicitly. alfred wilson infused solly with humor and conviction. recounting his and eli’s past helping runaway slaves on the underground railroad, wilson hit the gravity of this horrific history of american enslavement while also maintaining the play’s comedic moments. the antithesis to solly is caesar wilks, the proclaimed “boss man” of the hill district. kenyatta rogers’ embodiment of caesar reflected the intensity of the character. each movement and action made by rogers offered access to the interiority of caesar. the rigid and upright posture of rogers throughout the performance magnified the authority that caesar feels he must enforce in order to lift himself above others. rogers imbued caesar with complexity, a difficult feat for the antagonist of the play. douglas’s direction, alongside the other production elements such as kasey hendricks’ props, reinforced the idea that the interconnectedness of the lives of these characters cannot be separated from one another. for example, solly’s walking stick is introduced as an aid to help solly get around and an instrument to avoid captivity by caesar. but it serves its most significant function as citizen assumes the walking stick after solly’s death, signaling his deliberate choice to carry solly’s legacy. each prop designed by hendricks was impressively incorporated into the production. throughout the play, wilson conjures ancestral links through the figure of aunt ester (whose name, as critics often point out, conjures the sound of “ancestor”). the success of any production of gem relies on the dynamic portrayal of aunt ester, a demand that actress stephanie berry fulfilled, if not exceeded. berry’s depiction embraced the assured ancestral knowledge with which wilson infuses aunt ester, a wisdom she has gained from her experience of enslavement and african cosmology. acting as an ancestral conduit and spiritual guide, it is only through aunt ester that citizen barlow can visit the city of bones. culminating the show’s dramatic apex, citizen’s metaphysical journey to the city of bones was the stand out moment of the production. under the thoughtful direction and choreography of douglas, the quaint kitchen/dining area (designed by tony cisek), became engulfed in ethereal, blue light (designed by andrew r. cissna), while black mary, eli, and solly sung (accompanied by original music of justin ellington) and served as witnesses and support for citizen’s journey. weaks captured the pain in confronting and experiencing the harsh conditions of the middle passage. after citizen confesses that he stole the nails, the stage illuminated with candles that had been out of site for the majority of the performance as he experienced the reverence and beauty of the city of bones. engulfed with this new knowledge, citizen’s soul has been cleansed and he returned to the celebratory song of his fellow witnesses. the round house production of gem of the ocean revived the potent legacy of enslavement that continues to structure the life of wilson’s characters, a thread continued throughout his american century cycle. moreover, wilson’s play has further resonance for our current political climate, one that has witnessed an ever-proliferating increase of r i d l e y : s t a g e r e v i e w o f g e m o f t h e o c e a n a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 violent, racialized attacks on black people and other marginalized communities in the united states. accordingly, wilson’s gem of the ocean offers us a timely instruction to take up the respective calls of our ancestors and continue to fight for black liberation, freedom, and life. works cited wilson, august. gem of the ocean. theatre communications group. 2007. author bio ms. leticia ridley is a ph.d. student in theatre and performance studies of university of maryland, college park. she is a playwright, dramaturg, and scholar with interests include black theatre and performance, american popular culture, and black feminism with an emphasis on the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ stage review of gem of the ocean abstract keywords works cited author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 7 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 a status update on august wilson house1 by christopher rawson professor emeritus, university of pittsburgh theater critic, pittsburgh post-gazette officer, august wilson house we expect august wilson house to repay a debt to the hill. − christopher rawson abstract august wilson house strives to preserve the legacy of august wilson by sponsoring and supporting such efforts as the annual hill district birthday block party, backyard productions of august’s plays in collaboration with pittsburgh playwrights theatre, and visiting fellowships in collaboration with pittsburgh universities, such as the initial partnership with duquesne university. keywords august wilson, daisy wilson, august wilson house, bedford avenue, hill district, paul ellis, rob pfaffmann, denzel washington, visiting fellowships for years, 1727 bedford avenue sat as a rebuke to pittsburghderelict, crumbling, windows rotting. visiting theater artists and other pilgrims were shocked at pittsburgh’s seeming indifference to the childhood home of a great american. born freddy kittel, he is known as august wilson. but behind the scenes, the daisy wilson artist community, inc., named for the mother to whom he gave credit for teaching him to read when he was four and raising him with tough love, was in formation, led by august’s lawyer nephew paul ellis and well-known preservationist architect rob pfaffmann. a board of directors was formed. august wilson house (awh) was landmarked at the local, state and national level, and it gradually raised the early funds that allowed stabilization of what would have otherwise been bulldozed into oblivion. starting in 2011 there were initial reconstruction projectsshoring up floors and walls, masonry patches, a temporary roof. in 2014 there was a careful reconstruction of the street façade. in 2016, there was restoration of the exterior to its appearance when august lived there, 1945-58. severely deteriorated masonry was restored brick by brick. but the interior was still a jumble. and then denzel washington came to town to film fences, and he promised to raise the $5 million necessary for the major reconstruction (which will involve a support 1 editor's note: rawson explains that the intended style is to use "august wilson house” without the “the” (capitalized or not). this aligns with other places that do not take a “the,” such as fenway park, hull house, yale university. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 7 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 building and other exterior work). he made this gift public at the awh ground blessing ceremony last sept. 26: it includes $1 million each from him, oprah winfrey and tyler perry, and substantial six-figure amounts from samuel & latanya r. jackson, stephanie summers, laurence fishburne, shonda rhimes, antoine fuqua and john mcclain (or their foundations). the capital fund was just further augmented by $1 million from the r.k. mellon foundation. along the way there has also been steady support for pre-development, planning and stabilization both physical and operational from the pittsburgh foundation, heinz foundation, hillman family foundations, african american action fund, mccauley ministries plus other foundations and governmental programs, local, state and nationalmore than can fit in this brief status report. all this before starting a public campaign to support operations and programs so awh won’t suffer the fate of similar historic houses or small museums that open to fanfare and soon run out of funds. while here in 1999, august visited his moldering childhood home, as the photo on this page shows. he said that if it were to be preserved, he hoped it would not be as a memorial but as “something useful.” we consider that a compact between us. in addition, we’ve adopted a phrase of his: “claim what is yours.” we expect awh to repay a debt to the hill. it nurtured august and gave him the rich material for his plays, and in return the fame of its mid-20th century glory days has been revived. but awh hopes to provide the hill with something more substantial than that. programming began several years ago. the first signature program was an annual birthday block party, which in its fourth year has become a hill tradition which drew 100 vendors and close to 6,000 celebrants. the second was backyard productions of august’s plays in collaboration with pittsburgh playwrights theatre, starting with seven guitars (imagined by august as taking place in that very backyard), followed by king hedley ii (which august imagined just down the block), and continuing this summer, if all the permits come through, with gem of the ocean staged at aunt ester’s actual address, 1839 wylie avenue. the third major program is visiting fellowships in collaboration with pittsburgh universities and other institutions. the inaugural fellowship, in partnership with duquesne university, brought poet laureate natasha trethewey to the hill. future fellows in literature, art, theater or music will lean toward those younger, starting their careers. this is a house. the spaces will be intimate, like the rooms in august’s life and plays. in both, he tackled large questions of self-identity, racism and justice, but at their heart the plays dramatize conflicts between generations and within families. as a place to explore these cultural narratives, awh will support literature and other arts on the personal scale that august first encountered them. the family’s original two rooms will be as close to a memorial to daisy and august as our compact with august will allow. by late 2020 or august’s birthday in 2021, awh will be open to both pilgrims and those drawn by workshops, roundtables, small classes, performances and, we hope, the kind of gatherings that ignited the artistic and social concerns of the young august wilson, fired in the kiln of the black arts and black power movements of the 1960s. we think august would find that useful. author bio a member of the board of directors of august wilson house, mr. christopher rawson is the senior theater critic at the pittsburgh post-gazette where he interviewed august wilson and reviewed mr. wilson's plays throughout his career. an emeritus member of the university of pittsburgh english department, rawson for many years has taught a full course in august wilson. he and laurence a. glasco wrote and published august wilson: pittsburgh places in his life and plays (2015). r a w s o n : a s t a t u s u p d a t e o n a u g u s t w i l s o n h o u s e 0 f a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 7 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. the ground blessing in september, 2018, when denzel washington announced the funds he had raised. from left: chris rawson, denise turner, rob pfaffmann, paul ellis, richard butler, sakina ansari (august’s daughter), terri baltimore, mark southers, denzel washington, chuck timbers. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 7 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 part of the crowd of approximately 6,000 at the april 27, 2019 awh birthday block party. curtain call for the 2016 production of seven guitars in the backyard of awh, where the play is actually set. a status update on august wilson house0f abstract keywords and then denzel washington came to town to film fences, and he promised to raise the $5 million necessary for the major reconstruction (which will involve a support building and other exterior work). he made this gift public at the awh ground blessing... along the way there has also been steady support for pre-development, planning and stabilization both physical and operational from the pittsburgh foundation, heinz foundation, hillman family foundations, african american action fund, mccauley ministr... this is a house. the spaces will be intimate, like the rooms in august’s life and plays. in both, he tackled large questions of self-identity, racism and justice, but at their heart the plays dramatize conflicts between generations and within families... we think august would find that useful. author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 stage review of king hedley ii two river theater; red bank, new jersey marion huber stage november 10-december 16, 2018 directed by brandon dirden by cameron patrick kelsall professional theatre critic the decision to produce the play on the tiny marion huber stage, which seats fewer than 100 people, drew the audience into the action, causing them to eavesdrop for three sprawling hours. − cameron patrick kelsall abstract a review of king hedley ii by august wilson, staged at two river theater in red bank, new jersey from november 10-december 16, 2018. keywords august wilson, king hedley ii, brandon j. dirden, hill district, reaganomics, signature theatre company king hedley ii bears a title that evokes shakespearean grandeur. wilson worked on a grand scale throughout his career, but hedley seems particularly willing to wade into the messy questions of lineage, generational trauma, and an uncertain future. these themes occupy wilson elsewhere in the century cycle, but they feel especially centered here, with characters who always have an eye cast toward the past. those backward glances may be a reaction to the uncertain times that form the play’s setting. king hedley ii takes place in 1985, amidst the rise of reaganomics and urban blight. but what may be more troubling than the reality of the country is the diminution of the community in pittsburgh’s hill district, which no longer holds the vibrant snatches of life it retained even in the grimmest moments of earlier wilson plays. instead, “the people wandering all over the place,” says the prophetic stool pigeon in the prologue. “they got lost. they don’t even know the story of how they got from tit to tat.” brandon j. dirden’s intimate production for two river theater (red bank, new jersey) answered the question of how the hill district got from tit to tat with middling success. the decision to produce the play on the tiny marion huber stage, which seats fewer than 100 people, drew the audience into the action, causing them to eavesdrop for three cameron kelsall a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 sprawling hours. it reminded the observer that a sense of history hinges on bonds between people, even in grand-scale works. dirden, a fine wilson actor in his own right, returned to two river after directing seven guitars in 2015. (the company has produced five of wilson’s plays since 2012, with plans to complete the full cycle.) his production created a visual world that communicates the playwright’s sense of downmarket american life in the mid-eighties. michael carnahan’s set, dotted with fading reagan campaign posters and rocky patches of dirt, suggested the crumbling society at the play’s core. the two houses at the center, occupied by king (blake morris) on one side and stool pigeon (brian d. coats) on the other, looked proud but worn, like a boxer struggling to find his footing after a knockout punch. most of the production’s action took place between the houses, with the characters considering how they ended up in this particular spot. king hedley ii serves as a companion to seven guitars, with some character overlap and similarities among the protagonists. although king’s nominal father hedley appears in seven guitars, he shares more in common with floyd barton, the tragic bluesman whose life and death form the play’s narrative. both men spent time in prison and returned to a changed world where their ambitions couldn’t easily be achieved, no matter how they strived. both men felt caged by their place in society, even while technically free. but where floyd operated with smoothness, king leads with unapologetic rage. his ire rises to volcanic levels over seemingly insignificant matters. this presents a challenge that dirden and morris didn’t always meet. the operatic emotional scale can seem almost comical in its overstatement, but when a production gets it right – as derrick sanders’ staging for signature theatre company did in 2007 – it’s downright terrifying. but morris, who tended to deliver his lines with breakneck haste, only located king’s blinding anger, with little sense of the suffering and disappointment underpinning it. there was little sense of king as the quasi-religious figure wilson intended, as the repeated image of a halo around his head failed to make the right poignant, metaphorical impression. that balance of realism and spirituality failed to register throughout dirden’s production. kathy a. perkins’s high-key lighting literally bleached away the sense of nuance and ambiguity (it also suggested that most scenes take place at exactly the same time every day, contradicting the text.) stool pigeon’s prophecies came across more like unwanted insertions than necessary commentary tying beginning and end of the play together, largely because dirden kept coats separate from the main action. the impetus might have been to paint him as a holy figure existing outside society, but it caused a lack of gravity in crucial moments – as when he announces aunt ester’s death, which also represents the true death of the community. this caused the play to dip uncomfortably into melodrama – reinforced by one-note performances from elain graham (as ruby, king’s mother) and brittany bellizeare (as tonya, king’s long-suffering wife). wilson gave each woman a rich backstory, which dirden largely ignored in favor of outsized characterization and overstated line readings. the choice to portray them as semi-comic, almost stock figures severely limited the female perspective of the play – and it dissipated the power of its denouement, which finds king dying by his mother’s hand. it is perhaps not inaccurate to call king hedley ii melodrama – the word, after all, derives from a greek root meaning music. like so many of wilson’s works, even when no character actually sings, the poetry hums to a rhythmic beat. here, the characters lived in prose. the audience came to understand how the hill got to be a place “all grown over with weeds,” as stool pigeon describes the once-clear path to aunt ester’s home. but for a play the balances grace and grit, the telling lacked majesty. [editor's note: this production marks the halfway point in two river theater’s commitment to stage all ten plays of august wilson’s american century cycle.] k e l s a l l : s t a g e r e v i e w o f k i n g h e d l e y i i t w o r i v e r t h e a t e r , f a l l 2 0 1 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 works cited wilson, august. king hedley ii. theatre communications group. 2007. author bio mr. cameron patrick kelsall is a theater critic for the philadelphia inquirer and broad street review. he is also an editor and contributor for the website exeunt nyc, where he writes about the theater scene in new york city. production photos all photos by t. charles erickson blake morris (king hedley ii) and harvy blanks (elmore) blake morris (king hedley ii) brittany bellizeare (tonya) a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 elain graham (ruby) charlie hudson iii (mister) and brian d. coats (stool pigeon) articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� stage review of king hedley ii abstract keywords works cited author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 august wilson society president's foreword to inaugural issue of the august wilson journal by sandra g. shannon professor emerita, howard university the release of the much-anticipated inaugural issue of the august wilson journal is yet another indicator that the journal’s namesake, the two-time pulitzer-prize-winning playwright august wilson, belongs to the ages. − sandra g. shannon abstract founder and president of the august wilson society reflects upon the growth of the field of august wilson studies over the past several decades and points towards a promising future. keywords august wilson, sandra shannon, alan nadel, the dramatic vision of august wilson, robert brustein, august wilson journal, the ground on which i stand, the august wilson society, michael downing, david anderson i discovered in the late 1980s that august wilson was a playwright to watch. approximately ten years later after immersing myself in extant—though limited— scholarship on his work, i had no doubt that his plays must be required reading and that no self-respecting high school or college curricula could afford to ignore his work. buoyed by these certainties, i sought to make wilson’s canon as familiar and as accessible in academe as that of shakespeare, to facilitate widespread and serious study of his plays, and to serve as a catalyst for a much-needed body of scholarship on this major american playwright. i was soon to discover that work toward these ambitious goals was daunting as i perused shelves, newspaper clippings, and databases and as i followed leads to secure key interviews and travel to sites that promised additional material to support my first book, the dramatic vision of august wilson (howard up, 1995). 1 although my early-to-mid-1990s search for sources on wilson continued to be arduous, i soon detected a slow-but-steady uptick in serious treatment of what is now known as the american century cycle. in 1994, i expressed a mixture of cautious optimism and alarm in my “annotated bibliography of works by and about august wilson,” which appeared in alan nadel’s seminal collection, may all your fences have gates: essays on the drama of august wilson (iowa up). i persevered. 2 “critical assessment of august wilson’s plays has sandra shannon a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 increased in scope and in momentum over the last decade,” i touted in the brief introduction to my thirty-six-page project. i went on to note the following: although he wrote his first play in 1973 (recycle), serious attention to his work did not come until the early 1980s with the broadway success of ma rainey’s black bottom (1981). now, wilson is one of the most-written-about dramatists in america, capturing the respect and admiration of some of new york’s toughest critics and inspiring a well-spring of scholarly activity about the plays that make up his proposed ten-play chronicle of the black experience. published commentary on his work has likewise evolved from an abundance of theatre reviews of works staged along a familiar path from the yale repertory theatre to broadway . . . extensive though it may be, this annotated bibliography is not all-inclusive; it is instead intended as a starting place for anyone doing preliminary research on august wilson. 3 what began some thirty years ago as an overly ambitious agenda on my part has now evolved into a full-fledged formal enterprise! the release of the much-anticipated inaugural issue of the august wilson journal is yet another indicator that the journal’s namesake, the two-time pulitzer-prize-winning playwright august wilson, belongs to the ages. unlike many of his fellow playwrights, wilson famously read a lot of what theatre critics (including his nemesis, new republic critic robert brustein) had to say about his earlier staged performances. some of their reviews hit below the belt. some showed blatant cultural insensitivity, racial bias, and ignorance. fortunately, an appreciable number of reviews provided astute, objective observations and judiciously pointed out both strengths and weaknesses in the performance and, at times, called attention to perceived flaws within the playwriting itself. the seemingly misguided tenor adopted early on by theatre reviewers led wilson to single out critics per se in his well-publicized 1996 speech, “the ground on which i stand” speech, where he writes, “as playwrights grow and develop, as the theatre changes, the critic has an important responsibility to guide and encourage that growth . . . it is the critic who should be in forefront of developing new tools for analysis necessary to understand new influences. 4 while wilson’s high-profile pronouncements originally targeted critics of staged performances of his work, they may also stand as ongoing reminders to today’s scholars who aspire to publish research on his body of dramatic literature. the august wilson journal proudly accepts wilson’s nearly 25-year-old charge to critics by creating a publishing home for continued growth and excellence in scholarship in august wilson studies. on behalf of the august wilson society and as its president, i congratulate the founders of the august wilson journal, michael downing and david anderson, and pledge our support in making it into a premiere, world-class publication. author bio dr. sandra shannon is professor emerita at howard university. she has published numerous books and essays on august wilson and is the founder and president of the august wilson society. s h a n n o n : p r e s i d e n t o f t h e a u g u s t w i l s o n s o c i e t y ' s f o r e w a r d t o i n a u g u r a l i s s u e o f t h e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 notes 1 sandra shannon. the dramatic vision of august wilson. howard up, 1995. 2 alan nadel. may all your fences have gates: essays on the drama of august wilson. iowa up, 1994, p. 230. 3 ibid, 230. 4 august wilson. the ground on which i stand. theatre communications group, 1996, 43-44. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� abstract keywords author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 reading august wilson's character and his characters: a suggestive introduction by alan nadel william t. bryan chair in american literature and culture at the university of kentucky by maintaining staunchly that he not enable others to take away what was rightfully his, wilson, whether rich or poor, was honoring the spirit of his mother, daisy wilson. − alan nadel abstract in this short piece, nadel argues that is it crucial for wilson's characters, like wilson himself, to control the terms and conditions of their existence. keywords august wilson, alan nadel, american century cycle, o'neill center, daisy wilson if the ten plays in august wilson’s american century cycle are not historical dramas, that is, plays based on historical events and figures, they are nevertheless historical context, in that they give cultural dynamics of african american life specific to each decade of the century cogent dramatization. similarly, although none of wilson’s plays is autobiographical, they understandably draw on the array of warriors, entrepreneurs, hustlers, accommodators, madmen, and shamans who infused wilson’s life. in this context, i believe, briefly considering an aspect of wilson’s his personal ethos, his character, provides an apt and paradigmatic introduction to the historicity of his characters. in 1982, when ma rainey’s black bottom won the national competition that entailed its being workshopped at the o’neill center, wilson, at the time working as a cook for $84 a week, was offered a $25,000 advance to stage the play on broadway. when he read the contract, however, he discovered it required his ceding artistic control; the producers could bring in additional authors and to turn the play into a musical. when he called the producer, he was told, “in this business we go a lot on faith; just sign the contract and we’ll work out the details later,” to which wilson responded, “as long as the words don’t mean what they say, why not write the contract my way.” not surprisingly, he did not sign the contract and instead accepted lloyd richards’s offer to put on the play at the yale repertory. more than a decade later, after ma rainey had had a successfully broadway run on wilson’s terms, as did four more of his plays, after he had won numerous prizes (including two pulitzer prizes and six drama critics circle awards, and after fences had become the alan nadel a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 most lucrative drama in the history of american theater, wilson was still in prolonged negotiations with hollywood over the screen adaptation of fences. in the late 1990s, he told me that it was hollywood’s way to fly you out there, put you up at the ritz carleton, chauffer you around in luxurious limos, and shower you with expensive meals and drinks, “then they start to take it away, and they’ve got you.” wilson’s response was to refuse the ritz carlton in favor a motel and shun the limo in favor of a taxi. “it makes them crazy,” wilson told me. “they don’t know what do with me.” by maintaining staunchly that he not enable others to take away what was rightfully his, wilson, whether rich or poor, was honoring the spirit of his mother, daisy wilson. when he was a child, she won a new washing machine in a radio phone-in contest, but the station, upon discovering she was black, instead gave her a salvation army coupon for used washer. even though daisy at the time was doing laundry for a family of six by hand, she refused to accept the used washer instead of the one she had rightfully won but would never receive. both of these stories from wilson’s biography echo of troy maxson’s refusal to allow cory to play football, because, he believed, sports opportunities (like hollywood luxuries) were things that could be taken away by white industry and media. yet troy’s attitude also indicates the intersection of wilson’s character with the historicity of his characters. when those characters assert unflinching control over what is theirs, they reveal the internalized historical legacy that informs the 20th-century cycle, because the right to control property distinguishes humans from objects: you can own your dog, but your dog cannot own you. (btw: this principle does not apply to cats.) hence, taking away something that belongs to a person disavows his or her humanity in favor of another person’s more privileged property rights. this form of disavowal—whether it entails material goods, a proper name, or the capacity to bear witness—was inherent to slavery, foundational to jim crow, and intrinsic to a plethora of racialized practices throughout the 20th century. from this perspective, in two trains running, hambone’s relentless demand for his ham, like ma rainey’s persistent control over the conditions by which her voice may be commodified, or, in the piano lesson, boy charles’s dying to reclaim the piano for which his grandmother was traded reflect not just wilson’s character but the myriad historical struggles that conditioned his characters. aunt ester’s bill of sale, as she points out in gem of the ocean, is worthless, but the fact that she possesses it is invaluable in the same way that, in jitney, the jitney drivers’ right to control the terms and conditions of their rides is crucial to their identity. wilson’s cycle and his century concludes in 1997, when harmond, in radio golf, forfeits a promising political career to subordinate his personal aspirations to old joe’s rightful ownership of aunt ester’s house. the triumph of capitalism, we must remember, originated not in the protection of property rights from royal fiat, but from the inclusion of human flesh with the realm of property. the surplus capital that the industrial revolution’s textile industry produced supported investment in a broad spectrum of imperial endeavors, including, but not limited to, the harvesting and commodification of africans and their labor. that capital vitalized shipping, railroads, banks, and factories of every sort, in both slave-holding and nonslaveholding parts of the globe, all benefitting, directly or indirectly, form the cheap cotton that slavery made possible, out of which affordable textiles and immense profits were made. near the end of fences, troy maxson speaks directly to death: i’m gonna take and build me a fence around this yard. see? i’m gonna build me a fence around what belongs to me. and then i want you to stay on the other side. see? you stay over there until you’re ready for me. incisively framing troy’s life and parental obligation in terms of property (“what belongs to me”), wilson externalizes, with the aid of a baseball bat and a fence, troy’s internalization of the historical conditions under which his character was forged. n a d e l : r e a d i n g a u g u s t w i l s o n ' s c h a r a c t e r a n d h i s c h a r a c t e r s : a s u g g e s t i v e i n t r o d u c t i o n a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 daisy wilson’s right to win a new washing machine, like her son’s right to control his own writing or hambone’s right to his ham or king hedley ii’s right to his proper name, thus dramatizes wilson’s character as a characteristic of his characters’ claim on the rights usurped under the fabric of human piracy, in the interest of cheap fabrics. works cited wilson, august. fences. theatre communications group. 2007. ---. gem of the ocean. theatre communications group. 2007. ---. jitney. theatre communications group. 2007. ---. joe turner's come and gone. theatre communications group. 2007. ---. king hedley ii. theatre communications group. 2007. ---. ma rainey's black bottom. theatre communications group. 2007. ---. the piano lesson. theatre communications group. 2007. ---. radio golf. theatre communications group. 2007. ---. seven guitars. theatre communications group. 2007. ---. two trains running. theatre communications group. 2007. author bio dr. alan nadel, william t. bryan chair in american literature and culture at the university of kentucky, is the author of six monographs on post-wwii american literature, including invisible criticism: ralph ellison and the american canon (u iowa p) and the theatre of august wilson (bloomsbury/methuen). he has also edited of two volumes of essays on august wilson, may all your fences have gates and august wilson: completing the 20th-century cycle, both with u iowa p. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� reading august wilson's character and his characters: a suggestive introduction abstract keywords works cited author bio v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 august wilson house, duquesne university, nancy beard foundation team up to support emerging artists through august wilson fellowship by laura e. quain duquesne university master's graduate corporate communication and integrated marketing communication abstract august wilson house, pittsburgh's duquesne university and the nancy beard foundation have partnered with to create a fellowship aimed at supporting scholars and artists of color, in an attempt to bring august wilson's creative legacy "full circle." keywords duquesne university, august wilson house, august wilson fellowship, nancy beard foundation in early 2018, a $100,000 fellowship program was established between the august wilson house and duquesne university. the program will allow scholars and artists of color to engage in literary, cultural, and artistic expression that will both advance their own work and serve the interests of the university and the community, according to a duquesne university press release. the fellowship is fully supported by a grant from the nancy jones beard foundation. beginning in fall 2018, the three-year grant allows two duquesne university students per academic year to live as “scholars-inresidence” in a duquesne university apartment, while developing their art, participating in research using university resources, developing presentations, teaching, and participating in educational events both on and off campus. all work created by students will be featured in wilson’s hill district childhood home at 1727 bedford avenue. the program furthers duquesne's partnership with the august wilson house, in efforts to support education in the humanities. “this gift helps bring august wilson’s legacy full circle by honoring his extraordinary career while encouraging the work of great artists and scholars of the future,” said duquesne university president, ken gormley. “it allows the university to strengthen its engagement with the hill district and its commitment to advancing the arts and culture in western pennsylvania.” the intention is that the home, which is currently being restored, serve as a community arts center and eventually house fellowship recipients. according to the august wilson house website, the restoration project aims to celebrate the personal memory and community history of august and the hill, celebrating wilson's legacy by "advancing the art and culture of the african diaspora and impacting the cultural landscape." the tworoom home, restored to its 1950s look, will become an "intimate interpretive site," with various rooms housing digital and audio displays and artifacts about wilson's life and plays. laura quain q u a i n : a u g u s t w i l s o n h o u s e , d u q u e s n e u n i v e r s i t y , n a n c y b e a r d f o u n d a t i o n t e a m u p t o s u p p o r t e m e r g i n g a r t i s t s t h r o u g h a u g u s t w i l s o n f e l l o w s h i p a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 2 a series of small artist studios and community gathering spaces is also planned. outside space will be used for annual productions of the american century cycle plays, perhaps "growing into a biennial august wilson festival." through the august wilson visiting fellowships, both local and national artists and scholars will be provided immersive work, research, and community exchange opportunities in return for partnering with hill district organizations and pittsburgh arts groups and universities. ultimately, the wilson house will be a catalyst in the hill’s reemergence, linking with other hill institutions (some being restored themselves) into a network of revival. according to sairah aslam, a staff writer for the duquesne duke, the fellowship was created to help relieve some of the uncertainties associated with artistic endeavors by providing a platform through which underrepresented artists can showcase their work to the duquesne community, the hill district, the city of pittsburgh and beyond. the partnership works to connect the work of emerging artists to the legacy left by wilson. “as a young artist, he [august] didn’t receive the support he deserved,” said paul a. ellis, jr., executive director and general counsel of the august wilson house, and wilson’s nephew. “this program will allow fellows to work in the same community as august [did] and draw inspiration from it to create immersive and enduring work.” the first fellow, natasha trethewey, was announced in september 26, 2018. trethewey is a poet and pulitzer prize recipient, has served twice as the poet laureate of the united states, and is currently a board of trustees professor of english at northwestern university, according to a duquesne university press release. as poet laureate, trethewey held an official position, was expected to present one major poetic work, and to appear at certain national ceremonies. this announcement was a part of a ground-blessing ceremony at which duquesne university president, ken gormley, joined actor/director denzel washington and area dignitaries at the august wilson house. the event celebrated the completion of the first phase of fundraising toward restoration of the house. as of now, the founders of the fellowship plan to sustain the program for the first few years as is. they will eventually look towards expanding it both by the number of fellows and the type of work they do, according to aslam. according to duquesne university media relations manager, ken walters, university honors college students have held an active role in the refurbishment of the 1727 bedford home since a strategic plan was developed in 2011. this has included developing effective programs, one of them being their annual block party in the hill district, which usually happens on or around wilson’s birthday, april 27. by hosting the annual block party, organizers hope to bring the community together. students also work in collaboration with the daisy wilson artist community, inc., which was named after the playwright’s mother, who created a home for her family in the hill. there, august grew up inquisitive, loyal and an incessant reader, eventually becoming a black nationalist, then poet and playwright. professionally, wilson won two “best drama” pulitzer prizes for his plays about the african-american experience in each decade of the 20th century. nine of his plays were set in pittsburgh, with the exception of ma rainey. “this work changes our students’ lives by encouraging them to look outward—the community is their classroom,” said kathleen roberts, professor of communication and rhetorical studies and director of the honors college at duquesne university. “students can develop a reverence for wilson’s work and also learn how their skills have a use beyond the profession they choose.” natasha trethewey q u a i n : a u g u s t w i l s o n h o u s e , d u q u e s n e u n i v e r s i t y , n a n c y b e a r d f o u n d a t i o n t e a m u p t o s u p p o r t e m e r g i n g a r t i s t s t h r o u g h a u g u s t w i l s o n f e l l o w s h i p a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 additionally, students’ skills benefited the august wilson house outside of refurbishment, as they worked to create the organization’s website and facebook pages, planning events, engaging with other community groups, and developing sponsorship opportunities. according to the honors college website, participating students analyze the needs of a community near duquesne university; select and carry out a project that will meet an important community need and contribute to their own academic growth; reflect on their experience and examine their work in light of what others have written about civic engagement and service-learning; and document their project, studies, and reflections to assist others who are interested in forging links between universities and communities. each semester, duquesne students engage in a social justice seminar wherein they work together to improve or call attention to the social problems of the hill district. according to the daisy wilson artist community website, the partnership aims to offer educational and service opportunities for duquesne students and staff in the hill district, promote the arts both at duquesne university and in the hill, preserve and advance the artistic legacy of august wilson, and help the hill community flourish. the 2012 honor seminar students sought to outline a plan for the signature partnership of the duquesne university honors college and the daisy wilson artist community over a five-year period from 2012-17. the plan addresses three main goals: the reintroduction and promotion of the arts will revitalize the culture of pittsburgh's hill district, preservation of the august wilson boyhood home to help preserve august wilson's legacy and philosophy, and academic and service opportunities to strengthen connections between duquesne university and the hill district. works cited aslam, sairah. "new fellowship created in the spirit of august wilson." the duquesne duke. feb. 15, 2018. http://www.duqsm.com/new-fellowship-created-spiritaugust-wilson/. "august wilson house, duquesne university establish fellowship program." duquesne university office of marketing and communication. duquesne university. feb. 2, 2018. https://www.duq.edu/news/august-wilson-house-duquesne-universityestablish-fellowship-program. "natasha trethewey." poetryfoundation.org. n.d. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ poets/natasha-trethewey. "president gormley introduces inaugural fellow at august wilson house ground blessing." duquesne university office of marketing and communication. duquesne university. sept. 26, 2018. https://www.duq.edu/news/president-gormleyintroduces-inaugural-fellow-at-august-wilson-house-ground-blessing. "the signature partnership: helping the hill community flourish." duquesne university's honors college & the daisy wilson artist community. n.d. https:// sites.google.com/site/duqcandusigpart13/home. "transformation." augustwilsonhouse.org. n.d. http://augustwilsonhouse.org/. walters, ken. "duquesne students work to keep august wilson's legacy alive." duquesne university magazine. spring 2018. https://www.duq.edu/assets/documents/ public-affairs/magazine/supplements/augustwilson_spring2018.pdf. http://www.duqsm.com/new-fellowship-created-spirit-august-wilson/� http://www.duqsm.com/new-fellowship-created-spirit-august-wilson/� https://www.duq.edu/news/august-wilson-house-duquesne-university-establish-fellowship-program� https://www.duq.edu/news/august-wilson-house-duquesne-university-establish-fellowship-program� https://www.poetryfoundation.org/%20poets/natasha-trethewey� https://www.poetryfoundation.org/%20poets/natasha-trethewey� https://www.duq.edu/news/president-gormley-introduces-inaugural-fellow-at-august-wilson-house-ground-blessing� https://www.duq.edu/news/president-gormley-introduces-inaugural-fellow-at-august-wilson-house-ground-blessing� https://www.duq.edu/assets/documents/%20public-affairs/magazine/supplements/augustwilson_spring2018.pdf� https://www.duq.edu/assets/documents/%20public-affairs/magazine/supplements/augustwilson_spring2018.pdf� q u a i n : a u g u s t w i l s o n h o u s e , d u q u e s n e u n i v e r s i t y , n a n c y b e a r d f o u n d a t i o n t e a m u p t o s u p p o r t e m e r g i n g a r t i s t s t h r o u g h a u g u s t w i l s o n f e l l o w s h i p a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 4 author bio ms. laura quain is a 2019 graduate of duquesne university's corporate communication and integrated marketing communication program. prior to that, she attended kutztown university where she completed a degree in english/professional writing and wrote for the school newspaper. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� august wilson house, duquesne university, nancy beard foundation team up to support emerging artists through august wilson fellowship abstract keywords author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 a stage review of radio golf: new african grove completes the cycle new african grove theatre company south fulton arts center; college park, georgia july 13-22, 2018 directed by natasha young by christopher bell associate professor of english, university of north georgia . . . it can be difficult to train performers in the demanding rigors of wilson’s language. − keith franklin, artistic director abstract a stage review of august wilson’s radio golf at the new african grove theatre company in college park, georgia, july 2018. keywords august wilson, radio golf, new african grove theatre, pittsburgh, american century cycle, william shakespeare, david mamet, natasha young, keith franklin, nic starr august wilson most certainly would have appreciated the performance of radio golf by the new african grove theatre company on july 21, 2018, which took place at the south fulton arts center in college park, georgia, which is a former public school. the location is fitting, as it reflects wilson’s own nascent work with black horizons, a community theater he helped found in the late 1960s that was dedicated to raising the consciousness of the black populace and whose performance space was the a. leo weil elementary school on centre avenue. new african grove is also a small community theater committed, according to the company’s artistic director keith franklin, to staging plays centered on the african diaspora. and while wilson’s work has reached the heights of broadway and london’s west end, his work centers on characters struggling day to day to have their voices heard and dignity recognized, much like the tireless efforts of this small outfit that stages shows for a peak audience of eighty. what wilson would have found most delightful about this new african grove performance is that it marked the company’s completion of the entire american century cycle, one of the few theaters in the country to accomplish this feat. i asked franklin what the most difficult part of completing the cycle was. he said that because the company draws many actors from the community it can be difficult to train chris bell a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 performers in the demanding rigors of wilson’s language. these performers are in some ways more obligated to that aspect of the playwright’s work, as the set and costuming are constrained by a limited budget, not to mention the south fulton arts center stage is tiny. the director for this production, natasha young, also points out with a chuckle that the actors’ compensation is meager, not even “what would allow anyone to go on a shopping spree.” these actors and the crew are truly dedicated to bringing august wilson’s voice to the community and that dedication was evident in the production. it’s the connection to the characters, a community of people forgotten by the city of pittsburgh and largely unknown to the world outside the city, that new african grove captured in its performance of radio golf. when asked what was most satisfying about completing the american century cycle, young said it was “the joy of knowing that we have provided a service to the community.” that service is honoring the legacy of august wilson, himself a fifteen-year-old high school dropout who eventually left the troubled streets of his youth to become one of america’s great playwrights, but took the mostly ignored members of the hill district community with him and put them on stage. as noted, the new african grove performers showed great care for wilson’s work. nic starr in particular stood out as sterling, playing the role with an abundance of humor. when needed, however, the actor, a physically imposing man, convinces the audience that sterling is a threat to harmond and roosevelt, two businessmen whose current venture includes a plan to tear down a house they purchased illegally from its rightful owner, old joe barlow. when sterling learns of this plan, starr turns off the charm and becomes threatening, bearing down on the other characters: “if you fuck with mr. barlow’s house . . . if you move one goddam pebble . . . you gonna have to answer to me on the battlefield.” as the lights come down on the first act with these lines, the audience audibly exhaled, clearly moved by starr’s sudden turn in demeanor. sterling’s main target becomes roosevelt, and paris crayton plays the latter character how wilson draws him, as an overly ambitious businessman who only cares about how much money he can stack in a metaphorical wheelbarrow. roosevelt has some of the most unseemly lines in wilson’s drama, such as his dressing down of sterling, after the latter accuses of roosevelt of holding back the black community by not giving back to it, despite his obvious means to do so: “it’s not my fault your daddy’s in jail, your mama’s on drugs, your little sister’s pregnant and the kids don’t have any food ’cause the welfare cut off the money . . . get up off your ass . . . quit stealing . . . get a job . . . pay your taxes.” while none of these things are true for sterling and are horrific sweeping generalizations of the black community itself, crayton delivered them as needed, with the conviction of the character himself, one who glances at a person once and believes he can tell the individual’s entire history. in the middle of the fray stands franklin, the aforementioned artistic director of new grove, who plays harmond, the play’s protagonist. an ambitious man, harmond seeks to revitalize the run-down hill district with his business plan, while simultaneously running for mayor. ultimately, harmond decides neither the commercial venture or mayoral candidacy is worth more than old joe being allowed to keep his house. although franklin plays harmond as initially bewildered as he loses control of his business and political aspirations, he later turns decidedly defiant. when roosevelt tells harmond he plans to purchase the controlling stake in bedford hills and will use a white man’s financial backing as a silent partner, harmond calls roosevelt, a lifelong friend, “the shuffling, grinning nigger in the woodpile.” franklin perfectly captures the character’s disgust. the actor also convincingly shows that harmond is a changed man at the end of the play, one who relishes the opportunity to stand with a group of local activists, led by sterling, protesting the imminent destruction of old joe’s house. new african grove’s performance of radio golf was splendid. more importantly, that the production served as the company’s completion of august wilson’s american century cycle seems fitting. the play stresses that black leaders are needed to fight for the b e l l : s t a g e r e v i e w o f r a d i o g o l f , j u l y 2 0 1 8 d i r e c t e d b y n a t a s h a y o u n g a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 community, not strip it of its vitality, as roosevelt attempts to do. the work is wilson’s most overtly political drama, and, as the last play he composed before his death in 2005, it serves as a reminder that the playwright’s first experiences were with a community theater that sought to raise the consciousness of the black community. the dramatist would have been pleased to know of a similar troupe so dedicated to presenting his work to that same community, which, despite its financial limitations, has managed to complete all ten of his magnificent plays in fine fashion. and what’s in store next for new african grove? it plans to start a second run of the american century cycle, beginning with gem of the ocean in july of 2019. works cited wilson, august. radio golf. theatre communications group. 2007. author bio dr. christopher bell is associate professor of english at the university of north georgia where he teaches courses in american literature, african american literature, and world drama. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� a stage review of radio golf: new african grove completes the cycle new african grove theatre company south fulton arts center; college park, georgia july 13-22, 2018 directed by natasha young abstract keywords works cited author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 3 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 stage review of fences cincinnati shakespeare company otto m. budig theater; cincinnati ohio january 25-february 16, 2019 directed by christopher v. edwards by graley herren professor of english, xavier university the dramaturgical danger for any production of fences is that the play will collapse into anticlimax, ending not with a bang but a whimper... − graley herren abstract a review of fences by august wilson, staged by the cincinnati shakespeare company at the otto m. budig theater in cincinnati, ohio from january 25-february 16, 2019. keywords august wilson, fences, cincinnati shakespeare company, christopher edwards, raisin in the sun, "ranney" for over a quarter-century now, the cincinnati shakespeare company has been staging some of the most provocative plays in the city. alternating between productions of shakespeare, non-shakespearean classics, and creative stage adaptations of works from other media, “cincy shakes” (as we locals prefer to call it) is a sparkling jewel in the theatrical crown of the queen city. on january 25, 2019, i attended the opening night of fences, the company’s first attempt at an august wilson play. director christopher v. edwards brought back much of the cast from his successful 2017 production of a raisin in the sun and added in a star turn from the performer known simply as “ranney,” in his csc debut as the indomitable, infuriating, intoxicating troy maxson. scenic designer shannon moore gave the performers the perfect set to work with, and edwards chose to make the backstairs the focal point of the production. characters were constantly bounding up and down these rickety steps, shuttling to and fro between the packed-dirt backyard and the cozy kitchen, as if crossing a bridge out of the cruel world that oppresses and denies them and into a domestic sanctuary that welcomes and revitalizes their flagging spirits. installed as gatekeeper of this liminal threshold sat troy maxson, a king of shreds and patches on his hard-scrabble throne, at once the defender of the family home and the chief threat against graley herren a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 3 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 it. sometimes “ranney” sprawled out on these stairs, slugging back gin and regaling us with hilarious tall-tales. other times he crouched and scowled like a hell-hound ready to pounce. and sometimes “ranney” sang. damn, can that man sing! he sang the tunes marked as such in the script, but he also discovered music in other passages masquerading as prose. “ranney”’s voice was a catalyst for revelation, reintroducing me to this familiar play in completely unexpected ways. first a damning confession: i have never liked the song “old blue” in fences. i mean, i get its function in the play. the song is a family heirloom passed down through the generations like the piano in the piano lesson. lyrically the song makes sense. reportedly composed by troy’s father, though in fact wilson’s variation of an old american folk song, “old blue” links troy to his youth and his sharecropping roots in the rural south. troy identifies with blue, not just because he is “worked like a dog” and dehumanized at times by his experiences up north in industrial pittsburgh, but also because troy shares blue’s persistence and resilience. i get all that. i’ve just never heard the song delivered in ways that make it very effective musically as a song. i do appreciate the rhythm and musicality in wilson’s work, his great ear for dialogue and his deep inspiration from the blues. that’s why it is always disappointing how flat “old blue” routinely falls in productions i’ve seen. for all their considerable talents, these past troys just didn’t have the chops to pull it off. then i heard “ranney” sing the blues. his sonorous voice is charismatic and alluring, and he slowed the song down more than i’ve ever heard before. oh. i can hear it now. “old blue” is not chiefly about the lyrics at all. forget the words and the symbolism and the foreshadowing. it’s aural alchemy. the song is a time machine. i am not merely complimenting “ranney” for having a good voice and knowing how to sing the blues, though he certainly deserves that much credit and more. i’m talking instead about the way his vocal delivery helped safe-crack my appreciation for the integral part “old blue” plays in fences. the song went from being a heavy-handed contrivance to serving as the glue which binds together the final scene. that scene needs glue: it’s always on the verge of falling to pieces. there is of course the notorious difficulty of figuring out how to actualize wilson’s inscrutable stage directions when gabriel (somehow!) opens the gates of heaven (a herculean task tackled with wounded dignity by geoffrey warren barnes ii). but the abiding challenge throughout the requiem is how to sustain momentum now that troy is dead and gone, the pumping heart of the play stilled, and the animating life force conspicuously silent and absent. the dramaturgical danger for any production of fences is fences at cincinnati shakespeare company, 2019 h e r r e n : s t a g e r e v i e w o f f e n c e s b y a u g u s t w i l s o n c i n c i n n a t i s h a k e s p e a r e c o m p a n y , w i n t e r 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 3 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 that the play will collapse into anticlimax, ending not with a bang but a whimper. what fully restored the life force of csc’s fences was the reprise of “old blue,” first sung solo by cory (a gripping performance by crystian wiltshire), and then in duet with raynell (an utterly captivating debut by morgan olivia reynolds). again, the song has always served a clear purpose here, almost too obviously so. cory announces he will boycott troy’s funeral; rose can’t talk him out of it (though the enchanting torie wiggins could coax water from a stone); then brother and sister sing their dead father’s song, and it gives cory the peace he needs to pay his final respects to troy. so much for functionality. however, because the song has always fallen flat for me as a song, i’ve always had trouble accepting it as a vehicle capable of bearing the weight of such an epiphany. not so this night at csc, where the song opened up the play and the gates of heaven for me. chris edwards’s direction snatched the scene outside of naturalism for a moment. cory and raynell stared straight at each other in all seriousness, without either character seemingly willing it or expecting it, and without a touch of the aw-isn’t-that-sweet sentimentality which sabotages this encounter in lesser productions. in this moment and through this song they channeled the spirit of dead troy and raised him from the dead. these praise-singers echoed “ranney's” trademark cadences and slow delivery, casting a musical trance. they allowed me to finally hear what i’d been deaf to before, what i suppose had been lying dormant in the play all along. troy’s song isn’t just his bridge to the past but also a premonition of the future. i don’t mean that in a broad generic sense of knowing that, like all of us, he will die someday. what i mean is that “old blue” functions sonically and temporally much like the backstairs function spatially, as a liminal threshold, crossing dimensions and connecting worlds. when troy sings the song earlier in the play, he is channeling that future moment when his children will sing his funeral dirge. and when cory and raynell later revive the song in duet, they are serving as instruments of resurrection, giving troy life again by allowing him to sing through his descendants. oh. so troy is not absent from the final scene. we can’t see him, but we can hear him if his song is sung right and if we know how to listen. that’s the long-deferred lesson this cincy shakes production finally taught me. what a magical, transformative, redemptive revelation. works cited wilson, august. fences. theatre communications group. 2007. author bio dr. graley herren is professor of english at xavier university where he serves as department chair. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� abstract keywords works cited author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 dramaturg interview: martine kei green-rogers on radio golf by melonnie walker dramaturg and social media coordinator for the august wilson society i just love the fact that wilson somehow manages to create families out of production teams. − martine kei green-rogers abstract an interview with martine kei green-rogers, dramaturg for court theater's (chicago) production of radio golf. keywords august wilson, chicago, court theatre, radio golf, pittsburgh, hill district, dramaturgy, martine kei green-rogers for its 2018-2019 season opener, chicago’s court theatre produced radio golf, the tenth installment in the american century cycle. radio golf addresses the internal conflict of the black middle-class in pursuit of the american dream. set in a hill district redevelopment office in 1997, the story follows harmond wilks, a real estate mogul and emerging mayoral candidate who believes his commercial development plan will revive the old neighborhood. in this play, wilson tackles the issue of gentrification in historic neighborhoods, and at what cost a community’s improvement will upset its integrity. the production was directed by ron oj parson, who led the team through a successful and extended run from august 30-october 6. the production dramaturg was dr. martine kei greenrogers, who shared a rich account of her experience on this show. mw: i know you and ron parson have a long history of working together at the court theatre. how many plays in the american century cycle have you worked on together? mgr: yes, i have worked with ron in almost all of my other court theatre productions, including eight of the ten plays in the cycle. martine kei green-rogers mel walker a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 mw: did you begin your process of researching this play with any specific goals in mind from the director? mgr: because our last production of wilson together at court was gem of the ocean, we knew we were setting up the bookends of the cycle for our audience. we knew that the last thing they would remember was 1904, and ron wanted to make sure we were being super clear about where we are now and what has happened in the numerous decades since the last time we visited pittsburgh. also, ron was really interested in the geography of the hill district area, and wanted to be very specific about it. for example, since the set was designed in a way that allowed audience members to see the outside of the redevelopment office, he wanted to have an address added to the exterior wall of the set. with some deductive reasoning, i decided that it had to be somewhere within walking distance of the neighborhood, since people are coming in and out. also, since the script refers to centre and kirkpatrick being “up on the corner,” the office had to be downhill from those streets. that was actually one of the challenges of this play, because at times wilson is both very specific, and yet not specific enough. in other plays of the cycle, we have very specific addresses, and names and anchors of places. so it was a little harder to do some of this work than it would normally be. but it just took a little bit of detective work to narrow it down. mw: did the cast and crew have any discussion about historic context from 1997, when this play is set? mgr: we discussed what upper middle-class life looked like in the 1990s in pittsburgh. and we were surprised by things like how far we’ve advanced in technology since then. for example, we kept forgetting how much time had passed and the fact that you no longer have to pull your antenna out of your phone. but i think in a lot of ways we were considering more philosophical questions rather than historical events. like what does this play have to say about black life now? at the first reading, i remember that moment when harmond talks about the person being killed by the officer, and the officer still getting his bonus and his thanksgiving turkey. those conversations just really hit us in ways that i don’t think any of us realized they would. so if anything, we found that even though the events were rooted in 1997, little has changed. mw: did you have any definitive themes about radio golf that you felt a need to emphasize with the cast and crew? mgr: yes, specifically about the place that this show holds in the overall canon. so back to this idea of it being part of the bookends and literally at the end of his career because of his death. so we discussed what that means for the play and the conversations it brings up. we are wrestling with some of the same things today, which is fascinating because the play is set over 20 years ago. we also spent a lot of time talking about the wrapping up of the history of 1839 wylie, and the generation and the legacy. and connecting those moments when we discover aunt ester in two trains running is the mother of elder barlow in radio golf. mw: were there any scenes or parts of the play that really resonated with you personally or became a favorite? mgr: my favorite moment of the entire play is the very end with the fight between roosevelt and harmond. the reason is that wilson really hit the nail on the head for some of the issues that we are still debating right now. for example, at what cost in our contemporary society does success have? and what does that mean when you’re from a historically under-represented and/or marginalized group? does success equal being able w a l k e r : d r a m a t u r g i n t e r v i e w : m a r t i n e k e i g r e e n r o g e r s o n r a d i o g o l f a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 to replicate white life and status, or is it something different? and i think the argument between those two ideas are very compelling. i remember when i first read the play years ago i thought roosevelt was so terrible. and not that i necessarily agree with roosevelt now, but looking at him in today’s context, there’s a part of me that could see how someone could get to that point in a way that i could not have fathomed ten years ago. mw: what did you anticipate the audience response would be during talkback sessions based on your previous experience at court theatre? mgr: the thing that’s interesting about court theatre talkbacks, is that since court sits on the university of chicago’s campus, there’s a lot of campus engagement with their productions. so it’s a very learned audience. and i would say that about 80% of the people would have read this play, if not the entire wilson cycle. so you definitely don’t get the standard talkback questions, like "how did you learn all those lines?” court audiences are more likely to ask questions like, so “i see you made this choice in act ii, scene i,” and actually make script references while giving their feedback. mw: how would you describe the actual audience engagement after previews? did the audience members have any poignant questions or maybe concerns that we still face today regarding gentrification? mgr: this is such a juicy question. our audiences were both shocked and intrigued by how timely this play is, considering when wilson wrote it. many, including chris jones of the chicago tribune, realized the play was extremely prophetic. our audiences were really interested in the conversations we had to prepare for this production. and they also wanted to dig into some very specific regional issues like what does it mean for this play to be done on university of chicago's campus, which has its own interesting history of gentrification on the south side of chicago. mw: is there anything else you’d like to share with readers about your dramaturgical experience working with the cast and crew? mgr: one of the things that i think wilson is really good at, that just transfers into any rehearsal process, is his sense of community. i have never worked on a wilson play after which somehow we don’t all become family. it’s so interesting because i have done plenty of shows where everyone is kind and cordial and friendly, but i would say 99% of the time if you’re working on a wilson piece you’re going to be hanging out with these people after rehearsal, going out, cooking food together and doing all sorts of things that you normally would not do in shows written by other authors. so i just love the fact that wilson somehow manages to create families out of production teams. mw: yes, i’ve been watching the posts on court theatre’s facebook page, where you allow your followers to get a peek of your rehearsal process and i saw that you all went golfing together. what was that like? mgr: that was so great, and almost everyone in the production team participated. even people that didn’t necessarily have to be there, like one of the assistants and a few people from marketing, but everyone wanted to participate and hang out. and as we were there talking about the show and roosevelt’s radio segment, there were other people on the golf course listening and they wanted to know what we were talking about. before we knew it, we had a crowd of people around us and we were able to pass out information about the show. so even being out together to learn about golfing, we managed to create a community a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 with the people who were there. and i think that is something very special that wilson does. he just figured out, somehow beautifully, how to create family out of people. mw: what a fitting observation about wilson’s work and the impact it has on people. thank you so much for sharing this experience with us. i believe fellow dramaturgs will benefit from hearing your perspective. dr. martine kei green-rogers is currently president of the literary managers and dramaturgs of the americas and an assistant professor at suny new paltz. she obtained her phd from the department of theatre and drama at the university of wisconsinmadison. prior to studying at uw-madison, she received her b.a. in theatre from virginia wesleyan college and her m.a. in theatre history and criticism from the catholic university of america. her dramaturgical credits are extensive, and include the following works by wilson: productions of radio golf, gem of the ocean, seven guitars at the court theatre (chicago, il); productions of fences at the pioneer memorial theatre and the oregon shakespeare festival (ashland, or). her most recent publications include the article "talkbacks for ‘sensitive subject matter’ productions: the theory and practice" in the routledge companion to dramaturgy and the upcoming publication of “‘translating’ shakespeare: a history of the two noble kinsmen through the university of utah and the oregon shakespeare festival’s play on! project” in theatre history studies. works cited wilson, august. radio golf. theatre communications group. 2007. author bio ms. melonnie walker is a dramaturg and social media coordinator for the august wilson society. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� dramaturg interview: martine kei green-rogers on radio golf abstract keywords works cited author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 bibliography for august wilson journal: spring 2019 compiled by thom c. addington instructor, richard bland college of william and mary keywords august wilson, bibliography, 2016-2019 primary sources wilson, august. how i learned what i learned. theatre communications group, inc., 2018. secondary sources abbotson, susan c. w. “re-evaluating the legacy of the ten-play cycle.” shannon, pp. 187 202. asante, jan. “viola davis: over the fences.” sight and sound, vol. 27, no. 3, 2017, pp. 44-7. baharvand, amanolahi peyman. “the failure of the american dream in august wilson’s fences.” international journal of english language and translation studies, vol. 5, no. 4, 2017, pp. 69-75. basourakos, john. “thwarted american dreams: the destruction of the black male ‘mimetic subject’ in august wilson’s king hedley ii.” explicator, vol. 74, no. 3, 2016, pp. 180-83. bell, christopher b. “a century lacking progress: the fractured community in gem of the ocean and king hedley ii.” shannon, pp. 117-27. blatanis, konstantinos. “claiming the right to a limitless human body on stage: august wilson’s the piano lesson (1990) and naomi wallace’s the trestle at pope lick creek (1998).” war on the human: new responses to an ever-present debate, edited by theodora tsimpouki and konstantinos blatanis, cambridge scholars, 2017, pp. 257-73. bonds, ellen. “world war ii history/history: essential contexts in seven guitars.” shannon, pp. 60-75. brown, susan love. “race, rules, and real estate in august wilson’s radio golf.” capitalism and commerce in imaginative literature: perspectives on business from novels and plays, edited by edward w. younkins, lexington, 2016, pp. 417-30. butler, isaac. “breaking ground.” american theatre, vol. 33, no. 6, 2016, pp. 60-5. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 8 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 carpenter, faedra chatard. “teaching the cycle: understanding august wilson’s fractal dramaturgy.” shannon and richards, pp. 169-78. clark, keith. “blues brothers: crosscurrents in fences and a streetcar named desire.” shannon and richards, pp. 32-44. colbert, soyica diggs. “teaching august wilson in an american drama survey.” shannon and richards, pp. 45-54. collins-frohlich, jesslyn. “reclaiming the mother: women, documents and the condition of the mother in gem of the ocean and ma rainey’s black bottom.” shannon, pp. 101-16. downing, michael. “the use of stereotype and archetype in ma rainey’s black bottom.” shannon, pp. 76-87. elam, jr., harry j. “teaching joe turner’s come and gone.” shannon and richards, pp. 128 45. engstrom, james and paul k. bryant-jackson. “spatial politics and memory: the urban geography of august wilson’s radio golf.” shannon and richards, pp. 89-108. euba, femi. “african codes and the satiric impulses in wilson.” shannon and richards, pp. 146-56. forsgren, la donna. “august wilson’s pittsburgh cycle: critical perspectives on the plays.” theatre topics, vol. 26, no. 2, 2016, pp. 267-68. green, artisia. “resurrecting ‘phantom limb[s] of the dismembered slave and god’: unveiling the africanisms in gem of the ocean.” shannon, pp. 142-63. harrison, paul carter. “derek walcott/august wilson: homage to 20th century masters of word.” black renaissance/renaissance noire, vol. 17, no. 2, 2017, pg. 30-41. herrington, joan and von washington. “telling the story: august wilson’s challenge to young actors.” shannon and richards, pp. 69-78. johann, susan. “august wilson.” focus on playwrights: portraits and interviews. university of south carolina press, 2016, pp. 24-38. jones, douglas a. “person, place, and the ordinary in august wilson’s gem of the ocean.” shannon and richards, pp. 55-61. li, yanghua. “august wilson’s presentation of interracial movements in the 1960s.” english language teaching, vol. 11, no. 6, 2018, pp. 41. mccluskey jr., john. “walter mosley, august wilson, and mosaics of memory.” callaloo, vol. 39, no. 3, 2016, pp. 695-701. mccormick, stacie. “august wilson and the anti-spectacle of blackness and disability in fences and two trains running.” cla journal, vol. 61, no. 1/2, 2017, pp. 65-83. a d d i n g t o n : b i b l i o g r a p h y f o r a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l : s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 mirmotahari, emad. “the local as the global: reflection on teaching world literature.” world literature today, vol. 90, no. 3/4, 2016, pp. 52-5. nadel, alan. “august wilson, jazz structure, and the historical record.” shannon and richards, pp. 62-8. ---. the theatre of august wilson. bloomsbury, 2018. nesmith, nathaniel g. “august wilson and american theater: an interview with frank rich.” the black scholar, vol. 47, no. 4, 2017, pp. 47-59. peyman, amanolahi baharvand. “the failure of the american dream in august wilson’s fences.” international journal of english language and translation studies, vol. 5, no. 4, 2017, pp. 69-75. rutter, emily. “barry beckham’s runner mack and the tradition of black baseball literature.” melus, vol. 42, no. 1, 2017, pp. 74-93. scott, joyce hope. “landscapes of the 20th century.” shannon, pp. 15-38. scheiber, andrew. “the logic of chance: blues and policy in august wilson’s two trains running.” shannon and richards, pp. 79-88. seda, owen. “epiphany and the ‘drama of souls.’” shannon, pp. 164-74. shannon, sandra g. “a transplant that did not take: august wilson’s views on the great migration.” african american review, vol. 50, no. 4, 2017, pp. 979-86. ---. and sandra l. richards, editors. approaches to teaching the plays of august wilson. modern language association, 2016. ---. august wilson’s pittsburgh cycle: critical perspectives on the plays. mcfarland, 2016. ---. “august wilson (1945-2005).” visions of tragedy in modern american drama, edited by david palmer, bloomsbury, 2018, pp. 141-52. ---. “lesson plans for the millennial student: an interdisciplinary course inspired by the plays of august wilson.” shannon and richards, pp. 109-27. smith, kyle. “august wilson’s cycle of bloodshed.” new criterion, vol. 35, no. 7, 2017, pp. 37-40. rapoo, connie. “conjuring africa in august wilson’s plays.” shannon, pp. 175-86. richards, sandra. “materials.” shannon and richards, pp. 3-9. ---. “‘you on an adventure’: teaching august wilson’s gem of the ocean.” shannon and richards, pp. 157-68. saddler, sarah and paul bryant-jackson. “two trains running: bridging diana taylor’s ‘rift’ and narrating manning marable’s ‘living history.’” shannon, pp. 49-59. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 8 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 smith, anna deavere. “ringside? let’s take down the ropes.” american theatre, vol. 34, no. 7, 2017, pp. 38-46. temple, christel n. “africana literature as social science: applying the demographic literary standard (dls) to the works of august wilson and suzan-lori parks. africana theory, policy, and leadership, edited by james l. conyers, jr., transaction press, 2016, pp. 1-30. temple, riley keene. aunt ester’s children redeemed: journeys to freedom in august wilson’s ten plays of twentieth-century black america. cascade books, 2017. thompson, ayanna. “comparing wilson with shakespeare: teaching the politics and practices of race in performance.” shannon and richards, pp. 24-31. tian, junwu and na li. “symbols and functions of two kinds of ghosts in august wilson’s the piano lesson.” anq: a quarterly journal of short articles, notes, and reviews, vol. 31, no. 4, 2018, pp. 272-5. wardi, anissa janine. “august wilson’s bioregional perspective.” callaloo, vol. 39, no. 3, 2016, pp. 680-94. williams, dana a. “teaching students how to examine the role of women in august wilson’s plays.” shannon and richards, pp. 179-89. williams-forson, psyche. “‘he gonna give me my ham’: the use of food as a symbol for social justice.” shannon, pp. 128-41. wooden, isaiah. “gem of the ocean’s fugitive moments.” shannon, pp. 88-100. zeff, jacqueline. “‘a big bend there, a tree by the shore’: situated identity in the janitor.” shannon, 39-48. zhang, hongmei. “august wilson’s otherness in joe turner’s come and gone.” theory and practice in language studies, vol. 6, no. 1, 2016, pp. 171-76. author bio thom c. addington is instructor of english at richard bland college of william and mary. he is a graduate of howard university. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ bibliography for august wilson journal: spring 2019 keywords author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 7 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 notes keywords august wilson, pittsburgh cycle, century cycle, american century cycle, constanza romero, august wilson estate note #1 american century cycle this note relates to the journal's terminology involving the cycle of ten plays that august wilson wrote commonly known as the "pittsburgh cycle" or the "century cycle." at the 2018 august wilson society colloquium held at the august wilson center in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, constanza romero, august's widow and coordinator of the august wilson estate, said to the group that her preference, going forward, is that the phrase "august wilson's american century cycle" be used to refer to those ten plays. being pittsburghers, david and i you both love the term, "pittsburgh cycle," but we also understand that it is not entirely accurate as ma rainey's black bottom is set in chicago. therefore, all references to wilson's cycle in the august wilson journal will be standardized as the "august wilson american century cycle," "august wilson's american century cycle," or shortened to "american century cycle." articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� notes keywords august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 3 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 welcome to the dramaturgy section of the august wilson journal by melonnie walker master of arts, theatre history university of missouri, kansas city welcome to the dramaturgy section of the august wilson journal. my name is melonnie walker and i am the dramaturgy editor. the goal of this section is to connect our readers with the real experiences of production dramaturgs who are working on productions of august wilson's plays. by sharing different approaches to the work of mr. wilson, we dramaturgs align ourselves with the journal's mission of promoting the study, teaching and performance of his plays in an effort to preserve his legacy. author bio ms. melonnie walker has served as research dramaturg for regional theatre productions for more than ten years. she is also an active member of literary managers and dramaturgs of the americas, which is an organization that holds the belief that theater is a vital art form that has the power to "nourish, educate, and transform individuals and their communities and that dramaturgy is central to the process of theater-making." articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. mel walker https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� welcome to the dramaturgy section of the august wilson journal author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 sherlock, watson, wilson, and the adventure of the mdws by david l. anderson professor of english, butler county community college, retired our goal is to make this journal a major voice in promoting the legacy of august wilson − david anderson abstract a welcome to the inaugural edition of the august wilson journal, written by the managing editor. keywords august wilson journal, university of pittsburgh, sandra shannon, constanza romero, michael downing congratulations to all of you pioneers whose research, judgments, and insights have been published in this, the one and only inaugural issue of august wilson journal. feel free to take your share (“with advantages”) of credit for whatever success awj achieves. you have taken the chance of entrusting your work to a new journal, one unencumbered by reputation. we hope that when you see your work here alongside that of other members of the wilson scholarly and theatrical community, you will be pleased with your choice. we are very proud of this issue. our goal is to make this journal a major voice in promoting the legacy of august wilson. if you have listened to sandra shannon’s interview with constanza romero, august's widow and director of the august wilson estate, you already know that even in our inaugural issue, we are doing things that print journals typically do not do. the production of that interview involved four people in different parts of the country, two speaking and two recording, as well as technologies that we were both varied and new to us. before, during, and after the interview michael “sherlock” downing and yours truly, the digitally befuddled dr. watson, were called on by destiny to confront and solve numerous mdws (mysteries of the digital world). we intend to continue moving beyond the text-only approach to include audio, video, photos, and any other media that can be brought to bear regardless of the mdws we may encounter along the way. especially satisfying was the variety of contributors—both literary and theatrical. on these screens you will meet nationally recognized writers, established and new wilson scholars, directors, actors, theater critics, and people who knew wilson intimately. in addition, we are devoted to coaching young scholars into publication, including independent scholars and young writers from underserved communities who might have important things to say and important new ways of saying them. david anderson a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 8 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 thanks to our peer reviewers for both their time and diligence in reviewing submissions; thanks especially for your challenging remarks and insights. special thanks go to those reviewers (you know who you are!) who specialized in rapid turnaround times. as the editor and i quickly learned as submissions arrived, peer review would encompass more than just the critical genres of thesisand question-driven original essays. we were occasionally dismayed that some great submissions were rejected, but we soon came to understand the causes. first we were glad to learn that the system was working as intended and material that was not yet mature had been rejected by our reviewers. second, as the variety of the critical genres represented in this issue reveals, not all submissions could be properly evaluated by a single evaluation form. we responded by creating new evaluation forms, which fortunately did not turn out to be the most difficult of the mdws we investigated. this helped to accommodate the nuances of the various submissions and went a long way toward streamlining the evaluation process. thanks to those who agreed to be section editors when we realized how much content the various sections would include. many thanks go to the university of pittsburgh library system, which provided us with financial support; encouragement; and knowledgeable, patient, and user-friendly digital adventure guides: timothy s. deliyannides, director of the office of scholarly communication and publishing and head of information technology; vanessa gabler, electronic publications manager; and kari johnson, communications support specialist. they introduced us to the universe of online, open access, peer-reviewed journals and helped us to investigate and solve the mdws we would confront along the way. thanks to all of the readers of our inaugural issue. our hope is that you register as readers. “readers” are really “subscribers,” not “peer reviewers.” subscriptions are free and “open access.” no salesperson will call. we were advised, in hindsight quite properly, that the first issue should appear in its completed form. our plan is to use “rolling publication” for future issues. subscribers will be informed whenever any new material is added prior to full publication of the completed versions of those issues—another service not typical of print journals. if you like what you find here, please tell your friends in the worlds of literature and theater about us. we already have submissions in our dropboxes for our second issue, and peer reviewers are evaluating them. you may have waited a long time to see this issue, but notifications regarding posted content for issue 2 will follow hard upon the appearance of issue 1. thanks most of all to editor michael downing, who has been my friend for more than 30 years. in this, our greatest adventure together, i am honored to play the role of his comic sidekick. august wilson journal was his vision and he carried the heaviest load, showing his characteristic grace under pressure. author bio dr. david anderson is professor of english (retired) at butler county community college. he is a native pittsburgher and has studied the life and works of august wilson for the past three decades. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� sherlock, watson, wilson, and the adventure of the mdws abstract keywords author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 5 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 erratum: ridley, leticia. "stage review of gem of the ocean." august wilson journal doi:https://doi.org/10.5195/awj.2019.22. michael j. downing editor in ridley, leticia. "stage review of gem of the ocean." august wilson journal doi:https://doi.org/10.5195.awj.2019.22, author leticia ridley’s credentials were updated from master’s candidate to doctoral candidate. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ erratum: ridley, leticia. "stage review of gem of the ocean." august wilson journal doi:https://doi.org/10.5195/awj.2019.22. august wilson journal v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 erratum to saunders, skyler. "unlocked minds: august wilson’s suspects, ex-cons, or soon-to-be convicted characters in his american century cycle." august wilson journal [online], 2(2020): doi https://doi.org/10.5195/awj.2020.55 august wilson journal editors the article saunders, skyler. "unlocked minds: august wilson’s suspects, ex-cons, or soon-to-be convicted characters in his american century cycle." august wilson journal [online], 2 (2020): https://doi.org.10.5195/awj.2020.55 contained several errors in the original publication. the original version has been updated to reflect the following changes: on page 1, the following sentence has been removed: “black lives matter foundation, inc is a global organization in the us, uk, and canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on black communities by the state and vigilantes.” the black lives matter group is not about individual rights but is run by marxists. the error was introduced by the editors. on page 3, the following section has been removed: “as of this writing, blacks make up about 2.3 million of the 6.8 million or about 34% of incarcerated individuals, according to the naacp. former president of this organization benjamin jealous said, “our country has five percent of the world's people and 25 percent of the world's prisoners. now, you can flip that a different way, a black person today in this country is more likely to be incarcerated than a black person in south africa at the height of apartheid” (naacp)”. there are in fact not 6.8 million incarcerated people in the us. there are actually 2.3 million people behind bars. the error was introduced by the author. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://doi.org/10.5195/awj.2020.55 https://doi.org.10.5195/awj.2020.55 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ erratum to saunders, skyler. "unlocked minds: august wilson’s suspects, ex-cons, or soon-to-be convicted characters in his american century cycle." august wilson journal [online], 2(2020): doi https://doi.org/10.5195/awj.2020.55 august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 august wilson estate, pittsburgh post-gazette, and august wilson house establish august wilson century cycle awards by christopher rawson professor emeritus, university of pittsburgh theater critic, pittsburgh post-gazette office, august wilson house [august] remains most at home in the people, places and stories from what we call august wilson’s hill, and in the theaters that bring them to life. the august wilson american century cycle award celebrates the conjunction of the two. − christopher rawson abstract august wilson house, the august wilson estate, and the pittsburgh post-gazette have teamed-up to celebrate the work of august wilson by co-sponsoring the august wilson century cycle awards for those theaters that have successfully staged all ten plays of the cycle. keywords august wilson, american century cycle awards, august wilson estate, pittsburgh post-gazette, american stage, hattiloo theatre, pittsburgh playwrights theatre, goodman theatre, yale rep, huntingdon theatre company, o’neill theater center, pittsburgh public theatre, penumbra, christopher rawson august wilson’s creative imagination and the rich life of his native hill district can take his 10-play american century cycle only so far. the cycle can complete its full journey only in what has proved to be its ultimate home, the mainly not-for-profit theaters countrywide. so while interviewing and reviewing wilson since 1983 for the pittsburgh post-gazette and teaching an august wilson course at the university of pittsburgh (which he urged me to do), i began tracking which theaters had completed their own cycle. flash forward, and to celebrate those theaters, the postgazette, supported by august wilson house and with the collaboration of constanza romero wilson and the august wilson estate, established the august wilson american century cycle award. it’s just a plaque, but there’s nothing “just” about a theater’s commitment that it measures. at present, some 17 theaters have qualified (see the adjacent list). if we’d started when the first theater completed its cycle, we could have honored each theater in its turn, but now we’re playing catch up, presenting each award as travel and schedules allow, at a ceremony arranged at each theater’s convenience. soon, a august and chris rawson a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 larger plaque listing all the qualifying theaters will hang in august wilson house at 1727 bedford avenue, when the current restoration is completed. so far we have presented seven awards. the first was to american stage in st. petersburg in 2017, just as they completed their cycle with joe turner’s come and gone. i went to seattle rep in early 2018, when they were doing their second two trains running. ms. romero joined in that presentation, as she did for mark clayton southers’ pittsburgh playwrights theatre on april 27, 2018, wilson’s 73rd birthday. the next month i was in houston to present the award to eileen morris’ ensemble theatre, which threw a great reunion and party, and then memphis when ekundayo bandele’s hattiloo theatre was doing completing its cycle with ma rainey’s black bottom. pittsburgh public theater received its plaque last summer on the night it welcomed its new artistic director, marya sea kaminski. in november, the anthony bean community theatre in new orleans threw itself a fund-raiser and received its plaque from pittsburgh’s wali jamal, the only actor to have completed a super cycle – the 10 plays plus wilson’s autobiographical how i learned what i learned. (in time, we hope to honor actors’ and directors’ cycles, but theaters first.) going back, the first to complete the cycle was chicago’s goodman theatre, beating seattle rep by just three months. those two the jump because they were in a small group with the huntington and mark taper forum as part of wilson’s unofficial tryout circuit, staging each new play while he was polishing it before its eventual arrival on broadway. the even smaller group staged premieres, just three theaters, is led by yale rep, which did six, ma rainey through two trains and then radio golf. the goodman did seven guitars and gem of the ocean, and the pittsburgh public, jitney and king hedley ii. the first jitney! (it had an exclamation point) had its premiere in 1982 at pittsburgh’s small semi-pro allegheny repertory company, but the public staged the revised, professional premiere in 1996, so you could say jitney had its premiere in pittsburgh twice. the public then persuaded wilson to delay writing king hedley ii so it and the new o’reilly theater could debut together in 1999. as this suggests, yale rep has a good claim of being wilson’s theatrical home. so does the huntington (as they say), since it staged the most of the plays pre-broadway. but wilson had several homes. biographically, it was pittsburgh. he was born in the hill, lived there for 13 years, then moved a few miles to hazelwood for a couple of years before leaving for the army and some teenage wandering. at 20 he was back on the hill, where he embedded himself in its artistic, social and political life until he was 33. the experience of those years is the core of the cycle, even of ma rainey, the only play not set in pittsburgh. he said since it was his first play on broadway he thought it needed a more important city, but it’s just as full of the people he met and conversations he overheard in hill diners, barbershops, backyards and jitney stations, on its street corners and porches. the hill provided the rich brew into which he dipped the ladle of his transforming art. however, wilson didn’t really commit himself to playwriting until he left for st. paul, where he lived from 1978 to 1990, writing the first five plays (six, counting jitney!); st. paul, its playwrights center and penumbra can also stake a claim (and they do) to be his theatrical home. so does seattle, where he wrote the other plays and lived his final 15 years, until he died in 2005. there was another preeminent home along the way: connecticut, of all places, home not just to yale rep but the o’neill theater center. minnesota, connecticut and washington: three predominantly white states where he said he could more clearly listen to those voices from the hill. when wilson returned to yale in 2005 to premiere radio golf, a few days before his 60th birthday, it had the feel of a reunion of the far-flung wilson actors, some now famous, who had come to call themselves wilsonian soldiers. that night in new haven was further evidence that wilson had many homes. in the cities where theaters have dedicated themselves to his work, communities of wilsonian actors and audiences flourish. even r a w s o n : a u g u s t w i l s o n e s t a t e , p i t t s b u r g h p o s t g a z e t t e , a n d a u g u s t w i l s o n h o u s e e s t a b l i s h a u g u s t w i l s o n c e n t u r y c y c l e a w a r d s a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 broadway is one such community: he worked there on eight plays, with two to come after his death. the edison hotel and its coffee shop considered him a resident. wherever else he was working, from boston to kansas city, st. louis to l.a., he found similar stage doors and diners where he could hang out. his angry testimonies about racism, the indignities of being black or just trying to get a check cashed--all evidenced his argument with america, but he was thoroughly at home in the continent-wide american theater. i was the first to call his plays the pittsburgh cycle, but american century cycle makes the justifiably more expansive claim. at the end, wilson was at home in seattle, where he died, and once more in pittsburgh, where he was brought (by his direction) for his funeral at soldiers & sailors memorial and burial in greenwood cemetery. but he remains most at home in the people, places and stories from what we call august wilson’s hill, and in the theaters that bring them to life. the august wilson american century cycle award, presented jointly by his hometown newspaper and his childhood home, celebrates the conjunction of the two. author bio mr. christopher rawson is senior theater critic at the pittsburgh post-gazette, an emeritus member of the pitt english department, and an officer of august wilson house. photos the awacc award plaque given to houston’s ensemble theatre, similar to those being gradually given to theaters that qualify. ekundayo bandele, founder of hattiloo theatre in memphis, accepts the cycle award from chris rawson in may, 2018. pittsburgh public theater managing director lou castelli and artistic director marya sea kaminski are presented with the cycle award by chris rawson in august, 2018. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. pittsburgh actor wali jamal (right) presents the cycle award to anthony bean, founder of the theater in his name. between them is wilsonian actor will williams. at left are several of the company’s supporters. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� august wilson estate, pittsburgh post-gazette, and august wilson house establish august wilson century cycle awards abstract keywords author bio august wilson journal v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 3 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 stage review of fences chattanooga theatre centre chattanooga, tennessee saturday, february 16, 2019 by e. andrew lee professor of english, lee university staging the play in the round emphasized the home as a crucible of volatile reactions among disparate and dynamic personalities. − andrew lee abstract a stage review of fences by august wilson, staged by the chattanooga theatre centre in chattanooga, tennessee from friday, february 15 through saturday, march 9, 2019. keywords august wilson, fences, chattanooga theatre centre, troy maxson, rose maxson, ricardo c. morris the 1950s of august wilson's fences can seem like a far-away world, but under the direction of ricardo c. morris at the chattanooga theatre centre, the trials of the maxson family seemed immediate, urgent, and inescapable. this production was staged “in the round” with audience members seated on three sides surrounding the yard and front porch of the maxson home. the front rows of seats were only a few feet away from the actors, creating a powerful immediacy and intimacy that only the theatre can provide, an opportunity to eavesdrop on the private lives gathered in the maxson yard, porch, and kitchen. staging the play in the round emphasized the home as a crucible of volatile reactions among disparate and dynamic personalities. one section of spectators witnessed lyons and bono entering and exiting stage left, representing the societal threshold where the outside world collided with the maxson family. the yard stage right, on the other hand, was a battleground for skirmishes between troy and cory, as well as the scene of confrontations between rose and troy. the exterior of the maxson home was meticulously realistic, with a wrap-around front porch offering a unique vantage point for the audience in the round, as well as a seethrough kitchen window allowing the audience to observe characters inside the house and engaging in telephone conversations. there were, however, two incongruities between wilson’s stage directions and this particular set design; these would be insignificant for audience members unfamiliar with the script, but these changes seemed puzzling and andrew lee a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 3 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 perhaps a bit conspicuous. one was the absence of the icebox on the front porch, perhaps a subtle metaphor for the maxson family dynamics; the other discrepancy was an actual leather baseball tied to a rope hanging from a tree in the maxson front yard. wilson’s script describes a clump of rags wound tightly into a ball rather than an actual baseball—suggesting not only troy’s ingenuity and determination to continue his batting practice even into his middle age, but also reminding us that troy was cast off like rags by the major leagues and now is as tightly wound as the ball of rags itself. when mateen muhammed el ambled onto the stage as troy maxson, bottle in hand and brimming with braggadocio, many were stunned into an awed silence. if troy is a larger than life character (and he is), then morris made an ingenious casting choice—muhammed el is a formidable and daunting presence, well over six feet tall, built like an nfl tight end, with muscular forearms suggesting, appropriately, a pair of baseball bats ready for battle at any moment. muhammed el’s portrayal of troy at times seemed reminiscent of denzel washington in the oscar-nominated movie, from squinting in anger at his defiant son cory, to his playfully assertive posturing when speaking to his wife rose in front of jim bono. indeed, muhammed el made troy seem like three different men—amiable with bono, aggressive with cory, and usually frisky and affectionate with rose. opposite muhammed el, e’tienne f. easley was magnificent as the long-suffering yet resilient rose maxson. when tenderly teasing troy about his exaggerated storytelling, or erupting into anguish at her husband’s betrayals, easley’s rose was pitch-perfect whether the moment called for affirmation or indignation. the intimate staging allowed the audience to see the sweat on rose’s brow during these pivotal moments. easley seemed the most experienced and polished actor among a very strong cast. carlos davis as troy’s sounding board, jim bono, was perhaps the most genuinely likable character in the play—not only due to wilson’s sensitive and nuanced characterization, but also due to davis’s authenticity and infectious spirit of camaraderie. davis’s bono was the friend who never faltered, a truth-teller, and davis made him affable, thoughtful, and believable. moreover, he elicited sympathy with troy even at troy’s lowest moments, rather like a greek chorus interpreting the action for the audience. jeffery pinkerton as troy’s mentally disabled brother, gabriel maxson, faced perhaps the most difficult challenge— to make gabe memorable and prophetic without lapsing into lazy caricature which might evoke the audience’s ridicule or contempt. pinkerton’s baldness and slight build paralleled gabe’s fragile mental state, and he excelled by remaining within himself and resisting any over the top antics. gabriel’s character evoked our admiration rather than our laughter, and gratitude for his optimism and loyalty rather than pity or shame for his tragic circumstances. william elston made a stalwart turn as troy’s wayward son lyons maxson; an oversized hat hid his dreadlocks, perhaps belying lyons’ wariness about his father’s disapproval, yet his steadfast belief in the redeeming power of music leaves us believing his future may be bright after all. the two youngest members of e'tienne f. easley and mateen muhammed el as rose and troy nyla jacks and caleb golson as raynell and cory l e e : s t a g e r e v i e w o f f e n c e s a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 3 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 the cast were the most delightfully surprising—caleb golson as cory and nyla jacks as raynell. golson, a chattanooga native, was astonishing with his baby-faced yearning for troy’s approval, gradually evolving into equivocal defiance. the production program noted that golson is renowned locally as “caleb the poet,” and his performance as cory was dramatically lyrical and moving—we wanted to see him emerge victoriously from these trials. appearing in only the final scene of the play, nyla jacks’s raynell was the rainbow after the storm, pig-tailed and adorable, allowing us to breathe and to believe—her garden will grow; her life will be beautiful, and she will somehow atone for, as wilson writes in the play’s preface, “the sins of the fathers.” director ricardo morris orchestrated the play’s enigmatic final scene to make troy’s entrance into heaven not only plausible but persuasive. morris effectively utilized the close proximity of the round theatre by having troy’s silhouette appear in an upstairs bedroom window as gabe performed a soft-shoe shuffle and the stage lights brightened, marking the moment of troy’s redemption. though dead, troy was still here, and the intimate staging emphasized his abiding presence. work cited wilson, august. fences. theatre communications group. 2007. author bio dr. andrew lee is professor of english at lee university in cleveland, tennessee. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 3 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 all images courtesy chattanooga theatre centre. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ stage review of fences abstract keywords work cited author bio microsoft word goldfinger, jacqueline, jitney review, arena stage v o l . 2 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 3 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 stage review of jitney at arena stage kreeger theater; washington, d.c. september 13-october 27, 2019 directed by ruben santiago-hudson by jacqueline goldfinger a playwright herself, the author teaches playwriting and dramaturgy at temple university “we provide a service to the community. we ain’t just giving rides to people.”  becker, jitney abstract a review of jitney by august wilson, staged at the kreeger theater's arena stage in washington, d.c. from september 13 through october 27, 2019. keywords august wilson, jitney, ruben santiago-hudson, arena stage, kreeger theater, hill district in ruben santiago-hudson’s funny and heartbreaking production of jitney at arena stage (as part of a national tour), wilson’s classic simmers with tension while illuminating the complex bonds of kinship that grow from decades of sharing a cramped work space. the jitney station where the men work is located in pittsburgh’s hill district, a black neighborhood that’s been slowly pushed to the brink of desolation by whiter and wealthier encroaching forces. however, the drivers stay. their work is a calling; they don’t just deliver groceries; they deliver friendship, food, and care. they are the bulwark of a community ignored by public transit authorities and paid too little to afford individual cars. if the american dream is all about speeding down highway 66 to your house with a picket fence, it is the hill district’s jitney drivers that keep this dream in service for their urban neighborhood. the mundane tasks like driving someone to and from the grocery store seem perfunctory on the surface—especially to a contemporary generation that is used to summoning a lyft at the touch of a button. however, driving people across the span of decades, means that you share in their life, their successes and their defeats every day. their shared situation in the district and their need of one another to attend to daily life has blossomed into unique intimate relationships with jacqueline goldfinger a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 3 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 drivers dedicated to certain riders, and riders to drivers. these relationships have been complicated, as have the drivers’ lives, by external forces like gentrification and internal forces like a stagnant local business community that has not kept up with the times. while steeped in american black culture of the 1970s, the production resonated deeply with a wide swath of the country that is experiencing removal from their homes and splintering of their communities for the “greater good” today. whether forced to relocate due to gentrification, the building of a highway system, or other such project, the american capitalist tradition of ripping communities apart in the name of “progress”—which is often coded language for “wealthier people want to be here now”—is alive and well. this stark reality gives the national tour of jitney a dual purpose of both entertaining and reminding us of the stories of real people behind the headlines of urban renewal. santiago-hudson’s choice to steep us in the vivid emotional life of the characters rather than strenuously favor the social and political themes, honors wilson’s legacy of people first theater. wilson had significant statements to make on society, culture, and the american experience, yet he always prioritized the full humanity of his characters over bullhorn-andbanner declarations—and santiago-hudson deftly maintains this tradition. for example, while there was a window in the jitney station that provided a cloudy view of the outside world, the heart of the station—the couch and chairs where the community gathers to sit and talk—were center stage. in addition, becker’s desk, the emblem of the “business” of the station, was pushed into a deep corner, so that the couch, chairs and drivers had ample room to stretch, breathe, and talk. the external elements were literally pushed aside, to make room for the emotional and spiritual ones. in addition, santiago-hudson directed his actors to lean into the conversations revolving around both personal relationships and how the personal relationships are being shaped by outside forces, like the downward spiraling economy of the neighborhood. but all straight business talk was delivered quickly, occasionally almost as an aside, consistently directing attention back to the humanity of the story, rather than the political and economic histrionics. while the outside forces exerting pressure on the jitney station were clear, the hearts and souls of the characters were center stage. santiago-hudson’s superb production, anchored by the steadfast becker, played with a gorgeous fragility and daunting grace by steven anthony jones, capitalizes on the keen and well-observed humor of wilson’s play. for example, in becker’s strained relationship with his son, no matter how tense, jones always managed to find a point of connection, often in a moment of humor, that reminded of us of the hope and love that has been overrun by dusty layers of contention, but that still might fully surface one day. there was a “hope against hope” mentally deftly underlying jones’ performance. this stroke of genius helped us—an audience removed from those events in pittsburgh’s hill district by 50 years—to connect deeply with the characters early on through laughter and the ineffably recognizable bonds of family even if the surroundings and slang are unfamiliar. as we synced with the heartbeat of wilson’s characters—played by a brilliant ensemble cast—the production maintained the important specificity of a black american urban experience but also cracked open wider questions that we all connect with regarding ownership, definitions of home, and how the disruption of displaced communities has negative reverberations throughout society with a net negative for us all—despite the elusive promises of “greater goods” to come. often well-meaning productions, when dealing with difficult subjects that inspire revolt, become diatribes for or against a subject. thankfully, santiago-hudson’s production did not fall into that trap. david gallo’s smart set design made immediately clear that the focus of the play’s story was the people, not the outside world swirling around them. once the play began, the actors electrified the room. by freeing the actors from the long-standing american theatrical convention of trying to make every word of dialogue clear and understood, the director and performers thoughtfully overlapped dialogue and brought a rhythm to a piece which—much like opera--demands to be felt and understood beyond the g o l d f i n g e r : s t a a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) intellect. while plot and chara underlined with careful staging over and around one another, creating an organically moving entirety that invited audience members t them. keith randolph smith (doub) and nija okoro (rena) moments of fully felt silence within this sea, allowing operatic f low of language for a moment the waves. wilson, august. jitney. the august wilson century cycle 2007. jacqueline goldfinger is a playwright and dramaturg. she teaches mfa playwriting and dramaturgy at temple university in philadelphia. she also founded and runs page by page, a theater makers resource that shares playmaking tools around the country with an emphasis on increasing playwriting in underserved communities. articles in this journal are licensed under a this journal is published by the d-scribe digital publishing program : s t a g e r e v i e w o f j i t n e y a t a r e n a s t a g a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 0 d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 3 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u intellect. while plot and character turning points were made clear, and sometimes staging, other moments in the play were allowed to ebb and flow over and around one another, creating an organically moving entirety that was magnetic and audience members to lean in and feel the waves of wilson’s sea crashing around keith randolph smith (doub) and nija okoro (rena) were especially deft at finding moments of fully felt silence within this sea, allowing audiences a brief respite from wilson’s low of language for a moment to catch their breaths and before diving back into works cited the august wilson century cycle. theatre communications group. author bio jacqueline goldfinger is a playwright and dramaturg. she teaches mfa playwriting and dramaturgy at temple university in philadelphia. she also founded and runs page by page, a theater makers resource that shares playmaking tools around the country with an playwriting in underserved communities. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. j i t n e y a t a r e n a s t a g e a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 made clear, and sometimes allowed to ebb and flow magnetic and o lean in and feel the waves of wilson’s sea crashing around especially deft at finding a brief respite from wilson’s diving back into ommunications group. jacqueline goldfinger is a playwright and dramaturg. she teaches mfa playwriting and dramaturgy at temple university in philadelphia. she also founded and runs page by page, a theater makers resource that shares playmaking tools around the country with an commons attribution 4.0 international license. as part of its august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 4 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 welcome to the inaugural edition of the august wilson journal by michael j. downing professor of english, kutztown university of pennsylvania [thanks to] august himself for being august . . . for plying his trade as a poet and playwright so artfully as to heartfully touch so many thousands of people across the united states and around the world. − michael j. downing abstract a welcome to the inaugural edition of the august wilson journal, written by the editor. keywords august wilson, august wilson journal, sandra shannon, larry glasco, david anderson, patrick maley, chris bell, artisia green, melonnie walker, steven tracy, alan nadel, chris rawson, american literature association, university of pittsburgh gratitude as we prepare to launch the first edition of the august wilson journal, i can only express heartfelt gratitude to so many people who have helped along the way: sandra shannon, larry glasco, david anderson, patrick maley, chris bell, artisia green, melonnie walker, steven tracy, alan nadel, and chris rawson, along with all of our excellent peer reviewers and editorial advisors. i would also like to thank constanza romero for giving so generously of her time and of course august himself for being august . . . for plying his trade as a poet and playwright so artfully as to heartfully touch so many thousands of people across the united states and around the world. thank you, all. origins with the benefit of hindsight, i now see that this journal project got its unwitting start in 2002 when i established augustwilson.net, which was a simple website dedicated to the study of all things august wilson. it was, as far as i know, the first and for many years the only online source dedicated to mr. wilson. the goal was simply to spread the word by seeking permission and then publishing various articles on the internet. it served its purpose: i answered a lot of emails back in those days from people who were interested in michael j. downing http://augustwilson.pitt.edu/ojs/augustwilson/about/editorialteam� a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 4 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 learning more and the plays, sensibilities, and politics that informed mr. wilson and his works. i kept the website alive for a little more than a decade but eventually wanted the online presence to be more dynamic so i started the august wilson blog in january 2012. that allowed me to post material more regularly by writing short pieces with links to original articles without having to worry about: 1) seeking permission to reproduce entire articles, and 2) all of the constant design and navigation adjustments associated with maintaining a traditional website. the blog still exists as a searchable database of more than 450 journalistic-style articles. it has also connected me to dozens of wilson supporters through the years, and even some contributors (coco harris; catherine minnick), so i persevered, knowing that this was an important next step in the process of publishing wilson material online. in addition, working on the blog made me realize how many of august’s plays were being performed across the united states, annually. in fact, for the 20162017 theater year, no other playwright was performed more than august wilson. then, in may of 2015, at the american literature association conference in boston, i officially began pursuing the idea of launching a journal dedicated to the life and work of august wilson. two years earlier, i had created the august wilson author society through ala (now coordinated by j. ken stuckey), so i was already cultivating scholarly papers for presentation. the question now was where can we publish those essays? i began by speaking with some representatives of penn state university press, who were in the publishers room in boston and currently publishing such periodicals as the arthur miller journal, the cormac mccarthy journal, the edgar allan poe review, the steinbeck review, the chaucer review, and the journal of bernard shaw studies, to name a few. psu publishes so many journals, in fact, that as far as new projects go, they were only interested in publishing journals edited by penn state faculty. they did, however, point me in the direction of the university of pittsburgh, to which, i said of course! pitt was immediately interested and we began negotiating the initial proposal, which had to be approved by various governing bodies at upitt in order for us to proceed. i’ll spare you details, but let us just say it was rigorous and tremendously time-consuming. it took about a year and a half to iron out the details of the proposal and get it approved. then david anderson, my managing editor, and i then had to travel to pitt to design the website and be trained in its operation. designing the website involved decisions at every turn: colors, fonts, banners, art, etc. thanks to the wonderful staff at pitt and thanks to my wonderful and talented wife, jackie, who designed the logo that appears at the top of each article. now that we are nearing the completion of the first issue, i have a full appreciation of how complicated the website is and how it is actually a form of artificial intelligence, coordinating collective production efforts and creating a digital “paper trail” as things progress. like all ai, however, the downside of the journal website is it is absolutely merciless at times. we had more than a few instances where contributors could not successfully submit their work, which was, we figured out later, due to the fact that they missed a particular checkbox designating themselves as authors. another issue is that the system—in order to keep things “blind”—automatically converts file names into numbers, which confuses the heck out of two old english professors, who prefer the 26-letter alphabet, rather than constantly-changing computer language. but we get it. pitt wants to make sure that all of the protocols are followed. open access publishing has gotten a bad name in some circles (i.e., predatory pay to play) and pitt wants to make sure all protocols are followed. it has reached the point, however, where david and i are ready to bring another person onto the editorial team to manage workflow and production so that i can focus on driving material to the site and david can focus on working with his team of reviewers. we need help and if you would like to assist, send me an email. https://www.americantheatre.org/2016/09/21/the-top-20-most-produced-playwrights-of-the-2016-17-season/� d o w n i n g : w e l c o m e t o t h e i n a u g u r a l e d i t i o n o f t h e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 4 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 that said, everyone at pitt has been extraordinarily kind and supportive. i think they are all excited about the idea of hosting a journal dedicated to native son august wilson and are entirely devoted to making that happen. spring 2019 edition this inaugural edition of the journal features 22 separate submissions. immediately following this introduction is a foreword by professor sandra shannon from howard university. she comments on the field of wilson studies and how it has grown over the years. she is the well-published president of the august wilson society which has been very active over the past several years promoting the legacy and literature of august wilson. managing editor david anderson's brief welcome essay follows. a native pittsburgher, david and i have been friends for more than 30 years and have been studying the life and works of august wilson since we met in 1989. larry glasco's article about august leaving pittsburgh is next. professor glasco is a history professor at the university of pittsburgh and this essay is a chapter from his upcoming book on wilson. he offers 139(!) sources and offers a detailed and nuanced perspective on the conversations and circumstances that led to august to leave pittsburgh for st. paul. long-time wilson scholar alan nadel follows with his essay on reading wilson and his characters. professor nadel has published two collections of essays on august wilson and has also recently released a monograph on august wilson. mark whitaker's essay is a keynote address that stems from the 2018 august wilson consortium which took place at the august wilson cultural center in april of that year. in his remarks, whitaker talks about how august wilson fits into his book smoketown: the other black renaissance. whitaker has worked as chief editor at newsweek, washington bureau chief for nbc news, and managing editor of cnn worldwide. constanza romero has graciously lent her voice to this first issue and sandra shannon was kind enough to conduct the interview. we are aiming at incorporating multimedia into the journal website as often as possible and are glad to say that not only do we have the textual version of the romero interview, we also have an audio recording. chris bell's interview with long-time august wilson friend sala udin follows. sala remembers going to elementary school with august and then performing in jitney. another goal of the wilson journal is to talk with dramaturgs in order to bring them into the conversation and shed some light on their world. we want the journal to be open not only to scholars and academics but also to performers, directors and the theater community at large. so dramaturgy section editor melonnie walker has conducted two dramaturg interviews from recent productions of two trains running and radio golf. patrick maley is stage review editor for the journal and he has been a strong contributor, bringing four reviews, including kelsall's review of king hedley ii, ridley's review of gem of the ocean, herron's review of fences, and bell's review of radio golf. with our stage reviews, we look to go beyond plot summaries and generalized summaries and seek more specific insights such as how the play may have been staged, how the material was treated, or other nuances related to characters or themes that emerged within any particular staging. long-time pittsburgh post-gazette theatre critic chris rawson opens the news section with an article on the august wilson american century cycle awards, with accompanying sidebar. these awards are given to theaters across the united states that have completed the entire 10-play american century cycle. rawson has also contributed a second article on the activities of august wilson house. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 4 4 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 the next article is written by recent duquesne master's graduate (and previous kutztown university graduate) laura quain who writes about the duquesne fellowship and recent recipient, natasha trethewey. following laura's article is a bibliography compiled by thom addington who is an instructor of english at richard bland college of william and mary. the bibliography dates back to 2016 and will be a regular feature of the journal going forward as we continue to update it. we are particularly excited this year because we are able to include a primary work of august wilson in how i learned what i learned. finally, we have an official note, which is also intended as a regular feature. this year's note calls attention to specifics related to the fluctuating terminology connected to the pittsburgh cycle, the century cycle, and august wilson's american century cycle. see note for details. moving forward in terms of our evolving vision of the journal, we would like to see and cultivate additional, traditional scholarship, but we realize that it takes time. now that we have published our first edition, we believe the level of attraction will begin to grow. we have received a handful of essays that were not quite fully mature, so we have elected to put those into the revise and resubmit column and work with the authors to firm up the arguments and evidence. another place that we are looking to pull from is the aforementioned august wilson author society through the american literature association. authors should note that i am in a position to provide feedback in order to assist in sharpening essays for publication. then, once the author and i am more or less satisfied, we toss it over the fence to the managing editor and the reviewers for blind peer review. thanks to the university of pittsburgh i started this essay with gratitude and i want to conclude with that same sentiment. i would like to thank all of our friends at the university of pittsburgh for agreeing to take on this project, for training us on the use of the website, and for ultimately publishing the material: vanessa gabler, electronic publications manager; kari johnston, communications support specialist; lauren collister, director of the office of scholarly communications & publishing; timothy deliyannides, director of information technology. it hass been a long haul with numerous challenges along the way, but it is my hope that we are making history with this first edition and that this project will serve as the ongoing, official record for august wilson studies well into the future. author bio dr. michael downing is professor of english at kutztown university of pennsylvania, where he teaches courses in august wilson, technical writing, journalism, literature, and composition. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� welcome to the inaugural edition of the august wilson journal abstract keywords author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 celebrating august wilson's legacy in smoketown by mark whitaker author of smoketown: the untold story of the other great black renaissance keynote address delivered at the 2018 august wilson colloquium, august wilson center, pittsburgh pa, april 26, 2018 abstract in his opening address to attendees of the august wilson colloquium, mark whitaker— from his perspective as author of smoketown—discusses the research he conducted and the subsequent incorporation of the topic of august wilson into his book. beginning with the assertion that that wilson’s family story "fits the larger pattern of migrants from the northern part of the old south who arrived in pittsburgh with a respect for literacy and religious discipline," whitaker contrasts the history of black pittsburgh as reported in the pages of the pittsburgh courier with the metaphorical representations in wilson's american century cycle. keywords august wilson, mark whitaker, smoketown, pittsburgh courier, hill district i’m very honored to be here to address this colloquium, but i’m also a bit embarrassed. i’m looking out at a room full of people who have studied august wilson and his plays for far longer than i have. so let me begin by making clear that i don’t pretend be a wilson expert. instead, i’m here as an author who has written a book about the larger cultural and political legacy of black pittsburgh in the middle decades of the 20th century. i do address in my book, smoketown: the untold story of the other great black renaissance, how wilson, who was born at the height of that community’s influence but wrote his groundbreaking plays in the decades after its economic and physical decimation, fits into that larger picture. but as far as i’m concerned, the best thing about being asked to speak first thing this morning is that i’ll get to spend the rest of the day listening to real wilson scholars and intimates. in order to explain my perspective, it might be useful to describe how my thinking about august wilson evolved as i was working on smoketown. from the beginning, even before i knew exactly what shape and direction the book would take, i saw wilson as the metaphorical elephant in the room. for two reasons. first, if readers had any sense of black pittsburgh in the last century, it was likely because they had had seen one or more of the nine plays that wilson set in the hill district. in that sense, it was as though i was setting out to write a book about danish politics at the turn of the 17th century. an original enough sounding project—expect for the fact that a genius named shakespeare wrote a play about it called hamlet. second, i knew that i would have to grapple with the fact that for all their extraordinary power and sweep, wilson’s century cycle plays ignore important segments of mark whitaker a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 black pittsburgh in the decades on which i planned to focus. even before i began my research, i knew this from my father’s family, which because they were middle-class business people wilson would have viewed with distrust. when asked why his plays were populated almost exclusively by struggling members of the working class, wilson made no bones about the fact that he considered them more culturally authentic than middle-class blacks. “america offers blacks a contract that says, ‘if you leave all that african stuff over there and adopt the values of the dominant culture, you can participate’,” he once told literary scholar bonnie lyons. “the ones who accept go on to become part of the growing middle class and in some areas even acquire some power and participation in society, but when they finally settle where they arrive, they are no longer the same people. they are clothed in different manners and ways of life, different thoughts and ideals. they’ve acculturated and adopted white values.” although my father’s family was middle class, i knew their story hardly fit that description. like a character in one of wilson’s plays, my grandfather, cleophaus sylvester whitaker sr., the eleventh child of former slaves from texas, arrived in pittsburgh as a teenager in the first wave of the great migration, around the time of world war i. he started out working in lowly jobs in the steel mills and as a chauffeur for a white undertaker, and may well have roomed in boarding houses like the one in joe turner’s come and gone. but then grandad went into the mortician business himself and became relatively prosperous. never rich and rapacious like the undertaker west in two trains running—in fact, granddad eventually had to moonlight selling milk and shining shoes in a white country club—but, for a time, relatively prosperous. my grandmother, edith mccoles whitaker, was the only child of “op’s,” or “old pittsburghers,” as the black folks who arrived before the great migration were called. her father, john mccoles, worked as a steel company messenger, and her mother emma—whom i would know as “gram”—was a homemaker. they were hardly rich, either, but they were comfortable enough to live in sugartop, then the most expensive neighborhood on the hill. grandmother edith was a member of the first generation of black students to attend schenley high school in the 1920’s, played piano at the carnegie library recital hall and had her engagement party at the loendi club, the gathering place of the black elite. when the first whitaker funeral home in rankin became profitable enough, she encouraged granddad to move it to homewood so my father and his sisters could attend its highly regarded integrated high school, westinghouse. yet my father’s family was as proudly black as any other in the pittsburgh of the day. the grandmother i knew in my childhood cooked chitlins, played the numbers every day, went to bethany baptist church on sundays, and greeted me with down-home commands like: “give me some sugar, child, or i’ll jump down your throat and dance on your gizzard!” she also worked her arthritic knees to the bone keeping the funeral home going after granddad suffered a stroke, and often resorted to selling avon products door to door to pay the grocery and utility bills. as i began to work on my book, i discovered further evidence of a black pittsburgh not found in august wilson’s plays in the photographs of teenie harris. in fact, the day i decided to write the book that became smoketown, i was browsing the internet and stumbled upon two photographs of my grandparents in the teenie harris archive of the carnegie museum of art. granddad, dressed in a suit and tie and polished patent leather shoes, was presiding over the burial of a black military veteran at a graveyard outside pittsburgh. grandmother, wearing pearls and one of her big church hats, was attending a ladies’ luncheon in homewood. then, as i clicked through the rest of the archive, there was joe louis hanging out in the newsroom of the pittsburgh courier. there was louis armstrong grinning at a corner booth at the crawford grill. there was lena horne singing at the loendi club. there were duke ellington, billy strayhorn, and “honi” coles gathered around an upright piano at the w h i t a k e r : c e l e b r a t i n g a u g u s t w i l s o n ' s l e g a c y i n s m o k e t o w n a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 stanley theater. there was satchel paige shooting the breeze with gus greenlee in gus’s lair atop the crawford grill. there was josh gibson squatting in a catcher’s crouch in his homestead grays uniform. there was jackie robinson leaning on a bat at forbes field, looking right at home, during his rookie year as a brooklyn dodger. and on and on and on. in other words, there on my computer screen was visual evidence of a black pittsburgh so vibrant and influential that it was once known as “little harlem” and “the crossroads of the world.” yet as i investigated further, i discovered that the full extent of that influence had been captured only in fragments, in teenie’s photographs and in individual biographies, sports and jazz books and academic studies. no one had pieced together the full story of how this relatively small black community—less than a quarter the size of harlem’s, and a third the size of chicago’s—had left such a profound imprint on black history, and american history, in the brief but glorious period of its heyday from the 1920’s through the 1950’s. so that’s the story i set out to write in smoketown. but because i still didn’t know what i was going to say about august wilson, i put him in a box. quite literally. you see, when i write my books i keep research materials for my chapters in separate bankers boxes, those cardboard storage containers you can buy at staples or on amazon. so i bought anthologies of wilson’s plays and collections of his interviews and put them in a box. every time i did an interview or came across an article that touched on wilson, i put the notepad or the clipping in the box. and i left the box untouched until i had written the rest of the book—nine chapters in all—and was finally ready to wrestle with the elephant in the room in my last chapter. when i finally opened the august wilson box two years later, i discovered that much of the story i had written in the rest of the book was indeed absent from his plays. as reviewers of smoketown have noted, the heart of the book is the story of the pittsburgh courier, which was the best-selling black newspaper in america from the mid-thirties until the early sixties, with 14 regional editions and a circulation that peaked at more than 400,000 copies at the end of world war ii. and at the heart of that story stand two southern migrants who were extraordinary entrepreneurs. cumberland posey sr., known as “cap,” was a riverboat deckhand who became the first black man to engineer a steamboat. posey then founded a shipbuilding company and invested in coal mines and was the richest negro in pittsburgh when he bought stock in the courier and became its first president in 1910. robert lee vann was the son of a plantation cook from north carolina who traveled alone to claim a scholarship for colored students at what is now the university of pittsburgh. after becoming its first black law school graduate, vann accepted the editorship of the courier, and from 1910 until his death in 1940 he transformed the paper from an eight-page pamphlet of local news to the powerful national weekly it became. yet nowhere in wilson’s plays set in those decades do you get a sense of just how powerful the courier was, or how much pride and swagger that gave the black folks of pittsburgh. seven guitars refers to the joe louis’s epic battle with “the pittsburgh kid” billy conn. but there is no sense of the role the courier played in making louis a hero to black america and a sympathetic champion to whites in the 1930’s. fences deals with troy maxson’s bitterness at the racism that cost him a shot at pro baseball when he was playing in the negro leagues. but there’s no hint of the part that courier sportswriter wendell smith played in crusading for baseball integration, and then introducing branch rickey to jackie robinson and serving as robinson’s travel companion, confidant, and spokesman in his tense first years in the dodgers’ organization. the politics of the depression and world war ii provide a backdrop to several wilson plays, but they don’t capture how the courier turned pittsburgh into ground zero for the migration of black voters from the republican to the democratic party under fdr, or its “double victory campaign” that mobilized black support for the war after pearl harbor. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 while wilson’s plays are full of music and musicians—seven guitars and the chicago-based ma rainey’s black bottom, in particular—you wouldn’t know from them that pittsburgh produced a dozen of the greatest jazz musicians of the 20th century. they included not just stellar performers but trailblazers in their musical disciplines: kenny clarke and art blakey on the drums, roy eldridge on the trumpet, ray brown on the bass, george benson on the guitar, billy strayhorn as a composer and arranger, and billy eckstine not just as crossover crooner but as a big band leader who mentored future bebop pioneers such as dizzy gillespie, charlie parker, sarah vaughan, dexter gordon, fats navarro and gene ammons. because my grandmother edith played the piano, i was particularly taken in my research with the profound impact of pittsburgh musicians on that instrument. they include earl “fatha” hines, who set a new standard for the jazz piano in his early recordings with louis armstrong; mary lou williams, the “little piano girl of east liberty” who grew up to become one of the greatest female instrumentalists of both the swing and the bebop eras; and ahmad jamal, who is performing and recording award-winning albums to this day. and, of course, erroll garner, who in the fifties and sixties was one of the most sought-after concert performers and late-night tv guests in the world of jazz. during his many appearances on the tonight show, johnny carson liked to kid garner about the fact that he couldn’t read music, as though he was some kind of inexplicable natural genius. but as i point out in smoketown, garner was simply a genius who grew up in the unique musical culture of pittsburgh, and learned to play by ear imitating his sisters’ piano teacher and his many talented classmates at westinghouse high. by the way, i also tell the story in the book of how we have that piano heritage to thank for one of the greatest bass players of all time. like so many black pittsburgh kids in his day, ray brown, who was born in 1926, grew up taking piano lessons. but when he arrived at schenley high in his mid-teens, he was one of twenty-eight pianists who auditioned for the school orchestra. ray had to wait all week just to get fifteen minutes of rehearsal time. so one day, he was waiting his turn when he spied a big string instrument in the corner of the room. “what’s that?” he asked the music teacher. “a bass,” the teacher replied. “if i played that instrument, would i be in the orchestra all the time?” ray asked. “yes, we’re looking for a bass player,” the teacher responded. and that’s how the great ray brown took up the bass! again, you won’t find the names of ray brown or those legendary pittsburgh pianists in wilson’s plays. however, i do like to think that there’s at least an acknowledgement of that rich keyboard tradition embedded in the piano lesson. after all, wilson said that he got the inspiration for the play from a painting by romare bearden, who also grew up in pittsburgh in the era when the piano was a prized possession in so many black homes. despite these historical omissions, however, as i immersed myself in research about august wilson, i came to see how firmly he stands in the broader cultural tradition i trace in smoketown. in the introduction to the book, i talk about the three social forces that—like pittsburgh’s three great rivers—converged to make its black community so unique. the first was where the southern migrants came from, and the kind of knowledge and values they brought with them. second were the unique educational opportunities available to black folks in pittsburgh in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century, thanks to those pitt scholarships and the gilded age philanthropy that helped make the city’s integrated public high schools like westinghouse and schenley among the best-funded in america. the third was the spirit of entrepreneurship that, along with the stench from the steel plants, hung in the air in pittsburgh, setting it apart from the more literary and less business-minded culture of harlem. w h i t a k e r : c e l e b r a t i n g a u g u s t w i l s o n ' s l e g a c y i n s m o k e t o w n a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 5 all three of those formative strains run deep in the august wilson story. the rest of smoketown is filled with characters who hailed from the northern and eastern parts of the old south, where blacks were most likely to have learned to read books and music and to acquire other habits of cultural sophistication. as it turns out, a remarkable number came specifically from north carolina. they include robert l. vann, the courier editor; gus greenlee, the racketeer who owned the crawford grill and the pittsburgh crawfords; billy strayhorn and mary cardwell dawson, the founder of america’s first black opera company; and evelyn cunningham, the charismatic courier reporter who covered the early battles of the civil rights movement. and, sure enough, august wilson also had north carolina roots. his mother, daisy, was born there and migrated to pittsburgh in her teens with wilson’s grandmother, zonia. in fact, it’s been said that zonia was so determined to get to pittsburgh that she made the journey on foot—a story that, alas, my friend historian larry glasco assures me is apocryphal. daisy wilson learned to read but zonia never did, and the daughter watched her mother’s living as a north carolina farmer suffer as a result. so when daisy arrived on the hill and took up with a white german immigrant named frederick kittel, known as fritz, she was determined that the children she had by him learn to read as early as possible. when her first son was born, named after his father but called “freddy,” daisy took him to the carnegie library on the hill to get a library card when he was just five years old. soon freddie had devoured all the hardy boy novels and his older sisters’ nancy drews. with the same determination that billy strayhorn’s mother, lillian, showed in moving her family to homewood so billy could attend westinghouse high, daisy sent freddie to catholic schools on the hill to be taught by nuns. as a moody teen, freddy kept getting expelled from public schools, but he had so thoroughly internalized his mother’s reverence for learning that he resolved to educate himself by hiking to the carnegie library in oakland every day and reading hundreds of books on its shelves. so wilson’s story fits the larger pattern of migrants from the northern part of the old south who arrived in pittsburgh with a respect for literacy and religious discipline. in his own way, he was also the beneficiary of the unique opportunities for schooling—and for self-education—that were available to pittsburgh negroes. and if you think about it, wilson was a shrewd businessman, too, no matter his views on capitalism. who else but a born marketer would, after deciding to become a writer at the age of 21, type out every variation of his name to come up with a better literary moniker than frederick kittel jr.? and then settle on a pen name, derived from his middle name and his mother’s maiden name, that conjured both cultural distinction—au-gust!—and everyman ancestry—wil-son! who else but a natural entrepreneur would, no sooner than he had scored his first successes as a playwright, after years of struggling as a poet, decide that he wasn’t going to stop until he produced a play for every decade of the 20th century? as i reported and wrote wilson’s story, i couldn’t help but compare his visionary ambition to that of cap posey, the deckhand who dreamed of becoming a steamboat engineer. or robert l. vann, the editor who willed a local pamphlet into a national newspaper. or gus greenlee, the racketeer who brought satchel paige to pittsburgh, raided josh gibson from the crosstown grays, and launched the “east-west classic,” the all-star baseball game that became the biggest sports event in black america. or billy strayhorn, who composed a professional musical in his first year out of high school, before he ever met duke ellington. or evelyn cunningham, who talked her way off the women’s desk at the courier by pitching a “widow angle” that convinced her editors to send her to cover the aftermath of a brutal racial murder in 1948 georgia and launched cunningham’s career as a civil rights reporter. as for the strains of working-class anger and frustration in so many of wilson’s plays, they also made sense when i considered the period in black pittsburgh’s history that shaped his worldview. for the flipside of the happy convergence that created “the a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 6 crossroads of the world” was the perfect storm that destroyed it almost overnight. in the late fifties, the city of pittsburgh tore down the lower hill, the heart of black social and business life, in the name of urban renewal. in the late sixties, the riots that followed martin luther king jr.’s assassination destroyed much of the middle hill and other black enclaves. the decline of the steel industry disproportionately devastated black folks, who couldn’t get cheap loans to move to the suburbs like their white ethnic neighbors. black flight took a toll, too, as ambitious, well-educated blacks who in the past would have stayed to become community leaders left and never came back—people like my father, cleophaus sylvester whitaker, jr., westinghouse class of 1952. this connection between the historical destruction of the hill and the artistic point of view of wilson’s plays was so evident that i entitled my last chapter “the bard of a broken world.” here’s some of what i say about it. after describing the 1969 death of jesse vann, robert l. vann’s widow and successor as publisher of the courier, and the fact that jesse had once appeared as a guest on the tv show this is your life, i write the following: no one august wilson came into contact with on the hill in the late 1960’s would ever have qualified for that distinction. they were the folks that the city’s declining manufacturing economy and the downtown “renaissance” had left behind: the steel and coal workers who had lost their jobs; the cooks and waiters who worked for minimum wage and tips; the garbage men and janitors who clung to lowly rungs on the city payroll; the hustlers and pushers who turned to selling pyramid scheme products and street drugs to get by. but the blues made wilson yearn to hear their stories, and he went about finding places where he could eavesdrop on them. wilson sat for hours in a booth at eddie’s restaurant, nursing cups of coffee and scribbling down overheard conversations on napkins. he hung out at pat’s place, a cigar store with a billiard table in the back where pensioners passed their days and where august came to be known as “youngblood.” day after day, he ate lunch at a diner called pan fried fish so that he could listen in on the conversations of gypsy cab drivers who worked out of a storefront “jitney station” next door—a collection of young hustlers and loquacious retirees who spent as much time telling tall tales and ribbing one another over games of checkers as they did answering the phone on the station wall that rang with calls for cheap rides around town. it was these notes and memories, once wilson moved to minnesota in the late 1970’s and began writing for the theater full-time, that became grist for his first century cycle play—a one-act version of jitney—and the eight others that followed. because wilson littered those plays with so many references to actual addresses, businesses and figures in the hill district, much as been written about how historically accurate he was, or wasn’t, in those details. the family of the real undertaker west, for example, complained about wilson’s heartless fictional character in two trains running. friends of the man who inspired the white butcher in the same play, the owner of lutz meat market on centre avenue on the hill, pointed out that in real life lutz was a supporter of black rights who never would have welched on the debt of a ham. but in smoketown, i avoid such nit-picking because i think it misses the point. if you read wilson’s interviews and commentaries on his plays, it’s clear that he never saw himself as a historical realist. he freely admits that he didn’t do much factual research, or even attend much theater. instead, he talks repeatedly about aristotle’s poetics, which deals with the use of language to define character and dramatic structure to distill the tragedy and comedy of human existence. wilson’s essential genius, it seems to me, is in the way he took the everyday banter and street life of black pittsburgh and elevated it to the level of universal poetry. he may have had his own controversial personal views about who was and wasn’t authentically black, but he was enough of an artist to produce dramatic experiences that could be shared by people of all economic and racial backgrounds. in this sense, august wilson was every bit the heir to the cultural tradition that produced billy strayhorn, mary w h i t a k e r : c e l e b r a t i n g a u g u s t w i l s o n ' s l e g a c y i n s m o k e t o w n a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 7 lou williams, romare bearden and so many other figures in my book, artists who took the specific cultural influences of pittsburgh and used them to create work that transcends place and time and speaks to the entire world. one final theme in wilson’s plays links him to the legacy i celebrate in smoketown, and that’s community. wilson liked to say—provocatively, as usual—that relationship to community was what set the races apart. “the basic difference in worldview between blacks and whites can be expressed as follows,” he once said. “western culture sees man as being apart from the world, and african culture see him as a part of the world.” it was why wilson always said that his most famous play, fences, with its solo “tragic hero,” was his least favorite, while his favorite was joe turner’s come and gone, that symphony of characters in a world war i era boarding house. at the end of my book, i repeat wilson’s observations because they echo the larger point i wanted to make about black pittsburgh as a whole in its glory days. while i tell the story through individuals, i hope readers come away with a sense that the “other great black renaissance,” as i call it, was made possible above all else by the dynamics of community—by the inspiration, fellowship and competitive motivation that its heroes and heroines received from each other. let me finish with more confession about my book-writing process. until the very end, i didn’t have a citation page—you know, that page at the front of books with a quote that is supposed to capture the essence of what you are about to read. i personally think citations have become somewhat of a cliché, so i didn’t bother to include them. but just before the book was about to go to press, my editor informed me that the pagination had gotten screwed up, and the easiest way to solve the problem would be to add a citation page. so at the eleventh hour, i started scrambling for a suitable quote. in the end, i found three. the first was from lena horne, who i write about in the book because she spent her early twenties in pittsburgh. “you have to be taught to be second-class; you’re not born that way,” lena said. the second, from billy strayhorn, was the plucky motto with which he bid friends goodbye. “ever up and onward!” strayhorn liked to say. and the third, thanks to theater critic christopher rawson, was from august wilson. when king hedley ii, the eighth play in the century cycle, closed on broadway in 2001, after mixed reviews and a two-month run that fell short of his earlier triumphs, rawson interviewed his friend august for the pittsburgh post-gazette. “you can only close if you opened,” wilson said philosophically. “we were there . . . you’re not going to stay open forever.” “you can only close if you opened.” what a terrific line! i thought. what a perfect way to sum up the spirit of ambition and creativity that i tried to capture in smoketown! and what a fitting way for me to end this talk today. you can only close if you opened, and it’s been my privilege and pleasure to help open this colloquium on the immortal legacy of august wilson. works cited whitaker, mark. smoketown: the untold story of other great black renaissance. simon and schuster. 2018. print. author bio mr. mark whitaker is an american author, journalist, and media executive. he was the editor of newsweek magazine from 1998 until 2006, the first african-american to lead a national news magazine. from 2004 to 2006, whitaker served as president of the american society of magazine editors. he was senior vice president and washington bureau chief a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 1 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 8 for nbc news. from 2011 to 2013, he was executive vice president and managing editor of cnn worldwide. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� celebrating august wilson's legacy in smoketown abstract keywords works cited author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 a front row seat: sala udin remembers august wilson by christopher bell associate professor of english, university of north georgia the language of the characters in august’s plays talked exactly the way we did on the street. and we had never seen that before. − sala udin abstract lifelong friend of august wilson, sala udin, shares his memories of knowing the playwright from their childhood in the hill district until the dramatist's death in 2005. written as a narrative, udin's account of his friendship with august wilson offers a unique glimpse into wilson's development as a writer and a poignant look into the playwright's affection for his hometown of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. keywords august wilson, sala udin, hill district, chris bell, pittsburgh playwrights theatre, st. richard’s school, rob penny, civil rights movement, black horizons theater, pan fried fish any understanding of the american playwright august wilson begins with an understanding of the hill district. here, in the historically black neighborhood that borders downtown pittsburgh, pennsylvania, wilson was born frederick august kittel in 1945 at 1727 bedford avenue. known as freddy, the young wilson was raised in a two-bedroom apartment that eventually housed him, his mother, and six siblings. wilson experienced the radical changes that occurred in the hill during the next thirty years, as the once solidly working-class neighborhood decayed slowly, the victim of broken promises from local government. in wilson’s much celebrated american century cycle, ten plays that chronicle the black american experience of the twentieth century, the dramatist depicts the lives of hill district residents as they struggle to live in a world that appears to have willfully turned its back on their existence. this is especially true of the plays set in the decades after the 1950s. the fidelity with which wilson writes about the hill district is complemented with a fiery political subtext centered on principles the playwright embraced before he achieved success as a mainstream playwright, principles rooted in the ideology of the black power movement of the late 1960s. although wilson’s childhood story and its link to the hill district is fairly well told, one individual who offers unique perspective is sala udin, whose birth name is chris bell sala udin a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 sam howze. he was born in the hill district in 1943. udin figures as a kind of zelig in the life of august wilson. the two went to elementary school together. later, udin and wilson stood shoulder to shoulder as participants in the black liberation movement of the 1960s. in 1982, as wilson slowly worked his way to mainstream success, the playwright tabbed his friend to play the lead in his first major regional production, jitney. when wilson was struck with terminal cancer, he enlisted udin to play a role in ensuring his burial wishes. ultimately, udin’s recollections about august wilson are tied inextricably to memories of the neighborhood the dramatist immortalized, memories that are, to quote joe turner’s come and gone, “both a wail and a whelp of joy.” the hill district: 1940s and 1950s sam howze first met freddy kittel when the two attended holy trinity catholic elementary school, located on fullerton street in the lower hill district. kittel lived in the middle hill, walking a few blocks to and from. both the school and the street are gone now, but udin fondly remembers the bustling area filled with bars, jazz joints, restaurants, movie houses, and even brothels. udin insists the environment was safe for children: “there was no static between police and residents of the lower hill. and everybody worked.” at this time, the hill was a largely multiethnic neighborhood, a mostly conflict-free mixing of syrians, jews, italians, ethnic germans such as wilson’s father, and african americans, amongst other ethnicities. although fullerton street was the hill district’s pulse, udin notes that wilson experienced the electricity despite living on bedford avenue several blocks away, if for no other reason than he walked the streets almost daily. but at holy trinity, freddy kittel stood apart from his classmates. udin remembers he “was kind of different from most kids. he didn’t do a lot of running around and wrestling and physical stuff like that. he tended to stand just outside the circle of activity and observe everybody and what they were doing but did not participate as much.” the vibrancy of fullerton street was soon obliterated. city planners decided the lower hill needed a facelift, believing the area depressed. udin admits his memories of fullerton street are rather halcyon. the area needed improvement, especially many of the buildings. some were over a hundred years old and in a state of disrepair. but udin adamantly denies the area was blighted. the city’s opinion differed, and the planners brought wrecking balls. the lower hill was demolished, several hundred businesses were destroyed, and several thousand residents displaced. most actually moved out of the hill, relocating to the homewood neighborhood. the howze family, coincidentally, found itself coincidentally at the bedford dwellings housing projects on bedford avenue, several blocks from where the kittels lived behind siger’s grocery, although the young sam howze did not know this at the time. the two found themselves at st. richard’s school. udin recollects, again, that freddy remained mostly quiet, sometimes with the suggestion of a grin on his face as he observed his classmates. at this point in their lives, outside forces were shaping both young men in ways neither could have known. despite a promise to rebuild the lower hill, city planners reneged. virtually no affordable housing replaced that which had been obliterated, and fullerton street was wiped clean from city maps. instead, the civic arena, a multipurpose entertainment complex, became the enduring legacy of the lower hill’s destruction, along with several parking lots built to accommodate visitors, most of whom came from areas of the city other than the hill district. by the end of the 1950s, sam howze and freddy kittel had left the hill. they would find themselves side by side a decade later with a shared purpose of raising the conscience of their community and revitalizing their neighborhood. b e l l : a f r o n t r o w s e a t : s a l a u d i n r e m e m b e r s a u g u s t w i l s o n a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 the hill district: late 1960s and 1970s by the late 1960s, the hill district had dramatically changed. urban renewal planners had leveled the lower hill, and the middle hill was dramatically overpopulated, leading to worse housing conditions. tension between the police and the local black populace was palpable. employment, especially for young black males, was scarce. and while hill district residents managed to stop a second wave of urban renewal that targeted the middle hill, the damage city planners had already wrought seemed irreparable. then, in the spring of 1968, riots occurred in response to the assassination of dr. martin luther king, jr. the neighborhood burned for days. in time, the riots came to be seen as the final blow to the neighborhood’s near annihilation. august wilson and sala udin, no longer freddy kittel and sam howze, stepped into this cauldron with a shared focus on how to solve the hill district’s problems. they had become, according to udin, “soldiers in the black liberation movement.” by the late 1960s, udin was something of a veteran of the civil rights movement, having been present at the national mall when king delivered his “i have a dream” speech. but by the end of the decade he had become radicalized, aligning himself with the black power movement. wilson had undergone similar changes. approximately two years after leaving the hill, wilson had dropped out of high school and educated himself by reading voraciously at the oakland branch of the carnegie library. most importantly, he discovered the negro section of the stacks and began imagining his own contributions on the shelves. both wilson and udin adopted new identities as well. a local iman gave sam howze the name sala udin, who historically “was a north african emperor [who] was a scholar and very inquisitive student, and the people of his land honored him by putting his name in the dictionary to define one who seeks knowledge." meanwhile, freddy kittel formally embraced his mother’s heritage by taking her surname, rechristening himself august wilson. udin comments on the effect of adopting a new identity during this turbulent time: it was keeping step with a trend among progressive african americans in my age group who were adopting african-centered cultural norms across a broad array of practices. name changing was one. religion changing was another. hair style changing was another. clothing changing was another. we were participants in a black liberation movement that was centered in african culture, and so it would be expected, especially among leaders, that european names would be dropped and replaced with either african names, or, if there was an islamic bent to the africanization, then a kind of african-islamic name would be selected. although wilson did not take an african-centered name or start wearing such clothing, udin still says the change from freddy kittel to august wilson was transformational: “any change from the slave tradition was fine, and so august acknowledging his mother’s lineage made sense.” the primary identity wilson adopted was that of writer. in the late 1960s he saw himself as a poet, although a reluctant one. he remained the insular child udin remembered from some fifteen years earlier when the two were schoolmates: august was a shy person. he was vocal and verbal whenever he decided to speak, but he was ordinarily shy and reserved and quiet, the same way we were raised, the same way i had known him from the old days. he read his poetry only reluctantly. he had to be asked several times to read his stuff, and then he would read it. he was serious, deeply intellectual, but always with an eye out for the humorous. he liked laughing, especially at irony or satire. little remains known of the poetry wilson wrote in the late 1960s. udin admits too much time has passed for him to recollect its content. although the future playwright published a couple of poems at this time, they remain little more than curiosities of a young writer trying to find his voice. but wilson was determined. although udin was not active, he a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 recollects that wilson was part of a group that christened themselves poets in the centre avenue tradition, which met to share their work and support each other at the halfway art gallery, another building long since demolished by the city of pittsburgh. for wilson and udin, the shared interest in knowledge, art, and black activism crystallized in their work for the black horizons theater. wilson co-founded the company with rob penny and university of pittsburgh student activists and professionals. penny, a hill district resident, poet, and professor at the university, was a mentor of sorts to wilson. although wilson said in later interviews that he was the company’s director, udin, who was involved from the company’s inception as its lead actor, says penny directed and wilson was more of an assistant director or dramaturg: “you can’t have two directors,” he notes with a chuckle. whatever their individual roles, udin notes with fierce pride, all were “soldiers in the black liberation movement.” black horizons was largely influenced by amiri baraka “and the black theater movement that he created in harlem and newark, new jersey. we went there several times to see the spirit house movers and to be influenced by baraka. so when we began to put together black horizons theater, it was with the spirit house movers as a model of what we were trying to recreate here in pittsburgh.” looking back on the experience, udin says, “it was groundbreaking.” but the work was also exhausting and expensive. like many community theaters, black horizons was self-funded, and they rehearsed at night, following a regular work day. udin himself, for instance, helped run a drug rehabilitation center as his day job. therefore, in the early 1970s, when a woman named vernell lillie stepped in and essentially folded black horizons into what became the kuntu repertory theatre, udin was relieved. kuntu became ensconced within the university of pittsburgh, effectively solving its financial problems. and while rob penny (who already had tenure at the university) and wilson continued working with lillie, udin “drifted away into more political work. my plate was so full that i said, ‘if i can let anything go, i need to let some things go. i’ve done my due in black theater. i’m really interested in getting involved with the university theater. i don’t have any theatrical professional ambitions. so i’m out of here.’ i went on to continue doing the political work that i was doing.” importantly, during his time with wilson in black horizons, udin saw important changes in wilson. he began to grow out of rob penny’s shadow. although “august continued his assistant director role when kuntu began, he was beginning to develop his own approach to theater direction.” he also began writing plays but remained reticent about his work. “he physically carried his stuff with him, and you could never convince him to show his plays. he would read his poetry from time to time.” then, “he allowed one or two of his plays that he had secretly written to be removed from the safe.” but just as this new work began to emerge, wilson left pittsburgh for minnesota. the leaving created a void within wilson that he would fill by putting black pittsburgh on the stage some five years later. udin found himself reluctantly front and center. the hill district: 1982 at the dawn of the 1980s, the hill district of sala udin’s and august wilson’s childhood was a memory. the problems that plagued the neighborhood throughout the 1960s and 1970s had decimated the area. employment was at an all time low at the dawn of the reagan era. tensions with the local police continued to increase. open air drug markets were common. conditions were so poor that there was not even a full service grocery store in the hill, the beginning of a thirty year period in which residents lived in a “food desert,” a condition in which healthy food choices are nearly impossible to find, while the expensive, unhealthy kind of sugar-laden food found at corner markets is the primary option. and while udin says that the kind of rampant violence depicted in popular media centered on black neighborhoods in the 1980s was not the reality, many young black men met their fate b e l l : a f r o n t r o w s e a t : s a l a u d i n r e m e m b e r s a u g u s t w i l s o n a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 5 at the hands of their peers, a reality far removed from udin’s experience growing up in the area. by 1982, wilson had been gone nearly for nearly five years, although he came back to pittsburgh frequently. during one of these visits, wilson tracked udin down and learned he himself was planning on leaving for california. wilson protested and countered with an interesting proposal: he had a new play he was preparing for production, and he wanted udin to play the central character. udin balked. he hadn’t been on the stage in nearly ten years. wilson was insistent. udin recounts their conversation: i said, “august, i haven’t been on stage in a long time. i haven’t been on stage since black horizons theater.” “this is you in this play,” wilson replied. “i’m leaving town. i’m on my way to california.” “yeah, but i developed this character with you in mind.” “well, maybe we can work together to find somebody to fill that character.” “i developed this character with you in mind. let’s take one step at a time. read the script.” wilson’s command did the trick. udin found the play so compelling that he knew immediately he could not turn down the opportunity to perform in it. the play was titled jitney. set in the 1970s, the drama has two central conflicts. the first reflects that which engaged wilson and udin in local activism some ten years before wilson wrote the play. the central character, becker, the one whom wilson wanted udin to play, operates a marginally illegal cab service in the hill district. such a business was a necessity in the hill district, as licensed cab companies would not serve the area. early in the play, becker announces that the city of pittsburgh plans to demolish the building he uses to run his operation, and the drivers must decide if they want to find a new base of operations or stand up to the city. the characters ultimately choose the latter, a defiance rooted in their frustration at the city’s decades old practice of leveling what they perceive as viable dwellings, be they homes or businesses. interestingly, however, udin does not mention this aspect of the play when he discusses how he came to agree to perform. he points to the second conflict: “i read the script and became captivated by it because of the conflicted relationship between becker and his son. that caught me.” this conflict centers on becker’s son booster’s release from prison after serving twenty years for murdering his then-nineteen year old white girlfriend, who, when caught by her father in a consensual sexual relationship with booster, claims rape. booster, believing he will go to prison for a crime he did not commit, kills the young woman, claiming if he is going to be locked up, it must be for an actual offense. twenty years later, even after his release, he refuses to apologize for his actions. his father, believing his academically gifted son threw away his future, refuses to reconcile when his boy tries to do so. ultimately, becker dies with the tension between the two unresolved. certainly, udin would have been motivated by the subtle political component of the play. it dramatizes the kind of issue he had been engaged in his entire life and is reminiscent of the kind of theater black horizons staged a decade before wilson wrote jitney. but udin’s more intense attraction to the father-son conflict hints at what audiences would come to admire most about wilson’s dramas once they became a national phenomenon: the heartbreaking humanity he imbues in his characters, the laughter that accompanies the tears, the lack of apology for even the most damaging choices they make, and, most important, a fidelity for the hill district and its residents that jumps off the page. this latter characteristic of wilson’s drama did not surprise udin because he had witnessed it. udin says that during wilson’s visits to pittsburgh after his move to minnesota, the two, along with rob penny, met often at a restaurant they dubbed “pan fried fish,” as the owner, cliff, and his brother “were too ornery to give the place a name. and cliff didn’t like people. but he needed to sell fish sandwiches to make a living, so he sold fish sandwiches. but he didn’t a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 6 feel the need to give the place a name. he just put a sign in the window that said ‘pan fried fish.’ a sign written on a piece of cardboard.” the kind of affection udin describes for the curmudgeonly cliff is what he recognized in the characters when he first read jitney. he elaborates on the get togethers at pan fried fish: “whenever rob penny and i arrived to meet at pan fried fish, august would have already been there. but he wasn’t at pan fried fish. he was next door at the jitney station, sitting on the floor, with his pad and pencil in his hand, laughing.” the burgeoning playwright was recording the conversations of the men in the station, mostly community elders: they talked about their achievements in the negro league, about statistics, you know how those barbershop arguments go, about their exploits with women. all lies. but august loved it. he loved sitting there listening to them talk. and so when he told me that the name of the play was jitney and it took place in a jitney station, it made absolute sense, because that jitney station is usually where we could find august whenever we agreed to meet at pan fried fish. for udin, jitney was a near documentary of the neighborhood where he had lived nearly his whole life. and this was why he agreed to return to the stage. “and i called my friend who i was about to leave with for california and said, ‘man, we gotta delay our departure date. we gotta do this play.’ and i told august, ‘i will do it.’” the local reaction to jitney mirrored the experience udin had when he first read it. udin elaborates on the experience: when the play opened, the audience was only half full. but the word then went around that an august wilson play was opening. and it had the names of hill district characters, and streets, and locations. and it was funny as hell. and it was gripping dramatically. and the language of the characters was street language. it wasn’t cleaned up like we were accustomed to seeing on television. the language of the characters in august’s plays talked exactly the way we did on the street. and we had never seen that before. and we loved it. and by the third week the house was full. the shows were sold out. and by the time we had gotten to the fourth week, which is what our original commitment was, it took that long for the word to get around, and people demanded that the show be extended. and i said “august, i’m on my way to california, man. i can’t stay.” he said, “two more weeks. two more weeks.” so i gave him two more weeks. and the show finally closed, and i packed up and left pittsburgh for california in 1982. although udin was only gone from the hill district for a decade, both his and wilson’s lives continued to change in more dramatic ways than perhaps either could have predicted when their friendship began in earnest in the late 1960s, even as wilson ceased to belong to the hill district and began to belong more to the world. the hill district: late 1990s and early 2000s by the late 1990s, the steady decline of the hill district appeared to have peaked. many began to suggest the hill was showing signs of significant improvement. when asked about this perspective, udin demurs. he returned to the hill permanently in the 1990s, and his subsequent election to city council sparked some positive change. he worked to close some of the more notorious after-hours spots in the neighborhood, spearheaded improvements between the police and hill district residents (centered mostly on making officers more accountable for aggressive behavior), and worked in support of various other progressive causes. udin watched from afar as one of the hill district’s former residents, august wilson, became the most acclaimed american playwright of the late twentieth century. even as jitney became wilson’s first regional success in 1982, his national reputation was beginning to brew. at the same time udin inaugurated the role of becker in jitney, wilson’s b e l l : a f r o n t r o w s e a t : s a l a u d i n r e m e m b e r s a u g u s t w i l s o n a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 7 play ma rainey’s black bottom, which would prove to be his breakthrough success, had already been accepted at the prestigious eugene o’neill playwright’s conference. he had also written an early draft of fences, which would win wilson’s only tony award and the first of two pulitzer prizes. udin was privileged to read both nascent versions of ma rainey’s black bottom and fences, but after jitney, the two became, in udin words, “distant.” wilson’s profile skyrocketed, and he began what essentially became a life on the road. his plays became part of a workshop cycle wherein each was honed in regional productions throughout the country before finally premiering on broadway. subsequently, wilson returned less often to the hill district. udin’s connection with his friend continued through the playwright’s work. ever the reluctant performer, udin still found time to perform in fences, two trains running, the piano lesson, and ma rainey’s black bottom. udin distinctly remembers one of wilson’s visits to pittsburgh in 1999. the pittsburgh public library system honored wilson with a high school diploma in 1999, the first of its kind. at the ceremony, udin says, wilson “told the mayor, ‘i think sala udin should be the mayor.’” later, “we hung out in shadyside. we got drunk. and i have no idea how we got home.” this turned out to be the last time the two friends saw each other. august wilson died on october 2, 2005, less than a year after being diagnosed with liver cancer. the playwright was specific about his funeral arrangements, and he enlisted udin to help ensure his wishes be granted. before wilson died, udin received a call from wilson’s wife, constanza romero. he learned that before wilson died, “he left explicit instructions about who was to do what, what his funeral was to be like, and where he was to be buried.” udin was to serve as the emcee of the funeral and arrange for it to take place at st. paul’s cathedral, where many prominent pittsburgh catholics have been laid to rest over the years. however, the playwright also said, “i don’t want no catholic mass. i want a black funeral at st. paul’s cathedral.” but when the bishop of the church rejected that request, udin was forced to move the service to the soldier’s and sailor’s memorial hall, located on the campus of the university of pittsburgh. the rest of the playwright’s wishes went as requested. dwight andrews, a professor of music at emory who had composed the score for several wilson plays on broadway, delivered the eulogy. many prominent theater professionals and academics attended. just as udin appeared satisfied that his friend’s sendoff went as planned, something unexpected occurred that deserves repeating verbatim as udin recalls it: as we are wrapping up, i hear a horn backstage. and i figured, “oh damn. somebody who is using this space next is rehearsing while we are wrapping up.” so i sent somebody backstage to tell them to hold up until we were done. but the music kept playing. and then i recognized the tune. somebody was on a trumpet playing “danny boy.” i had no idea what was going on, and i was supposed to be in charge. and the music became louder. and out from backstage comes the trumpet player wynton marsalis. constanza had snuck him back there. he comes out blowing “danny boy.” there was not a dry eye in the room. and then at the end of “danny boy” he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a white handkerchief and starts waving it and starts playing “when the saints go marching in.” and he led everybody off stage, down through the audience, and to the casket. and the pall bearers took the casket up the aisle and out of the auditorium. marsalis led everybody from behind the casket, and everybody who had a handkerchief was waving their handkerchiefs, laughing and crying, as we left soldier’s and sailor’s memorial hall. this climactic moment was followed by a funeral procession through the hill district, as locals said goodbye to their most famous resident and favorite son. as the procession wound through streets udin and wilson had walked together as young men, people held up signs that read “we love you august” and “we miss you august,” coupled with others that bore the names of wilson’s plays. the funeral party finally went out to greenwood a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 8 cemetery, where generations of black pittsburghers are buried, including wilson’s mother, and laid the playwright to rest. yet wilson’s funeral was not the last time udin bonded with his friend. in 2010, udin found himself reprising the role of becker in jitney, the play he reluctantly helped wilson inaugurate in 1982. this time the performance was more personal. when he first played becker, udin jokes that the role required significant makeup and practice “learning how to walk like an old man.” in 2010, udin was actually older than how becker is written, and “i didn’t need no makeup in my hair, and i didn’t need no practice in how to walk like an old man.” beneath these humorous recollections, however, lay something far more serious. in a twist of fate that one might think could happen only in a piece of fiction that a writer such as wilson might pen, udin’s son patrice howze, “my baby,” was found dead on centre avenue, less than twenty-four hours after wilson’s funeral. he was murdered. udin says, “he had gotten into that drug life. the thug life. and the ultimate end that comes to so many visited him.” udin found himself again connecting with the father-son conflict at the heart of jitney, remembering the struggle between him and patrice during “most of his teenage years and young adult years, as i was trying to pull him out from the streets and from negativity, and he was determined to do what he wanted to do. and the conflict between patrice and i was so similar to the conflict between becker and booster that the play took on a much more personal meaning and deeper meaning.” when asked how all this affected his performance, udin says, “i cried real tears on the stage. and the line at the end of act one, when becker says to booster ‘you just another nigger on the street,’ was like a dagger to the heart.” the hill district 2018 on april 28, 2018, a cold, overcast day, the third annual august wilson block party commenced along bedford avenue, the same street wilson and udin roamed as children. for several years, various media reports have touted what appears to be a sustained revitalization of the hill district. udin expresses a reserved optimism. while a grocery store finally opened on centre avenue in 2013, udin points out it is not a major chain, expressing skepticism about its possibilities for success. the long-time activist was prescient: a few months after this interview, in march of 2019, the shop 'n save closed, rendering the hill district a food desert once again. when asked about reports celebrating the opening of a full-service pharmacy in the hill, udin points out that these stories are misleading, as the pharmacy is operated by duquesne university, with limited, inconvenient hours for many. and while housing has improved in the middle hill district, that change remains incremental at best. when asked if reports of the positive changes in the hill district distort the reality that still faces a host of problems that accompany most low socioeconomic communities comprised of mostly african americans, udin agreed. yet all that seemed far in the background as hundreds of residents celebrated what would have been august wilson’s seventy third birthday. udin says the event was “off the chain.” the event also featured the groundbreaking of the newly named august wilson house at 1727 bedford avenue, where wilson grew up with his six siblings. the building, already listed on the national register of historic places, will serve as an artist’s residence and cultural center once fully refurbished. also at the block party were members of the august wilson society, a group of academics and theater professionals dedicated to preserving the legacy of the playwright. the highlight of the festivities was the pittsburgh playwrights theatre company’s production of king hedley ii in the very backyard of the building wilson was raised some seventy years prior. sala udin, ever the reluctant performer, was to play stool pigeon, one of wilson’s famed “spectacle characters,” individuals who appear mentally unbalanced yet also possess seer-like wisdom. king hedley ii, set in 1985, is often noted as wilson’s darkest play, b e l l : a f r o n t r o w s e a t : s a l a u d i n r e m e m b e r s a u g u s t w i l s o n a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 9 one with an apocalyptic vision of the state of the african american community at this time in history. udin notes that this is the hardest of all the wilson characters he has tackled because of the play’s relentlessly bleak tone. “it was bad,” udin says with a chuckle, “but it wasn’t that bad.” unfortunately, bad weather canceled the opening weekend of the show and several performances in the coming weeks, but reviews of the productions that went on were positive. udin himself was pleased with the production. it seemed another example of what he had witnessed his whole life. that while forces may seek to drag down what those who live and work in the hill district try to accomplish, the final knockout blow still has not come. and it appears that blow cannot be delivered. for while august wilson may belong to the world, he still belongs to the hill district, and as sala udin has witnessed his entire life, both the plays and the neighborhood in which they are set possess an endurance that cannot be outrun. author bio dr. christopher bell is associate professor of english at the university of north georgia where he teaches courses in american literature, african american literature, and world drama. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� abstract keywords author bio august wilson journal v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 8 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 updates from the august wilson archive at pitt library system by dr. leah mickens and william daw august wilson project archivist & curator of the curtis theatre collection abstract dr. leah mickens and william daw provide an update on the august wilson archive acquired by the university of pittsburgh library in the fall of 2020. keywords updates, august wilson archive, grant, plans the university of pittsburgh library system staff was happy to share information with the editors of the august wilson journal regarding the acquisition of the august wilson archive in the spring 2021 issue. since that time, staff within archives & special collections (a&sc) have made considerable progress on the processing of the over 450 boxes in the archive and we wanted to give further updates and share some announcements regarding next year. dr. leah mickens was hired in march 2021 as the august wilson processing archivist. she has joined our staff after earning her mlis from the university of south carolina, columbia and her phd from boston university. dr. mickens has been tasked with the preliminary organization and description of the paper-based materials in the collection. dr. mickens spent several months engaged in an examination of the boxes containing the unprocessed materials in the august wilson archive. after this initial review, dr. mickens began working with the materials associated with wilson’s american century cycle plays, starting with seven guitars. the processing and arrangement of this segment of the archive has been the main priority for our staff in order to make this material available to researchers as soon as the collection opens. this material includes initial drafts, rehearsal reports, production notes, costume and set art, reviews, contracts, programs and multiple drafts of the script for each of the ten plays. other items of interest present in the collection include artwork drawn by wilson himself, artifacts, awards, born-digital documents, and a small number of stage props. work on jitney, the final american century cycle play to be processed, was completed in early august 2022. one of the interesting finds in the august wilson archive has been boxes full of notebooks (over 700!) containing to-do lists, dialogue ideas, plot outlines, poetry, brainstorms, and personal reflections. most of the notebooks are yellow legal pads, but there are also binders, spiral notebooks, notes written on scrap paper, and hotel writing pads. since the quality of the paper contained in many of these notebooks is quite poor, they pose a longterm preservation problem. we are in the process of creating high-quality facsimiles which will be made available to researchers so they can examine the contents without damaging the original artifacts. in addition to dr. mickens and other full-time a&sc staff members, there have also been several student employees and interns who have assisted with the project. among other tasks, these students have arranged wilson’s books, music, and audio-visual collections, sorting newspaper and magazine clippings, and reviewing born-digital files. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 8 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 hillman foundation grant in august 2022, the university of pittsburgh library system received a $1 million grant from the henry l. hillman foundation to not only support the work to prepare the archive to be open to the public, but to facilitate engaging the wider pittsburgh community with the materials contained in the archive. our plans involve inviting high school students, teachers, artists, and community residents to interact with the august wilson archive to produce new and creative works, such as exhibits, or to embed the archive in their teaching or artistic outlets. this funding supports hiring additional full-time staff to coordinate outreach efforts with the august wilson archive. we welcome ms. diael thomas as the inaugural august wilson outreach and engagement curator. plans for 2023 we are excited to share the news that the archive will become open for research in january 2023. further, we are planning to celebrate the opening of the august wilson archive in hillman library on the university of pittsburgh campus on friday, march 3, 2023. this event will be free and open to the public. leading up to the march 3rd celebration will be a week of both in-person and virtual programing co-presented by the university of pittsburgh library system, other pitt academic departments, and several local organizations. the timing of these events will also overlap with a production of seven guitars by university of pittsburgh stages on the pitt campus and the bi-annual colloquium of the august wilson society, which will be located at the august wilson african american cultural center in downtown pittsburgh. to learn more or register for these events, please watch our august wilson archive website for more information. author bios dr. leah mickens relocated to pittsburgh from her hometown of atlanta, georgia. dr. mickens has a ph.d. in religious studies from boston university, a master’s in library and information science with a concentration in archival studies from the university of south carolina, a master’s in digital media from the georgia institute of technology, and an undergraduate degree in international studies from oglethorpe university. william daw manages the performing arts collections within the university of pittsburgh library system’s archives & special collections. he has both an undergraduate degree in history and a master’s in library and information science with a concentration in archival studies from the university of pittsburgh. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://www.pitt.edu/pittwire/features-articles/hillman-grant-august-wilson-archive https://www.pitt.edu/pittwire/features-articles/hillman-grant-august-wilson-archive https://augustwilson.library.pitt.edu/ https://augustwilson.library.pitt.edu/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ dr. leah mickens and william daw provide an update on the august wilson archive acquired by the university of pittsburgh library in the fall of 2020. keywords author bios microsoft word roman david two trains running review v o l . 2 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 stage review of matrix theatre’s two trains running matrix theatre; los angeles, california march 1-3, 2019 directed by michelle shay by david román professor of english, american studies, and ethnicity, university of southern california in shay’s two trains running, each of the actors brought to life their character’s multi-layered psychological intensity.  david román abstract a review of two trains running by august wilson, staged at matrix theatre in los angeles, california from march 1 through march 3, 2019. keywords two trains running, august wilson, plays, sophina brown, american century cycle the actor and producer sophina brown plans to stage all ten plays of august wilson’s american century cycle in los angeles. two trains running is her second production in this process, and it follows a critically and commercially successful run of king hedley ii at the matrix theatre in 2018. brown intends to build a core audience that will be drawn to experience the cycle in its entirety, all the while allowing audiences to experience each production individually and on its own terms. brown has chosen not to stage the plays in succession either by the decade they represent or the order in which they were written. despite the recent revivals of wilson’s work at the mark taper forum (ma rainey’s black bottom, joe turner’s come and gone) and the pasadena playhouse (fences, jitney), two of the premiere venues in the los angeles area, and the fall 2019 taper production of ruben santiago-hudson’s celebrated 2017 broadway revival of jitney and a noise within theatre’s fall 2019 production of gem of the ocean, brown sees a need to produce wilson’s american century cycle and feels that los angeles would appreciate her efforts. so far, she has been right. both king hedley ii and two trains running were hits, extending their initial limited runs and generating rave reviews from los angeles critics. the commitment to stage the cycle stems from brown and not the theatre itself, which often partners with other artists to david roman a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 present their work. it is sophia brown who will guide the cycle’s completion in los angeles over the next several years. one of the major differences between brown’s productions and those in mainstream venues is scale. the matrix is a 99-seat theatre located in the center of hollywood. it has a 40-foot wide thrust stage that promotes an intimacy that is secured by the audience seating, which is only four aisles deep. another major difference is access: tickets are reasonably priced and discounts for students, seniors, and groups are generous. brown also does extensive community outreach to insure diverse audiences. all of this is to say that her audiences might not be the same audiences at the larger regional theatres producing wilson’s work concurrently. and while there is, of course, some overlap, there is enough interest in wilson’s work to allow for la’s theatres to develop unique audiences tailored to their mission and wilson’s place within it. that said, the matrix production of two trains running shared with these and other productions of wilson’s work over the years, and especially in the revivals since his death in 2005, a basic drive to honor wilson’s legacy by offering stagings steeped in naturalistic sets and costumes, and real, complex characterization. everything is meant to service the historical plausibility of wilson’s dramaturgy. michelle shay, a wilson actor who received a tony nomination for her performance in seven guitars, directed this production. (shay also directed the 2018 matrix production of king hedley ii.) shay joins other prominent wilson actors such as ruben santiago-hudson and phylicia rashad who were also original cast members of wilson’s broadway premieres to make the transition to directing his work. they are the immediate heirs to the playwright’s canon, and their previous affiliations with his work credentialize them as directors of his plays. these directors (and some of their prominent colleagues such as kenny leon and marion mcclinton) follow the naturalistic impulses of lloyd richards, who set the standard for a wilson production by casting strong actors working together as an ensemble to tell the specific story of the play. these “second-generation” wilson directors---or post-wilson directors---refuse any deliberate interpretation other than to serve as surrogates for wilson’s vision. the results are fully respectful and artistically sophisticated productions. in shay’s two trains running, each of the actors brought to life their character’s multilayered psychological intensity. the production was designed to return us to memphis lee’s hill district pittsburgh diner in 1969. while memphis (montae russell) and risa (nija okoro) remained the center of the play, the diner’s regular customers never felt extraneous. holloway, beautifully performed by adolph ward, rarely moved from his seat, as if his calming presence was a non-negotiable certainty in this period of social upheaval and change. despite the actor’s thinness and frailty, holloway was monumental in his stature. while the other men busily moved in and out of memphis’s diner, holloway and risa did so less freely. he chose to sit; she was more constrained and tentative in her comings and goings. risa’s main movement was to and from the diner’s kitchen, which was behind a counter that took up much of the stage. while the men moved readily in and out of the space, suggesting the emerging opportunities available to them in the late 1960s despite the rampant systemic racism of the period, risa literally could only step back. the only time she moved forward and closest to the audience—center stage, in fact—was to reveal the selfinflicted scars on her legs. in this one simple scene, shay and okoro stage risa’s entire character. yes, she has a story, but it is hers and hers alone to tell even if the men already know if it. john iacovelli, a frequent wilson scenic designer, created the meticulously historically accurate set. the set was composed of a period cigarette machine and jukebox, art decoinspired hanging light fixtures, a glass block placed over the diner’s windows, red stools and diner tables, and most remarkably, a stunning wall of framed black and white photographs of historical black figures who gained notoriety beginning in the 1950s, figures relevant and contemporary to the characters on stage. these images of muhammad ali, nat king cole, r o m a n : s t a g e r e v i e w o f m a t r i x t h e a t r e ’ s t w o t r a i n s r u n n i n g a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 ella fitzgerald, and martin luther king among others—as well as those of local pittsburgh personalities—conveyed the values of the community. the diner became the repository of this shared history, deepening memphis’ s claim of the property’s value. these photographs provided memphis and the others a visual archive of respectability and the evidence of its achievement. rather than place the characters in contrast to these figures, shay and iacovelli embedded the actors portraying them in this iconic roster of pride. the actors performed the play sandwiched on the small matrix stage between this wall of notable figures and the audience in the theatre. whether it was through black icons of sports, politics, and the arts of the 1950s overseeing the play’s characters in 1969, or through the production itself promoting august wilson as a figure deserving his own place on this portrait gallery of african american cultural heritage, the past was ever present as a marker of black resilience. this reverence for the legacy of august wilson—and that of lloyd richards, too—has resulted in beautifully nuanced productions of the ten-play cycle, including sophina brown’s first-rate matrix productions. and yet the political and artistic choice to stage naturalist interpretations of wilson’s work, while securing the playwright’s canonical status, limits our idea of an august wilson play. in staging realist authenticity, the productions run the risk of eventually appearing as costume dramas, conventional perhaps even predictable theatrical experiences. perhaps it is time to open up wilson’s spectacular achievement to a new generation of black directors who excel in radical deconstruction and innovative theatricality. i am thinking of such accomplished directors as robert o’hara, niegel smith, patricia mcgregor, kamilah forbes, and kwama kwei-armah, among many others, who are known for creating theatrical and innovative productions of new contemporary black plays as well as american classics. i am not suggesting that we replace the traditional with something radically contrasting. instead, why not indeed have two trains running----the local and the express, the conventional and the experimental—and invite twenty-first century artists and audiences along for the ride. work cited wilson, august. two trains running. the august wilson century cycle. theatre communications group. 2007. author bio david roman is a professor of english and american studies at the university of southern california. his research focuses on theatre and performance studies, american studies, latina/o studies, and queer studies. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 4 articles in this journal are licensed under a this journal is published by the d-scribe digital publishing program adolphus ward as holloway dorian missick and nija a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 0 d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 all photos by tiffany judkins articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. adolphus ward as holloway nija okoro as sterling and risa 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) tiffany judkins commons attribution 4.0 international license. as part of its microsoft word green, omiyemi artisia reframing the blues as a performance strategy in after august final v o l .   2       |   s u m m e r   2 0 2 0       i s sn  2577 ‐7432   ( on l i ne )   doi   1 0 . 5 1 95 /aw j . 2 020 . 58   augu s tw i l son . p i t t . e du     1  reframing the blues as a performance strategy in  after august  by omiyẹmi artisia green  associate professor of theatre and africana studies, william & mary                 while affirming the existence of protest expression within the blues, maley makes a  well‐appreciated point that such retorts are generally more covert and coded with  allusions, innuendo, and misdirection that are only accessible to the initiated.   omiyẹmi artisia green      abstract   an  analysis  and  review  of  patrick maley’s  after  august  regarding  the  topic  of  blues  and  how  the  subject is used in a variety of methods associated with august wilson’s american century cycle and  other related works.  keywords  august wilson, american century cycle, after august, blues, identity crafting, patrick maley      after august  is  structured  in  two parts:  1) blues dramaturgy and 2) performance,  identity, and reimagining american drama with an equal number of chapters in each half.  in the first chapter, “blues and the social human” maley clarifies the philosophical system  at work in the blues of which wilson so often spoke of in relation to the american century  cycle. taking up the task of peeling back the aesthetic layers of early blues  formations, maley defines the tradition as a performance strategy for self‐ definition,  carefully  dismantling  misperceptions  that  the  formation,  which  developed  in  the  tensions  of  the  post‐reconstruction  south,  is  merely  a  response  to  jim  crow  oppression.  drawing  on  a  robust  interdisciplinary  archive  of  blues,  literary  and  performance  scholars,  as  well  as  activists, he  theorizes  rather  that  the blues  is  an  ethos of black  selfhood,  a  mindset,  and  attitude,  cultivated  into  an  aesthetic  and  purposed  to  develop  “personal  [and]  communal  identity”  (19).  like  wilson’s attention on the complexities of those impacted by history rather  than history itself and his social project in developing the identity and spiritual disposition  of black americans,  the blues  is  an ontology  and  a manner of  locating  and  expressing  a  complex humanity  rather  than  a documentation  of  responses  to dehumanization. while  affirming  the  existence  of  protest  expression  within  the  blues,  maley  makes  a  well‐ appreciated  point  that  such  retorts  are  generally more  covert  and  coded with  allusions,  innuendo, and misdirection that are only accessible to the initiated.    in  “i am  the blues”: august wilson as bluesman,” maley contends  that wilson  is  not just a playwright whose dramaturgy was birthed from a matrifocal blues womb, his own  mother, and his blood’s memory, but that he  is  in fact a bluesman who performed a blues  expression—theater—in  his  identity  crafting.  that  is,  in  contemplation  of  20th  century  omiyẹmi   artisia green  a u g u s t   w i l s o n   j o u r n a l   v o l .   2   |   s u m m e r   2 0 2 0       augu s tw i l son . p i t t . e du     doi   1 0 . 5 1 95 /aw j . 2 020 . 58   i s sn  2577 ‐7432   ( on l i ne )    2  forms of oppression and  injustice against himself, his mother, and the dehumanization of  black americans more broadly, wilson’s impulse was to make a “blues art” that would serve  to (re)construct black american identities and notions of community in order to facilitate  self‐actualization. moving beyond usual discussions of influence, themes, and blues music  within  the  cycle, maley  gives  necessary  critical  treatment  to wilson’s  untheorized  solo  performance,  how  i  learned what  i  learned  and  demonstrates  how wilson  performs,  through  that  work,  “a  blues  sensibility”  that  is  representative  of  his  dramaturgy  in  the  american  century  cycle. his  estimation  is  that  through writing  and  performing how  i  learned, wilson 1) demonstrates how similar he is to the  characters of the cycle—men and  women of dignity and purpose—whose “becoming relies on an antiphonal relationship with  others  in the community” (57), and 2) embodies a core principle of the blues aesthetic as  characterized by kalamu ya salaam1. thus, a blues persons’ social becoming is in part, due  to the performance of their challenges and demonstration of their values, and the resultant  community sanctioning of their humanity (43).    in  the  third  chapter,  “august  wilson’s  blues,”  maley  departs  from  existing  scholarship which largely considers blues as music applied in specific plays or as a revisionist  lens through which to rewrite or reinvestigate history more broadly and continues to opine  that  the  blues  is  an  organizing metaphysical  ethos  that  transcends music. moving  from  wilson’s  embodiment  of  a  blues  sensibility  in  the  previous  chapter,  here  maley  first  proposes that the pre‐cycle plays (jitney, ma rainey, and fences) allowed wilson to develop  his  blues  sensibilities,  a  dramaturgy which  crystalizes  in  his  signature  play,  joe  turner’s  come and gone. maley uses  this  text  as a  zenith by which  to measure blues  elements  in  other areas of the cycle. he introduces a new frame, the community ratified blues griot, to  other  distinctive  elements  of  a wilsonian  play—the  composition  of  the  ensemble,  its  character driven plot, elements of spiritual realism, musicality, and the individualistic and  misguided  warrior.  the  latter, maley  argues,  is  the  antithesis  of  the  blues  griot,  whose  understanding  of  self  is  in  relationship  to  others  in  their  community. while  it  is widely  known  that  wilson  respected  the  warrior  spirit,  maley  suggests  that  this  character  disposition  challenges  the blues  community wilson  crafts  through his blues dramaturgy.  what is true in this perspective (and no doubt wilson was aware of this as well) is that it is  the  deep  sense  of  individuality  that  becomes  problematic  for  the  warrior,  not  their  willingness  to  fight or  their profound  sense of dignity and nobility. maley concludes  this  chapter  arguing  for  the  antiphonal  and double‐voiced nature within  the dialogue of  any  wilsonian play. thus, while signifying on the western dramatic form and performing black  humanity, maley suggests that wilson simultaneously traverses the veil of the stage, levying  indictments and explicit social critique against white audiences.    in  the book’s second half, maley moves back and  forth  in  time placing wilson  in  conversation with predecessors and descendants of american drama such as eugene o’neill,  tennessee williams, katori hall, tarell alvin mccraney,  as well  as suzan‐lori parks  and  dominique morisseau.  in  “god a’mighty,  i be lonesomer’n ever!” maley  reiterates  a  key  feature of black theater  and wilson’s blues dramaturgy—that  community  is  essential  to  one’s selfhood. in critiquing o’neill and his oeuvre, maley illuminates an often overlooked  aspect  of  o’neill’s  dramaturgy—whiteness  as  a  “self‐sustaining  individualism”  and  a  paradigm  under  which  those  seeking  to  become,  look  inward  rather  than  towards  the  community  in order  to self‐actualize  (113). while concurrently casting a  shadow on  those  within wilson’s cycle who suffered from an “ethos of whiteness” (114), maley calls attention  to the same character flaw which led to the downfall of o’neill’s protagonists, often either  clueless to this dimension of their character or unwilling to acknowledge the need for others  in any project of identity crafting. a refreshing point in this chapter is maley’s decentering of                                                              1  american poet, author, filmmaker, and teacher from the 9th ward of new orleans.  g r e e n :   r e f r a m i n g   t h e   b l u e s   a s   a   p e r f o r m a n c e   s t r a t e g y   i n   a f t e r   a u g u s t   a u g u s t  w i l s o n   j o u r n a l       |       v o l .   2       |       s u m m e r   2 0 2 0       i s sn  2577 ‐7432   ( on l i ne )   doi   1 0 . 5 1 95 /aw j . 2 020 . 58   augu s tw i l son . p i t t . e du     3  the  tendency,  particularly  in  theatre  to  view  whiteness  as  some  universal  amoeba  or  neutralized middle ground, instead of the racial category that it is.     still looking in the rear view mirror, maley moves further into the 20th century for a  comparative  analysis  between wilson  and tennessee williams  in  “laws  of  silence don’t  work.” in this chapter, maley advances earlier arguments of the similarity between the two  writers  and  the  need  to  further  juxtapose  them  as  opposed  to  limiting  comparisons  of  wilson’s  oeuvre  to  other  black  writers  such  as  amiri  baraka,  from  whom wilson  was,  agreeably, different. maley argues that a dominant theme for both playwrights is the tension  between their character’s self‐assessment and the social spheres in which they operate. yet,  in maley’s estimation there is a “radical lack of community” in williams’ work (144). where  williams’ men are always running to the metaphorical closet for safety (rarely private or a  refuge), maley  asserts  that wilson’s men,  even  the  “culturally  fragmented,”  always have  a  community willing to help them through their identity crafting.      the book concludes with “august wilson’s legacy and  its limits,” which  is  in my  assessment, a much more productive exploration than the two preceding chapters. looking  primarily at  two contemporary dramatists—katori hall and tarell alvin mccraney, maley  argues that both carry on wilson’s legacy through their social identity crafting and dramatic  contributions, providing a more comprehensive portrait of black america. they pick up the  wilsonian ball in their blues dramaturgy (hometown focus, use of large ensembles, reliance  on  a  communal  ideology  etc.),  but  carry  it  further  down  the  field  in  their  extensive  treatment  of women  and/or  queer  black men,  notable  absent  explorations  in  the cycle.  maley argues that for hall’s blues women, failure is a site of possibility and redirection, but it  is a  formidable project of self‐crafting because hall’s women face defeats of extremely tall  orders—murder,  rape, hiv,  and  drug  addiction  among  them.  yes,  as  he  notes,  in  some  regards  the  losses  of hall’s women  are  similar  to  those  of wilson’s  and  in  others, more  radical. however, maley seems to imply that the opportunities for female self‐crafting in the  american  century  cycle  (in  the  face  of  conventionality,  rampant  individualism,  and  “cultural  fragmentation”)  is  less  difficult  because  they  “are  immersed  in  their  social  performances” with  resolution  despite  lack  of  recognition  of  their  humanity  (186).  i  am  hesitant  to agree  that self‐crafting  for wilson’s women  is  less difficult  than  it  is  for hall’s  (and we must be careful here as we are comparing a multiplicity of  identities among  the  women of  these  two writers).  i  think we often miss and/or misread  some of  the  identity  crafting practices within the social performances wilson’s women play.    similar  to  tennessee williams, mccraney  dramatizes  explorations  of  unratified  queerness,  an  aspect  cursorily  suggested  in ma  rainey’s  black  bottom,  but  is  generally  speaking, conspicuously absent  in  the cycle. noting  the  similarity between  their plays  in  “construction,  habits,  prejudices  [and…]  language”  (188), maley  contends  that mccraney  carves out a new terrain in the legacy of wilson’s blues dramaturgy with his focus on black  queer  identities  (and  i would add,  through his use of an explicit africanist dramaturgy, a  feature  that was much more  latent  and  creolized  through  blues  aesthetics  and western  dramatic elements in wilson’s work).    maley  is  to  be  commended.  after  august  does  what wilson  certainly  was  not  obligated  to do nor perhaps  could  articulate  any  further  than he often did  in  interviews,  given his limitations. the text—particularly its first half—expands our understanding of the  blues as philosophical system and a performance strategy  through which  to craft  identity  and  find  freedom. for me, the  least engaging aspect of the work was maley’s comparative  treatment of o’neill and williams via a wilsonian lens as i was unconvinced, particularly in  the  chapter  on williams  that  such  an  investigation  was  truly  of  consequence—in  this  particular book—especially given  that neither o’neill nor williams bore any  influence on  wilson and vice versa. yet, undoubtedly critics, scholars, and audiences will find these two  chapters  useful. maley’s  theorization  of  their  work  and  partially  their  lived  experience,  through wilson’s blues sensibilities, highlights the dramatic limitations of both playwrights.  a u g u s t   w i l s o n   j o u r n a l   v o l .   2   |   s u m m e r   2 0 2 0       augu s tw i l son . p i t t . e du     doi   1 0 . 5 1 95 /aw j . 2 020 . 58   i s sn  2577 ‐7432   ( on l i ne )    4  but  perhaps  of  more  magnitude  is  the  credence  such  theorization  gives  to  aesthetic  methodologies  of  black  theater,  namely  the  importance  and  function  of  community.  notwithstanding, after august makes an  important contribution  to wilson studies.  it  is a  rigorously  researched,  well‐written,  and  deft  interdisciplinary  investigation  of  one  of  america’s most important black dramatists and his legacy.   works cited  maley,  patrick.  after  august:  blues, august wilson  and american drama. charlottesville:  university of virginia press, 2019. 202 pp.  author bio  omiyẹmi artisia green is associate professor of theatre and africana studies, a w. taylor  reveley, iii interdisciplinary faculty fellow, and director of the program in africana studies  at william & mary. she is a director, dramaturg, and interdisciplinary scholar.            articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.  this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its   d‐scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press.  august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 constanza romero on august wilson's legacy: past, present, and future interview by sandra g. shannon professor emerita, howard university i think he deserves the best talent, the best funding, the best production values that this country has to offer, alongside all of the other greats that have been produced, and that also goes for theatre and film. − constanza romero abstract the following interview occurred on tuesday, december 4, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. est (2:00 p.m. pst). dr. sandra shannon, professor emerita, howard university, conducted the interview from washington, dc, on behalf of the journal. constanza romero, director of the august wilson estate and august wilson's widow, spoke from seattle, washington. keywords constanza romero, sandra shannon, wilsonian warriors, yale school of drama, august wilson estate ss: good afternoon again,1 constanza. cr: thank you. good afternoon, sandra. ss: on behalf of the august wilson society and the soon-to-be-launched august wilson journal, i'm honored that you approved this interview so that you can add your voice to our inaugural issue of the august wilson journal. the august wilson journal identifies itself as the first peer-reviewed, open access, online scholarly journal promoting the study, teaching, and performance of mr. wilson's work. the journal invites scholarship on august wilson, including literary analyses, biographical research, performance studies, historical research, interviews bibliography, notes and book / performance reviews. we are so excited about this upcoming spring 2019 debut. my questions today center around august's literary legacy and, of course, this call is being recorded. cr: yes. 1 professor shannon had contacted ms. romero just prior to the live call to verify readiness. that's why dr. shannon says, "good afternoon, again," on the recording. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 ss: as wilson's wife and current executor of the august wilson estate, can you talk about some of the initiatives that you have overseen--or have been part of--to preserve august's legacy and, on a scale from one to five, five being the highest, how are things going with that? cr: oh my god, that's a hard thing [laughter]. you're asking me to grade myself on my work. let's see what grade i give myself at the end of the interview. after august's passing in 2005, a lot of people came together and really pooled their forces to have radio golf be performed on broadway, thus completing all ten plays of august to be performed in new york and those ten plays being, of course, the american century cycle. then that same wave of energy went into the kennedy center reading,2 and i don't know if you attended that or not. ss: i've attended several of them, yes. cr: it was what i call the "wilsonian warriors" coming together and celebrating and at least saying august's words and marking them on the stage of the kennedy center. it was amazing.3 then we've also taken joe turner's come and gone, fences, and jitney to broadway and for those three plays, i was definitely involved in those, more or less, in a participatory role than others. as you have already stated, we have published all ten plays of the american century cycle. many of the productions of august's plays i do spend at least a little time with, thinking who's directing them, who's in them. several directors have come up and have made a name for themselves directing august wilson. i find fantastic. the most recent is brandon dirden who has been directing his plays at the two river theatre (red bank, nj).4 there's been a couple of other directors, including phylicia rashad and a couple others, that i have sort of said, "hey, how about directing?" and sort of open the door to have them say, "hmm, let me try it." it's very exciting. ss: like ruben [santiago-hudson] has, as well. cr: yes, ruben too. so there's actors that have. also stephen mckinley henderson has been directing and so actors have sort of had a little step forward to go that step . . . that much closer to august's work, and especially since they have been able to be the people who were with him in the room. so, to tack on that kind of wisdom is really terrific. and then . . . what else have we done? we've just completed the first round of compiling all of august's papers into one archive that's being housed at a very state-of-the-art facility here in the seattle area. we have published a book on august's monologues for the august wilson 2 from march through april of 2008 the kennedy center in washington d.c. staged readings by 41 actors of all ten plays of wilson’s american century cycle. 3 the “wilsonian warriors” (sometimes “wilson soldiers”) are not an official or recognized group or organization. the term designates theatrical and film actors, directors, artists, producers, and technicians who have participated in multiple or significant wilson productions and projects, and who thus represent a significant body of knowledge and experience regarding wilson’s ouevre. this includes such actors (unless otherwise noted) as mary alice, dwight andrews (musical director), anthony chisholm, stephen mckinley henderson, wali jamal (who has appeared in the entire american century cycle), james earl jones, delroy lindo, phylicia rashad, michele shay, mark clayton southers (director), courtney vance, and denzel washington (actor and director). 4 brandon j. dirden, american actor and director, has portrayed boy willie in wilson’s the piano lesson and booster in jitney and has directed wilson’s seven guitars and king hedley ii. dr. sandra shannon ms. constanza romero s h a n n o n : c o n s t a n z a r o m e r o o n a u g u s t w i l s o n ' s l e g a c y : p a s t , p r e s e n t , a n d f u t u r e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 monologue competition and other purposes for students and professionals. i have been teaching. this is something that is very close to my heart. i have been going to yale to teach the first years just for a small section of time, but while they are working an august wilson project. and the reason i'm doing that is because they are young designers who may not have had an opportunity to design for august wilson before, and i think that me sharing with them all of the little details that are important within the text of august wilson, as opposed to them just designing something because it's a project at school or using the same research as everybody else. i really, really have them get in touch with who they are as designers and what they can add to the work. so, i've been doing that, and i, of course, was involved with the movie fences and participated in the national promotional tour. i travel still too many parts of the us and london in the uk representing the estate, and what i wanted to also underline was that at this point it's 13 years later and a lot of the initiatives, a lot of the projects that i am thinking about are things that are a little bit more removed from the time after august's passing. all these people came together and rallied to say, "let's not forget august wilson." and so, now, i feel that my mission is a little bit more abstract. there are legacy projects which i can speak about later, and i need people behind me to be able to get these things off the ground. but managing august's legacy and estate, i've never run out of ideas. i never think, "oh, my gosh, what else is there to do with august's work? it is infinite.” ss: wonderful. well, i will venture to give you a grade, constanza. [laughter]. based upon all that i know you have done and are involved in right now, you will get a five plus. cr: oh, sandra, that's lovely [laughter]. ss: i'm sure your classes are wait-listed at yale. cr: they're for the graduate students, so they're all there. ss: yeah, what is the title of that book you referenced that you compiled . . . on monologues? cr: oh yeah, the title of that book. it was printed by samuel french. it's called dangerous music: the monologues of august wilson.5 ss: available on amazon? cr: i'm sure it is. ss: okay, great. i'll take a look at it. thank you so much for that. over the years, august's critically acclaimed plays have had several names. i've seen several names. they've been called the pittsburgh cycle, the august wilson century cycle, and the american century cycle. which name does the estate endorse and why? cr: well, just yesterday i wrote on a piece of paper "august wilson's american century cycle." but truly, i am the one who has been really standing 100% behind the name "the american century cycle," and i feel very strongly about this because, first of all, any story of 5 https://www.samuelfrench.com/s/62503/dangerous-music-the-american-century-cyclemonologues-a-tool-for-actors a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 the oppressed as it existed in august's plays, stories about oppression. any story about the oppressed is also a story about the oppressor. ss: yes. cr: these are american stories. these are an incredible canon of work that touches so many pieces of the 20th century. therefore, in its life in pittsburgh for those nine plays and life in chicago for ma rainey's black bottom . . . that small town [of pittsburgh] represents all of america. another reason i feel strongly about naming it the american century cycle is because, august, many times, was . . . he read somewhere in an article that he was one of the best "african american playwrights," and i know that that kind of got to him a little bit because he really wanted . . . and he aimed to be one of america's best playwrights, and i think that he is and his work proves it. ss: absolutely. i'm sure you're constantly bombarded with questions about access to august's work. what goes into your decisions to grant or deny access to wilson's plays by producers, scholars, or other interested parties. what are some of your criteria? cr: well, i don't really have criteria yet. most of his archive is here in seattle. i mean, there's little bits like programs and little things like that scattered all around the country, i'm sure. but the bulk of it we have here. i granted very limited access to some of august's papers to a gentleman by the name of laurence glasco,6 because he's an academic from pittsburgh, and he's writing a book on august as a young man . . . about august as he lived in pittsburgh . . . as he lived and grew in pittsburgh. but i like to first, more than anything, i'd really like to get an official biography together so that we can use a lot of the material . . . we have so much rich material to put together that official biography. the papers . . . i just don't feel like they should be open, especially for people that are writing unauthorized biographies of august wilson. ss: i wonder who you have in mind [laughter].7 in april, of course, we made that announcement. what has transpired since then? have you begun to organize that effort? cr: well, i've been . . . yes, i have been asking around for somebody to write this book with. it's very difficult. of course, i want it to be someone who is an african american and i'm not saying that there's no african american writers, but what i am saying is that it has to be somebody...just the right person and, so far, that person hasn't appeared to me. i have been searching with the help of my estate agent at william morris [william morris agency]. her name is susan weaving, and every time we come up with a possibility or an idea, we pursue it, but it doesn't really lead to just the right person, but i know they are out there. but at the same time, i am jotting down, every day--little bit by little bit--little things that i feel are important for the biography. so when it is a go, i really want it to be a real go. ss: understood, understood. can you share some of the details about your own professional background and award-winning work as costume designer? 6 associate professor of history at the university of pittsburgh 7 on february 26, 2017, the new york times ran an article announcing that patti hartigan, theater critic for the boston globe, was under contract to write a biography of august wilson with the "full cooperation" of constanza romero (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/26/books/patti-hartigan-august-wilson-biography.html). however, at the august wilson society 2018 colloquium, held at the august wilson center in pittsburgh, pa, april 26-29, constanza romero announced that the hartigan biography was not authorized and that she (ms. romero) would be handling the biography herself, with the help of a yet-to-be identified professional writer, preferably an african american writer. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/26/books/patti-hartigan-august-wilson-biography.html� s h a n n o n : c o n s t a n z a r o m e r o o n a u g u s t w i l s o n ' s l e g a c y : p a s t , p r e s e n t , a n d f u t u r e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 5 cr: oh my gosh. ss: you did a fabulous presentation in pittsburgh.8 when the conference was over, i realized i was on stage, so i didn't get to see the whole presentation. but can you talk about some of the projects that you're currently involved in and how you balance your work as mother, estate executor, and costume designer--and is there room for you to put on just one more hat? cr: [laughter] well, there's always room for one more hat, especially for costume designer. ss: no . . . no pun intended. cr: no pun intended, of course. yes, my background is very much steeped in the arts. my dad was an artist and is still an artist; he’s still alive. i had lots of color and vibrancy around me all the time when i was little, and i always knew that i was going to be an artist of some kind. i studied art. i was going to be an art major, not really knowing what my future medium was going to be, but up until my early 20s, i just knew i was going to be an artist. i was living in amsterdam at the time, and i started to see a little bit of theater, and i caught the bug. i came back to the united states and said, "i need to work in collaborative art" because i'm a collaborative person. i like to talk about ideas; i like to have a deadline. so that's how i started to study design and i ended up at the yale school of drama and that's how i met august wilson. the projects that i have designed in the american century cycle have curiously been the early ones. not necessarily all of them on broadway, but i have designed gem of the ocean, ma rainey, the piano lesson, seven guitars, fences and a very small production of jitney in new jersey. those are the plays of august that i've designed. ss: do you have a favorite among those? cr: gosh, i probably have two favorites. one is the piano lesson because that's the show i was designing when i met august wilson, and it was so magical for me to hear the inside stories . . . the ideas from the inside of the plays through august wilson. ss: right. cr: by getting to know him. then my other favorite is seven guitars. it was the first play that he wrote while we were together here in seattle. ss: oh, okay. cr: and i just feel that i know all those characters. ss: yeah. cr: because august would both quote them and speak about them always while we were here, and it was a very magical journey for me to have gotten to see the play from its very conception to the end. so, i think that's why those two are my favorites. 8 the august wilson society 2018 colloquium in pittsburgh, pa, at the august wilson center included on april 27 the plenary session “a conversation with constanza romero,” moderated by sandra shannon. she focused on the collaborative process of designing costumes for wilson’s plays and on her role as executor of the august wilson estate and papers. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 6 ss: wow. cr: but let me see . . . i have been doing a little less designing recently, and i think it's because i feel so much that my work with the estate and with the legacy of august wilson is so important, and i feel that there is so much to do. however, next year (2019), i will design one show and that's here in seattle, so i can stay close to my daughter, because you're right, i am also a mom. and no matter how old your kids get, you're destined for a lifetime of watching over them. [laughter] cr: yes, indeed. i think another reason why i haven't been designing as much is because i do want other hats. i just want to be involved in producing some of these plays and making decisions that are exciting and fresh. i also have been wearing another hat, which is translator for one of august's plays. we're having a reading here in seattle . . . joe turner's come and gone in spanish with latino actors and i am directing that reading. ss: oh, wow. cr: speaking of hats . . . [laughter] ss: translator! oh, my goodness. you're quite busy and doing a wonderful job. now i remember in the documentary, you were talking about august's idiosyncrasies as a writer, like circling his desk. cr: yeah. ss: can you share any other interesting things . . . rituals, per se? did he ever ask you to be a sounding board or to proofread? cr: seven guitars was first play that i call a "baby play." i saw it in the baby play form. and when he showed it to me, it was like "hmmm." he hadn't put in all his weighty, heavy . . . heavyweight monologue. he hadn't filled it up with the august wilson muscle that a lot of the plays have. so, i thought, "this is an august wilson play?" but i realized immediately. right after that, i said, "this play has just been born. i get it. it will grow and is going to become one of the masterpieces in august's canon." and it did. ss: you felt that early on, huh? cr: yeah, yeah. ss: oh, wow. cr: what was it? let’s see. it was his sixth play or fifth play. i can't remember.9 9 published in 1995, seven guitars is technically wilson's seventh play, in written order (see "list of august wilson plays" at the end of this interview). however, jitney is sometimes not counted in that progression, as it was written in 1979 and then re-written extensively in 1996. so, if ms. romero is counting from ma rainey, she would be remembering seven guitars as august's sixth play, as written. it was the fifth or the sixth play. so, i had already seen fences. i had already seen the piano lesson. i s h a n n o n : c o n s t a n z a r o m e r o o n a u g u s t w i l s o n ' s l e g a c y : p a s t , p r e s e n t , a n d f u t u r e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 7 had already seen joe turner's come and gone and jitney, so i knew it was going to get to that level. ss: great. cr: another one of the things that he did was--i don't know if i spoke about it in the documentary--but he worked really late into the night and into the early hours of the morning, so it was always while i was sleeping. ss: yes. cr: so, i would wake up and see a whole bunch more, like a monologue written, two monologues written, another twist in the story. i would see that, and i would say, "when did he do that? it was like, seamless." ss: i guess the muses come out at night. cr: the muses came out at night, exactly. and another thing that he did was, when he finished a play, he would clutch it really close to him, as though it was this precious child he had just given birth to. ss: oh, my goodness. cr: i think he also knew, being a writer, everything springs from the writer. he also knew that, once anyone else read it, it was going to become the property also of other people, like this is going to become the work of the director. this is going to become the work of the actors. this is going to become the work of the designers . . . even the ushers, so he sort of protected it for a little while, and he would carry it around with him. ss: oh, that is precious. i know i've not heard that. i can understand it, as well. cr: yes. ss: many people seem surprised that in addition to writing poetry and plays, august experimented with other genres. can you talk about some of these little-known writing projects and do you have any access to any of these forays into other genres? cr: yeah, yeah. i mean, we have everything. i think that what you mean is maybe early on in his career, he wrote museum plays for the museum of science, the science museum in minneapolis. he had little vignettes and those are really precious. he, of course, also did some drawings. his drawings were mostly done with pastels, because he loved that medium. he was a very prolific drawer. he mainly drew characters and people that were very distinct, and i always thought he was drawing people from his plays . . . people from the world of his plays. he didn't necessarily draw one character, but people from the world of his plays. then he also wrote some short stories while i was with him here in seattle for a charity called bedtime stories. i don't know if you know about that. ss: no. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 8 cr: it was for several different writers that were local. they would all get together and read these bedtime stories that had certain themes and his friend, charles johnson, got him involved in that and it was called "bedtime stories" and it was a charity for adult literacy.10 ss: no, i hadn't heard about that. cr: yeah. ss: i had heard about the four minute plays for the dramatist guild,11 but i had not heard of this. cr: right, right. ss: interesting. bedtime stories, huh? cr: bedtime stories. they still do it but, of course, we're not involved in it any more. ss: august often shared that he had not read and, in some instances, chose not to read certain canonical texts, such as hansberry's raisin, miller's death of a salesman, what do you think was behind this admission? cr: he was asked, many times, the question, “when you were growing up in pittsburgh hill district, did you see an old guy playing an old trumpet? or . . . they would not give him the credit for his incredible imagination and incredible story-writing skills, and that got under his skin, for sure. so, it was important for him to say, "no, i have not read death of a salesman or a raisin in the sun,” because fences comes from that same mythological, epic style of telling a man's life. but it is so different. it's so different a story. the story of african americans and how they deal with the american dream. ss: right, right. cr: and all of those stories, a raisin in the sun, death of a salesman, and fences are about the american dream, but told from totally different points of view. i think it was important for august to say, "i have an imagination. i have the power of invention, and all men stand equal in front of a white piece of paper." [laughter] ss: wow. i'm writing that down, even as you speak. that's great. cr: i just thought of it. ss: did you really? but he also admitted to having read or having seen performances of athol fugard's sizwe banzi is dead and phillip hayes dean's sty of the blind pig and ed bullins’s the taking of miss janie. there were some works that he proudly admitted to having seen. but i guess he was drawing . . . [unclear; competing voices]. 10 noted author of fiction and non-fiction works, most notably middle passage. 11 https://www.dginstitute.org/ https://www.dginstitute.org/� s h a n n o n : c o n s t a n z a r o m e r o o n a u g u s t w i l s o n ' s l e g a c y : p a s t , p r e s e n t , a n d f u t u r e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 9 cr: yeah, i think that he was also saying, "of course, i do read. of course, i am current on what is happening in american theater." i dragged him to almost everything i have designed and he saw a production of who’s afraid of virginia woolf? [laughter] ss: you're using the word "dragged," constanza, what do you mean? cr: well, many times he probably really didn't want to go, but i made him. ss: yes. cr: and he loved it. he loved it, but he had never read it before. and the same goes for richard ii and a lot of other shakespearean plays that we saw at oregon shakespeare festival. it was a little bit of "dragged into," but once we were sitting down, we very much enjoyed it. ss: you referenced earlier that you had completed the process of sorting through august's material and boxing them up. without jeopardizing any negotiations that may be underway, can you give us an update on where the papers may find a home? cr: well, i cannot give you an exact place. all i can say is that there are interested parties that would love to have the papers and my biggest and most important priority in that are that they treat the material with the utmost respect and the utmost care. also, of course, that it be somewhere where people can get access to the papers in a very easy way. i also want his material to be treated in the same . . . on the same level as all the most important playwrights of the 20th century, such as tennessee williams, arthur miller, eugene o'neill. his name spoken in the same breath. i want it to be with the same amount of respect. ss: did august ever talk to you or mention anything about scholarship? i know he talked in his speech, "the ground on which i stand," he talked about critics. cr: oh, yes. ss: he said that critics need to evolve. as the playwrights come up with new work, the critics had a responsibility of evolving in terms of their education to be able to write about those works. how important was that to him, as far as you can recall? cr: august had a tremendous amount of respect for all critics. a few names that come to mind are ben brantley, frank rich, and michael feingold from the village voice.12 12 ben brantley, chief theater critic of the new york times since 1996; frank rich, theater and film critic, oped columnist, essayist, and television producer in a variety of media; michael feingold, theater critic of the village voice. i remember him reading all those articles--all those reviews, shall i say--very carefully. he would take a lot of things in mind . . . a lot of the criticism in mind for going from one stage of development to another. but i think what he meant in his speech is more of a sense of the power that a critic has in terms of deciding what it is that is out there in the ether. what people see. what people are going to experience. therefore, african american work is going to have a different narrative, a different aesthetic, a different style of telling the story. a lot of critics would say, "ugh, his plays are so wordy . . . it's just so many words." and yet a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 10 those same critics will sit through several hours of tony kushner's angels in america or several hours of many shakespeare plays. so, it is a different way of telling a story, and you cannot judge all works by the same aesthetic and the same sense of what is art. ss: got you, got you. he was aware that scholars were on to his work, as well? cr: oh, definitely. ss: so, was he concerned about the growth of scholarship on his plays. cr: absolutely. he loved nothing more than to sit down and talk to other writers. people such as yourself, peter wolf, joan fishman, alan nadel, harry elam . . . all taking his work so seriously as to spent time reading it, writing about it, finding other meanings, finding where it fits in the cosmology of our existence was very exciting to him. hopefully, there will be many, many more. ss: absolutely. i remember early on when i was writing on him, i would share some of my early ideas, and a as a beginning scholar, i was looking for him to say, "wow, that's great, that's great." he'd always say, "well, you know what, i never thought of it that way." and i was wondering whether he was [laughter] . . . he probably said that to everybody . . . "that's another way to look at it. i never thought of it that way." but he seemed very receptive. cr: oh yes. very open. ss: yes, yes, yes. okay, so i really enjoyed visiting the august wilson house last april during that major press briefing, if you can recall, in the backyard there? cr: of course! ss: how are the renovations . . . i think that was to celebrate the final phase of renovation. can you talk about the status of the august wilson house now and what's the overall vision for it? cr: well, i think a few people think that the estate and the august wilson house are one body. but they are actually two separate entities. ss: okay. got you. cr: however, i love the idea, and i love the support that the august wilson house has gotten, and i am 100% behind its mission to bring culture, and study, and art into the hill district of pittsburgh and to also be aware of the august wilson history and presence in pittsburgh, so i love everything that they're doing, and i am so joyous for the support that they have received, and it looks like it will be opening and running for many years to come. so, i love that. ss: yes. pittsburgh seems to be having a renaissance in terms of august wilson, his legacy, and i'm thinking of the august wilson center, as well. what are your thoughts about that institution? cr: oh gosh, i'm just so thrilled. i'm going to be involved in their gala next year. and the programs they have put together. there's jazz festival, there's a blues festival, there’s a film festival and all of the beautiful art. i saw pictures of a recent exhibit of art that they have in s h a n n o n : c o n s t a n z a r o m e r o o n a u g u s t w i l s o n ' s l e g a c y : p a s t , p r e s e n t , a n d f u t u r e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 11 their gallery. it's really a top-notch institution in the city of pittsburgh, and it's going to make a big name for itself because i don't know if there are any other institutions like it . . . a cultural center for all african american art. i'm just thrilled with the person who is running the center, whose name is.13 so, yes, pittsburgh is going through a renaissance. ss: phenomenal, phenomenal job. in a 2016 interview with tcg 's american theatre,14 you said that you were really focusing on re-imagining, re-envisioning a new chapter for the american century cycle. can you share that vision for this new chapter? cr: yes. right here in my phone i have my mission statement, which i know you have, also, but i'm going to pull it up. ss: sure. cr: i think that august wilson's plays still say as much about today as they did when they were written, and i think that we need more august wilson in this social climate, rather than less. i happen to believe that--and i know that you do, too--because of this journal you're putting together. ss: yes, of course. cr: the list that you read [to] me of all the things that you would like to have shared and published and exchanged. i think that is fantastic. so, because we need august wilson, now more than ever, i would really love it if you and younger artists were to tackle his plays with what is happening today in mind. and it's part of what i'm trying to do, also, with the designers at yale, that i will be working with. what is it that we can see so that the same production with the same kind of set design or acting style that we've seen before is something to build on? i mean, i'm not saying scrap it, but let's build from that point forward so that it stays current in the american theater. ss: absolutely. cr: so that's what i'm trying to do and if you wanted to publish the mission statement along with my answer for this question, that would be great15 . ss: duly noted. we'll definitely do that. well, constanza, is there anything else that you'd like to add? maybe a question that i didn't get to . . . although this list is pretty thorough. but there may be . . . [laughter] cr: it is very thorough. 13 wilson (not a relation of august wilson) has been president and ceo of pittsburgh’s august wilson cultural center since 2017. 14 american theatre magazine, a publication of the theatre communications group 15 mission statement: "the estate of august wilson seeks to preserve and advance mr. wilson's universal legacy, including the american century cycle, by educating audiences and theater artists of all ages and walks of life. building on traditional interpretations, we encourage artists to explore his plays with a fresh approach, and continue to create deeper levels of meaning. we strongly hold mr. wilson's words as an important instrument in the affirmation of our humanity, in this changing, and often challenging world." a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 12 ss: . . . but is there anything else? cr: yes. one of your questions was really so poignant. i really liked it: "what kind of recognition do you think august wilson deserves? ss: yes, yes. cr: i, of course, think that my husband deserves the world. but as a theater artist and the executor of the august wilson estate, and as someone who thinks about august's plays a lot, as i said before, i think he deserves the best talent, the best funding, the best production values that this country has to offer, alongside all of the other greats that have been produced, and that also goes for theatre and film. and i think that he also deserves to be continued to be taught and to be read by students at an early stage of education. i think that anytime august wilson is read by a young person, he or she will have something said to them, something very important. i also really feel that training for actors needs to be on the same level of, let's say . . . you know there's some actors that train as shakespearean actors. i think that some actors should be trained as wilsonian actors. ss: oh, okay. cr: people such as stephen mckinley henderson and people who have been taught by him. i think that fountain of wisdom needs to be brought into the present for those actors.16 i sometimes see stephen and i think, "oh, if i could only just get everything that's inside him." [laughter] ss: oh, wow. phenomenal. cr: because he's such a master . . . ss: yes, he is. cr: . . . master teacher and actor. and because august said, "all art is beautiful," i think all of his work still has something to say to us. so, because i believe in the great power of theater and its ability to transform all people, i really feel that he deserves to be performed-i've already said this but i'm going to say it again--with the most talented people and the best production values of this country. and when i go to london, people say, "oh, august wilson. he's your american shakespeare." so that's what i think he deserves. ss: absolutely. yes, absolutely. well, constanza, thank you so very much for your generous time. thank you for your ideas, and i want to assure you that the august wilson journal is right on point in terms of preserving, promoting, teaching, sustaining august's legacy. thank you so very much and happy holidays to you and your family. cr: thank you. same to you and michael. happy holidays one and all. 16 henderson—actor of screen, television, and stage—played bono in the 2016 film of fences as well as on stage. other wilson stage roles have included slow drag in ma rainey’s black bottom and stool pigeon in king hedley ii. s h a n n o n : c o n s t a n z a r o m e r o o n a u g u s t w i l s o n ' s l e g a c y : p a s t , p r e s e n t , a n d f u t u r e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 3 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 13 michael downing: thank you so much. bye. ss: bye. cr: bye. [end] author bio dr. sandra shannon is professor emerita at howard university. she has published numerous books and essays on august wilson and is the founder and president of the august wilson society. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/� http://www.pitt.edu/� http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections� http://upress.pitt.edu/� http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/� constanza romero on august wilson's legacy: past, present, and future abstract keywords author bio microsoft word bell_menson-furr_interview.docx v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 finding frederick “fritz” kittel: interview with johannes feest by christopher b. bell & ladrica menson-furr august wilson journal editors history is so full of miscegenation, and it is usually acknowledged. but in wilson studies there seems to be a great reluctance to acknowledge this fact. -johannes feest abstract august wilson journal editors christopher b. bell and ladrica menson-furr interviewed johannes feest via zoom about his research into august wilson’s father frederick “fritz” kittel. the interview has been edited for length and clarity. keywords interview, history, kittel, frederick “fritz” kittel, august wilson journal awj: our understanding is that august wilson is not well known in germany. how did you come to learn about him? jf: i came to pittsburgh in 2012 to help care for my granddaughter. my daughter was in pittsburgh earning her ph.d. and she needed a babysitter for a while. but the baby was in daycare most of the time anyway, so i was looking around for what to do. i learned that the university of pittsburgh has a nice program for seniors, so i signed up for the one thing that had to do with pittsburgh, which was dr. laurence glasco’s class on august wilson and pittsburgh. in his very first lecture he mentioned that wilson’s father, frederick “fritz” kittel was supposed to be a sudeten german. and my father was sudeten german. so, i immediately walked up to him and asked to learn more about that. but dr. glasco didn’t know much more. so, i used the next two months i had in pittsburgh to research this question. also, during my last two days in the united states i went to ohio and met relatives of august wilson living there today. so, this is how i learned about and gathered research about frederick “fritz” kittel, august wilson’s father. when i returned johannes feest a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 8 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 home to germany in the summer of 2012 i went to northern bohemia, which is now the czech republic. i then found some of the descendants of fred kittel living there today. awj: in your research, you have uncovered that fritz kittel has mistakenly been labeled sudeten german and that it is more accurate to label him an “austrian” or “bohemian” german. can you explain the differences between these designations? jf: you have to realize that at the time fritz kittel was born, this was old habsburg, austria. the kittels lived in the northernmost part of the austrian empire. since the mountains of this area are called sudeten, at some point in the twentieth century people began to call these people sudeten german. even before the first world war, german nationalists tried to make a political issue of labeling these individuals as german, even though they were actually austrian. hitler picked that up later on. finally, italy invaded czechoslovakia and they were suddenly german nationals. the kittel family all lived in this area. meanwhile, fritz kittel and his brothers had already immigrated to the united states, and they were received there as austrians. therefore, the label sudeten german is a rather strange one because german nationalists labeled everyone in czechoslovakia sudeten german, even those, like my father, who had never lived near those mountains. in fact, “sudeten german” is a tainted term, which is why i prefer to refer to these people as “austrians” or “bohemians” or, even better, as “bohemian austrian.” this is all confusing even for austrians. awj: what have you uncovered about the kittel clan arriving in america? jf: there were at least five brothers that came to pittsburgh. as best as i could find out, they left europe because there was an economic crisis. the brothers’ father, anton kittel, was a successful blacksmith, as the kittels lived in an industrial area where such a skill was quite needed, but there was still no place for a second blacksmith. so, the first born, emil, became a sailor and traveled to the united states in this capacity but initially did not stay. it is unclear what brought emil to pittsburgh permanently. one story has it that emil fled when austrian authorities came to his part of bohemia to recruit soldiers for the first world war. eventually he settled in pittsburgh permanently. however, documents show that fritz came to pittsburgh in 1913, which is before the war, and we know emil went first. whatever the case, once he settled in pittsburgh, emil opened a bakery, although there is no evidence that he had done any of this kind of work while in bohemia. but he was very successful, and after he started to be prosperous the family decided to send more of the sons to him. fritz was one of the first brothers to follow him. eventually, four of anton’s sons settled in pittsburgh. i obtained a family photograph taken in pittsburgh in 1914 of anton and his sons. anton returned to bohemia shortly after this. according to family lore, he did not like it in pittsburgh. (see fig. 1) b e l l & m e n s o n f u r r : f i n d i n g f r e d e r i c k “ f r i t z ” k i t t e l : i n t e r v i e w w i t h j o h a n n e s f e e s t a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 figure 1: frederick “friz” kittle, standing middle, with his father anton, seated left, and three brothers, pittsburgh, pennsylvania, 1914 a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 8 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 awj: let’s talk about daisy wilson’s marriage to fritz kittel. you have uncovered a timeline that is different from the established one. prior to your research, we have understood that august wilson was born frederick august kittel in 1945, the fourth child of daisy wilson and fritz kittel and the first male. daisy lived with children at 1727 bedford avenue in the hill district, with fritz a sporadic presence at best. scholars and biographers have noted that daisy wilson and fritz were married at this time. it has also been previously reported that daisy wilson divorced fritz kittel at some point before leaving the hill district in 1958, at which point she was married to david bedford. the family moved to hazlewood. by 1963, the family was back in the hill district, and david bedford, who died in 1969, appears to be out of the picture. what have uncovered about daisy wilson and her marriage to fritz kittel? jf: first, daisy wilson was never married to david bedford. this is a rumor. no one has found any confirmation that she married bedford. but she lived with him. as for fritz kittel, he had a legal wife who died in 1964. then, fred kittel immediately married daisy wilson. a marriage license was procured in may of 1964 outside of pittsburgh for reasons i do not know. then, three months later, he asks for a divorce. but the courts refused. then, of course, he died in 1965. again, i do not know why he asked for the divorce. he was a complicated man, given to drink most of the time, as reported by family and others. but he was a working alcoholic. he worked at night and slept during the day, as bakers do. awj: your research revealed to august wilson’s living relatives in germany of their relation to the american playwright. what was their reaction upon learning this fact? jf: fritz had a sister named stephanie who was deported from czechoslovakia during world war ii and came to live in what became east germany. i met her granddaughter, fritz’s grandniece. we had coffee together, and she was enthusiastic and interested to learn that a famous american playwright was an extended family member. but there was another strand of the family elsewhere who still live in east germany. they were not very happy to learn of this addition to their genealogy. i found this second reaction consistent with much of my research. some on both sides of the family are enthusiastic about learning of these distant relatives, while others have misgivings. awj: finally, you have learned interesting information about fritz kittel’s funeral, or, more specifically, the wake. we understand that the children fritz had with daisy wilson attended the funeral service but were not invited to the wake. do you know why? jf: i have never heard of any reasons. i received that information from larry glasco. of course, we can all speculate about this, and we can assume that the germans and the ex-bohemians just didn’t want the non-whites at the wake. awj: here is our last question. you have done this work on wilson’s german father, placing the playwright’s african american heritage aside for the most part. furthermore, you are not a historian, a literary critic, or a theatre critic. yet you have uncovered more on fritz kittel than anyone working in these fields. what relevance do you think this research has on wilsonian studies? what does it mean to separate his bohemian austrian heritage from his african american heritage? jf: well, i have wondered about that. at first, i was more interested on the impact the german heritage had on august wilson and his siblings. but i was unable to uncover much about that. then i wondered if any of this shows up in the work. if i were an american scholar of black b e l l & m e n s o n f u r r : f i n d i n g f r e d e r i c k “ f r i t z ” k i t t e l : i n t e r v i e w w i t h j o h a n n e s f e e s t a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 8 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 5 american literature, i would delve into that and try to find out whether or not these hermetically closed plays, closed in the sense that there are no germans in them, have any traces of wilson’s father’s influence. that is a difficult question to investigate, but a good scholar could do it. basically, i can see that most of these things we have talked about today do not have much relevance except for the fact that wilson scholars should not be in denial of the fact of wilson’s german heritage. history is so full of miscegenation, and it is usually acknowledged. but in wilson studies there seems to be a great reluctance to acknowledge this fact. maybe this is because wilson is still very close to us historically. maybe it is still too touchy for the family. but that is my answer. awj: thank you very much, johannes. johannes feest’s bio johannes feest (born 21 november 1939 in berlin) is a german sociologist and a law professor at the university of bremen. from 1995 to 1997 he directed the international institute for the sociology of law in oñati, spain. he has done empirical research on the courts, police, and prisons. in 2019, he initiated a manifesto to abolish penitentiaries and other prisons. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. microsoft word bell, chris, legacy, july 2020 _all edits accepted by mike and chris_ layout v o l .   2       |       s u m m e r   2 0 2 0       i s sn  2577 ‐7432   ( on l i ne )   doi   1 0 . 5 1 95 /aw j . 2 020 . 6 1   augu s tw i l son . p i t t . e du     1  august wilson's legacy felt strongly by those who  perform his works  christopher b. bell  associate professor of english, university of north georgia  editor, legacy section, august wilson journal    trajan clayton  theater studies major at southern methodist university    nic starr  artistic director of marietta’s theatre in the square  managing director of new african grove                 august wilson has left us a portrait of life in america for  most african americans that covers a century of our  history.   nic starr    abstract   trajan clayton and nic starr write about  their experiences  relating  to  the work of august wilson.   trajan, winner of the 2019 august wilson monologue competition, writes about how wilson's plays  are songs that "work together to relay the triumphs and struggles of what it means to be black."  in  his  segment, nic writes about how,  through august wilson, he has gratefully gained  relationships  with an "army of talented brothers and sisters, and many inspiring mentors."   keywords  august wilson, august wilson monologue competition, american century cycle,   theatre in the square, new african grove      when considering august wilson's legacy, the playwright’s impact on actors cannot  be overstated. no other african american dramatist has created such a wealth of dynamic  characters. james earl jones, who won an emmy award for his portrayal  of troy maxson  in fences,  said,  “he’s  so  faithful  to  the blackness. he’s  faithful  like  a  father  –  that  represents  fidelity  to  him”  (bigsby  39).  testimony such as this can be found at any level of theatre where wilson’s  works are performed. for this issue of the august wilson journal, i asked  two  actors  to  write  recollections  centering  on  their  experiences  with  wilson’s work.    the  first  is  trajan  clayton, who won  the  2019  august wilson  monologue  competition,  an  annual  contest  featuring  high  school  students  from  various  regions  throughout  the  country  performing  monologues  from wilson  plays.  the  finals  are  held  every  year  at  the  august  wilson  theatre  on  broadway.  i  saw  clayton  perform  at  the  christopher bell,  legacy section  editor  a u g u s t   w i l s o n   j o u r n a l   v o l .   2       |       s u m m e r   2 0 2 0       augu s tw i l son . p i t t . e du     doi   1 0 . 5 1 95 /aw j . 2 020 . 6 1   i s sn  2577 ‐7432   ( on l i ne )    2  regional finals in atlanta in the spring of 2019. all the performances were electric, but when  this young wilson warrior delivered a speech from caesar in gem of the ocean, it became  immediately apparent who would carry the night.    i  have  also  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  the  second  actor  who  contributed  a  recollection, nic starr,  in  two performances. nic has  acted  in  all  ten plays  that  comprise  wilson’s american century cycle. the first was a production of radio golf at new african  grove, a community  theatre  in college park, georgia, where starr serves as  the managing  director.  starr  played  sterling. the  second was  a  production  of the piano  lesson  at  the  historic morton theatre in athens, georgia, which starr directed and played wining boy. in  both performances, i observed that starr in particular is a gifted comedic actor in line with  the tradition of wilson's characters.    i wish to thank both clayton and starr for being true wilson warriors, contributing  to the continuing legacy of august wilson.    what august wilson means to me  trajan clayton  from my very first encounter with the work of august wilson, i was reminded of  the people who came before me. people who, while living in a world of nightmares, fought  endlessly  to have  a dream.  i was  reminded  of  people who  knew what  it meant  to make  something out of nothing. because of the works and legacy of august wilson, i have a divine  roadmap to the center of humanity.   being  privileged  enough  to  be  born  in  the  information  age,  understanding  the  impact of the wilsonian legacy was no obstacle. when participating in the august wilson  monologue competition (atl 2018), i browsed the internet for numerous hours, searching  for  interviews of  actors  and directors  speaking of wilson’s work. these wilson warriors  approached  august’s  work  with  such  dignity  that  it  quickly  became clear his work had weight to bear.  august  wilson’s  american  century  cycle,  so  precisely  crafted, captured the essence of the african american experience  in  the  20th  century,  as  well  as  today.  unlike  any  other  work,  wilson’s cycle authentically exhumed the sound and vernacular of  our people. being a poet lent to august a certain level of creativity  that unearthed the sound of blackness, like a timeless blues tune  meant for the soul. ma rainey said it best: “you don’t sing to feel  better. you sing 'cause that’s a way of understanding life.”  august  wilson’s  plays  are  songs.  these  songs  work  together to relay the triumphs and struggles of what it means to be  black. having this at the foundation of my theatrical upbringing  truly  set  a  standard  of  excellence  for  the  kind  of  stories  i  wanted  to  tell.  after  deeply  engaging with the songs of wilson, not only did it affect my theatrical approach, i began to  find great pride  in my blackness. there  is great  responsibility  to giving  life  to  characters  whose hearts pump on the page. i felt the weight that came with singing his songs.  the eminent tales personified by wilson are the stories of love, honor, betrayal, and  duty.  from these epic tales one might find great wisdom. such wisdom one might gain from  sitting  at grandma's kitchen  table. wisdom  that was passed down  from  generations. his  work exhumes the black experience, giving life to voices willing and worthy to be heard. by  giving  us  these  characters,  he  gave  us  a  lifetime  worth  of  experiences  and  made  that  experience accessible to all.   wilson’s  literary  cannon  and  its  authenticity  gives  its  readers  ownership  of  its  characters. so vibrant and unapologetic, the characters created by august wilson are family.  these characters,  like auntie and uncle, can teach a thing or two about survival. but  long  after auntie and uncle and mama and daddy are gone, we can look to this work that august  trajan clayton  b e l l ,   c l a y t o n ,   s t a r r :   a u g u s t   w i l s o n ' s   l e g a c y   f e l t   s t r o n g l y   b y   t h o s e   w h o   p e r f o r m   h i s   w o r k s   a u g u s t  w i l s o n   j o u r n a l       |       v o l .   2       |       s u m m e r   2 0 2 0       i s sn  2577 ‐7432   ( on l i ne )   doi   1 0 . 5 1 95 /aw j . 2 020 . 6 1   augu s tw i l son . p i t t . e du     3  left here for us and find those familiar voices. for this work can be a mirror, you shall look  inside and find yourself.   if it were not for the works and legacy of august wilson, i would not be where i am  today.  from  my  participation  in  the  august  wilson  monologue  competition,  both  regionally and nationally, i have gained lifelong connections and experiences that continue  to build upon the foundation of my artistry. i can honestly say i had given up on the thought  of higher education, but because of my pride and dedication to the work of august wilson,  doors began to open. i was introduced to a professor from southern methodist university in  dallas, texas, and from that moment on i knew his work had the potential to change lives. i  am a living witness.   competing in the august wilson monologue competition was the one of the most  immersive experiences of my life, as short as it has been. i found great power in the unity of  young people. to have young people, from all different cultural backgrounds speaking these  words, it was easy to see that, as specific as it is, wilson’s work exceeds all barriers. he wrote  this to let us know that we are all worthy. after winning the competition, i had the privilege  of speaking with wilson veterans such as anthony chisholm, who has performed in several  wilson plays on broadway. to know the extent of his association with the wilson legacy, and  to hear how highly he spoke of august’s work, i knew that, like mr. chisholm, it was up to  me to do whatever i can to keep this legacy alive. not only is this work the foundation of my  theatrical upbringing,  it  is my validation. because of this work, i know that i am enough,  and that there is enough of everything for me.   performing  the work of  the master craftsmen brings up memories of  those we’ve  lost, and that is the beauty of it. through the work of wilson, we honor them. when i think  of the plays august wrote, in context to the experiences of those who paved the way for me  to be free, i feel nothing but admiration and gratitude, for they lived their worst nightmares  so that we wouldn’t have to. the powerful sounds unearthed by august wilson are the voices  of these people. they are the voices of my people. being the next generation of wilsonian  warriors, i feel strongly obligated to keep their voices alive.  just as much as  the characters of wilson’s work are  family,  the  same can be  said  about  the ensembles created when presenting his work. the  time spent competing  in  the  august wilson monologue competition was  spent with  talented  and  reverent  company.  people whom  i  call  family. understand  this  is not  a  term  that  i use  lightly. through my  experience with the work of august wilson, i have gained a second mother, an army full of  talented brothers and sisters, and many inspiring mentors, all because of our shared love of  mr. wilson.   august wilson, to me, is the voice of the african american experience. his dramatic  "songs" help  to  fill  the emptiness of  this world. by giving authentic commentary  to black  lives and  livelihood, his work  showed us  that we are all worthy of being heard. from  the  multiple interviews i watched and my dedication to keeping his voice alive, it is foolish to  say i know him, but august wilson is a part of who i am. for his legacy, i am grateful. thank  you, august, for giving us voice. thank you for showing us the importance of finishing what  we start. thank you for showing us the difference between the "crookeds and the straights."  because of august wilson i will never forget where i come from. thank you god, for giving  him to us.     what august wilson means to me  nic starr    when asked, “what does august wilson mean to you?” my answer could be  summed up in a single word, in bold letters,  underlined with an exclamation point with  a wilsonian slant: everyfuckinthang!  to understand what could elicit such emotions from a sixty‐year‐old man who  has long outlived a belief in heroes since his mother passed, you have only to take the  a u g u s t   w i l s o n   j o u r n a l   v o l .   2       |       s u m m e r   2 0 2 0       augu s tw i l son . p i t t . e du     doi   1 0 . 5 1 95 /aw j . 2 020 . 6 1   i s sn  2577 ‐7432   ( on l i ne )    4  time and read any play from august wilson’s american century cycle.   my introduction to mr. wilson’s work did not happen until i was thirty. i was a  student at paine college, taking classes through the military. professor evelyn etheridge  put the play fences in my hands and told me to read it. she later asked me to be a part of  her drama troupe, and i was happy to join. we performed numerous other productions,  but she would always come back and talk to me about fences.     at this point, i knew nothing about august wilson, but his words spoke to me as if  he knew me on a first name basis. i was cory! i grew up knowing troy; he was my father.   i had an uncle gabe . . . and my hero even at that time, my mother, was embodied in  rose! i knew these people!?!     i became frustrated because i couldn’t understand  why we were doing all these other plays instead of fences,  and ms. etheridge looked me in my eyes and said, “be‐ cause you aren’t ready.” i never forgot that, and when we  finally mounted fences, that production forever changed  my life. that singular moment gave my life purpose. now,  thirty years later, i’ve performed in all ten plays of the  american century cycle and have directed four.     even so, i take more pride in being able to share his  work with others. to live a life with purpose is an amazing  feeling. no matter the size, big or small, your purpose is  everything. i remember feeling like i had been cheated be‐ cause i was not introduced to august wilson earlier. it  became my purpose, no matter what else i did in life, to make sure that others knew his  work, and what it meant to our community as artists and as people. i felt like i had found  a gold mine and i wanted to share it.    i  graduated  from  paine  and  retired  from  the military.  i moved  to  atlanta  and  became a part of  its  theatre community.  in  the  interim  i  found work as a mental health  associate on an adolescent unit. you want to calm down a group of restless kids? talk story.  learn to tell stories, and what better stories to tell than those from the american century  cycle?  it was our friday night  thing: read  the children a  scene  from  the cycle and  talk  about it. it always ended with them trying to play out the scene. these characters come to  life  easily  because  you  already  know  them.  they  are  part  of  your  family,  live  in  your  neighborhood. it felt good to share these characters with my patients and watch them learn  more about themselves and those around them. i took this theory with me when i became  an educator. i taught middle and high school theatre for fifteen years. in every school that i  ever taught, august wilson was part of the curriculum. i personally purchased each play of  the american century cycle and  fought for them to be placed  in the school’s  libraries  in  which i taught. why? because it is so very important for students to be able to pick up a  book in their own school that they can identify with, relate too, and be motivated by. this is  everyfuckingthang!  now that i have left the classroom, i have more time to share what i have learned  in other ways: artistic director, producer, director, actor, acting coach. there is an old af‐ rican proverb that states, “if you think you are poor, you are poor!” many times, unless  you are told something different or you see something different, you just don’t know.  you become stuck in your own struggle. august wilson has left us a portrait of life in  america for most african americans that covers a century of our history. we are now  able to step into any decade from that century and witness the struggles and triumphs  of african americans. you can walk right alongside these characters and live in those  moments because the writing is so vivid and speaks in your language, unashamed, una‐ pologetic. august wilson gave our lives breath! we lived these struggles, fought these  fights, lost, and sometimes won these battles. his words spoke truth poetic, and they  nic starr (right) posing  with friend keith franklin at the  red door at 1839 wylie ave in  pittsburgh's hill district  b e l l ,   c l a y t o n ,   s t a r r :   a u g u s t   w i l s o n ' s   l e g a c y   f e l t   s t r o n g l y   b y   t h o s e   w h o   p e r f o r m   h i s   w o r k s   a u g u s t  w i l s o n   j o u r n a l       |       v o l .   2       |       s u m m e r   2 0 2 0       i s sn  2577 ‐7432   ( on l i ne )   doi   1 0 . 5 1 95 /aw j . 2 020 . 6 1   augu s tw i l son . p i t t . e du     5  still speak that same truth today.  this is thirty years after my introduction to fences. i am still thankful to ms.  evelyn etheridge for helping me “find my song.” i feel truly blessed to have lived in the  lifetime of a true griot, a true storyteller, who was not afraid to tell our stories and tell  them in a way that not just african americans understood, but the world understood. i  feel he had a great part in humanizing a race of people some didn’t see as human. not  only did he give us insight into ourselves, but he gave others the opportunity, if they  choose to take it, to gain some understanding and respect for the african american ex‐ perience here in america. i feel that it celebrated and gave reason for others to celebrate  african american culture. to this day his words still ring true: “[i]t was a long time be‐ fore i could cut it down to where i could handle it.” troy maxson speaking about life, the  world.   so what does august wilson mean to me?  he was the one who helped me cut it  down to size, understand it, respect, appreciate, and celebrate it. thank you mr. freder‐ ick august kittel...thank you, august wilson!  work cited  bigsby, christopher. “been here and gone.” the cambridge companion  to august wilson.  edited by christopher bigsby, cambridge up, 2007, pp. 202 – 213.  author bios  christopher bell  is associate professor of english at  the university of north georgia and  editor of the legacy section of the august wilson journal.    trajan  clayton  was  awarded  first  place  at  the  11th  annual  august  wilson  monologue  competition national finals in new york city, where he performed a monologue by caesar  from  gem  of  the ocean. he  is  currently  a  student  at  southern methodist university  in  dallas, texas, majoring in theatre studies. #blacklivesmatter      nic starr is the artistic director of marietta’s theatre in the square and the managing  director of new african grove, two companies in the atlanta, georgia, area that special‐ ize in productions of african american plays. starr has acted in each play of the american  century cycle and is well on his way to completing a second run through the plays. a  former educator and retired army veteran, starr continues to work with youth in the at‐ lanta area, bringing august wilson’s work to a new generation of wilson warriors.                   articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.  this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its   d‐scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press.  august wilson journal v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 the august wilson archive: first panel discussion (january 2021) dr. david anderson managing editor, august wilson journal and dr. michael downing editor, august wilson journal right now, it’s 450 boxes and that includes 100 boxes of books . . . william daw, university of pittsburgh abstract the editor and managing editor of the august wilson journal met with four specialists from the university library system (uls) at the university of pittsburgh and one university of pittsburgh history professor via zoom on january 14, 2021 to discuss the uls’s recent acquisition of august wilson’s archival materials1. keywords august wilson, august wilson archive, university of pittsburgh, university library system, hillman library, archives and special collections, august wilson estate the following is an edited version of an approximately 55-minute conversation between the editors of the august wilson journal and five experts from the university of pittsburgh, related to the university’s acquisition of the august wilson archives from the august wilson estate in october 2020. the discussion took place on january 14, 2021 and has been edited for grammar and clarity. there was also some consideration of other wilson materials held by other entities/persons in the pittsburgh area and beyond. those collections will be investigated, apart from this discussion. discussion participants william daw: curator of the curtis theatre collection for the archives and special collections in the university library system, university of pittsburgh; also serves as liaison librarian to the theatre arts department. 1 in october of 2020, the university library system at the university of pittsburgh announced the acquisition of august wilson’s archival materials. the materials include more than 450 boxes, including “scripts, photographs, production materials, speeches, essays, and items that document his career and interests from the 1960s to the 2010s.” the archive will reside in hillman library’s archives and special collections (american theatre, october 30, 2020). https://augustwilson.pitt.edu/ojs/augustwilson https://www.library.pitt.edu/ https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/10/30/the-university-of-pittsburgh-acquires-august-wilson-archive/ https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/10/30/the-university-of-pittsburgh-acquires-august-wilson-archive/ a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 ed galloway: associate university librarian for archives and special collections, overseeing archives and special collections, including the acquisition of the august wilson archive. vanessa gabler: electronic publications manager responsible for the journal publishing program, which includes the august wilson journal. megan massanelli: engagement and outreach librarian for archives and special collections, currently working with the kuntu repertory theatre collection, which is a theater that august wilson helped to found in pittsburgh. laurence glasco: associate professor, department of history, university of pittsburgh. michael downing: professor of english at kutztown university of pennsylvania and editor of the august wilson journal. david anderson: professor of english, butler county community college (retired); managing editor of the august wilson journal. david anderson moderated. the boxes anderson: good morning, everyone. first question: have all of the papers arrived for the august wilson archive? galloway: yes, they are here, all but a couple of boxes of poetry, which will come to us at a later date. anderson: are the papers in their permanent space, or is that space yet to be determined? daw: to be determined. at this point in time, we are thinking that the majority of the papers will be at the archives & special collections’ (a&sc) hillman library location. it depends on how big the collection is at the end of the project. right now it's 450 boxes and that includes 100 boxes of books. the size of the space that we need to process it dictated that we keep it at the a&sc thomas boulevard off-campus location for now. that's really a better place for our staff to organize it. we have more workspace at that location. galloway: about 30 of those boxes comprise awards, memorabilia, plaques, posters, and things of that sort that wouldn't be suitable for us to store very well in hillman, so bill is spot on with his answer. gabler: you and michael have both been to thomas boulevard before. we've had meetings there. so when they say “thomas boulevard,” it's where we had some of our meetings. anderson: is that the place that has the bookshelves that go all the way up to the sky? yes, michael and i have been there. regarding the boxes, are these some random amazon, grocery, or wine store boxes, or are they standard staples boxes, the legal size boxes? galloway: they're largely archival-quality, cubic-foot boxes. i've seen many collections in my day that come in liquor store boxes and office depot boxes. this was not the case at all. https://augustwilson.library.pitt.edu/ a n d e r s o n a n d d o w n i n g : t h e a u g u s t w i l s o n a r c h i v e : f i r s t p a n e l d i s c u s s i o n ( j a n u a r y 2 0 2 1 ) a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 anderson: it sounds like these were not begun by wilson himself—that the papers were probably in filing cabinets or places here and there and were boxed just for this for this shipment. galloway: the details of how the archive was begun is something you might want to verify with the estate. when we first began negotiations, the archive was already in storage at a records center storage unit in the seattle area, and as bill will testify, it appears that there was quite a bit of organization taking place in some of the earlier boxes. whether wilson himself did that is unknown to us at the moment. we're going to pursue that question. so, do you want to expand on that, bill? daw: i would say that all of the boxes are better quality than we usually get. that's for certain, but i don't want to say that they're going to be the final boxes that will be used. we're going to transfer them into archival quality boxes and folders. it's obvious to us that the wilson estate’s staff, be it wilson's assistants and maybe additional staff, went to a great deal of effort to box the collection and then come up with a numbering system for those boxes and then described, at least at the box level, the contents of each box. anderson: so the boxes are labeled, numbered, lettered, something like that? daw: yes. anderson: i had a question about whether the boxes themselves would become an organizing principle for the collection. like “box 32 folder five” or something like that. or is there a library standard organization scheme for materials like this, or is it organic? does each collection find its own scheme of organization? i know that you've got the mary roberts rinehart papers, and i'm guessing you have some papers from other writers as well. galloway: probably the best way to answer that would be the latter, the organic. the way they are boxed is going to help us process that collection, but a scheme has already emerged. it's very clear that the cycle of plays, certainly in the american century cycle, is what most people will want to access this collection by, and the boxes themselves identify or are identified as such. that certainly is going to be a principle of access for sure. there is also a large number of boxes that contain wilson’s writing tablets that you're so familiar with hearing about, twelve, fifteen, twenty boxes. boxes of nothing but yellow tablets. those are going to be probably the single most challenging part of the whole collection because there is no organization to them. there are few dates on them. that's going to take some real expertise and time to figure out what all different subjects and plays and people and concepts and thinking are all going to be scattered in these notebooks. anderson: so some of those tablets might turn out to be play specific? daw: there could be single tablets or notebooks that have drafts of scenes from specific american century cycle plays. glasco: as i saw, i went through about 15 boxes about five years ago in seattle. they were related mainly to his years in pittsburgh, and it was great stuff. the challenge was that he saved things, but he did not date them, which makes it difficult to write up because you don't know the sequence that you're dealing with. so for dating for some of the things they said, depending on the way the typeface is, a certain typewriter that made a certain error when it typed the letter d, or something like that, for example, that helps to date it. then you switch a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 to the computer, so that helps but doesn't really give you a fine-grain sequence. that will be a great challenge. anderson: i believe pitt already had black bart, for example, and maybe some other wilson materials. glasco: as in the bob johnson papers. there are quite a few wilson materials, especially on black bart because bob johnson helped write black bart and helped in its early production. so there's good material on that and it's an understudied play. people kind of dismiss it, but i looked at the manuscript. well, people can look at it. i think he's got some great lines in it. it doesn't have the depth and the gravitas of the plays that came later, because it's partly a comedy, it's a satire, but there are some great lines and great dialogue. anderson: although that's the only way you can look at it, isn't it, to see the manuscript? glasco: yes. daw: we have some documentation in the bob johnson papers on black bart and also the original production of jitney! from 1982. bob johnson was involved in both of those productions, very early in black bart. i don't know how much he was involved once wilson moved to minnesota. there's a lot on jitney! because he directed that production, and then megan has some materials if she wants to chime in. massanelli: i can definitely speak to that. i'm still working on finishing up the processing for the kuntu repertory theatre. august wilson was a founding member, and some of the materials are directly related to him. unfortunately, there's not a ton about the kuntu writers workshop, which i know he had been involved in, but there are records related to their production of the homecoming, which he wrote, a one-act play. i believe he also directed it when they performed it, so there's a script. there are posters, some things like that. when kuntu produced ma rainey’s black bottom in 1987, which i believe was the first off-broadway production after it had been on broadway, he actually came to their opening night performance. so not only are there scripts and photographs and things like that, but there's a schedule of his events, while he was in town. bill and i are working on a grant to digitize many of the audio-visual materials in both kuntu repertory theatre’s collection and bob johnson's collection. and one of these vhs tapes actually has august wilson meeting with the kuntu writers workshop while he was in town in 1987, so it tends to be some things like that. daw: yes. actually, i was doing some prep work for the kuntu archive digitization grant today, and i saw that there's an audio reel in the bob johnson papers of what i think is an amiri baraka lecture. and it doesn't have any information on it, on the reel, except that it is leroi jones, university of buffalo, but he came to pitt a number of times. i'm hoping that it's a recording of one of his lectures from the early 70s. if that's the case, wilson may have been at that. researcher interface anderson: i have some questions about how the user will interface with the collection. will there be a finding aid, such as for the authors that you have housed right now? how would a user get into those materials? a n d e r s o n a n d d o w n i n g : t h e a u g u s t w i l s o n a r c h i v e : f i r s t p a n e l d i s c u s s i o n ( j a n u a r y 2 0 2 1 ) a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 5 galloway: a finding aid is always created for all of our archival collections, just as we have for, as you mentioned, mary roberts rinehart or gerald stern. at the moment we are focusing on the processing of the physical collection; in the future we’ll be working with the wilson estate to determine what may be digitized. but, the first step is the physical processing and experiencing the collection physically, meaning you will be expected to come to pittsburgh, to hillman library. you may or may not be aware that we have just completely renovated the third floor of hillman library where archives and special collections resides. it is transformative; you will not recognize the space. we have a really beautiful reading room that faces the cathedral of learning and the park. it has natural lighting and some consultation rooms as well. here is a link for a virtual tour. we now have an expansive exhibit gallery space that we've never had before. i mean, really impressive and a large digital wall, all of which allows users to interact with material in a virtual way and/or coming up and seeing the material themselves. we also have a dedicated classroom in this space to use for teaching and instruction with primary sources. we imagine that the vast majority of usage of this collection will take place in that area. anderson: when the plays were being developed, prior to broadway, they went around the country in some cases. august revised some of the texts after every performance, and an artistic director told me that wilson was very adamant about getting all of the copies back from the actors, more so than other playwrights. if that's the case, you may have multiple versions of a particular play and based on that, people would be able to look over wilson's shoulder as he writes the revisions with copies like that. galloway: that's exactly right, david. that's my understanding too; that's my hope. bill has alluded to the fact that he has seen various versions of plays. there's a very good chance that precisely that material is here in the archive. glasco: wilson scholars would be interested. michael, you must know about that. who wrote the book on different iterations of wilson's plays of how he modified and changed them? downing: it’s joan harrington: i ain’t sorry for nothin’ i done. anderson: some materials may exist in only one copy, and i know in some places i've been to, such as the hemingway papers in boston at the jfk library, they don't let you see the originals, unless it's really critical. they give you photocopies. is that how pitt operates too? galloway: that is true in a couple cases where we have digitized extremely rare and valuable sources; for example, we have our own collection of george washington letters, as do some other places, which are certainly valuable. they're also intrinsically important. and we've digitized those to disseminate them broadly. we've also taken pains to make sure that the material is preserved. in a case like that, if a scholar wanted to come in and use that material, we would grant that, but for a high school student or a show and tell kind of the thing, we're likely going to point people to the digitized versions. i don't expect that we're going to find material in a contemporary collection that is deteriorating in a way that can’t be handled; however, i've already alluded to those notebooks. i would probably say that is something that we are already thinking about, because the only way to interact with a notebook is to turn the pages, and they're attached and that can be really challenging because we firmly believe that students, faculty, and other users should be able to interact with the original material as best as possible. we hope to put them in conditions in which they can do that under appropriate measures. but in a case like this, using these tablets excessively may end up destroying them. the last thing we want to do is separate them http://www.library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections-virtual-tour http://www.library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections-virtual-tour a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 6 out of the tablet. of course, we can do that but then they become loose sheets of paper. we might end up having to scan or photocopy those and present facsimiles to users. we need a little time to figure that out. digital material anderson: along the same lines, is there much in the way of digital material in the boxes? daw: there's not a ton. it's a small part of the whole, but i think there are two or three boxes of discs of all eras, three-and-a-half-inch floppy disks, and other media. there's an old laptop, and we have a digital archivist who has seen those boxes and is starting to review those materials, but there are no hard drives or anything like that, but lots of disks, hundreds of disks2. anderson: with documents like letters, emails, manuscripts or . . . ? daw: she hasn’t gotten that far yet. curator search anderson: you mentioned in one of your emails that you are interviewing for a curator position. is that curator sort of like a tenure track position, or is that a hired gun/private contractor to come in and just set it up? galloway: well, really neither of those. we just concluded our interview process, actually. we're in the process now of considering which candidate might be the best fit for this. right now, it's advertised as what in the business is known as a project archivist. it’s the august wilson project archivist because of the limited amount of funding that we've initially received to help support this. it is a year-by-year position. in this case, we were very honest with the candidates that we are funding for one year with expectation of expanding that to two more years. we are hopeful that a position of such importance around august wilson would become a permanent position in the library system, perhaps even endowed, but we're a long way from being able to raise those types of funds that would allow us to do that. anderson: i came across a reference somewhere to a broadway production entitled, the unpublished poetry of august wilson. you remember that, michael? downing: i do remember seeing that.3 let me look it up. 2 properly, “disk” refers to magnetic disks (such as hard drives, 3.5-inch diskettes, and 5.25-inch “floppies”). in contrast, “disc” refers to optical discs (such as cds and dvds). we have chosen to use the word “disk” in this case for uniformity’s sake. pitt’s ed galloway indicates that both formats are included in the collection. 3 unison: an american master’s poetry comes to life. from the oregon shakespeare festival website: “this high-energy, multimedia, music-filled theatrical experience explores the poetry of master playwright august wilson in a one-of-a-kind production by universes, one of the nation’s leading ensembles. granted access to wilson’s poetry catalogue, universes blends it into a mythically modern story of a dying poet who leaves a mysterious box to his apprentice . . . with strict instructions to destroy it. curious, the apprentice opens it, releasing terrors that tormented the master through his life. this world premiere fuses poetry, theatre, dance, and music to explore the reconstruction of collective memory, bringing wilson’s words to a new century and a new generation.” other details: show length is approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes, with no intermission. the commission and development of unison were supported by the edgerton foundation and the ford foundation. production of unison and related programs are supported by a grant from the james f. and marion l. miller foundation. the show ran from april 19 through october 28, 2017 at the angus bowmer theatre in ashland, oregon. https://www.osfashland.org/productions/2017-plays/unison.aspx a n d e r s o n a n d d o w n i n g : t h e a u g u s t w i l s o n a r c h i v e : f i r s t p a n e l d i s c u s s i o n ( j a n u a r y 2 0 2 1 ) a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 7 glasco: archive materials would be the 92nd street y in new york which had august wilson there on about four or five occasions where he gave a presentation, a speech, and reading of his works, and took questions. those were filmed and are available from the way they sent me copies of them. i've used them. they copied the video, but they're quite good, quite compelling, and it would be a valuable addition for the collection. i don't know what their policy is in terms of releasing them to another entity like pitt, but that would be something very much worth pursuing. because they sent them to me free of charge. no problem, just ask for them. you have to see wilson in person talking, interacting with an audience, reading his own plays as poetry. these were sessions that were devoted to poetry, and he clearly considered these dialogues poetry and he read from several of his plays in that spirit. do tell anderson: one of the questions is just in the category of “do tell,” but during the course of the conversation, you've revealed quite a bit about what's in the boxes. is there anything that we haven't come across or that you haven't mentioned that would be a significant surprise in terms of what's in the boxes? glasco: there are examples of august’s artwork. august was a pretty good sketch artist. he did nice sketches of some of his plays and they're really worth looking at. daw: in adding to what dr. glasco said, there are a couple of boxes of artwork and similar to that, jotting bits of dialogue on napkins and place mats. there's also doodles and artwork on napkins and things like that and also in the writing tablets there's artwork in those too. it’s too early to say what the full content of the collection is—we have a lot of work to do before we can say for sure. at this point it appears that there is not a lot of really personal or family materials and the focus is on his work. glasco: i would agree, although in the early materials they brought out for me when i went to seattle were materials relating to his pittsburgh years, and there were a few very useful and interesting items. one was a poem to his father which is very valuable because his father is sort of demonized in the literature as this drunken, mean, violent, uncaring individual, which is a real misreading of the father, i’ve found out, and it's confirmed in this poem that august wrote about his father, or about and to him. but it was really about his father several years after his father died and which he says he put on his apron (his father was a baker). he wore an apron and he shook the dust off of it and went out to find his fortune in valhalla, or something like that. then he returned, because he was his father's son, and you can see i'm not getting it all, but just a reading of it shows the feeling of tenderness he had for his father. he has a recipe of his mother’s for her sweet potato pie. and he did love his mother's cooking and the aromas from the kitchen. it's in his writing. he wrote the recipe down, but it's her recipe for sweet potato pie. there are a few things like that. it wasn't a lot, but they were revealing. i wish there were more because those tell you something of his love for his mother, and especially love for the mother is well documented other places, but regarding his relationship with his father the few materials that are there really will help correct the misinterpretation of the father and the relationship between him and his father. daw: i would say that the other thing i wasn't expecting to find in the collection is how much documentation there appears to be on not just the early productions and not just the broadway productions, but every production of any wilson play performed. it seems they've continually been adding to this material. glasco: david, where will your material be published. what sort of forum? a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 8 anderson: well, that leads me to my last question, but it would be in the august wilson journal, housed by pitt. glasco: august came to my class once. i teach a course, history of black pittsburgh, and his sister invited him. he came to my class to talk to the students. and of course there was so much interest that we had to get a bigger room and open it up to the friends of the students. when he finished talking some lady came up to the front and said this is a poem that you wrote for my mother when she was in the, i don't know, first grade, second grade, something like that. and she saved it all these years. the woman read the poem. it was just stunning. the class ended, and i was so stupidly focused on august, by the time i turned back to ask this lady for this poem that i could copy, she had gone, she left. and i am trying to find some way to publicize this: some gal out in pittsburgh someplace with an august wilson poem from the first grade, a love poem that would just be the cat’s meow as far as i'm concerned. if there's any way we can get some publicity out and maybe find this woman or get her to come forward. anderson: we plan to write-up this conversation for the journal. glasco: good, because every time i give an interview on the radio or something i mention this story in hope that she's tuned in. daw: another thing that i think is worth talking about is wilson's handwriting and how difficult it can be at times to read. and i think that that is something else that we're going to have to look at, or possibly warn researchers about, that it might take longer to conduct their research than they're expecting, given the difficulty of his handwriting. how can we help? anderson: my last question. have you thought about the role that the august wilson journal or the august wilson society can be of any help to you? galloway: that's a great question, and certainly one that is of most interest to us. how can we partner? what can we do to collaborate? in some cases, we think we've got a pretty good sense of how we're going to approach the processing of the collection. but there is so much outreach and engagement. there are so many scholarly possibilities here. what could we do? are there awards or some types of events that we could host? is there a conference that we could have here? is there a way for you to use that forum to talk about some of our new discoveries? once we’ve processed the collection, could we have a column, maybe have something like “from the archivist” or something like that? i hope that we'll be able to fund some type of research fellowships or research scholars. getting the word out through your journal to the society would be super. we've got to make sure that this collection is available to not only the scholarly community, but to the pittsburgh community, especially, and that there is some sense of ownership of this, particularly in the hill district, and to the youth that are there and to the community members that are there. if there is any way you can help us with that mission, we'd be grateful. glasco: i think we could have a reunion of people who had known august. they're still around. i did one about seven or so years ago at the pittsburgh public theater. we brought about six or seven people on the stage there to talk about august. others were in the audience, and it was a really lively exchange and it was taped. a n d e r s o n a n d d o w n i n g : t h e a u g u s t w i l s o n a r c h i v e : f i r s t p a n e l d i s c u s s i o n ( j a n u a r y 2 0 2 1 ) a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 9 daw: is that the one that focused on black horizons? glasco: yes. who was the guy who taped that? daw: i don't know, but i've asked chris rawson4 about that and he assures me that he has a recording of that for us. glasco: okay, good. but i think something like that could be repeated because there are still quite a few people around who were active with august during his pittsburgh years and would love to turn out for it. downing: okay, that sounds good in terms of the many things ed just mentioned. i think those are all fine ideas. my update is that i'm closing in on six years with the august wilson journal, so i'm stepping into more of an advisory capacity now, and we are cultivating new editors. we had two people5 step forward, which is good. i'm going to be moving into the background, but that does free me up for other projects. for example, doc goldblum’s son, orin, has recently contacted me. doc goldblum is mentioned in four august wilson plays, i believe. and so, as one of his descendants, orin has contacted me and asked, “would you be interested in hearing what i have to say?” in addition to being an august wilson scholar my background is in journalism so i could probably be talked into taking on such projects in addition to staying in contact with all of you and writing up material. david and i are interested in writing up this conversation. so—without putting too much pressure on ourselves—annually or maybe a couple of times a year—if any of you would like to step forward and volunteer material and submit it to the journal or communicate with me, we can make sure that the new editors get it and we can run it through the process and take a look at it and get it out there. get it on the record. anderson: if i could just add something to that, if material becomes available gradually, we could do continuous updates. i don't know if you're planning to have the whole archive introduced at once, or whether you're willing to make some of that available once you know that it's ready. galloway: we know people are going to be really anxious to get into it, so we're now planning on opening the collection in the fall of 2022. a big grand opening. of course, it all depends on the situation with the pandemic. anderson: that would be perfect for us with the journal. every time the journal comes out: here's what's new that's available in the archive. galloway: i like that a lot. once the collection is open, we could highlight specific documents or stories we discovered. gabler: i think all of these things are great. and i think what would really be helpful for the journal and for both sides is if we could use the fact that it's a physical-location-based collection and people are coming in. if we could let the researchers know about the august wilson 4 christopher rawson is a retired professor of english at the university of pittsburgh and long-time theater critic for the pittsburgh post-gazette. he and august were friends for many years. rawson is currently actively involved in august wilson house, which is dedicated to celebrating the “literary and personal legacy of august wilson.” the initiative is also aimed toward serving as an arts center to “nurture the historic hill district community,” along with artists and scholars influenced by wilson’s work. 5 dr. christopher bell and dr. ladrica menson-furr will be taking the lead editor positions at the august wilson journal in august of 2021. drs. downing and anderson will move into advisory roles. http://augustwilsonhouse.org/ a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 10 journal and recruit more of the peer-reviewed content because it is a scholarly journal and not a magazine. we want that peer-reviewed content, so while we’re telling people about the august wilson archive, we can also encourage people to take the research that they're conducting and consider submitting it to the august wilson journal. it's a very simple, low-bar way of operating. it's not like a big campaign or anything, but i think that could be really effective on both sides. downing: that's a great insight, because it gives those people who are coming in to look at the archives a place to turn. otherwise, otherwise they're doing this work and wondering “where will i publish this?” well, as a matter of fact, we can help. daw: and it's an open-access journal, so that's also a benefit too. galloway: one of the really creative ideas we have is what we're calling community scholars. we would love to tap into men and women who live in the hill or live in homewood, perhaps, and other places where we have connections with our pitt community engagement centers and support their work and their research in the archive in some creative way, whether it is through the written word, or something else. but should it be through the written word, it would be just a wonderful opportunity for non-scholars and maybe have an outlet for their work. maybe that could turn out to be the august wilson journal in some fashion that remains to be seen. but that's an idea where we're trying to explore. daw: and the journal is multimedia too, am i correct? there's been audio. anderson: yes, there’s been audio. daw: so if there were a community researcher who maybe didn't write something, but maybe did a program at the cec and we record it, we could include that in the journal if it meets your criteria. gabler: the system can handle video as well. i'm not sure if we've done that but audio and video, pretty much any file type. images are constrained more by the file size and whether or not people have the appropriate applications for viewing them, but media is not very limited by our system. anderson: that's the end of my questions. michael, anything? downing: no, i'm satisfied. this has been a good session. thank you all for your time. galloway: yes, this is wonderful. let's touch base. maybe we do should do this periodically. i'm sure you would like to know where we are on certain things, especially once we get an archivist in place. downing: i think i can coax the new editors to get on the next call. all of this is really brand new. i talked with chris bell this past sunday, and he had lots of questions. we're filtering through all of that, but it would be good to have those incoming editors on the next call. daw: and by that time, our person should have started, so there will be new people on the archive side as well. anderson: i'll be in touch with bill and we'll organize the next zoom. thank you all very much. a n d e r s o n a n d d o w n i n g : t h e a u g u s t w i l s o n a r c h i v e : f i r s t p a n e l d i s c u s s i o n ( j a n u a r y 2 0 2 1 ) a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 3 | s p r i n g 2 0 2 1 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 1 . 68 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 11 author bios dr. david anderson is a retired professor of english, having taught at butler county community college for 32 years. he is the author of archetypal figures in “the snows of kilimanjaro: hemingway on flight and hospitality (kent state university press, 2019) and is managing editor of the august wilson journal. dr. michael downing is professor of english at kutztown university of pennsylvania, where he teaches august wilson, technical writing, journalism, research writing, and other english and writing classes. he has been studying the life and work of mr. wilson since 1992 and is lead editor of the august wilson journal. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ microsoft word bell, chris, subverting the role of les lieux de mémoire alaga syrup as a symbol in king hedley ii, september 14, 2020 v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 subverting the role of les lieux de memoire: alaga syrup as a symbol in king hedley ii by christopher bell associate professor of english, university of north georgia while the alaga billboard may evoke fond memories for those who recognize it, by the 1980s the hill district, the setting of the play, was a food desert, a community wherein no healthy food options exist, and the product was no longer available in the neighborhood, rendering the presence of the alaga billboard a negative symbol which complements wilson’s depiction of the neighborhood as one that steadily declines during the second half of the twentieth century.  christopher bell abstract an analysis of the impact alaga syrup has had on black communities and its relevance within august wilson’s play, king hedley ii. keywords august wilson, alaga syrup, king hedley ii, hill district, lieu de mémoire introduction king hedley ii, the ninth play chronologically in august wilson’s much lauded american century cycle, is the playwright’s darkest play. set in 1985, approximately thirty years after the city of pittsburgh began its so-called urban renewal project meant to revitalize the run-down hill district neighborhood. the play focuses on the nadir of this plan. beginning in the early 1950s, the city began demolishing the lower hill, displacing thousands of residents and shuttering hundreds of businesses. the civic arena was erected, establishing a tremendous source of income for both the white power structure and white owned businesses such as the pittsburgh penguins, while the hill district benefitted little. the city reneged on its promise to build affordable, comfortable, modern housing. wilson scholar sandra shannon notes that the hill district in 1985 is an area besieged by “guns, crime, family dysfunction, and neglect[,]” while the policies of the reagan administration “brought an attempt to cripple the new deal and the great society by cutting federal support for virtually every program important to african americans . . . by 1985, many neighborhoods [within the hill district] that had once been run-down but still thriving and vital became virtual ghost towns – or, worse, savage war zones” (126 127). wilson reflects this veritable wasteland in his a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 stark set description: “the setting is the backyards of three houses. one of the houses is missing” (5). in an interview, the playwright elaborated on the play’s background: “look at the sets . . . we’ve got a torn-down building where the guy plants some seeds and then puts barbed wire around the seeds, and everyone’s walking around with 9mms under their belts. it looks like a war zone – like someone dropped a bomb there” (qtd. in herrington 169). in closing the set description, however, wilson adds something curious. he writes that “buildings across the street in the front of the house are visible through the vacant lot and an old advertisement for alaga syrup featuring a faded portrait of willie mays is painted on one of the buildings” (king hedley ii 5-6). interestingly, mays did in fact endorse this syrup in a series of campaigns for about ten years, beginning in the mid-1950s. wilson provokes the audience to ponder the inclusion of a billboard in the set description that would have been between twenty and thirty years old, peddling a product no longer available for purchase in the hill by 1985, as will be shown later in this essay. curiously, no scholarly commentary exists that addresses the billboard. one can build a foundational understanding of the alaga syrup billboard by examining it as a lieu de mémoire. the french historian pierre nora writes that a site of memory is “where memory crystallizes and secretes itself . . . where consciousness of a break with the past is bound up with the sense that memory has been torn . . . there are . . . [only] sites of memory . . . because there are no longer . . . real environments of memory” (7). the alaga billboard fits nora’s definition. by 1985, the hill district that existed in the 1950s or 1960s when the billboard was erected was unrecognizable. the billboard evokes a sense of past time that is unrecognizable in the present, save the billboard itself. nora also notes that history is fractured, particularly for communities like the marginalized african americans wilson writes about. nora writes, “[a] process of interior decolonization has affected ethnic minorities, families, and groups that until now have possessed reserves of memory but little or no historical capital” (7). for black americans, particularly the impoverished ones cut off from mainstream society, this is particularly true. as wilson himself told christopher bigsby, “these kids today . . . don’t even know about [their ancestors]. they know nothing about that part of their lives and their connection to it . . . the connection is broken” (212). the playwright, however, does not blame the younger generation, but asserts they (and all blacks) are victims of history. to remedy this, he seeks to rewrite history, telling david savran in an interview that “the history of blacks in america has not been written by blacks . . . [and] if we’re [african americans] going to be pointed toward a future, we must know our past” (27). wilson seeks to provide the “historical capital” missing from the black community in his drama in order to compel the “reaction, progress, or . . . revolution” nora mentions (7). on the surface, the alaga billboard, with its evocation of the past, fits this mission. furthermore, preserving history, offering an understanding of how institutional racism crippled the hill district in particular, lies at the heart of king hedley ii, although it should be noted that wilson does not completely exonerate african americans from the dissolution of the black community in this play. indeed, harry elam notes that the hill district in 1985 is devastated by “systematic abandonment, internalized oppression, and self-destructive violence” (69). the hill district of his youth that wilson often so fondly appears unrecognizable. in the play’s prologue stool pigeon says, “times ain’t nothing like they used to be. everything done got broke up. pieces flying everywhere. look like it’s gonna be broke up some more before it get whole again” (wilson, king hedley ii 7). the hill district’s “spiritual and practical truthsayer” (5) attempts to heal the fractures he sees by hoarding so many newspapers his neighbor ruby labels his house a “firetrap” (27). he tells ruby’s son king and his friend mister that he keeps them so “i know what went on. i ain’t saying what goes on . . . what went on. you got to know that. how you gonna get on the other side of the valley if christopher bell b e l l : s u b v e r t i n g t h e r o l e o f l e s l i e u x d e m e m o i r e : a l a g a s y r u p a s a s y m b o l i n k i n g h e d l e y i i a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 you don’t know that? you can’t guess on that . . . you got to know” (wilson 27). stool pigeon’s declaration echoes nora’s theory of the importance of preserving history for minorities because doing so allows these communities to own a sense of their own history, rather than have it articulated by the majority. but what of alaga syrup? what of this curious billboard– this “artifact” of history–wilson so deliberately inserts on the stage? briefly, a further understanding of les lieux de mémoire and their role in wilson’s plays is informative. although sites of memory are commonly discussed in multicultural texts, surprisingly little in-depth commentary exists in wilson scholarship. the most important interpretations are found in elam’s seminal study the past as present in the drama of august wilson. for elam, most sites of memory in wilson’s drama offer warm remembrances and moments of redemption for the characters, which, again, is nora’s claim about their function. for example, the scholar notes that when characters in seven guitars perform the jump back dance to celebrate joe louis’s successful heavyweight title defense against billy conn, the moment “recalls with nostalgia a time in the forties when swing dancing and the jump back were the vogue” (22). furthermore, when the male characters in the piano lesson sing the blues song “’ol berta,” they reenact a performance whose meaning acts as a memory “practically enabling survival [on the] notorious parchman work farm,” the prison where the men learned the song (29). a similar moment occurs in fences when cory and raynell sing a blues song originally passed down by their grandfather. elam notes “within this interlude of song the past makes an indelible impact on the present, as memory and history congeal in this [site of memory] on the maxson steps. the song is material, symbolic, and functional, as shared benediction for troy but also a catalyst for reconsideration, reconciliation, and renewal” (53). finally, elam argues that aunt ester, wilson’s nearly four-hundred-year-old embodiment of african american tradition, “[b]orn with the arrival of africans in america . . . is the actual site of african american legacy, a living lieu de mémoire. . . history and memory congeal in her body . . . [the name] ‘aunt ester’ is in fact the ‘ancestor,’ the connection to the african american past, that is both personal and collective, both material and metaphysical” (185). with the exception of seven guitars, a play with a rather ambivalent ending, all of these les lieux de mémoire elam notes complement the general tone of optimism found at the end of the plays mentioned. this optimism is not present in king hedley ii. aunt ester dies in this play, in part because the black community turns its back on her. even before her death, stool pigeon says, “the path to her house is all grown over with weeds, you can’t hardly find the door no more” (8). the entirety of his opening monologue leaves little room for the kind of warmth and nostalgia that appears in the form of les lieux de mémoire in some of the american century cycle plays that precede king hedley ii. at first glance, incidentally, the alaga syrup billboard appears to meet this pattern of memory as a balm for afflicted communities, especially for those individuals who remember the product and the cultural icon, willie mays, who endorsed it. however, a careful examination of the company’s advertising practices throughout the twentieth century reveals how it invoked the past as a way of combating a perpetually turbulent present, regardless of the actual time period or target audience. this creates a false sense of nostalgia in regard to alaga syrup. therefore, instead of portraying alaga syrup as the kind of lieu de mémoire that invokes warmth and nostalgia, wilson subverts this traditional role of a site of memory, as the alaga billboard complements the sense of tragedy that defines the play, and, ultimately, stands as a symbol of the slow decline of the hill district that wilson depicts in the plays of the american century cycle that take place during the second half of the twentieth century. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 a brief history of alaga syrup’s advertising founded in 1906, the alabama-georgia-syrup company’s signature product became alaga syrup. the company was white owned. the name “alaga” is a portmanteau alabama and georgia (alaga syrup). throughout the twentieth century, the alabama-georgia-syrup company worked meticulously to brand itself as the kind of product that evokes warmth, family, and community, as well as being a harbinger of a past that was a better, simpler time for everyone that can be revisited simply by buying and consuming the product. this nostalgia-themed advertising was central to the company from the beginning, even before it began marketing consciously to black communities throughout the united states. for instance, two years after the company’s founding, an advertisement in the pensacola journal from december 15, 1908, notes the syrup achieves its flavor using “the old fashioned kettle process,” and features a drawing of an antebellum era mammy serving pancakes and syrup to a white family (see fig. 1). figure 1 fig. 1: “alaga syrup is a tissue builder.” a second ad in the pensacola journal on december 19, 1908, features another antebellum mammy tending a kettle of syrup with the copy “the old way is the best way,” claiming all the syrup is manufactured in such a pot and stirred by hand (see fig. 2). figure 2 fig. 2: “the old way is the best way.” finally, a third advertisement, also found in the pensacola journal from april 3, 1909, eliminates the mammy but asserts that the syrup is “made honestly by the old ‘befoh de wah’ process” (see fig. 3). b e l l : s u b v e r t i n g t h e r o l e o f l e s l i e u x d e m e m o i r e : a l a g a s y r u p a s a s y m b o l i n k i n g h e d l e y i i a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 5 figure 3 fig. 3: “the sign language of childhood which means alaga syrup breakfast enjoyment.” collectively, these advertisements show that, from its inception, the alabama-georgiasyrup company appealed to its consumers sense of nostalgia, seeking to have its products be associated with its consumers’ memories, however intangible. of course, such intangibility is irrelevant. the syrup itself provides the memory. what, if any, effect these early advertisements had on black communities in the south cannot be determined. but in continuing to trace the history of alaga advertising, one sees that the company had gravitated toward the black community with a certain vigor by the 1920s. in order to ascertain alaga syrup’s presence in the hill district, one may start with the archives of the pittsburgh courier, the city’s black newspaper. a search for “alaga syrup” within these archives results in 119 hits. by contrast, the same search in the pittsburgh postgazette, the most widely distributed newspaper throughout the city, proffers no results. this suggests that alaga syrup exclusively targeted a black clientele in pittsburgh. specifically, the archives reveal that alaga syrup advertised in the courier intermittently between 1924 and 1933, including print commercials, promotions for the “alaga cane syrup radio hour” broadcast from the fifty thousand-kilowatt radio station wlw in cincinnati, and coupons. as with the advertisements in the pensacola journal noted above, the copy in the pittsburgh courier illustrates the company attempted to capitalize on the nostalgia for their homes transplanted southern blacks most certainly felt when they arrived in pittsburgh in droves during the great migration north of the early twentieth century. the earliest ad found in the pittsburgh courier archives, printed in 1924, features the copy “it’s the south’s finest syrup – sweet and delicious” (see fig. 4). figure 4 fig. 4: “it’s the south’s finest syrup – sweet and delicious. the pittsburgh courier. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 6 another advertisement published four years later proclaimed it “a southern favorite for years” and encouraged its target audience to “buy a can today . . . and enjoy an old-time breakfast of hot cakes and alaga syrup” (see fig. 5). figure 5 fig. 5: “good every drop.” the pittsburgh courier yet another advertisement that appeared in the courier in 1930 reads “alaga syrup comes from ‘way down south in dixie’ where the warm sunshine brings the georgia cane to juicy and delicious ripeness...the tempting and satisfying cane flavor has made it a favorite with southern people for over twenty years” (see fig. 6). figure 6 fig. 6: “good every drop.” the pittsburgh courier finally, in 1931, the most overt appeal to nostalgia appears: “folks who have lived in the south never forget the delicious taste of georgia cane[,]” which has been “a southern favorite for over twenty years” (see fig. 7). b e l l : s u b v e r t i n g t h e r o l e o f l e s l i e u x d e m e m o i r e : a l a g a s y r u p a s a s y m b o l i n k i n g h e d l e y i i a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 7 figure 7 fig. 7: “from georgia cane comes alaga syrup.” the pittsburgh courier. again, although its target audience changed (there were no more mammies in the pittsburgh courier ads after all) the alabama-georgia-syrup company peddled itself as a harbinger of warmth and nostalgia for a nearly thirty year period, solidifying the company as a vessel of sorts to transport its consumers back to a happier past without having to actually leave the kitchen. although advertisements for alaga syrup do not appear in the pittsburgh courier archives after the 1930s, the company continued marketing to the black community. deborah jean warner notes, “following world war ii . . . the alabamageorgia company acknowledged that ‘negroes’ were their best customers” (129). advertisements for the syrup ran in black newspapers such as the chicago defender and the new york based amsterdam news. in the 1950s and 1960s, superstar baseball players hank aaron and willie mays appeared in many advertisements for alaga syrup, including ones for ebony magazine, starting in 1955. these ads ran monthly for many years (248). the willie mays advertisement wilson probably had in mind for king hedley ii appeared around this time (see fig. 8). figure 8 fig. 8: “willie mays says: ‘say hey! love that alaga real ribbon cane flavor.” a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 8 all of these ads show that the alabama-georgia-syrup company continued its practice of appealing to nostalgia during these years. for instance, both the hank aaron and willie mays ads featured the copy, “hank aaron says, ‘i was raised on alaga syrup,’” and willie mays says, ‘i was raised on alaga syrup.’” impact on the black community another key to understanding alaga syrup as a lieu de mémoire is to recognize the impact it had on the black community. the syrup is mentioned in african american fiction, nonfiction, and in general history studies. for instance, edna stewart’s legendary soul food diner on chicago’s west side “was a gathering place for civil rights activists who spent fifteen cents for a plate of corn bread drenched with the syrup” (warner 129). in 1971, the chicago tribune featured an article about a black family living in the traditionally white oak park neighborhood who found its neighbors accommodating but lamented that alaga could not be found on the shelves of that community’s grocery stores (129). furthermore, in toni morrison’s the bluest eye, narrator claudia mcteer notes that her mother’s loving ministrations when she is sick as a child are “thick and dark as alaga syrup” (12). the poet carmen gillespie writes fondly of alaga, noting “i can remember my grandmother always had a bottle of it in her pantry . . . its dark color and its viscosity never failed to hold my attention” (10). also, in a special tribute to jazz singer diane reeves published in the st. louis dispatch, yanick lamb rice celebrates how the vocalist “through song, constantly reminds [african americans] to cherish our history and to draw strength from the roots of our family trees,” noting that “her concerts feel like church when she riffs about those hugs and kisses, alaga syrup and biscuits, paper bag curlers, and vaseline-shined shoes” (471). these sources illustrate how ingrained the company became within the african american community, particularly those who came of age in the immediate post-world war ii era. they also show how successful the alabama-georgia-syrup company marketing practices were. the nostalgia the brand made central to its advertisements seamlessly ingrained itself in the memories its consumers had of the product long after its availability in most black communities disappeared. alaga syrup today by the mid-1970s alaga syrup was no longer the primary source of profit for the alabama-georgia-syrup company, nor was it still marketed specifically to black communities. at some point, the company was folded into the larger whitfield foods company, which made its foray into the co-packing business, eventually securing contracts with ocean spray, minute maid, nestle, campbell’s soup, and pepsico. today, alaga is still available, but “both the original syrup and other varieties account for just a fraction of the business” (azok). however, the company still markets the syrup nostalgically. the current website for alaga syrup revels in the company’s beginnings, featuring the following copy: “100 years ago, alaga syrup company found the secret formula for the ‘sweetness of the south’ when the original cane syrup recipe was created in 1906. alaga syrup was born out of love, and the ‘feeling of family’ when a georgia boy met and married an alabama girl” (“alaga syrup”). the website proudly displays its history of celebrity spokespersons such as clark gable, general jimmy doolittle, nat king cole, scott and zelda fitzgerald, ernest hemingway, hank and audrey williams, hank aaron, paul “bear” bryant, and shug jordan. willie mays appears to be the celebrity the company is most proud of being associated with, as two ads featuring him are the only ones reproduced on the website. the pre-world war i ads from the pensacola journal featuring mammies are not mentioned. b e l l : s u b v e r t i n g t h e r o l e o f l e s l i e u x d e m e m o i r e : a l a g a s y r u p a s a s y m b o l i n k i n g h e d l e y i i a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 9 a reading of king hedley ii armed with this history, we can examine the alaga billboard within the context of king hedley ii. as noted, audience members who recognize the company, the billboard, or both, probably have fond remembrances of the syrup. and, as elam notes, such is the function of sites of memory in wilson’s plays. one is tempted to see the alaga billboard in a similar fashion. after all, alaga is a food product, and, as psyche williams-forson points out, “food not only celebrates belonging, but in black communities it represents resourcefulness and ingenuity, even as it nourishes, fulfills, and sustains” (129). but the alaga billboard is hollow. the product was unavailable in the hill by 1985, a time in which the neighborhood was considered a “food desert,” a condition in which the residents of an area do not have access to affordable, healthy food choices. the age of the billboard, no less than twenty years old, enhances the sense of abandonment and lack of opportunity in the hill in 1985, which wilson prominently depicts in the play. king, the titular character, finds only one legitimate means of employment, working for a local contractor named hop, who tears down blighted buildings when the city approves his contracts. unfortunately for king, hop has to fight the city to honor these contracts. in the meantime, he and his friend mister sell refrigerators stolen by an unnamed third party, squirreling away money in hopes of opening a video store specializing in kung fu movies. later, the two rob a jewelry store, hoping to inject more capital into their business plan. interestingly, the conditions king faces are the result of years of institutionalized racism, which wilson depicts in the plays that comprise the second half of the american century cycle. the alaga billboard can be imagined as a central symbol of this time period. as noted earlier, in the 1950s the city of pittsburgh enacted a plan that led to the destruction of the lower hill district, which displaced thousands of residents and shuttered hundreds of businesses. the city never followed through on its promise to rebuild the area it declared blighted, the effects of which become central to wilson’s chronicle of the hill, beginning with fences, set in 1957, and continuing through to the end of the cycle. in fact, one can imagine the alaga syrup billboard already in place by the late 1950s. after all, willie mays was endorsing the product by this time. a direct connection can be made between fences and king hedley ii. in the former, troy argues with his wife, rose, about shopping at bella’s instead of the a&p. bella’s was an independent grocery store, formally siger’s grocery (named after its owner, bella siger), that operated at 1727 bedford avenue for decades. this is the actual location of the setting for king hedley ii. in seven guitars, a companion play of king hedley ii set in 1948, louise reminds hedley (king’s namesake) his rent is due, declaring, “you pay me tomorrow, you know how bella is about her money” (wilson, seven guitars 22). later louise trips over the back stairs and says “bella need to fix these steps. she been saying that for the longest time” (93). bella siger rented apartments out of the back of grocery store, one, in fact, to wilson’s family for nearly two decades. fast forward to king hedley ii in 1985 and readers learn that king was raised by “mama louise,” who dies off stage shortly before the play begins. elam offers a bleak connection between the two plays: “the lively backyard of some forty years earlier in seven guitars is now in a state of fragmented ruin” (69). therefore, king, born in 1949, has lived in the shadow of the alaga billboard nearly all his life, watching his neighborhood decay while the advertisement stubbornly remains in place. the connections between the different wilson dramas are deeper than geographical curiosities. one can trace the decay of the hill with the alaga billboard at the center of the discussion, if one imagines the advertisement existing within the context of the plays that take place between 1957 and 1985. as noted, in fences troy and rose argue about shopping at bella’s. for rose, the value of shopping at the a&p is purely economic: groceries there are cheaper. for troy, the sense of community he feels at bella’s is more important. he says to rose, “the a&p ain't never done nothing for me. i spends my money where i'm treated right. i go down to bella, say, ‘i need a loaf of bread, i'll pay you friday.’ she give it to me. what sense a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 10 that make when i got money to go and spend it somewhere else and ignore the person who done right by me? that ain't in the bible” (wilson, fences 14). here readers gauge one of troy’s more admirable qualities: his devotion to his community, illustrated by his spending habits. one might even argue that troy mirrors a certain familial spirit alaga promotes in its advertisements, which he could have noticed when shopping at bella’s. in two trains running, however, set a little more than a decade later, this spirit appears ineffective because the effects of urban renewal have crippled the hill district. this play is set in memphis lee’s diner. memphis announces that the city plans to forcibly purchase his building and intends to demolish it. he laments the state of the hill in 1969: “ain't nothing gonna be left around here. supermarket gone. two drugstores. the five and ten. doctor done moved out. dentist done moved out. shoe store gone. ain't nothing gonna be left but these niggers killing one another. that don't never go out of style” (wilson, two trains running 14). of course, the alaga billboard, most certainly in place by this time, persists even if the product will soon be off the shelves in the hill. this perspective is only worsened in the next play in the american century cycle, jitney, set in 1977. part of the plot is concerned with a group of drivers who operate a marginally illegal taxi service. jitney drivers are vital for hill district residence, as licensed cab companies will not serve the neighborhood. like memphis in two trains running, becker is told that the city plans to demolish the building, threatening the livelihood of the drivers. in the second act of the play, the drivers discuss the pending demolition, and wilson offers his most scathing commentary on the effects of urban renewal on the hill in the following exchange between the drivers: becker: all right . . . you all know why we’re here. you all know what's happening. the city's fixing to board up the place come the first of the month. they gonna tear it down. they gonna tear the whole block down. youngblood: they gonna tear the whole neighborhood down. doub: they supposed to build some houses. that's what they need to do. turnbo: they supposed to build a new hospital down there on logan street. they been talking about that for the longest while. they supposed to build another part to the irene kaufmann settlement house to replace the part they tore down. they supposed to build some houses down on dinwiddie. becker: turnbo's right. they supposed to build some houses but you ain't gonna see that. you ain't gonna see nothing but the tear-down. that's all i ever seen. youngblood: that's all there is to see. (wilson, jitney 67) the irony is apparent. as the neighborhood persistently declined, the alaga billboard remained, while the attendant promises invoked in the company’s advertising offer no relief in the face of these realities. rather than warmth and remembrance, this lieu de mémoire serves as a reminder of false and broken promises that defined the hill district in the second half of the twentieth. returning to king hedley ii, the billboard can be seen as something of an anathema. as noted earlier in this essay, king hedley ii is wilson’s bleakest drama. even the two plays that precede it, two trains running and jitney, end in harmony, despite their depictions of a steadily declining neighborhood. king hedley ii begins on a dark note and ends in despair. decades of institutionalized racism that led to the aforementioned lack of job opportunities collide with a myriad of social ills. in the first act, hedley mentions a child, little buddy will, was killed in a drive-by shooting and that another black family’s house was burned when they attempted to move to the white neighborhood of shadyside. tonya, king’s wife, offers a devastating contemporary critique of young black families in the hill, telling king she is pregnant but plans to have an abortion because she doesn’t want her newborn to be older than the child her seventeen-year-old daughter natasha carries. anguished about being a grandmother at thirty-five and also, tonya laments the lack of father figures in most children’s b e l l : s u b v e r t i n g t h e r o l e o f l e s l i e u x d e m e m o i r e : a l a g a s y r u p a s a s y m b o l i n k i n g h e d l e y i i a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 11 lives, asserting that natasha’s “daddy in jail. her step-daddy going to jail. she seventeen and got a baby, she don’t even know who the father is” (wilson, king hedley ii 37). in act two stool pigeon enters after having been attacked and robbed by a gang of black youths who steal a mere sixty-three dollars and burn his newspapers. the most devastating event in the play occurs when aunt ester dies, signaling that the foundation of the community itself appears to have collapsed. at the end of the play, ruby accidentally shoots her son. and while the infanticide symbolizes a sacrifice that promises aunt ester’s resurrection, the immediate horror outweighs the hope. all the while, the alaga billboard looms over the stage, an increasingly troublesome sign. the company that worked so consciously to brand itself as the kind of product that offers families “warmth and tradition,” to use pierre nora’s claim of what sites of memory can be, is a negative symbol of a company whose presence on the hill is perhaps better left to the amber of history (7). again, because alaga syrup cannot be located within the contemporary setting of king hedley ii, the billboard’s presence is ironic. what we have is a white owned company which earned a fair amount of profit from the black community for approximately half a century that eventually took its business elsewhere but did not even take its billboard down before it left town. conclusion some audience members who recognize the alaga syrup billboard when attending a production or those reading the script of king hedley ii are likely to recognize alaga syrup as a lieu de mémoire in the traditional sense, a symbol that evokes a kind of happy reminiscence for those who can identify it. this is certainly the function of sites of memory in some of august wilson’s plays, such as when characters perform the jump back dance in seven guitars, or when troy, his son cory, and his daughter raynell sing a blues song passed down from generation to generation. however, the alaga billboard fails to evoke such sentiment. examining the history of alaga syrup’s advertising confirms that the company manipulated a sense of nostalgia throughout its history, regardless of its audience. after all, the syrup was marketed to white communities before the company almost exclusively targeted black ones. wilson ultimately shows a certain indifference the company had in regard to its marketing practices, as it left the billboard in place, even after the product itself could no longer be found within the hill district by 1985, the year king hedley ii is set. this indifference complements the attitude of the most powerful individuals who run the city of pittsburgh itself, the very people who enacted the urban renewal plan that led to the systematic destruction of the hill district in the second half of the twentieth century, wherein hundreds of businesses were destroyed and thousands of citizens were displaced, while virtually nothing was built to replace that which was demolished. one can imagine the alaga billboard stubbornly looming over bedford avenue for nearly the entirety of the second half of the twentieth century, as so much decays around it. one is left with the impression that syrup will not mend the ills of the community, however nostalgic the feeling. such is how august wilson subverts the role of a lieu de mémoire in king hedley ii. works cited “alaga syrup. about whitfield foods and alaga brand products.” https://www.alagasyrup.com/about_us. accessed 22 feb 2020. “alaga syrup is a tissue builder.” pensacola journal, 15 dec. 1908, p.5. newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/80943832. bigsby, christopher. “an interview with august wilson.” the cambridge companion to august wilson. edited by christopher bigsby, cambridge up, 2007, pp. 202 – 213. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 12 gillespie, carmen. “wintergreen and alaga syrup: a writer’s reflections on memory, writing, and place.” shaping memories: reflections of african american women writers, edited by joanne veal gabbin, u of mississippi p, 2009, pp. 7-13. “good every drop.” the pittsburgh courier 14 apr. 1928, p. 9. newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40008512. ---. the pittsburgh courier 23 aug. 1930, p. 7. newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40068568. elam, harry. the past as present in the drama of august wilson. u of michigan p, 2004. “from georgia cane comes alaga syrup.” the pittsburgh courier 21 march 1931, p. 7. newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/40035520. herrington, joan. “king hedley ii: in the midst of all this death.” the cambridge companion to august wilson, edited by christopher bigsby, cambridge up, 2007, pp. 169 – 182. “it’s the south’s finest syrup – sweet and delicious. the pittsburgh courier. 12 april 1924, p. 2. newpapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/80943832. lamb, yanick rice. “happy anniversary! a year old; a million strong.” st. louis postdispatch 2 feb. 1997, p. 471. morrison, toni. the bluest eye. vintage, 1970. nora, pierre. “between memory and history: les lieux de mémoire.” representations, spring 1989, pp. 7-24. “the old way is the best way.” pensacola journal 19 dec. 1908, p. 3. newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/80943832. shannon, sandra. “turn your lamp down low! aunt ester dies in king hedley ii. august wilson: completing the twentieth century cycle, edited by alan nadel, university of iowa p, 2010, pp. 123 – 133. “the sign language of childhood which means alaga syrup breakfast enjoyment.” pensacola journal 3 apr. 1909, p. 3. newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/80796260. williams-forson, psyche. “‘he gonna give me my ham’: the use of food as a symbol for social justice.” august wilson’s pittsburgh cycle: critical perspectives on the plays. edited by sandra shannon, mcfarland, 2016, 128-141. “willie mays says: ‘say hey! love that alaga real ribbon cane flavor.” http://bp2.blogger.com/_thlfytjjbmq/ri0g6ewidhi/aaaaaaaaatg/s0nrfoxfu em/s1280-h/williesyr.jpg. wilson, august. fences. theatre communications group, 2007. ---. jitney. theatre communications group, 2007. b e l l : s u b v e r t i n g t h e r o l e o f l e s l i e u x d e m e m o i r e : a l a g a s y r u p a s a s y m b o l i n k i n g h e d l e y i i a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 7 4 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 6 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 13 ---. king hedley ii. theatre communications group, 2005. ---. seven guitars. theatre communications group, 2007. ---. two trains running. theatre communications group, 2007. author bio dr. christopher bell is associate professor of english at the university of north georgia where he teaches courses in american literature, african american literature, and world drama. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. august wilson journal v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 4 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 august wilson’s signification on the kójódá within the “structurally conservative” fences by omiyemi (artisia) green how we both make use of them [plot . . . dialogue . . . characterization…design] will be determined by who we are . . . what ground we are standing on and what our cultural values are. -august wilson abstract despite being hailed as august wilson’s “most structurally conservative work . . . modeled on the wellmade play” (savran 20), the plot of fences signifies on a calendar system within yorùbá cultural practice used to organize personal, communal, business, and spiritual affairs known as the kójódá. wilson deploys what i term an ethnocultural dramatic structure (eds), an act that can be undersigned or premeditated given his dramaturgical positionality and the ethics of the community in which he was raised. within an eds framework the usual posts along which well-made plays are developed— exposition, inciting incident, climax, falling action, and resolution—are influenced by and/or at times wholly subordinate to cultural beliefs, practices, rituals and other semiotics, spiritual episteme, mythologies, and cosmologies of the racial or ethnic group at the center of the text. in this fashion, wilson dramatically treats the experiences of black americans, with full cognizance of western formulaic constructions in playwriting, yet the social behaviors of his characters and his plotlines are propelled by identifiable diasporic formations of indigenous african practices and concepts. keywords fences; kojoda; yoruba; ethnocultural dramatic structure august wilson’s body of literature is rife with clues of his anthropological analysis of blacks in the diaspora begging to be illuminated and examined. once, during a post-show conversation, wilson asked how many in a crowd of about two hundred recognized the characters as african. less than ten indicated they did. “i’m very curious as to why they refuse [to see these characters as africans]—i have to say it’s a refusal because it’s so obvious (savaran 34). wilson himself stood firmly on the ground of his socialized, cultivated, re-membered africanness despite his bi-racial heritage, his theatrical development and success in predominantly white american theatre settings, and his acknowledgement of the european art form that he has embraced (lyons and plimpton). consequently, his sensibilities demand that critics, readers, and spectators eschew the primary reliance on dominant aesthetic values and examine more deeply the africanist elements within his dramaturgy. using this approach privileges the ground on which he stood in any critical discussion. in a 1987 interview with david savran, wilson entreats readers and omiyemi (artisia) green a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 4 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 spectators to more deeply engage the cultural distinctions within his dramatic reconstructions of the black community: blacks do not have a history of writing—things in africa were passed on orally. in that tradition you orally pass on your entire philosophy, your ideas and attitudes about life. most of them were passed along in blues. you have to make the philosophy interestingly musically and lyrically, so that someone will want to repeat it, to teach it to someone else as soon as they’ve heard it. if you don’t make it interesting, the information dies . . . an african man has a whole different field of manners. all cultures have their mythology, their creative motifs and social and political organizations. to my mind, people just gloss over these things in the black community without really examining it and seeing what’s there. (26) “what’s there,” sandra richards notes in approaches to teaching the plays of august wilson, is an aesthetic that is “creolized” in its implementation of africanist cultural knowledge, and western values. in her estimation wilson signifies on “master codes” of the western culture with africanist beliefs and practices, the result of which is a “syncretic dynamic that looks like and departs from hegemonic culture” (15). to support her claim, richards uses the example of the tenuous strain between the play’s protagonist, troy, and his younger cory in fences as an example of the familiar yet different. the contentious father-son dynamic in wilson’s fences will be familiar to most spectators (or readers) regardless of race because they too have had to struggle with parental authority, but troy maxson’s absolute refusal to support his son’s dream of playing [college football], based in a personal and collective history of racism, critiques the white, national convention of optimism about the future (15). there are recognizable strains which both characterize and challenge troy and cory’s relationship. in cory’s mind, rose’s fence is not the only obstacle; troy’s authoritarianism also places limitations on him. the dominant tropes which strain troy and cory’s relationship—parental desires of educational attainment and employment stability—are grounded in troy’s well-founded but restrictive fears of cory’s likely encounters with racism and desire for a football career that could suffer a premature ending or might not ever experience a beginning. the national football league was much slower to racially integrate its teams, and, unlike the negro baseball leagues, there were no nationally organized segregated teams for black football players. between 1904 and 1933, the ranks of the american professional football association and the national football league experienced very narrow integration because many state laws prohibited integrated sports teams. the los angeles rams were the first professional football team to sign african american players, kenny washington and woody strode, in 1946, a mere eleven years before fences is set (wolf 2009). herein lies troy’s critique of professional sports and wariness regarding an optimistic future for cory’s full participation in and enjoyment of a sustained career. history has made him skeptical and otherwise practical. familiar themes of the human condition in fences aside, its dramatic structure is also creolized in that “looks like and departs from” more hegemonic forms of dramaturgy. an african diasporic informed reading of the text reveals a narratological practice that, while embracing the mode of the well-made play, simultaneously signifies on a calendar system within yorùbá cultural practice, the kójódá (green 2020, 2016). for a playwright whose origins lie in a community known by many names, “the crossroads of the world”1 and “little haiti”2 among them, this cultural admixture is unsurprising. although wilson dramatically orchestrates experiences of black americans with full cognizance of western formulaic constructions in playwriting, viewing the text 1 the hill district was a geographic crossroads for musicians and a melting pot for immigrants. 2 free middle-class blacks of the hill district, seeking their own independence, referred to their beloved community as little haiti in ethical alignment with haiti’s fight for and subsequent political liberation from france in 1804. g r e e n : a u g u s t w i l s o n ’ s s i g n i f i c a t i o n o n t h e k ó j ó d á w i t h i n t h e “ s t r u c t u r a l l y c o n s e r v a t i v e ” f e n c e s a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 4 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 and characters as wilson intended for us to see them, reveals that the social behaviors of his characters and his plotlines are propelled by identifiable forces, and diasporic formations of indigenous african practices and concepts. hence, even as wilson borrows from elements of modern playwriting, through his own blood’s memory, consciousness, and cultural grounding, he simultaneously revises these “dominant tropes” in his texts, suggesting a dramaturgical process that is culturally conjunctural. fences is hailed as wilson’s “strongest, most passionate american dramatic writing” (barnes) and his “most structurally conservative work . . . modeled on the well-made play” (savran 20). the well-made play is a nineteenth century dramatic convention of french dramatist eugène scribe that has continued to shape the tradition of playwriting well into the present, with some structural variations that depart from scribe’s blueprint. broadly speaking, in the world of a wellmade play, a crisis disrupts what may already be a tenuous condition. the plot begins late in the storyline; the action builds around attempts to circumvent obstacles of increasing complexity, working towards the climax, while the plot generally wraps up with no loose ends. necessary exposition is provided by the characters, which tend to be few (with perhaps one character predominating the group), and scenes and locales are limited. in keeping with this framework, fences is set entirely in the exterior of the maxon home. each of the seven characters is described in relationship to troy, the hero around whom the entire play is constructed. within the first two pages of the play, a major plotline is revealed—troy’s racial discrimination complaint is under investigation by the labor union—and the remainder of the play’s exposition continues to unfold throughout the first of the two acts. despite these very present well-made play markers, including the play’s ending with the entire cast of characters assembled for troy’s burial rites, there are fragments of ancestral bones, an ethnocultural dramatic structure (green 2016, 156) informed by the kójódá, within fences’ “structurally conservative” dramatic trellis. an ethnocultural dramatic structure—deployed unthinkingly, or by design—is observed through the presence of distinct cultural markers which influence the play’s arrangement of actions, and subsequently the social behaviors of its characters. at times, markers of eds are observed to co-exist alongside the usual posts of the well-made play: exposition, inciting incident, climax, falling action, and resolution, thus creating a structural bricolage of identifiable forms. there are also moments when posts of the well-made play are observed to be wholly subordinate to cultural beliefs, practices, rituals and other semiotics, spiritual episteme, mythologies, and cosmologies of the racial or ethnic group at the center of the text. in fences as well as other plays in the american century cycle such as gem of the ocean (green 2016) and two trains running (green 2020), wilson signifies on the kójódá because the metaphysical insight embodied in the calendar system reflects the sphere of extreme importance in his dramaturgy, inarguably personified most in aunt ester, the world to which his characters turned when they needed the most guidance and psychological support (wilson, hedley x). while aunt ester does not figure in fences, the ancestral presence and cultural values she embodies are invoked most conspicuously, though not only, through song (“old blue/old dog blue”) and dance (gabe’s atavistic dance) in the play’s closing scene. the kójódá is a calendar system within yorùbá cultural practices used to organize personal, communal, business, and spiritual affairs of practitioners of ẹ̀sìn òrìṣà ìbílẹ̀. the calendar’s original temporal formation, a four-day agrarian and religious day calendar, was used for market and worship purposes in yorùbáland. to standardize the days of òrìṣà worship across towns, the kójódá expanded to include the full seven-days of the gregorian week (epega and neimark, 1995, 507). the origin and purpose of the kójódá are detailed within the sacred orature of ifá, a cultural body of wisdom expressed in 256 binary symbols known as odù. each odù with its associated verses, a code of pragmatic and cultural conduct, offers ancient truths and spiritual guidance for navigating the contemporary present, and solutions for maintaining ethical behavior and navigating conflict. the calendar system, like odù, is informed by yorùbá cosmology, history, and philosophy. the odù òḳànràn-òfún lists the names of the seven days of the week and narrates the series of events which took place within the garden of command, that influenced how the days came to be named. a brief listing of “the order and significance” of each weekday is also listed in òtúrúpóṇtúrá, an odù which addresses the general idea of the importance of structure, for example bones, a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 4 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 cultural institutions, and the organization of societies (505). in one verse of òtúrúpóṇ-túrá, òṛúnmìlà beseeches olódùmarè for control over the sun. however, “olódùmarè said that he could not give him control of the daylight but would let him know the names of the days and the things that are most suitable to do on those days” (506). thus, whether that is honoring the òrìṣà week or “observing marriages and birthdays, … starting a business or moving into a new home, and so on” (507), the kójódá offers adherents a structure for prevision and for regulating events within one’s means of control. the figure below summarizes the kójódá and key attributes of each time unit (see figure 1. the kójódá). the first-row charts how each major division and sequence of actions within fences aligns with a given day. the second row notes the names of each unit within the seven-day week. the third and fourth rows contain the names and qualities of each day based on events that took place within the garden of command, respectively. the fifth and final row references the òrìṣà, commonly associated with the attributes of each day, which also marks the most optimal occasion for venerating each deity within diasporic formations of ifá-òrìṣà practice.3 the subsequent analysis of how elements of the kójódá inform wilson’s plot construction is linear, aligning with the structure of the calendar, which reads left to right or sunday – saturday. therefore, the evaluation begins with sunday, act 2.3 rather than friday, act 1.1. figure 1: the kójódá sunday, ọjó ̣àikú: act 2.3 fences maintains its attention to a key feature of the kójódá in its treatment of sunday. the day is one of settling disputes and is further characterized by long life and tranquility, ascension, and immortality. on this day, rose comes to terms with the state of her relationship with troy. their marriage, loveless since his confession and persistent reluctance to end his affair with alberta, creates a void in rose’s life. she comes to accept raynell as her own daughter as, “a motherless child has got a hard time” (fences 79), and furthermore, perceives her as “all them babies i had wanted and never had . . .” (98). however, from that point forward she is no longer a crewman on her (relation)ship with troy, declaring that he is a “womanless man” (79). rose’s internal dispute between allowing herself to be emotionally mistreated by troy as opposed to being the skipper of her own life and dictating the terms upon which she would remain in the relationship with him, ends. the nautical references are intentional as in this point of the play, rose, whose previous energy favored òḅà, the òrìṣà who protects home, family, and marriage, begins to exhibit qualities of the 3 this may vary across lineages in yoruba land and diasporic practice. there are also dynamic calendar arrangements for òrìṣà worship based on planetary configurations and moon cycles. fences 2.3 fences 2.2 fences 1.1, 1.4, 2.4 fences 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.5 sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday ọjό̣ àikú ọjό̣ ajé ọjό̣ ìṣégun ọjό̣ rú ọjό̣ bo ọjό̣ etì ọjό̣ àbáméta day of long life and tranquility; ascension; immortality; and settling disputes day of commerce; initiating of educational, social programming; financial success day of victory day of confusion; the day opens the door and goes out day of fulfillment; creation; ancestral return; return of sun to its normal course day of trouble, prolonged struggle; fight, procrastination; postponement; impossibility; or quarrel day of three suggestions; three resolutions; three wonders; or three negative incidents obatala, òṛúnmìlà, òrì yemọja/olókun ògún, òsόsì ọya ṣàngó òṣ̣un èṣù g r e e n : a u g u s t w i l s o n ’ s s i g n i f i c a t i o n o n t h e k ó j ó d á w i t h i n t h e “ s t r u c t u r a l l y c o n s e r v a t i v e ” f e n c e s a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 4 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 5 òrìṣà, yemọja, the “mother whose children are fish.” yemọja is an òrìṣà who compels individuals to preserve self in the way that the salt-waters of the womb protects and “preserves the mysteries of gestation” (frisvold 52). the fish analogy is also significant here. for three days, much like the period of infancy for fish eggs and larvae, raynell was also defenseless and without the nurturing presence of a mother. in rose’s assumption of this new responsibility created through troy’s wanderlust, she further embodies the traits of yemọja, who comes to the aid of those who are vulnerable, abandoned, and/or marginalized. thursday, ọjó ̣bo: act 2.2 the key actions of this day are consistent with the principles noted in the kójódá— fulfillment, creation, and ancestral return. on this day, “mr. death” (ikù) gets closer to troy. his mistress, alberta, dies giving birth to raynell, their daughter. thus, as alberta’s life is fulfilled or one door closes, another one opens ushering in the return of an ancestor (raynell). alberta, like the òrìṣà of fecundity, potentiality, love, seduction, and joy, òṣ̣un, has fulfilled her mission of being a source of renewal for troy, and raynell, the creation of their union, becomes the sweet breeze of renewal in the wounded maxon family (savran 33). while building the fence was originally rose’s idea, upon learning of alberta’s death, troy resolves to finish it. his resolution is born of his own selfish desire to keep ikù “over there” and protect the remainder of what he believed belonged to him and not necessarily his commitment to the integrity of rose’s desire to build a hedge of protection around her family unit (and prevent troy’s infidelity): troy: alright . . . mr. death. see now . . . i’m gonna tell you what i’m gonna do. i’m gonna take and build me a fence around what belongs to me. and then i want you to stay on the other side. see? you stay over there until you’re ready for me. then you come on . . . when the top of your list say troy maxson . . . that’s when you come around here . . . ain’t nobody else got nothing to do with this. this is between you and me (fences 77). friday, ọjó ̣etì: act 1.1, 1.4, and 2.4 following the kójódá, fridays are associated with òṣ̣un but are also prone to trouble, delay, struggle, and quarrel. wilson engages the energy of ọ̀ṣun through the playfulness in the ritual of post-work laughter, “gin talk” between troy and bono, troy’s flirtation and not-so-subtle hints of his sexual desire of rose. however, these joyous rituals of payday, “gin talk,” and lovemaking (the “straights”) are always balanced by conflict (the “crooked”). in act 1.1 troy recounts to bono that he confronted his boss about employment inequities but was told to take it up with the sanitation commissioner. troy’s opposition of the hiring inequities on his job has many of his colleagues, namely brownie, who sees troy as a troublemaker, worried about potential repercussions. bono, suspicious of troy’s developing affair with alberta, accuses him of “. . . doing more than eye-ing her” (wilson, fences 3), an accusation which begins tearing at the fabric of their friendship. with a righteous indignation, troy maintains his innocence, but as we learn later, this indiscretion is a key source of dramatic tension within the play; he is in fact, having an affair. fridays are also troy’s paydays. this fact comes with predictable visits from lyons, troy’s eldest son, and his frustrating appeals for a ten-dollar loan. troy, who sees lyons as irresponsible and lazy, uses his monetary request as an opportunity to express his disapproval with his lifestyle. “you living the fast life . . . wanna be a musician . . . running around in them clubs and things . . . then, you learn to take care of yourself. you ain’t gonna find me going and asking nobody for nothing . . . you still trying to get something for nothing. life don’t owe you nothing . . .” (18). because of troy’s work ethic and lyons’s age, he does not understand his son’s need to vigorously pursue his musicianship despite the economic unreliability it offers. as such, lyons, who troy views as a feral child (or young cub), is unable to escape troy’s stinging critiques. troy blames lyons’ immaturity on the way his mother raised him. yet, because of his underlying guilt about his absence (troy was jailed for fifteen years of lyons’ life) and rose’s insistence, he always concedes and gives lyons the money. consistent with the underlying spiritual conflict of friday noted in the kójódá, wilson uses the play’s opening to introduce key sources of conflict for troy—his desire to overcome the limitations of his job, his a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 4 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 6 longing to ever-so-gently stretch the boundaries of his marriage and momentarily lay down his burden of responsibility, as well as the challenges he faces in his ability to pass down the ideal of self-sufficiency to his children without destroying their personal quests for self-determination. in act 1.4, despite being illiterate and unlicensed, troy is promoted from refuse collector to truck driver. in the social winds of change that are underpinning the play, he becomes the first black man to break this employment barrier. however, the triumph of the day is overshadowed by his altercation with cory later that evening. after finding out that cory has lied about maintaining his after-school job at the local supermarket, troy demands that the coach cut him from the team, challenging cory’s opportunity to be recruited to college on a football scholarship. angrily, cory throws his helmet in troy’s direction and accuses his father of being fearful of his chances at success. troy responds by informing he has earned his first “strike.” cory’s disobedience and public insolence tips the day’s tenuous forces and earns him a lenient but exacting threat from troy: “i’m gonna tell you what your mistake was. see . . . you swung at the ball and didn’t hit. that’s strike one. see, you in the batter’s box now. you swung and you missed. that’s strike one. don’t you strike out!” (58). act 2.4 remains consistent with the friction that underlies the day as expressed in the kójódá. however, wilson departs from the blueprint of the two previous fridays (joyous moments followed by conflict), fully dramatizing the somber energy of the day. as troy enters the house, rose leaves with raynell for church and cory leaves the yard. on his way to a game of checkers, bono comes to visit after “a month of sundays” (82). however, the two don’t engage in their customary routine of friday night “gin talk.” bono, who confronted troy about his affair with alberta earlier in the play, but stood by him, is now unwilling to go the distance with his friend. because of troy’s infidelity, he is challenged by what he perceives as his lack of integrity. consequently, it’s been a “month of sundays” since bono participated in their friday night ritual. as expressed in the kójódá, the struggle of the day climaxes into a show-down between cory and troy and the generational sequence of father-son conflict comes full circle. just as troy was violently beaten and banished from his home by his father, cory earns his third strike as he swings at troy with his baseball bat, and troy expels him from the house. the scene closes with troy standing in the batter’s box taunting “mr. death,” an ever-present antagonist of fences, “the fastball on the outside corner” (89). saturday, ̣ojό̣ àbáméta: act 1.2, 1.3, act 2.1, and 2.5 the same energy of friday, in some ways, also characterizes each saturday. as such, the day is generally spent in preparation and certain activities are avoided (neimark 50). wilson introduces the theme of preparation through the clarion call of troy’s brain-damaged brother, gabe, the spectacle character of the play. in one of the play’s most important moments, gabe warns, “better get ready for the judgment” (fences 27). wilson signifies on gabe’s leitmotif by limiting all woodworking and fence installation to saturday afternoons. the fence is supposed to “keep [death] out . . . and keep [troy’s family] in” (61). on each saturday, wilson varies in his approach to the symbolization of the three suggestions, resolutions, negative incidents, or three wonders noted in yorùbá creation stories and attributed to the day. subsequently, what appears as random banter are illustrative social actions, and exchanges in dialogue that broaden our understanding of the characters’ inner lives, build emotional intensity, move the plot forward, or ritually invoke some occurrence on the metaphysical level. in act 1.2 rose observes that troy has awakened on the wrong side of the bed after his complaints about black folk playing the numbers, the way pope privileges white folk over black folk with good service in the running of his restaurant, and cory’s absence and failure to complete his chores. wilson returns to all three of these themes in act 1.3: fiscal irresponsibility, ensuring that folks are treating him honorably, and the application of work ethic towards that which is practical as opposed to competitive sports. during the only ostensibly father/son bonding moment between troy and cory in act 1.3, we are introduced to troy’s pragmatic nature and the tense dynamics of their relationship. during their exchange over woodwork, wilson illustrates three expository stories that all contain lessons for cory. first, when troy explains he cannot buy a television and neglect repairing the roof, troy teaches cory the importance of fiscal responsibility. on the topic of the limitations of black athleticism, troy lectures cory on taking the “crooked with the straights” (fences 37). cory must simultaneously go to school, maintain employment at the a&p or through g r e e n : a u g u s t w i l s o n ’ s s i g n i f i c a t i o n o n t h e k ó j ó d á w i t h i n t h e “ s t r u c t u r a l l y c o n s e r v a t i v e ” f e n c e s a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 4 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 7 a trade that places no limitations on his ability to ascend, and attend football practice. and during the third expository narrative—the infamous moment in which cory asks, “how come you ain’t never liked me?” (37)—troy harshly explains that it is more important to “[make] sure [folks] doing right by [him] (38). three events take place in act. 2.1 which demonstrate the adverse spiritual forces at play on this day as outlined in the kójódá. gabe, whom the local authorities view as a public nuisance, is locked up and subsequently released through a pay-off (the sixth or seventh one). in spite of his reluctance to institutionalize his brother, when troy signs the release papers, it is discovered sixmonths later that he unknowingly committed gabe to a mental hospital and re-claimed part of his disability check. rose says, “i said send him to the hospital . . . and you said let him be free . . . and now you done went down there and signed him to the hospital for half his money. you went back on yourself, troy. you gonna have to answer for that” (75). despite rose’s witness of troy’s signature, he continues to deny the accusation. in the second misfortune on this saturday, troy discloses his affair with alberta, her subsequent pregnancy, and his refusal to end their relationship. the third peril of the day arises when cory earns his second strike defending his mother from troy’s threatening demeanor. the third saturday of the play, act 2.5, is set in 1965, and the winds of change have blown again. the infant raynell is now eight years old and very concerned about tending to her garden of vegetables and flowers. in keeping with the day’s emphasis on preparation, the family is planning for troy’s funeral. bono is heading to church to get the pallbearers lined up; rose is making breakfast for lyons; raynell is told repeatedly to get dressed. unlike the preceding eight scenes, wilson does not note the day in the script. however, in addition to the morning’s focus on preparation, events in sequences of three persist as in the previous saturdays. first, troy’s sons, lyons, cory, and his brother, gabe, must all await release papers from respective institutions to attend troy’s funeral—the penal system, the military, and the hospital. in an interview with david savran wilson says, “the only free person is the girl, troy’s daughter, the hope for the future. that was conscious on my part because in ’57 that’s what i saw. blacks have relied on institutions which are really foreign” (savran 33). second, cory’s individual exchanges with lyons, rose, and raynell in which they each re-member the best of troy, enables cory’s release of the psychological trauma and grief he carries over his father. his third exchange with raynell ends in their singing of “old blue”: cory: . . . old blue died and i dug his grave i dug his grave with a silver spade let him down with a golden chain and every night i call his name go on blue, you good dog you go on blue, you good dog you . . . (fences 99) the song—an incantation of remembrance that connects generations of maxons, past and present— contains the advisable code of conduct. cory, who has come to tell his mother he doesn’t plan to attend troy’s funeral, relents, rising to the call to honor his father, the flawed but noble man who gave him his life. the third ritually significant moment in the scene is gabe’s signal to st. peter to open the gates of heaven. after three blows, it is fully unclear if gabe is successful in producing sound or not. the stage directions read: gabriel with great fanfare, braces himself to blow. the trumpet is without a mouthpiece. he puts the end of it into his mouth and blows with great force, like a man who has been waiting some twenty-odd years for this single moment. no sound comes out of the trumpet. he braces himself and blows again with the same result. a third time he blows. there is a weight of impossible description that falls away and leaves him bare and exposed to a frightful realization (101). a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 4 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 8 one way to read the text is on the premise that because the trumpet doesn’t have a mouthpiece which would enable it to produce sound, it becomes a wonderous moment of spectacle when gabe produces sound after the third attempt. the stage directions read, “a third time he blows.” given that they do not say gabe was unsuccessful as they communicate in the previous two attempts, it leaves some room for creative interpretation, as denzel washington demonstrates in his 2016 film adaptation of fences. in the film, on the third attempt, gabriel’s horn produces sound, and st. peter opens the gates of heaven. however, another way to read the moment—and one that is more in keeping with wilson’s dramatic vision—is that after the third blow, gabe comes to realize his own powerlessness against dark forces and the ineffectiveness of the source of his strength as suggested by the meaning of his name, “god is my strength.” wilson challenges years of unwavering belief in his identification with the iconic archangel of judeo-christianity in this climactic moment, producing “a trauma that a sane and normal mind would be unable to withstand” (101). consequently, gabriel, like harold loomis in joe turner’s come and gone before him, reaches into himself, sourcing strength from ancestral intermediaries within the moral compass of his universe, fashioned in his own likeness, for an atavistic song and dance that can open the gates of heaven for troy. the kójódá also marks saturday as a day to venerate the òrìṣà èṣù, the messenger of communication and guardian of crossroads, intersections, doors, and thresholds. gabe’s ancestral impulses which facilitate his opening of the doors between worlds is consistent with the energy of the day and the positionality and functions of èṣù. in the yorùbá tradition of ẹ̀ sìn òrìṣà ìbílẹ̀, èṣù, whose numbers are 3, 7, and 21, is the mediator of supernatural forces such as the irunmole (primordial deities) and ajogun (death, disease, loss, paralysis, trouble, curses, imprisonment, affliction, etc.). èṣù carries prayers and sacrifices to their respective places, and works closely with fellow warriors ògún, the spirit of iron (who, in some places of the african diaspora is syncretized with st. peter, possessor of the two iron keys that unlock heaven’s gates) and òṣósi, the hunter. èṣù gives ògún permission to open pathways and remove blockages, and òṣósi conveys to ògún which obstacles need clearing. while troy, in his death, spiritually traverses the fences he may have felt limited by, in true wilsonian fashion, the play ends ambiguously, failing to make clear if other men in the maxson family—lyons, who has nine months remaining in his prison sentence; cory, who is contemplating retirement after six years in the marines; and gabe, who presumably will return to the hospital after the funeral—will overcome the institutional and societal barriers they face. nevertheless, their newly tempered psyches enable them to better engage and navigate the crookeds and the straights. what separates wilson’s play from the more traditional western wellmade drama is the more fortified psychological disposition of its warriors, not the scribean happiness that ensues because all loose ends are tied. wilson signifies on the kójódá through the plot structure of fences, reiterating the africanized ethos that is central to his dramaturgy. consequently, wilson invites readers and spectators to cross the boundaries of dramatic conservativism in order to more fully “see what’s really there” beyond the railings which define the structure of the well-made play. reading fences through the lens of the kójódá should not privilege yorùbá cultural traditions over other transcultural readings but should reaffirm the idea that social behaviors within the american century cycle have roots in and/or are governed by spiritual forces and such forces can be appeased by human actions. thus, any performance of fences becomes a ritual enactment in which its characters strive to restore balance amongst mystical powers that will enable them to either move beyond external limitations, or, as wilson says, “demonstrate the spirit of their character . . . with a certain zest and energy” (savran 30). conscientious applications of ethnocultural dramatic structural markers such as the kójódá have implications for in black theatre textual production and critical treatment, if said markers are used deliberately with room to operate on their own integrity, independent of any wellmade play constructs. the use of temporal formations such as the kójódá can spur the genesis of a new, disparate form of playwriting and criticism, based on the ancestral bones of past traditions, and often subordinated cultural approaches to dramatic narration and critical treatment. g r e e n : a u g u s t w i l s o n ’ s s i g n i f i c a t i o n o n t h e k ó j ó d á w i t h i n t h e “ s t r u c t u r a l l y c o n s e r v a t i v e ” f e n c e s a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 4 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 9 works cited barnes, clive. "fiery 'fences'" new york post, march 27,1987. epega, afolabi and philip neimark. the sacred ifa oracle. harpercollins, 1995. frisvold, nicolaj, de mattos. ifá: a forest of mystery. scarlett imprint, 2016. green, artisia. “risa thomas: a ‘cultural flashpoint’ representative of the dramatic journey of two trains running.” fire!!!: the multimedia journal of asalh, vol. 6, no. 2, 2020, pp. 35-73. ----. “resurrecting ‘phantom limb[s] of the dismembered slave and god’: unveiling the africanisms in gem of the ocean.” august wilson’s pittsburgh cycle: critical perspectives on the plays, edited by sandra g. shannon, mcfarland, 2016, 142 163. lyons, bonnie and george plimpton. “august wilson: the art of theatre no. 14,” the paris review, vol. 153, 1999. neimark, philip john. the way of the orisa: empowering your life through the ancient african religion of ifa. harperone, 1993. richards, sandra, l. “a critical frame.” approaches to teaching the plays of august wilson, edited by sandra g. shannon and sandra l. richards, modern language association of america, 2016. savran, david. “august wilson.” in conversations with august wilson, edited by jackson r. bryer and mary c. hartig. university press of mississippi, 2006 wilson, august. fences. penguin, 1986. ---. king hedley ii. theatre communications group, 2005. wolff, alexander. “the nfl’s jackie robinson.” sports illustrated, oct. 2009, pp. 60–71. author bio omiyẹmi (artisia) green is a professor of theatre and africana studies at william & mary. an ifá-òrìṣ à priest, director, dramaturg, and interdisciplinary scholar, omiyẹmi is published in continuum , the stage directors and choreographers society journal peer review section, the august wilson’s pittsburgh cycle: critical perspectives on the plays (mcfarland), african american culture: an encyclopedia of people, traditions, and customs (greenwood), fire!!! the multimedia journal of black studies , the journal of american folklore , and journal of american drama and theatre . 4 4 this is a corrected biographical note. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 7 4 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 10 this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ abstract despite being hailed as august wilson’s “most structurally conservative work . . . modeled on the well-made play” (savran 20), the plot of fences signifies on a calendar system within yorùbá cultural practice used to organize personal, communal, busin... keywords works cited author bio august wilson journal v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 unlocked minds: august wilson’s suspects, ex-cons, or soon-to-be convicted characters in his american century cycle by skyler easton saunders independent scholar “the greatest spirit of resistance among blacks is found among those in prison.” − august wilson, interview with bill moyers abstract this essay is a meditation on the significant number of carceral references made by the late mr. august wilson in his american century cycle. it sets out to delineate the various instances where mr. wilson mentions the many associated pains, both mental and corporal, that crop up in lives of his characters, related to prisons, jail, work farms, chain gangs and other forms of detainment and imprisonment. keywords august wilson, jail, prison, incarceration, black lives matter, george floyd, breonna taylor, parchman farm, american century cycle within this essay, the idea of incarcerated, about-to-be-imprisoned, or currently-lockedup black men in the plays of august wilson is explored, with some consideration given to how the twentieth century cycle adds immediate realism and cultural understanding to such contemporary events as the murder of george floyd1 by police and the black lives matter movement. the various interactions which occur on the page, stage, and screen ultimately can be sourced to the harsh realities faced by african american men, including days spent on the infamous parchman farm 2 . this mindset of oppression and incarceration is at the forefront of every sentence that mr. wilson wrote. he knew that the sprit and soul of black men living in america would bear its fruit in the speech and actions of his scarred characters, both in a physical way and in minds and hearts of audiences and readers. wilson understood the pain and anguish and fury evident in his male characters. they are the men who live and 1 george perry floyd, jr. was a black american man killed during an arrest on may 25, 2020 in minneapolis, minnesota. a white police officer knelt on floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes. the officer, derek chauvin, 44, is charged with murder and manslaughter. the charges carry a combined maximum 35-year sentence. 2 often called "parchman farm," mississippi state penitentiary (msp) is a maximum-security prison farm located in sunflower county, mississippi. parchman is the only maximum security prison for men in the state of mississippi and is the state's oldest prison. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 breathe the rhythmic and poetic syllables related to the theme of oppression in his plays, echoing the lives of actual black men who are incarcerated in the united states at this moment. the cost of this coordinated program of incarceration over the centuries cannot be effectively measured. in the face of that incomprehensible devastation, however, mr. wilson shows colossal bravery to depict the lives of these men honestly, actually using the word "jail" in every single play. at this writing, in july of 2020, with millions or black men locked behind the wall in america, we look to leaders like august wilson to communicate this devastation, and we must hold up his work as a model to press for change. so for all of the souls of black men who have been, are, or will soon be on lockdown, we draw on the words of king hedley ii: "i got honor and dignity even though some people don't think that. i was born with it." hang on to your honor. change is coming. upon hearing the name august wilson, people's responses usually reflect the definition of his first name: illustrious. esteemed. respected. the late poet and playwright born frederick august kittel jr. spent decades carving an immense sculpture of black america. one key characteristic found in almost all of his american century cycle is the appearance of at least one character who either is a suspected criminal, an ex-convicted felon, or is assumed headed to prison. each of these characters is more often male (aunt ester is an exception). the men who experience the corrections system carry psychic and physical scars. they are at times angry, bitter, standoffish, and belligerent towards other characters. they often seek to rectify what they did wrong. despite or maybe because of the fact that they witnessed subhuman living conditions, they engender various acts of fiery idealism and still show simmering wrath. their coolness is sometimes a ruse to cause someone to think that they are not going to boil over and lash out at anyone. it helps them survive in a hostile environment. interestingly, a number of former prisoners, many of them african american, participated in the restoration of mr. wilson’s home in pittsburgh's hill district. the leader of the project, stephen shelton, found that because they worked on the august wilson house “the [ex-convicts] “really started looking at their jobs differently” (bauder). if current prisoners like these twenty eight inmates of east jersey state prison in rahway, new jersey, can, according to author and teacher chris hedges, “have their song” and can work to refurbish mr. wilson’s childhood home and conduct readings of his plays while still behind bars, then there must be some sort of connection to the power of the fictional characters who struggle to stay out of the carceral system or at least maintain dignity while within the prison walls. in his plays, august wilson demonstrates a seemingly unprecedented number of black people within the criminal justice system. from clarence "booster" becker in jitney to troy maxson in fences, characters familiar with the prison system abound. the female characters are also familiar with the cycle of incarceration (from king hedley ii): ruby: what you and mister up to? tonya said you was selling refrigerators. you all out there stealing refrigerators, you goin back to jail. king: see, there you go. you don't know where we getting them from. we selling them. we ain't stole them. ruby: somebody stole them. king: i ain't asked the man where he got them from. he say do i want to sell some refrigerators. i ain't asked him where he got them from. i asked how much he was gonna pay me. ruby: what kind is they? king: they ge refrigerators. that's the best refrigerator on the market. mellon got a ge refrigerator. mr. skyler saunders, independent scholar s a u n d e r s : u n l o c k e d m i n d s : a u g u s t w i l s o n ’ s s u s p e c t s , e x c o n s , o r s o o n t o b e c o n v i c t e d c h a r a c t e r s i n h i s a m e r i c a n c e n t u r y c y c l e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 ruby: you going back to jail. the police gonna find out. the police know everything. king: they don't know everything. perhaps his greatest strength appears when mr. wilson bares the souls of these characters to express the idea that these black men are human beings. in fact, he once said, “the most valuable blacks are those in prison. those who have the warrior spirit, who have a sense of being african. they got for their women and children what they needed when all other avenues were closed to them.” with this in mind, they become fully human. their flaws and shortcomings become part of their character. the fact that they attempt to overcome their drawbacks in these plays allows the audience to empathize and understand the ideas behind their lives. so, when the lights dim and the stage illuminates, the audience sees their own pains, struggles, and joys in the men, especially those who have been in a certain kind of physical bondage. in the case of hedley ii, he initially tries to take the course of entrepreneurship by selling refrigerators. unfortunately, he falls in with a group of criminals, which, for wilson, is indicative that pretty much any efforts by a black man to work hard and earn a living are blocked by systemic racism at almost every turn. even attempts at entrepreneurship are, from the start, illegal. in his plays, mr. wilson seeks to find the meaning at the root of this disparity. as the scale of this gulf has fluctuated over the ten decades of the cycle, mr. wilson shows that the time period does not matter. in america, blacks have had to contend with the justice system. through his work, he’s been able to show the humanity of men of color who have been affected by the justice system. he has also portrayed them as angry, vicious monsters at times but also as stable men who just want to get another chance at life. but the underlying theme to all of his plays is the idea of what it’s like to be free in a world that expects you to either go to a cage, stay in a cage, or go back to one. the bird is the man who decides to fly. every line of monologue that is spouted by a man who has or will (presumably) experience the cold hand of justice brings his consciousness to the fore. clarence “booster” becker (jitney, 1979/1996) in, jitney, booster has just returned from a twenty-year prison stint for murder. the facts surrounding the case seem completely plausible. he kills a white woman who accuses him of a rape that he did not commit. wilson writes, “the first day out...he went over to that gal’s house and shot her dead right on the front porch.” he essentially commits thievery against his own life. he is sentenced to death but his case is commuted, ultimately. after he is released from prison, he attempts to foster a better relationship with his father, jim becker. because of his record, becker is filled with anger and resentment towards a son that he senses ruined his whole life out of senseless vengeance. the two never reconcile as becker dies on the job at the mill, leaving booster as heir apparent to the jitney station. in kimmika l.h. williams-witherspoon’s piece, “challenging the stereotypes of black manhood: the hidden transcript in jitney,” she outlines the reason why clarence becomes booster by discussing the “male ritual of incarceration.” she writes: although jitney does not represent visually the regimented dynamics of incarceration or indicate the huge percentage of african american men forced to waste caloric and intellectual output in a non-productive community, the repeated references to the twenty years booster spent in prison represents incarceration as a negative end product consistent with one stereotype of black manhood. (45) a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 booster, having served his sentence, now has the chance to lead the jitney station, but his contentious relationship with his father is fraught with pain and anger. the two men never see each other as someone to respect. upon the death of becker, booster exudes the power and the glory of attempting to stand in his father’s shoes. he has shouldered up the burden of running a station of his own and accepted the circumstances which come along with such a position. what prison has done to him psychically is erode away his sense that his father truly loved him. it took becker’s demise for him to realize that love. the respect that the two men could not exhibit in life has to be carried on with booster’s role as leader of the jitney station. levee (ma rainey's black bottom, 1982) all of the bluster and rage and anger that levee expresses could fill two plays. but the trumpeter known as levee in ma rainey’s band exhibits the frustrations, exploitations, and misplaced hate relating young black men in america. he tells a tale about how white men chastised and mocked a man of the clergy. this leads levee to deliver a furious diatribe against the “white god” that other blacks are so enamored with, for what reason he knows not. kyle smith speaks of levee’s blasphemy which leads to violence. in this case “he believes in the context of black suffering that god could not exist except as a white racist.” in particular, he describes how his mother was raped by a pack of white men and that he bears the physical and psychic scars of the incident. while containing all of this pent-up fury, he gets into a squabble with trombonist cutler. in the heated discussion which becomes a melee, levee stabs toledo, the piano player. the lights go dark and the curtains close. one can only assume that levee will be tried for murder for his acts and destroy his entire future. despite the fact that ma rainey is the title character, the real protagonist of the play is levee. what fuels him are the conditions of fighting racism, developing what would become of the next incarnation of the blues and jazz, and his ability to convey the power of youth. levee brings out the horror stories of a life marred by tragedy. through his strength of character, he’s able to endear himself to a woman like dussie mae. what drives levee is a burning hatred for the white man and an atheist streak that is blemished because it lacks a moral background. he lives in the rage of the moment and never fully engages with his psychic scars but allows them to fester and scab over. he scratches at them and allows them to bleed when he delivers his fiery monologues. he is full of anger because of his past. his slaying of toledo is the death knell to his aspirations. it is suspected that he will either commit suicide or be tried and sent to the penitentiary for his murderous ways. this represents the black youths that face the decision to do away with their own lives or to face the judge and the prison walls. levee sacrificed his musical gift in killing toledo. levee must accept the facts of reality as a result of his ignominious actions. troy maxson and jim bono (fences, 1985) disgruntled, befuddled, and confused, yet still engaging, witty, and strong, troy maxson from the play fences is convicted of killing a man accidentally while engaged in a robbery. when he returns to life outside “the wall,” he is at times humorous and at other times thoroughly bitter about his lot in life. bono represents a piece of his past in jail that carries into the present. positioned to be a star negro baseball player like jackie robinson, maxson never gets that break. he believes that players like josh gibson could’ve gotten a better shot at major league baseball than robinson. his ethics mixed, now honest at being a garbage man but who cheats on his wife, he somehow instills in his high school aged son the value of always making sure that someone is doing right by him. maxson’s past as a member of the general population behind bars propels his acrimony as well. the result of pent-up frustrations did not, however, deter maxson from s a u n d e r s : u n l o c k e d m i n d s : a u g u s t w i l s o n ’ s s u s p e c t s , e x c o n s , o r s o o n t o b e c o n v i c t e d c h a r a c t e r s i n h i s a m e r i c a n c e n t u r y c y c l e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 5 continuing on through life and starting a family (or families). he has gained some idealism about the world and can still relate a yarn with aplomb. but prison life has affected him, still. with few options other than being a garbage man (an honorable profession) on his horizon, he yearns for his halcyon baseball days. he seeks to make amends with his eldest son and still be a presence in the life of his youngest. as anissa janine wardi illustrates, lyons is the single character in wilson’s oeuvre who is imprisoned while the play is set in motion. wardi points out that “many if not most of the men share the experience of imprisonment, and thus carceral places occupy an important rhetorical space in wilson’s dramaturgy.” penitentiary life has placed a spell of disenchantment on maxson. he has disagreements with his wife rose and his sons lyons and cory. this all stems from the hurt that he still carries around with him like a warrior who experienced psychic scars in battle. that’s why he’s so preoccupied about death. august wilson demonstrates that maxson has “wrestled with death for three days and three nights….” maxson still has a center of morality, if not challenged by his own inability to cope with reality. that’s what prison does to the mind. it holds onto the inmate even in the years that go by from first being locked behind the gates. "fences" represent the boundaries that maxson has set up from his days locked up to the opportunity that he created for himself to keep swinging for them, even if the ball goes infield. harold loomis (joe turner’s come and gone, 1984) technically, loomis has not been convicted by the american legal system. instead, he is kidnapped in the american south and forced to work on a chain gang. hunched over a kitchen table just like in romare bearden’s painting, mill hand’s lunch bucket (1978), loomis has his song stolen from him. hongmei zhang contends that loomis has fallen “prey” to the tennessee governor. zhang continues saying, “he could possess and exploit blacks to work for him without being punished.” as this applied to loomis’ situation, the struggle to rise up from the chain gang of a corrupt government echoes the fight against injustice. for seven years, he is compelled to complete back-breaking, mind-numbing, soul-crushing labor for a man who illegally rounds up black men to fulfill his tasks. the significance of the song contains the notion that every man and woman ought to have something to strive for, to live for, in this world. loomis finds some kind of song as he rips open his shirt, exposes his chest, and proceeds to slice it, saying, “i’m standing, now!” this shows a release from the shackles that bound him. now, loomis being on that chain gang was no fault of his own, but he lived the life of a convict. he had to toil and sweat under the blazing sun while driving stakes into rails. he had to endure the indignities of a man without freedom just because of the hue of his skin. the real life story behind joe turner is dark and vicious. in actuality, the brutal truth of fathers, sons, brothers, nephews, and grandsons who were stolen and forced to work for a nefarious white man post-slavery underscores the search for self-meaning and finding one’s own song. it is a harsh case to digest as black boys and men never had the chance to refuse to labor for this man. this would steal anyone’s song. to self-define and self-reflect, it would be a nearimpossible task to regain one’s song and lift it high to the sky. with an atheist sensibility that rivals levee’s, loomis questions the existence of a “holy ghost.” fortunately, loomis finds his song and is freed from his past and allowed to prosper in the future. sterling (two trains running, 1990) the one thing that is constant with a string of characters that have just returned from the penitentiary in an august wilson play is that there exists some redemptive quality in the individual. in two trains running, sterling is just discharged from prison for a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 6 committing a bank robbery. he has within him a sense of what is right and wrong after being rehabilitated. all he wants is an opportunity. he finds it at memphis lee’s restaurant. what wilson is showing in this instance is the fact that a man can change from whatever ogre he once was and fashion himself to be a model citizen. sterling persists as an ambitious man after being let out from prison. he wants to be like memphis lee and own his own establishment. the prison walls did not deteriorate sterling’s soul. he holds onto the sensibility that the black man can succeed in this country through smart work and devotion. he has been rehabilitated in the eyes of the law, but he still seems a little off balance. the time that he spent behind the wall only served to try to break his spirit, but he had enough soul to defeat anyone or anything who ever tried to break him. as a free man, he has the opportunity to bring his life into perspective. he has the option of being an entrepreneur like memphis and continuing his life without worrying about going back to jail. cynthia l. caywood and carlton floyd acknowledge that, unlike hambone, sterling must be able to make up for his past misdeeds. aunt ester exemplifies this idea, according to caywood and floyd: “aunt ester incarnates a key wilson idea—the need for african americans to embrace their cultural context....” this relates to sterling as he must navigate a new life if he wants to chart a course of success in america. however, it does appear at the end of act ii scene v that he is headed right back to the prison walls for apparently stealing a ham. here, the idealism of one black man’s death leads to the implied future confinement of another. as august wilson positions him, sterling simply says, “that’s for hambone’s casket” while blood streaks his face and hands. it is a spiritual payback. his desperate attempt at bringing hambone justice is an ironic and tragic reminder of the reality of not receiving one’s own due. hambone had painted that fence. he performed excellent work. however, lutz never hands him his ham but offers a chicken instead. wilson here emphasizes the thought that one must never settle for something of lesser value when the real prize, the greater one should be afforded. sterling, in his mind, feels like he is doing an act of honor by being a thief and giving to hambone in death what he could not acquire in life. while what happens to sterling is left to the audience’s imagination, the prevailing conclusion is that he ends up in prison for his actions. though he may have been justified in his intentions, the way that he carried out this crime pushes him over the edge of morality. uncle doaker, boy willie, lymon jackon, lymon's daddy, l.d. jackson, and wining boy (the piano lesson, 1992) the men who have experienced the brutishness of parchman farm still sense in their minds the bitterness of being locked down in a cell. originally played by charles s. “roc” dutton, a man who served seven years for a manslaughter charge, the actor injects into his role as boy willie some of his hectoring from being locked down for nearly a decade. august wilson posits through lymon that boy willie is going to “end up back down there on parchman farm.” each of the men listed above try to work through their mental wounds by displaying the blues. “berta, berta” is a work song that is rife with struggle and pain. but just like the blues, it is actually philosophical and life-affirming. the song tells about a prisoner seeking to ensure that his beloved berta marries a man better than he. most of the men who have been on parchman farm still harbor the turmoil and unease that go along with prison life. toni morrison, in the foreword to the piano lesson points out that the men recognize the prison like “they know their hometown.” “ [wining boy’s] wandering seems necessary not just for his career but to avoid confinement.” the late pulitzer prizewinning author continues by saying, “lymon’s refusal to return home arises from the fear of the sheriff who is looking for him.” miss morrison elucidates the closeness of the men forged through their suffering on parchman farm. she then describes how wining boy is like any black man in america, focused on life without being afraid of the police. s a u n d e r s : u n l o c k e d m i n d s : a u g u s t w i l s o n ’ s s u s p e c t s , e x c o n s , o r s o o n t o b e c o n v i c t e d c h a r a c t e r s i n h i s a m e r i c a n c e n t u r y c y c l e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 7 as the men sing the song, their frustrations and anger at the torment of having been subjected to inhumane conditions are expressed through one of wilson's famous four b's3--in this case the blues--with power and nobility, despite the difficult experiences they have endured. the specific crime of looting wood--something necessary to stay warm-from white men leads to the death of berniece’s husband crawley and the sentences of willie and lymon. with the highest number of felons incorporated in an august wilson production, the piano lesson encapsulates the years of anguish as lived by most of the men in the play. floyd “schoolboy” barton hedley (seven guitars, 1996) at the outset of seven guitars, floyd “schoolboy” barton reports committing a less heinous crime by wilson's standards but a crime nonetheless: vagrancy. despite this common and exploitative method for detaining and imprisoning poor [black] men in america, barton holds on to his dream, which is related, not surprisingly, to music. caywood and floyd write, “floyd pins his economic hopes on making another hit record” but this dream is a dream deferred and never comes to pass. toward the end, schoolboy gets into a struggle with hedley who, with a quick blow to the throat from a machete, kills floyd barton. the machete scene further underscores mr. wilson’s portrayal of mentally unstable characters. some are benign but others can be deadly. hedley slaughters a rooster before the scene where he kills schoolboy, foreshadowing the whole thing. the makeup of the entire scenario consists of a man who is not altogether there psychologically and precipitates the death of someone. again, like in other plays, it is only a thought as to whether hedley faces jail time for his misdeeds. but the fact remains that the blood that is spilled can only link back to hedley. one can surmise that because of his mental state, hedley probably saw the inside of an institution for the criminally insane. the scenes which follow do not indicate any arrests, only suspicion of hedley's guilt by a character named canewell. perhaps one day hedley will be found out and also spend time in the penitentiary, but at the conclusion of the play, he goes unpunished, suggesting, possibly, that black-on-black violence is one of the few crimes where black men go unpunished. king hedley ii, mister, elmore (king hedley ii, 1999) after a seven year prison term, king hedley ii heads back into “the world” and seeks to re-establish himself. he bears a scar on his face from the scuffle that landed him behind bars, despite his protests that he had killed the man defaced him in self-defense. now, king must deal with prospects of finding a way in life by hustling stolen refrigerators to finance a video store. he also must contend with a wonderfully independent wife, tonya, who professes to abort king’s child. he opposes based on the belief that there will be a king hedley iii. it doesn’t matter though. in the end, king receives a bullet, and after all of his time scheming and planning, he dies never knowing whether tonya delivered the baby or not. wilson suggests that tonya is not “going through with” having another baby in one of the bleakest times in american history, the 1980’s. king hedley ii just wants to get his life back to some sense of normalcy. what is apparent is what kyle smith calls king hedley ii seeking a “matter of honor.” stealing refrigerators is an unlawful act. the aspiration is still there. he views his actions as only supplying his legitimate aims. he wishes to carve out a better life for himself and for his family. this is the metaphor brought to the fore in the 1980’s backdrop. king hedley ii just 3 in a 1999 interview in the paris review, mr. wilson cited his major influences as being the ‘four b’s’: the blues was the ‘primary’ influence, followed by jorge luis borges, the playwright amiri baraka and the painter romare bearden. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 8 wants to put his penitentiary days behind him. he still feels bitter by the fact that he is seen as a convict when he acted in self-defense. his death is another metaphor for the demise and fracturing of the african american family during this tumultuous decade. caesar wilkes, solly two kings and aunt ester (gem of the ocean, 2003) here, one would only have to suspect that caesar kills alfred “solly two kings” jackson by shooting him down like a dog in the street. but the real issue is with aunt ester being jailed. she represents the past, present, and future of the cycle, even in death. for her to be burdened by the dictates of the state even for a short stint based on the fact that she helped solly to escape and blocked an arrest shows the power of the american carceral system. this shows a bit of irony in the fact that the oldest and wisest character in wilson's canon did not show enough wisdom to be rid of fetters herself. wilson must have wanted to illustrate that no one is above having the cold steel of justice wrapped around their wrists, as aunt ester is the only woman to be placed in police custody. the “despicable practices” as caywood and floyd ascertain lead caesar down a path of moral destruction. they continue by writing, “the extensive devastation african american males have faced by systemic institutionalized oppression” bear heavily on his head. in the aftermath of the play's events, there is no talk about whether caesar will face justice. but that is the essence of the cycle. the wondering which takes place regarding what happens to these characters sketched so richly, after horrendous crimes like the murder of solly is what is so profound. caesar escapes justice for the death of solly two kings, whose crime was burning down the mill. “i burned it down” solly says. this is a window into the soul of solly two kings as a criminal who could face a severe prison sentence, this time for arson. the braggadocio that solly exhibits is visible with his explanation of how he will be remembered regardless in what capacity: good or ill, fame or infamy. black mary disowns caesar, yet she gives no indication as to ever intending to turn in the man. eli looks for caesar but never minds the case altogether. caesar's position, along with his quick tongue and evasiveness, will likely be sufficient for him to elude punishment. in all aunt ester, caesar, and solly two kings form a triptych of criminal activity in gem of the ocean with varying degrees of consequence. sterling johnson, elder joseph barlow (radio golf, 2005) sterling johnson is a reformed inmate who served time for robbing a bank (again). he did it as mr. wilson so eloquently suggests, “to know what it’s like to have money.” what is at work here is the false sense that appropriating money will lay the groundwork for a mansion of happiness. in sterling johnson’s case, the blueprint for riches is torn to tatters. he finds out that the way to make an honest living is to start from the bottom and work his way up the economic latter. to “take something you couldn’t spend over money....” only highlights johnson’s misplaced idealism and sore understanding of money and capitalism. he may be clever, but as he performed in two trains running, his bank robbery completed the circle of misdeeds based on alleged, honorable actions. in reality, the johnson of the present day is much more adept at taking advantage of opportunities. though this may be a detriment, the fact that he is a self-made contractor for the people of pittsburgh puts him in a category of a productive being. as caywood and floyd propose, “there are possibilities of redemption…” for characters like sterling johnson. while it has been decades since his release from jail, johnson still has to prove himself to be a man of character and promise. wilson imbues in him a thought of how you can grasp that brass ring in america and hold it, even if you fell off of the carousel once or twice. sterling johnson is a fine and upstanding citizen of pittsburgh after his time spent in prison. the trio of crimes related to sterling johnson represent the recidivism of the convicts in america. sterling fosters a new sense about himself as a reformed inmate, but s a u n d e r s : u n l o c k e d m i n d s : a u g u s t w i l s o n ’ s s u s p e c t s , e x c o n s , o r s o o n t o b e c o n v i c t e d c h a r a c t e r s i n h i s a m e r i c a n c e n t u r y c y c l e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 9 the penitentiary never leaves his mind. it is a constant battle for him to remain on the right side of the law before his regressive tendencies return. old joe who is also mentally unstable (a staple in mr. wilson plays) also spent several stints incarcerated. his rap sheet, read by roosevelt states that among other charges, old joe committed “vagrancy…[theft] of a crate of chickens…spent eight months on the county farm...and breaking and entering.” old joe exhibits wisdom throughout the play, but it is like the wisdom of the shakespearean fool because of his psychological instability. through the years, he’s been hospitalized and incarcerated because of this ailment. old joe presents the truth to roosevelt and harmond. his past reflects his mental state. he holds the keys to the play because of his many experiences whether they be behind the walls of psychiatric institutions or legal structures. as he imparts “game” to his listening audience, he is able to tell his tales because of all of the times that he had been on the wrong side of the law or gone through dealing with mental health professionals. old joe is the consummate figure that broadcasts the truth but in a way that seems gnarled, twisted and incoherent on its face. in reality, his words stand out as nuggets of thought that remain platinum to the growing mind. the women in wilson's plays bear the weight of systematized incarceration the women in mr. wilson's plays bear the heavy weight of the systematized incarceration practiced in the united states after slavery. rose takes in troy in fences, tonya takes in hedley ii in king hedley ii, and berniece watches over all the ex-prisoners in the piano lesson. each of these women stand as towering figures in wilson’s world. it is the women and children who must bear the brunt of the issue when a man goes to prison or gets out of those circumstances. the women provide the love and encouragement and even bear the anger and frustration of the ex-convict. they must take upon themselves the pain and anguish that the man carries with him. these women are more than strong. their strength is far superior than that of the men with whom they share their homes, their beds, their lives. it’s aunt ester who herself sees some jail time that straightens out the black men about the city of bones. the women of the twentieth century cycle represent the spinal column of the august wilson universe. they stand up erect and allow their own voices to be heard. they give a perspective that is unique and profound. their songs lift spirits and their arguments punch guts. every woman that graces the stage in an august wilson play more often than not deals with a felon. they strive to communicate their own status in life and what their wants and needs are. the power and the glory of august wilson’s women calls for these beautiful flowers to inspire their respective men and continue to express fidelity to them, even when fidelity is not reciprocated. women in august wilson's plays remain stalwarts throughout the cycle. their participation in the lives of their children and the men who have been out of prison allows them to connect with the men in their lives with justice while still holding onto their independence. women continue to be the stanchions to all of mr. wilson’s works, especially when an ex-con is involved. conclusion in all, august wilson has created a monumental portrait of black america that illustrates how black men are often prison bound, currently in prison, or have recently left prison. the words and work of these black people is what mr. wilson strived to convey. for the characters who saw prison walls and barbed wire in an oppressive environment, mr. wilson treats them with dignity, honor, and respect. from troy maxson to levee and from solly two kings to sterling johnson, all of these men are represented with the fullest amount of honesty and integrity. it is to mr. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 10 wilson’s credit that he molded these men to speak their truths out loud. some of them are boastful and boisterous while others harbor quiet frustration that lingers for decades. the connection between black americans and the penal code has been examined through novels, other stage plays, and film. but no other author has positioned the black man against the trials and travails of being released or entering the walls of justice with such ferocious elegance and poise. mr. wilson brings to the stage the voices of the pained, the hurt, the forgotten. when loomis loses his song, it is the song of millions of black men who have tried to hold onto their song. it gets stuck in their throat and they’re unable to belt out with full thought and emotion their struggle. but like loomis, it is still possible to find that sacred song. now, caesar, levee and hedley may be some of the most vicious men in wilson’s canon. while he presents them with an objective mind, he notes just how cruel the men can be even if one of them suffers from a mental incapacitation. these men voice aloud what bothers them, what excites them, what drives them. mr. wilson has provided a platform for black men to be counted in a society that sometimes does not see them. this is especially the case if they are ex-cons. the turbulent judicial system is designed to break down the individual. mr. wilson offers enough monologues and dialogues of these former prisoners to send home the message that it is not always too late to seek absolution. black men bond and find solace in the characters presented by mr. wilson. there’s a catharsis that occurs when men of color view these works. these men take to the plays their own hurts and experiences of racism and prejudice. they can receive the words and actions and apply them to their own lives. they can see a levee and not act out his indignation but understand his words against faith and the vile acts perpetrated against his mother and himself. the black men who witness these plays can reap great benefits from the spoken words of these characters. possibly the most tragic case is king hedley. he had just gotten out of the “joint” and looked for the few prospects open to a rehabilitated convict. his plight pits him against his girlfriend, his mother, and friend. he perishes early and there’s no one to tell him how much he was respected and loved. mr. wilson never hesitated to bring sorrow and sadness to a project whether it is fences or joe turner’s come and gone. he gives the audience the opportunity to delve into the lives of these characters and make up in their own minds who is moral, who is virtuous, who is just. the answers might surprise some. the life lessons that troy maxson airs out to rose, bono, cory and lyon are from a place of deep hurt and agitation. but mr. wilson inculcates in maxson with a sense that he is playing a baseball game with death and he is trying to win for all eternity. that is the key to all of mr. wilson’s works. it is the attempt, the striving to do the best, to live the best, to love the best, to be the best, despite challenges and limitations. given their sometimes humble jobs and their modest situations, these men related to the penitentiary excel beyond their circumstances. as opposed to just settling for their shortcomings, the men of august wilson’s plays rise above their stations and search for meaning in life. their character is what sets them apart from just being common thugs. they have full, rounded souls that exude from the stage. the fact that they are due for their day behind bars or have been released decades ago does not negate their mission of selfdefinition, self-enlightenment, and self-fulfillment. each man tied to a chain gang or the past injustice of going to jail for self-defense has his own story to tell. with exuberance and pathos, with passion and conviction, these men relate their tales. the demise of george floyd and breonna taylor4 among so many others only intensifies the work of august wilson and other writings about the american carceral 4 breonna taylor was a black american woman who was fatally shot by officers of the louisville metro police department (lmpd) on march 13, 2020. the attorney general of the state of kentucky was still investigating as this article was being edited for publication. s a u n d e r s : u n l o c k e d m i n d s : a u g u s t w i l s o n ’ s s u s p e c t s , e x c o n s , o r s o o n t o b e c o n v i c t e d c h a r a c t e r s i n h i s a m e r i c a n c e n t u r y c y c l e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 11 system and police force as they relate to black life⎯and death⎯in america. mr. wilson shows that the joys and triumphs must be remembered along with the sorrows and harshness of life. like candles snuffed out by literally choking or gunning down, the cycle gives all the anger, frustration, sadness, glory, honor, and power through the language and acts of the blacks who populate august wilson’s plays. august wilson’s carceral men continue to be topics of discussion as the irony of the most moral country in human history has the highest incarceration rate. and among those incarcerated in large numbers are black men. mr. wilson attempted to put a central nervous system, flesh, blood, bone, and brains into the characters that he sets on a page, stage, and screen. he breathed life into every one of them and moved out of the way when they started talking about their lives. it is similar to what the playwright said himself, "confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing." editor's note: below is a list of the number of times the word "jail" appears in each august wilson play (tallied july 4, 2020). this is an initial count and is subject to correction. references to "prison" are more limited and would involve a separate tally. references to parchman farm and joe turner's work farm are also present but would, themselves, involve a separate tally. michael downing, editor august wilson journal in written order: jitney: 1 ma rainey's black bottom: 2 fences: 2 joe turner's come and gone: 3 the piano lesson: 5 two trains running: 12 seven guitars: 13 king hedley ii: 22 gem of the ocean: 11 radio golf: 15 how i learned what i learned: 15 works cited bauder, bob. “ex-cons learn trade turning august wilson’s childhood home into arts space.” triblive.com, trib total media, llc, 24 dec. 2014, https://archivetriblive.com/local/pittsburgh-alleghany/ex-cons-learn-tradeturning-august-wilsons-childhood-home-into-arts-space/. accessed 5 june 2019. caywood, cynthia l. and carlton floyd. “she make you right with yourself”: aunt ester, masculine loss and cultural redemption in august wilson’s cycle plays,” college literature, johns hopkins up 9 apr. 2009, muse.jhu.edu/article/262599. accessed 5 june 2020. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 12 morrison, toni, “foreword to the piano lesson.” theatre communications group, 2007. hedges, chris. the play's the thing. 17 june 2014, billmoyers.com/2013/12/18/the-plays-thething/. naacp: u.s. prisons funded at expense of education. 7 apr. 2011, www.npr.org/2011/04/07/135209942/naacp-u-s-prisons-funded-at-expense-ofeducation. smith, kyle. “august wilson’s cycle of bloodshed” the new criterion, newcriterion.com/issues/2017/3:august-wilsons-cycle-of-bloodshed. accessed 5 june 2020. wardi, janine anissa. “the colored man can’t fix nothing with the law”: carceral spaces in august wilson’s ‘the piano lesson.’” journal of african american studies, vol. 17, no. 4, 2013, pp. 506-517. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/43525524. accessed 5 june 2020. wilson, august. fences. new york, theatre communications group, 2007. ---. gem of the ocean. new york, theatre communications group, 2007. ---. jitney. new york, theatre communications group, 2007. ---. joe turner's come and gone. new york, theatre communications group, 2007. ---. king hedley ii. new york, theatre communications group, 2007. ---. ma rainey's black bottom. new york, theatre communications group, 2007. ---. the piano lesson. new york, theatre communications group, 2007. ---. radio golf. new york, theatre communications group, 2007. ---. seven guitars. new york, theatre communications group, 2007. ---. two trains running. new york, theatre communications group, 2007. witherspoon, williams h.w. kimmika. “challenging the stereotypes of black manhood: the hidden transcript in jitney.” august wilson: completing the twentiethcentury cycle. u of iowa p. 2010. accessed 5 june 2020. zhang, hongmei. “august wilson’s otherness in joe turner’s come and gone.” theory and practice in language studies 6 (1): 171 jan. 2016. accessed 5 june 2020. author bio skyler easton saunders is a forever-young, ego-driven radical hipster from delaware. his current project involves writing a for the vocal media website where he "conveys to the world an objective viewpoint on any subject [he] encounters." link: https://vocal.media/authors/skylerized https://vocal.media/authors/skylerized s a u n d e r s : u n l o c k e d m i n d s : a u g u s t w i l s o n ’ s s u s p e c t s , e x c o n s , o r s o o n t o b e c o n v i c t e d c h a r a c t e r s i n h i s a m e r i c a n c e n t u r y c y c l e a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 2 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 0 . 5 5 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 13 articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ unlocked minds: august wilson’s suspects, ex-cons, or soon-to-be convicted characters in his american century cycle abstract this essay is a meditation on the significant number of carceral references made by the late mr. august wilson in his american century cycle. it sets out to delineate the various instances where mr. wilson mentions the many associated pains, both ment... keywords works cited author bio august wilson journal v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 chapter ix: "i can't take it!": august wilson leaves pittsburgh by laurence glasco associate professor of history, university of pittsburgh sala udin never forgave [claude] purdy for luring august away from pittsburgh, but in hindsight believes it was time for august to move on. − laurence glasco abstract the story of august wilson leaving pittsburgh for st. paul, minnesota, in 1978. keywords august wilson, brenda burton, sakina ansari, claude purdy, elva branson, sala udin, mary bradley, black horizons theatre, kuntu repertory theatre, ron pitts, vernell lillie, sarah dixon, curtiss porter, maisha baton, recycled, coldest day of the year, the homecoming, black bart and the sacred hills in the spring of 1977, ron pitts was parked outside the original hot dog shop, waiting for his friend august to come back from rehearsal. vernell lillie, the head of kuntu repertory theatre, had asked august wilson to direct ed bullins’s play, in new england winter and pitts knew there had been tension between the two. when august got in the car, it was immediately clear that something bad had happened. in fact, he learned, august and vernell had gotten into a row that culminated in vernell cursing him out. to pitts’s astonishment, august announced with tears in his eyes that he was leaving, exclaiming “i can't take it! i can't do this!” at first, pitts thought he meant he was leaving vernell and kuntu repertory. “no!” august said emphatically. “he was leaving pittsburgh,” said pitts. “he was getting out of there.”1 august’s falling out with vernell capped a series of disappointments that stretched back eight years and involved much more than the head of the kuntu rep. it all began in 1969 when august angrily and abruptly quit black horizons theatre over financial matters and the sort of politically-driven plays the theater was staging. the break was especially painful because, less than a year earlier, august had been one of the company’s co-founders. after the break, august returned to his first love, poetry, but now, even that brought disappointment. in the mid-1960s, august’s poetry—inspired by dylan thomas, john berryman, and avant-garde white modernists—had drawn enthusiastic audience responses. now, after the riots of 1968, audiences wanted a stronger black power message than august laurence glasco a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 was delivering. curtiss porter, one of the founders of the black studies department at the university of pittsburgh, recalls witnessing august reciting his poems at the halfway art gallery, the main venue for poetry and cultural activities in black pittsburgh, and being “rejected, dejected and almost ejected” while doing so. porter says audiences almost felt like august “wasn't doing black poetry.”2 august himself was not happy with his poems, which were notoriously opaque and difficult to understand. as august struggled to find what he called his own poetic “voice,” he began to reengage—tentatively, partially, and informally—with black horizons theatre. his new interest in the theater stemmed from the arrival in 1970 of claude purdy, a talented actor with whom august quickly bonded. claude arrived in pittsburgh with formal training in theater and years of acting in new york, paris, and nigeria. pittsburgh actors and audiences were thrilled that purdy and his girlfriend elva branson, the director of the company, were taking black horizons productions to a new level of excellence. although august was still smarting from his break with black horizons and refusing to have anything to do with the company, at least formally, claude’s presence proved an irresistible attraction. august began dropping by after rehearsals, when the actors had left, and going out for drinks, food, and conversation with claude and elva. he loved discussing all sorts of things with claude and valued his feedback. he listened as claude urged him to forget his avant-garde poetry and write in the way black people actually talk. frank hightower, who had replaced august when he quit black horizons, says purdy told august to “find himself.”3 in 1973, after two or three years of hanging out with claude and elva, august wrote his first play, recycled. claude and elva planned to stage the play and had it in rehearsal at black horizons. however, nothing came of it because they suddenly left so that claude could pursue a film career in los angeles. as they left, elva surprised august by asking him to replace her as the director of black horizons. just as surprising, august accepted the offer, a move that brought him back full circle with the company. even so, claude’s departure was another disappointment, depriving august of his closest friend and mentor. 1973 brought august another painful disappointment, the breakup of his marriage. in 1969, he had married brenda burton and had a child, sakina ansari. however, august’s preference for casual, part-time jobs caused problems. the jobs gave him the free time he craved to walk the city, observe, and write, but the inadequate and irregular income strained the marriage, finally causing august’s wife to sue for divorce. the breakup was especially bitter because august dearly loved brenda and their three-year-old daughter. 1973, however, brought a couple of bright spots. one was the composition of “morning statement,” august’s first poem that he felt captured his own voice in simple, straight-forward, and understandable lines.4 another was the invitation of his friend rob penny to work with him in cofounding a series of neighborhood theaters, each based on one of the seven principles of kawaida, ron karenga’s african-based, nationalist philosophy.5 rob hoped the theaters would engage pittsburgh youth with kawaida’s uplifting principles, a goal that august found exciting and ambitious. rob and august set up their theater in northview heights, a troubled housing project on pittsburgh’s north side. the initiative soon floundered, however, because the neighborhood’s young people showed little commitment. they would apologize for missing a rehearsal, august says, but at the next rehearsal, “only two dudes would show up out of the six who said they were coming.” august thought the problem might be that he and rob were from the hill and so were regarded as outsiders.6 more likely, the problem was that the young people had not bought into the project because august and rob had not asked them what kind of plays they wanted to perform. august and rob soon abandoned the theater in northview heights, but their efforts had not gone unnoticed. a community activist from hazelwood—where august had spent his teenage years—came by rob’s office and asked if he would set up a theater in her g l a s c o : c h a p t e r i x : " i c a n ' t t a k e i t ! " : a u g u s t w i l s o n l e a v e s p i t t s b u r g h a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 neighborhood. sarah dixon explained that hazelwood had little to occupy its young people, who were running afoul of the law. she and her husband hoped that a children’s theater would keep the kids out of trouble and develop their reading and social skills.7 mrs. dixon arranged for august and rob to meet with the children, parents, and some of the staff at the glen hazel recreation center. perhaps learning from their northview heights failure, rob and august asked the youngsters what sort of plays they wanted to put on. the kids enthusiastically said superfly, the popular blaxploitation film featuring youngblood priest as a cocaine dealer trying to quit the business. 8 because of the film’s glorification of the drug world, august laughed at the suggestion, and so did ron pitts and mary bradley, staff members of the recreation center.9 rob, however, did not laugh. he went home and came back the next day with a script, threw it on the table, and told the kids they could do superfly on the condition that afterwards they would do the plays that he and august wanted to do. the kids readily agreed.10 everyone wanted to be in the play, so it was easy picking the seven or eight needed for the cast. rehearsals went well, although mary bradley detected tension between august and rob.11 she never figured out the reason, but was puzzled that “there wasn’t the harmony” she had expected. 12 apparently because of the tension, rob distanced himself from the production and left most decisions to august and ron pitts. august enjoyed working with ron, who was willing to do whatever would make the play a success, including chauffeuring august back and forth between hazelwood and his apartment in the hill district.13 august thought pitts had talent, and encouraged him to act in superfly, and even think about becoming an actor. pitts was focused on completing high school and going to college, but said he would act in superfly if august would do the same.14 at first, august resisted, but ultimately agreed to play the role of the white photographer while pitts took the part of scatter, the bar owner. in rehearsals, pitts was astonished at august’s acting ability. “he was believable! he did it well!” pitts exclaimed.15 the community and august worked together to support the production. a sewing club made costumes. sarah’s dixon’s daughter helped with the artwork and announcements. 16 august drew on skills he had acquired at black horizons to sketch a model of the lighting board and get the electrical shop at connelley vocational school to build it.17 however, like august and rob, community members were bothered by superfly’s celebration of the drug culture. a community group asked that before each performance a disclaimer be handed out saying attendees did not approve of drugs or violence.18 the reception of superfly far exceeded expectations. at every performance, the audience packed the 200-seat theater at the glen hazel recreation center, with the overflow standing around the edge of the auditorium.19 “everybody wanted to come,” pitts says. “they just kept coming. it was a beautiful sight, just a good feeling.”20 the production bolstered residents’ sense of pride and self-confidence. pitts says: “we did it! it was all homemade, but it was ours. we … could look around and be very proud … it wasn’t a rich theater. but it was ours.21 and, he says, it gave people something to think about instead of the riots.22 parents thanked rob and august for helping keep their kids occupied and out of trouble. 23 the mother of gilbert, who played the lead role, said the experience had transformed her son. “when he got involved in this theater,” she said, gilbert “became a whole different person. he got confidence in his self … and turned his life around.” she told august, “i can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done to my son.”24 the young actors loved the experience. one, however, gave mixed reviews of august, describing him as “encouraging … a great guy [someone] we were just crazy about,” but also someone who was “stand-offish … wouldn’t play with kids … didn’t laugh that much … looked like he always had things on his mind … [was] real serious.”25 superfly was a success, but was so exhausting that august and rob dropped any idea of making it the first of seven kawaida theaters.26 however, in deference to their original idea, a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 they christened their hazelwood initiative “ujima theatre”—ujima being the third principle of kawaida and the swahili term for collective work and responsibility. after the success of superfly came the need to decide what plays to do next. the young people kept their promise and agreed to act in whatever plays august and rob wanted to do. these turned out to be three classics from the black arts repertory: amiri baraka’s black mass, ed bullins’ the corner, and benjamin caldwell’s prayer meeting. in addition, august seized the chance to stage his own play recycled, which had been in rehearsal at black horizons when elva and claude left for california. that august chose to stage the play at ujima suggests he was not devoting much time or energy to black horizons. recycled was a one-act play that august both directed and acted in. august had directing experience from his time with black horizons, but other than his minor role in superfly, he had no experience acting.27 the plotline was inspired by a gruesome scene august had witnessed earlier that year. a bartender and a patron got into an argument in which the bartender pursued the man into the street and shot him. a crowd gathered and, in an effort to revive him, a nurse began beating on his chest. someone standing nearby said, “no need you beating on the man’s chest. that man dead. his brain laying right there on the car.” august followed the nurse, who crossed the street. she went into pope’s restaurant, and told pope, “the niggers are killing one another these days.” pope asked matter-of-factly, “yeah, is he dead?” the nurse replied, “yeah, i beat on his chest. he’s dead.”28 that true-to-life exchange became part of the play’s opening scene. the setting is a bar in which a shot is heard off-stage. a man, played by august, enters the bar, and a woman says to no one in particular "the niggers are killing each other." later, toward the end of the play, the woman says something that informs the audience that the man who was shot at the play’s opening has been “recycled” into this bar.29 recycled continues the figure of the outsider, a trope which had long intrigued august. in the opening scene, when the man comes into the bar, the woman looks at him and asks, “where did you come from?” he replies, “down the street lady. and did you forget?” she asks, “forget about what?” to which he expounds, “forget about everything. long dancing one afternoon. … all the mean shit we gotten together.” coldly dismissing the overblown rhetoric, the woman replies, “nigger, i don’t know you from a lump of coal. you got a woman? why don’t you go home to her.”30 the phrase “i don’t know you from a lump of coal” turns the man into an outsider, an unloved stranger. some of the play’s dialogue retains the flowery, enigmatic language of august’s early poetry, but much of it captures the cadence and flow of black vernacular. like august’s poem “morning statement,” which also was written in 1973, the play demonstrates he had listened to claude purdy and was becoming more skilled in capturing the way blacks talk. in addition to being inspired by an actual tragedy, recycled references august’s recent divorce. august says that, at the time, he was suffering the breakup of his marriage, and the play was “a way to get [the anger] out of me, kind of find a way to purge that, to write about that in poetry and whatnot.” 31 however, the anger caused august to overact, sometimes dangerously. at one point, his character was to strike the female antagonist, played by maisha baton. august hit her so hard that people wondered whether his emotions had gotten the better of him. years later, maisha could be philosophical about the incident, but clearly had not found it funny at the time. “we only did it that one time,” she laughs. “i wasn't going to let him hit me again!”32 despite fairly realistic and understandable dialogue, people were baffled by the plot. “what's it about?” they asked. “where is he going with this?” 33 the first night’s performance at the recreation center had a large turnout because people thought it was going to be like superfly. but pitts needed only one word to describe attendance at the second performance: “phew!” 34 august was beside himself. trying to figure out why his play had failed to connect, he asked pitts for advice. but pitts was not about to offer any. august, he says, was so “moody” and “intense” that it seemed he was “going to explode.”35 not long afterwards, august did g l a s c o : c h a p t e r i x : " i c a n ' t t a k e i t ! " : a u g u s t w i l s o n l e a v e s p i t t s b u r g h a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 5 explode. during a rehearsal for ed bullins’ play, the corner,36 he became irritated by several actors who were not taking things seriously. they resisted directions and argued over minor points. “i'm not going to do this part. i'm not going to do that part.”37 the most troublesome was rodney, who had been part of the original group that asked rob and august to do theater in hazelwood. rodney always had a story to tell while actors were trying to rehearse. finally, august lost patience and said firmly, “hey man, we’re rehearsing." rodney’s reply, “oh man, we can do it later," enraged august, who picked up a chair and hurled it through a window.38 pitts was shocked. “i had never seen august get that mad,” he says. “i could see the frustration building up in him. i could see it, but i did not know what he would do. and when he walked over to the chair and picked it up and threw it through the window, everybody stopped.” pitts feared august might do the same to rodney. “this guy’s crazy,“ he said to himself. august went on for quite a while, cursing at rodney and finally ordering him to “get the hell out of here!”39 after the disappointment of recycled, august waited three years before writing another play. but in 1976 he wrote the coldest day of the year and staged it at ujima. directed by rob and featuring august and maisha performing together once again, the one-act play was patterned after samuel becket’s waiting for godot. the setting is a cold winter day in which an elderly man engages in tortured conversation with a woman waiting for someone at a bus stop.40 the play deals with male-female relations and, august says, was partly inspired by a breakup with his girlfriend of the time. the play’s theme was engaging, but the dialogue contained such forgettable lines as “our lives are frozen in the deepest hate and spiritual turbulence.” as one can imagine, the audience hated the play, and it closed after one performance.41 realizing once again that audiences did not like his plays, august shelved a third play he was working on, “rite of passage,” which to this day remains unpublished, undated, and unperformed.42 with their egos bruised, august and rob lost interest in ujima. the theater, in august’s words, “just like faded out”43 and closed later in 1976.44 the experience taught august that political theater, as well as theater with esoteric dialogue and complicated plotlines, would not connect with the public, especially with the sort of grassroots public that he wanted to reach.45 frustrated that audiences had so soundly rejected his plays, august tried something new: incorporating music and dance into the play. the idea emerged when august began hanging out with bob johnson, a talented newcomer with a combined interest in dance and theater. “bj,” as he was called, came to pittsburgh in 1970, and brought with him a wideranging interest in dance, theater, and cinema. born in 1938 in new york, he had worked with such major troupes as the alvin ailey studio, the katherine dunham school, the june taylor dance studio, and the new lafayette theatre workshop. he had performed in the original new york shakespeare festival production of hair and acted in ed bullins’ goin’ a buffalo at the american place theatre.46 he had even appeared in the film midnight, the sequel to the pittsburgh-made film night of the living dead.47 recruited by the black studies department in 1970, johnson founded a number of well-regarded initiatives.48 one was the student-based black horizons dance ensemble that performed around town and at productions of black horizons theatre. two others were the bob johnson dancers and the harambee dancers, which also drew enthusiastic audiences.49 bj’s most important group, the black theater dance ensemble, was founded in 1972, and boasted two members of the alvin ailey studio as instructors.50 the word “theater” in the name reflected bj’s desire to combine theater with music and dance. the pittsburgh theater dance ensemble quickly became a leading feature in pittsburgh’s black arts movement. in addition to his dancing skill, bj had what august called a “warrior spirit.” he demonstrated that spirit during an unforgettable outing with august, rob, and other poets to western state penitentiary. the men had been invited to perform for the inmates, but unfortunately, bj did not bring along the female members of his company. when the inmates a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 6 realized this, they vigorously let their unhappiness be known.51 august and rob came out to read poetry, and the inmates made it clear they didn’t want to hear any poetry. bj started dancing, and the men let it be known that they didn’t want to see him dance. they wanted the women. finally, in a move that august never forgot, bj went out on stage and, in front of four hundred very unhappy men, danced a solo tribute to baseball great roberto clemente with such power and feeling that, by the time he finished, the inmates were applauding and calling for more.52 august admired bj for his “warrior spirit” that had been on display at the penitentiary. august was overjoyed when bj established theatre urge in 1975 and asked him to direct phillip hayes dean’s play, owl killer, for the company. he considered the chance to work with bj “a great experience.” apparently bj did not feel the same, for he never again asked august to direct a play for him, to august’s great disappointment. “i thought that bj would ask me to do other stuff,” august lamented. “i used to go home and think about plays i would direct. and then the next play he did, he had some group from philadelphia come in and direct it and i was wounded by that.”53 august regretted this rebuff by bj, but he continued to engage with theater, now with a new company at the university of pittsburgh, kuntu repertory theatre. under the direction of vernell lillie, a newcomer to the city, kuntu quickly became the city’s leading producer of black theater. born in 1931 in the brazos bottoms region of texas, vernell earned a degree in speech and drama at dillard university and taught in the houston public schools. there, she and her husband founded a theater with a nationalist agenda that sought to raise racial consciousness through literary readings and dramatic collages.54 in 1969, vernell came to pittsburgh to pursue graduate studies at carnegie-mellon university, concentrating in psychodrama.55 she was completing her doctoral program when, in 1973, curtiss porter recruited her to teach in pitt’s black studies department.56 vernell agreed to do so, but had no intention of starting a theater. she simply wanted to finish her dissertation and return to houston. however, despite misgivings, in 1973 she founded kuntu repertory theatre.57 kuntu had a nationalist orientation and was self-consciously part of the black arts movement. the company’s very name is derived from a central african word for “way” or “mode,” a term popularized by german scholar janheinz jahn, whose book muntu argued that africa has a unified cultural essence and esthetic.58 vernell quickly bonded with her colleague in black studies, rob penny. she liked that his plays focused on the lives of the marginalized and provided what vernell called positive “propaganda” aimed at getting black men “to think about their responsibilities.”59 she also admired rob’s portrayal of women. “he can create women with such beauty,” vernell says, even “better than most … female writers.”60 vernell had reservations about august, who she felt was not a committed black nationalist. “i don't remember august dealing at all with the ideas of baraka,” she says, “or the other black writers.”61 vernell felt august did not measure up to rob as a playwright,62 and she was not alone in that regard. most black pittsburghers considered rob the city’s premiere black playwright, and ranked august a clear second. mary bradley, who had worked with both men at ujima, says rob was the one who was always getting the recognition. “never august.” years later, bradley was surprised that it was august, not rob, who became nationally famous.63 vernell came to know august because he spent so much time in rob’s office—even when rob was not there. august was in rob’s office so much that brenda berrian, a new faculty member, at first confused the two men. “he lived there!” she exclaims.64 august also palled around with two of the department’s other theatrically inclined members, bj and maisha. the three developed what berrian calls a “little clique … really tight … like brothers and sisters.”65 almost every noon, they would head over to pace’s restaurant nearby in oakland and spend lunchtime “solving the world’s problems.”66 g l a s c o : c h a p t e r i x : " i c a n ' t t a k e i t ! " : a u g u s t w i l s o n l e a v e s p i t t s b u r g h a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 7 august began stopping by kuntu repertory rehearsals, working with the actors and helping them learn their lines. as usual, he remained the outsider, staying on the periphery, not saying much, not asking many questions, and carefully observing. 67 when rob told vernell that august had experience as a director, she asked him to direct two plays for her, the corner by ed bullins and prayer meeting, or the first militant minister by ben caldwell. she was impressed with august’s directing skills, feeling that he exhibited “sophisticated approaches” to blocking, character development, plot nuances, social purposes of the author, and the capabilities of each actor.68 when rob told vernell that august also wrote plays, she asked him if he had anything that kuntu might stage. august told her that he had three plays, two of which—recycled and the coldest day of the year—were still being revised. but a third one, the homecoming, was “complete.”69 in 1976, lillie staged the homecoming at schenley high school and at ujima in hazelwood.70 the homecoming is a fictionalized account of two men’s reactions to the death of their friend, blues singer blind lemon jefferson. called blind willie johnson in the play (ironically there was an actual blues singer by that name), jefferson was a texas-born bluesman and guitarist who sang for a pittance on street corners and at social gatherings. sometime in the late 1920s, paramount records asked him to come to chicago and make some recordings. considered by many the “father of texas blues,” jefferson complained of exploitation by the record company. 71 legend has it that, one morning after a recording session, he was found dead on a cold, wintry street.72 the play is set in an abandoned train station in rural alabama where two men, obadiah and leroy, are waiting for the arrival of blind willie’s coffin. two white agents from a northern record company happen to be in the station, and tell obadiah and leroy that they are looking for bluesmen to come north and record. with fresh memories of what happened to their friend in chicago, they gain revenge by killing the agents. 73 a play about black men settling racial scores through violent retribution makes the homecoming august’s first play to fully embody the sort of racial violence and nationalism championed by baraka and others of the black arts movement. in addition, its characters bear identity traits that august admired and are part of his own identity, those of the warrior and the race man. obadiah and leroy are poor, uneducated, and rural, the sort of traditionally subservient blacks that baraka wanted black theater to convince of the need to strike a blow for revenge and racial retribution. however, august was not comfortable with plays that project such an overtly political message. as a result, the homecoming became his first—and only—play fully in the tradition of baraka. august recognized as much when he said that he liked baraka, and in his early oneact plays—presumably the homecoming—he tried to imitate baraka. but then, he says, he realized he “wasn’t [baraka] and that wasn’t going to work.”74 the homecoming taught august that he couldn’t, or didn’t want to, do political theater. it should also have taught him that his dialogue remained opaque and unnatural. the homecoming was full of such forgettable lines as, ”well, i’ll tell you, it’s cold up north, all right. that’s what i hear anyway. froze to death! don’t make much sense. yessir, that’s something the way they treated blind willie.”75 vernell had grave misgivings about the homecoming, and concluded that august had a future as a director but not as a playwright.76 i had no idea that he was going to emerge as the great, great playwright. i really thought he was going to emerge on the national scene as a tremendous director. and i still say that maybe the secret to his success as a playwright is that he was just so good as a director, and that he saw people on stage. it doesn’t matter whether or not he had the words to go in their mouths. he saw them on the stage. he saw them in conflicts. he saw them needing to make change. and then he saw their flaws as well.77 in addition to harboring doubts about august’s skills as a playwright, vernell did not warm to him personally. “[i]t was not that i was denying august,” she says. “[y]ou must keep in mind that, at this point, august wilson was not at all involved in playwriting. he had only a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 8 written one play.” and, she adds proudly, “i was the first one to ever produce [that first] august wilson play.”78 similarly, august had ambivalent feelings about vernell, and minimizes their relationship. “i didn’t really have a relationship with vernell,” he says, “other than the fact that … she discovered that i wrote this one-act play that she wanted to do …. and so she said she wanted to do it, and i said okay.” 79 disappointed at his failed efforts in theater at black horizons, at ujima, with bj, and now with vernell, august once again turned back to poetry. he did so at a black studies initiative, the kuntu writers workshop, founded in 1976 by rob and maisha, and meant to provide a space where playwrights could come together, support one another, and get feedback. once the workshop started up, rob realized that poetry remained popular, so much so that he opened it to poets as well.80 rob did not mind august’s focus on poetry because he considered himself a poet. vernell says that rob and august both thought that “the highest honor was to be called a poet, and they would correct you on not calling them a poet.”81 maisha baton, the other leader of the workshop, had worked with august at ujima and brought considerable experience to the project. born in 1939 in harrisburg, pennsylvania, maisha (née shirley) had moved to new york at the age of seventeen, planning to become a nurse. realizing that she did not like nursing, she took a variety of jobs that paid the rent for an apartment in the east village.82 while living there, maisha never met baraka, but did attend poetry readings by beat poets, including allen ginsberg and gregory corso.83 their writing appealed because “it had a rhythm, it had a beat that was more like the old poets, john donne and baudelaire. … [they] were saying, ‘bam bam bam bam, i saw the best minds of my generation,’ you know, ginsburg, ‘destroyed by madness, starving, naked, dragging themselves’.” maisha committed to poetry once she realized that poetry doesn't have to be “that little quiet emily dickinson thing.” 84 she liked the beats but, being shy, did not participate in their poetry readings.85 in 1969 or 1970, she moved to pittsburgh, where a cousin lived, and settled in the hill. in short order, she joined black horizons theatre, where claude purdy was directing.86 maisha liked that pittsburgh had a strong sense of community and featured a number of places where writers, artists, and actors gathered regularly.87 along with august, rob penny, sala udin, bj, and others, maisha hung out eddie’s restaurant, where in the 1970s she wrote a play, tears for living children, which bj later staged at the laboratory theatre center.88 maisha and august began dating on and off. as she recalls, “what happened was he was obsessed with writing and i was interested, [but] not as obsessed as he was. but still in love with the writer and the writing and the potential … so we hung out together a lot.”89 august and others especially appreciated that maisha had a car. “that was another reason they liked me,” she says, laughing. “if somebody needed to go somewhere, if there was a theater thing … i would drive.”90 like august, maisha was struggling to find her own voice, sometimes in ways that took on humorous aspects. one snowy night, while driving august and claude back from a poetry reading, maisha stopped the car, turned around, and announced to one and all: “i must not be a poet because i don't sound like them. something’s wrong." 91 claude said a bit nervously, “we’ll talk about it later.” but maisha wanted to talk about it then and there. “i'm really worried about it. i don’t have the voice, the rhythm,” she said as the car went into a snow bank. august and claude started hollering, “keep going, keep going,” but maisha did not move. she needed “to think this rhythm thing” through. years later, she could laugh about that evening. “i'll never forget those guys shouting and trying to make me get out of that snow.”92 maisha touched august’s life in a variety of ways. when he joined the kuntu writers workshop, august became one of three co-leaders, focusing on poetry while rob focused on fiction. the workshop met every other saturday at the black studies department. august still worked at temporary, low-paying jobs, and often did not have money for bus fare, so he had to walk two miles from his apartment in east liberty. but as a true bohemian he didn’t mind. “i walked and i said that’s okay because when i get there i can get fifty cents from rob and … g l a s c o : c h a p t e r i x : " i c a n ' t t a k e i t ! " : a u g u s t w i l s o n l e a v e s p i t t s b u r g h a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 9 get me some cigarettes. and rob will give me a ride home, and i’m cool man. that’s all i needed, that’s all i wanted. to get … cigarettes and then talk about poetry.”93 august and maisha had misgivings about the way rob ran the workshop. rob’s easygoing personality made him reluctant to critique others’ work, whereas august thought feedback was very important. in addition, august and maisha disliked that rob did not make participants bring original work to the workshop.94 especially aggravating to august was the political nature of the writing that rob encouraged. natalie bazzell, a member of the workshop, noticed that august’s poetry was distinctly less political and afrocentric than rob’s. “a lot of the poetry at that time,” natalie says, “was very rhetorical, very black black black power, nigger nigger nigger. it was more than that, but it had a lot of that in it.” natalie adds that rob’s poetry was like that, but august’s was very different.95 august enjoyed the writers workshop, but his writing was still floundering. his poetry lacked the political militancy that was popular. his directing had not impressed bj. his plays had not appealed to general audiences. and his one overtly political play had not impressed vernell. august was looking for a new approach, and turned to the advice of his old friend, claude purdy. claude always had high regard for august’s talent, but for years had urged him to try something different, something that would be artistic but also would have popular appeal. acting on claude’s suggestion, august tried writing a musical satire. the effort began in 1973, just before claude left for los angeles, with a long poem about the exploits of a black bandit in the old west, entitled “black bart and the hills.”1 august at first was unsure what to do with the poem, and had given it as a present to his girlfriend, barbara evans. however, soon afterwards, he apparently decided to develop the poem, and asked barbara to return it.96 august’s desire to convert “black bart” into a musical may also have been inspired by bj. in 1975, johnson planned to have theatre urge stage a musical about stagger lee, the mythical black renegade of the early twentieth century whose adventures were celebrated in song and folklore. bj wanted the production to include dance and music, and so contacted august and a local musician, nelson harrison, to work with him. the three met frequently to discuss creating such a work. it was decided that harrison would do the music, bj would sketch out some scenes, and august would write the script. in the end, however, nothing came of the idea.97 one more disappointment. however, working on stagger lee may have given august the idea for converting his poem about a black cowboy into a musical, black bart and the sacred hills. originally titled “black bart and the hills,” the poem invoked the memory of an actual historical figure, charlie bolles, a white englishman and stagecoach robber whose place in the folklore of the american west ranks just behind jesse james and billy the kid.98 bolles’ name and notoriety were the only things “black” about him, but he had remarkable flamboyance, a sense of humor, and open disdain for the elite. after each robbery, he would leave behind a poem that had the sort of impudent, sardonic humor that august loved. one example: i've labored long and hard for bread, for honor, and for riches, but on my corns too long you've tread, you fine-haired sons of bitches. black bart, 187799 while august was working on black bart, his old friend claude purdy, after several years in los angeles, shelved hopes of breaking into the movies and joined penumbra, a newly formed black theater company in st. paul, minnesota. then, in 1977, just as august was working on black bart, claude and elva returned to pittsburgh and joined the pittsburgh city players, an experimental, integrated theater on the north side.100 1 although long poem titles are typically placed in italics, we are going to keep the poem version of “black bart” in quotation marks to distinguish it from the play, which will be placed in italics. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 10 upon their return, claude and elva learned that black horizons theatre no longer existed. they tried to learn what happened, but august and others spoke only in the vaguest of terms.101 the theater seems to have faded away with no formal death notice.102 curtiss porter thinks it closed “around” 1972; rob penny says it was functioning “off and on” as late as 1973.103 those dates suggest that black horizons closed not long after elva appointed august to head it. one night after their return to pittsburgh, claude and elva went to the crawford grill to hear august read “black bart and the sacred hills.” claude liked the poem, and thought it had commercial possibilities. he was aware that in the late 1960s, black cowboys had become all the rage following the republication of the life and adventures of nat love, the 1907 autobiography of a black cowboy nicknamed deadwood dick. in 1976, fred hudson and roger furman of new york’s black theatre alliance announced plans to do a play about love.104 penumbra theatre was interested enough that it staged deadwood dick: legend of the west as part of its 1979-1980 season.105 claude urged august to convert “black bart” into a musical or, even better, a movie that he would direct. “hey man we could make this into a film!” he said excitedly.106 august liked the idea, and plunged into the challenge. once august got excited about something, says his friend lee kiburi, he was like a little kid in terms of his enthusiasm.107 “[n]ot knowing any better,” august says, he sat down and, working almost non-stop, converted his poem in just one week into a 137-page, single-spaced musical satire.108 because a musical score requires collaboration, august brought in maisha and bj to work with him and claude. the four held brainstorming sessions at maisha’s apartment and occasionally at kuntu writers workshop.109 maisha tape recorded some of the collaboration. on one tape, claude can be heard encouraging august: “come on, let's do it … i know you can work that up. have bart saying blah blah blah.” august replies, “let me try it this way,” and others join in with their own suggestions.110 black bart shows that august was starting to follow claude’s suggestions about writing dialogue that reflects how people actually talk. he had begun doing this in his short, 1973 poem, “morning statement,” but now he was doing it in a much longer work. elva noticed approvingly that with bart, august had begun to write dialogue “just the way he heard it.”111 maisha also noticed the change. she says that august’s early plays—recycled and the coldest day of the year—were written in his “james joyce voice” in which the characters speak “classic” english. however, in bart, the characters “talk, and talk shit.” years later, maisha says, the bart voice takes over and “becomes ma rainey, becomes two trains [running].”112 bart, the musical’s central character, is a black cattleman who is angry that the government has built a railroad through his ranch. turning to rustling as a form of revenge, he gets caught and thrown in jail. after taking a course in magic, bart escapes and settles in a retreat he calls the sacred hills, where he begins making gold out of water, aiming to flood the world with so much of the precious metal that it would lose its value. bart hangs out with a zany, interracial cast of characters with wickedly funny names. master divine—a spoof of father divine, the founder of a black religious cult in the 1920s—is a preacher and selfadmitted “fake prophet.” pharaoh goldstein, the mayor of little egypt, is a member of the culturally independent adults (c.i.a.) and financial overseer of the nile valley pyramid construction company. horsefeathers, the all-knowing indian narrator, can be found sitting atop a barrel in front of the “hoedown in the john” saloon, owned by chauncey riff raff iii. mother principle is the madam who oversees the female workers at the hoedown saloon, also known as the “ain’t no ho’ down in the john” saloon.113 the musical’s dialogue captures the cadence and lilt of black speech, as in this interchange between horsefeathers and sweet delight, one of the “fancy ladies” at the hoedown saloon: h f: just call me stranger. s d: okay. stranger. g l a s c o : c h a p t e r i x : " i c a n ' t t a k e i t ! " : a u g u s t w i l s o n l e a v e s p i t t s b u r g h a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 11 h f: i put your key on the dresser. s d: okay stranger. you sound kind of different. h f: you do too. you sure i’m in the right room? s d: sure, daddy. you write [sic] where you belong.114 nelson harrison, who composed the music, was extraordinarily talented and something of a renaissance man. as a child, harrison had played trombone with the pittsburgh youth symphony. later he played for the likes of dionne warwick, nancy wilson and james brown when they came through pittsburgh. along the way, harrison composed original musical scores, most notably “isis au noir,” a reinterpretation of the egyptian legend of isis and osiris.115 the songs harrison composed for black bart included gems with such ironic titles as “the last stop camel feed and water company,” “the hoedown in the gambling hall,” and “the nile valley pyramid construction company.” august, pitts, and the other actors felt good about the musical. bj’s theatre urge was chosen to stage it, with claude directing and ron pitts playing the role of black bart.116 given this enthusiasm, one can understand august’s great disappointment when, at the last minute, he had to tell the group that the performance was cancelled. he had been unable to raise the necessary financing.117 1977 august leaves pittsburgh the collapse of black bart was one more in a long list of disappointments. to make matters worse, the musical’s closing was followed by a confrontation with vernell. in 1977, vernell had asked august to direct ed bullins’s play, in new england winter, for kuntu repertory. the play was to open in late june at the university’s studio theatre, with a cast drawn both from kuntu and bj’s theatre urge.118 august was thrilled. he considered this the biggest project he had ever done.119 unfortunately, the personal chemistry was not good between the two. vernell had a reputation as being strong-willed and insistent, and the same was true of august. vernell apparently became unhappy with august, or with his directing, or both. the upshot was that the two clashed sharply one evening, and vernell cursed him out. this was the confrontation that occurred while ron pitts was parked outside oakland’s original hot dog shop waiting to drive august home. august got in the car, visibly agitated, and related what had happened. with tears in his eyes, he announced he was leaving, and exclaimed, “i can't take it!” 120 pitts was astonished. he found august’s announcement “surreal, almost like a play he was writing.” when august confirmed that he was serious, pitts pleaded, “man, you got to finish what you started.” pitts knew this was not the first time august had said he was going to leave. “but this time,” pitts says, “you could see it in his face. he was going to be with claude purdy somewhere in minnesota. he was through with everything—ujima, kuntu—anything that had to do with theater in pittsburgh.”121 august, in fact, had been in touch with claude, who by then was happily ensconced in st. paul, directing plays for penumbra. claude loved penumbra. he loved st. paul. and he very much missed august. wanting to work together again, he sent august an airplane ticket around christmas, 1977, inviting him to come to st. paul and revise black bart.122 august found the invitation too good to resist. he said to himself, “a free trip to st. paul? what the hell.”123 the following january, august left for st. paul. before he did, he stopped by the home of his old friend, thad mosley, to tell him about his plans. most people think august left pittsburgh in order to work with penumbra, but that is not what august told thad. “i can remember as plain as day,” thad says, “he told me he was going to minneapolis to go to the tyrone guthrie drama school.”124 the guthrie would have been attractive to someone with august’s ambitions. founded in 1963 and located just across the mississippi river from st. paul, it staged plays of the highest quality while avoiding the cut-throat commercial a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 12 environment of broadway.125 elva branson confirms that august’s goal was the guthrie. she says august wound up at penumbra because that was “claude’s connection,” but he always had his eye on the guthrie. “i know that.”126 thad was stunned at august’s leaving, but he was even more stunned at the reason. “i’m stopping writing poetry,” august said. “you don’t get anything back from poetry.”127 thad considered this an astonishing statement from someone who had always considered himself first and foremost a poet.128 it was a sign that, after so many disappointments, august hoped that, with revisions and further work, black bart and the sacred hills could achieve the sort of popular and critical success that had long evaded him. on a snowy winter’s day in early january, 1978, august caught a plane to st. paul.129 on his way to the airport, he stopped by to see maisha.130 while there, he asked her for some valium to ease his anxieties about flying.131 “he left for minnesota,” maisha says, “practically from my house.”132 as august left, he implored pitts to keep kuntu going. “man, you got to do it. you’re what's going to keep theater going in pittsburgh.” pitts declined, partly because he didn’t want to deal with vernell.133 august’s departure left his friends despondent. sala udin never forgave purdy for luring august away from pittsburgh, but in hindsight believes it was time for august to move on.134 august’s leaving added to the decline of pittsburgh’s black arts movement. “it was a thriving scene for a while,” says ralph proctor, a major collector of african art, “but when the movement died, it all died. everybody just scattered and went their own way.”135 august had been only on the periphery of the black arts movement, but he regularly expressed his commitment to cultural nationalism. despite that avowed commitment, black bart distanced him even further from the movement. the play has elements of protest, but satire is not designed to politicize the masses and raise their consciousness—certainly not in the way that baraka or karenga wanted. black bart illustrates the argument of sandra shannon that august embraced the politics of empowerment and cultural affirmation, but his writing “was not to be the belligerent, vindictive voice of baraka or bullins but the subtly provocative … voice of a playwright with some thoughts of his own.”136 there is no question that things had not worked out as august had wanted. his lack of formal education had limited his job prospects. his marriage had failed because he couldn’t provide for his family. his poetry and plays had been poorly received by the public. his efforts at a musical had been canceled for lack of funding. he was a distant second to rob penny in the local theater scene. and now he had fallen out with vernell, the most important figure in black theater in the city. leaving was difficult, for pittsburgh was august’s home town. he loved the city, but the two had what he called a “love-hate relationship.” he told his friend and theater critic christopher rawson, “this is my home and at times i miss it and find it tremendously exciting, and other times i want to catch the first thing out that has wheels.”137 in this case, august left in something that has wings. but he left nonetheless. afterwards, august would return for visits, but he never again lived in pittsburgh. in st. paul, august suffered several disappointments before he finally achieved success. that success, however, would be based on the continuing influence of pittsburgh. this is because, in a real sense, august never left. years later, when asked about leaving for st. paul, he replied: “i never really left. you carry your home with you wherever you go. … i carry [pittsburgh] around in my heart with me.”138 pittsburgh remained for august “the deep well of memory into which he kept dipping the ladle of his art.”139 “i can’t take it!” became “i can do it.” g l a s c o : c h a p t e r i x : " i c a n ' t t a k e i t ! " : a u g u s t w i l s o n l e a v e s p i t t s b u r g h a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 13 1 ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007. 2 curtiss porter, interview by lee kiburi, 28 november 2007. 3 frank hightower, interview by author, 12 november 2013. 4 vera sheppard, “august wilson: an interview,” in jackson r. bryer and mary c. hartig, eds., conversations with august wilson (jackson: university press of mississippi, 2006), p. 103. 5 rob penny, interview, interview by lee kiburi, 18 august 1998. 6 august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. 7 mary bradley, interview by lee kiburi, 11 october 2011. 8 ibid. 9 ibid. 10 ibid.; ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007; august wilson interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. 11 ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007. the cast, as best pitts can recall, consisted of robbie dixon, greg jones, joyce dixon, eileen, kenny robinson and his brother, plus a few others. 12 mary bradley, interview by lee kiburi, 11 october 2011. 13 mary bradley, interview by lee kiburi, 11 october 2011; ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007. 14 ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007. 15 ibid. 16 ibid. the daughter was joyce. mary bradley, interview by lee kiburi, 11 october 2011. 17 rob penny, interview by lee kiburi, 18 august 1998. 18 mary bradley, interview by lee kiburi, 11 october 2011. 19 mary bradley, interview by lee kiburi, 11 october 2011. 20 ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007. 21 ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007. 22 ibid. 23 august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999 . 24 ibid. 25 noel mccarroll, interview by lee kiburi, 30 july 2013. 26 ibid. 27 elva branson, interview by the author, 8 may 2017. 28 august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. 29 maisha baton, interview by lee kiburi, 26 december 2007. 30 august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. 31 ibid. 32 maisha baton, interview by lee kiburi, 26 december 2007. 33 ibid. 34 ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007. 35 ibid. 36 ibid. 37 ibid. 38 ibid. 39 ibid. notes a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 14 40 shannon mentions 1976 and 1977. for 1976, see sandra shannon, the dramatic vision of august wilson (washington, d.c.: howard university press, 1995), p. 30 (hereafter cited as shannon, the dramatic vision of august wilson).for 1977, see sandra g. shannon, “august wilson explains his dramatic vision,” in jackson r. bryer and mary c. hartig, eds., conversations with august wilson (jackson: university press of mississippi, 2006), p. 122. 41 maisha baton, interview by lee kiburi, 26 december 2007. 42 shannon, the dramatic vision of august wilson, p. 241. shannon lists the full set of wilson’s unpublished plays, including those written for the science museum of minnesota. 43 august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. 44 august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. 45 ujima was a failure for august, but for pitts it was transformative. after finishing his studies at the university of pittsburgh, pitts took a job with an optical firm in columbus, ohio. there, inspired by his years at ujima, he joined a theater company that, ironically, also bore the name ujima. ron pitts, interview by the author, 13 february 2015. 46 allegheny repertory theatre, press release, 1982-09-23 for the premiere of august wilson’s jitney at the fine line cultural center, 3300 fifth avenue in oakland. university of pittsburgh theater archives, hillman library. 47 walter ray watson, “choreographer bob johnson remembered,” pittsburgh courier, 11 oct 1986: 6. 48 “spotlight on african art folk festival,” pittsburgh courier, 16 may 1970: 3. 49 “bas slates black week,” pittsburgh courier, 7 november 1970: 8. 50 “ailey dancers teach master class at local center,” by greg mims, pittsburgh courier, 16 march 1974: 17. 51 “choreographer bob johnson remembered,” by walter ray watson, pittsburgh courier, 11 october 1986: 6. 52 ibid. the present author saw bj dance once, in a solo rehearsal. the performance was so moving, it brought me almost to tears. johnson’s talent and power had to be seen to be apprciated. 53 johnson does not include the play in his resume. see bob johnson papers, university arcives, university of pittsburgh. august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. g l a s c o : c h a p t e r i x : " i c a n ' t t a k e i t ! " : a u g u s t w i l s o n l e a v e s p i t t s b u r g h a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 15 54 vernell lillie, interview by lee kiburi, 9 june 2007. 55 lillie’s education options were all in the north. universities in the south did not admit black students, but southern states provided scholarships for blacks to do graduate work in the north. vernell lillie, interview by lee kiburi, 9 june 2007 and 15 november 2007. 56 vernell lillie, interview by the author, 9 june 2013. 57 vernell lillie, interview by lee kiburi, 28 april 1998. 58 kuntu showcased the works of rob penny, who was the theater’s playwright-inresidence. in 1975, kuntu’s first year of operation, lillie staged four of penny’s works—little willie armstrong jones, just rob penny (a collage), the depths of her star, and slow lives on the humdrum. the plays were staged at the university of pittsburgh in the stephen foster memorial chapel, as well as in several community locations. lillie cv, in black studies department, 1978. 59 vernell lillie, interview by lee kiburi, 28 april 1998. 60 ibid. 61 vernell lillie, interview by the author, 7 and 9 june 2013. 62 vernell lillie, interview by the author, 22 may 2014. 63 mary bradley, interview by lee kiburi, 11 october 2011. 64 the department had relocated from its original office on craig street to a suite of offices on the second floor of a building on forbes avenue, across from the old police and fire station. brenda berrian, interview by the author, 8 september 2013. 65 ibid. 66 diana nelson jones, “obituary: maisha baton/nurturing poet, playwright, therapist and teacher,” pittsburgh post-gazette, 28 march 2012. 67 vernell lillie, interview by the author, 7 june 2013. 68 vernell lillie to august wilson, 26 january 1976, in the august wilson papers, by courtesy of the august wilson estate. 69 vernell lillie, interview by the author, 15 november 2008; august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999; vernell lillie, interview by the author, 9 june 2013. 70 staged in 1976. vernell lillie, cv, 1978 71 marilyn elkins, “wilson, august,” in william l. andrews, et al., eds., the concise oxford companion to african american literature, accessed 6 july 2015. shannon, the dramatic vision of august wilson, pp. 35ff has a summary of the play. 72 robert uzzel, blind lemon jefferson: his life, his death, and his legacy (austin, tex.: eakin press, 2002), pp. 45-46. 73 joan herrington, i ain’t sorry for nothin’ i done: august wilson’s process of playwriting (new york: limelight press, 1998), p. 25. 74 david savran, “august wilson,” in jackson r. bryer and mary c. hartig, eds., conversations with august wilson (jackson: university press of mississippi, 2006), p. 23. 75 “the homecoming,” by august wilson. courtesy of the august wilson estate. 76 lillie says she still has a copy of the play but declines to share it because of its relatively low quality. sharing it, lillie says, would be a disservice to august’s memory. lillie, interview by the author, 7 june 2013, 9 june 2013. 77 vernell lillie, interview by lee kiburi, 15 november 2008. 78 vernell lillie, interview by lee kiburi, 28 april 1998. 79 august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. 80 rob penny, interview by lee kiburi, 18 august 1998 81 vernell lillie, interview by lee kiburi, 28 april 1998. 82 maisha baton, interview by lee kiburi, 26 december 2007. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 16 83 ibid. 84 ibid. 85 ibid. 86 ibid. 87 ibid. 88 ibid.; c.v. in bob johnson papers (archives service center, university of pittsburgh); geri b. ransom, “theatre urge stages ‘black happenin’, “ new pittsburgh courier, 6 june 1981; a3. 89 ibid. 90 maisha baton, interview by lee kiburi, 26 december 2007. 91 ibid. 92 ibid. 93 august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. 94 maisha baton, interview by lee kiburi, 26 december 2007. 95 natalie bazzell, interview by the author, 30 august 2013. 96 barbara evans, interview by the author, 2 july 2018. 97 nelson harrison, interview by the author, 26 july 2013. 98 when august lived in los angeles, he may have seen the 1948 film that celebrated bart’s exploits. see “’black bart’ arrives,” by philip k. scheuer, los angeles times, 25 february 1948: 18. 99 wikipedia, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/black_bart_(outlaw), accessed 17 february 2013. see also frederick nolan, the wild west: history, myth & the making of america (london: arcturus publishing limited, 2003), p. 133 100 rohan preston, “claude purdy gave august wilson his break in st. paul (obituary), minneapolis star tribune, 28 july 2009, online; nelson harrison, interview by the author, 26 july 2013; nelson harrison email to the author, 25 march 2014. macelle mahala, penumbra: the premier stage for african american drama (minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 2013), p. 21 (hereafter cited as mahala, penumbra); pittsburgh post-gazette, misc. items, febmay 2017. 101 elva branson, interview by the author, 8 may 2017. 102 years later, the pittsburgh post-gazette dated its demise as 1971. ervin dyer, “obituary: robert lee ‘rob’ penny,” pittsburgh post-gazette, 18 march 2003. curtiss porter says black horizons ended “about 1972” (curtiss porter, interview by lee kiburi, 28 november 2007.) 103 rob penny says it was still functioning “off and on” in 1973, when he and august established ujima theater. rob penny, interview by lee kiburi, 18 august 1998. 104 jet magazine, 27 may 1976: 64. 105 mahala, penumbra, p.27. 106 maisha baton, interview by lee kiburi, 26 december 2007. 107 lee kiburi, interview by the author, 31 july 2017. 108 bonnie lyons, george plimpton, “august wilson, the art of theater,” paris review #14 (winter 1999), accessed on-line 12 january 2018. 109 maisha baton, interview by lee kiburi, 26 december 2007. 110 ibid. 111 elva branson, interview by the author, 8 may 2017. 112 maisha baton, interview by lee kiburi, 26 december 2007. 113 script and comments for “black bart and the sacred hills.” in bob johnson papers, archives service center, university of pittsburgh. 114 “black bart,” 125 ms, box 28. quoted courtesy of august wilson estate. g l a s c o : c h a p t e r i x : " i c a n ' t t a k e i t ! " : a u g u s t w i l s o n l e a v e s p i t t s b u r g h a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 17 115 gifted intellectually as well as musically, harrison went on to earn a ph.d. in psychology and teach in the music department at the university of pittsburgh. today, he runs the pittsburgh jazz society, dedicated to the promotion of jazz in pittsburgh. the web site is at https://pittsburgh.jazznearyou.com/pittsburgh-jazz-society.php. 116 august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. 117 ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007. 118 vernell lillie, cv 1978. the play ran 23-26 june, 1977. (university of pittsburgh) university times, 16 june 1977. also vernell lillie, cv, black studies department. 119 august wilson, interview by lee kiburi, 6 april 1999. 120 ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007. 121 ibid. 122 justin maxwell, “august wilson and the playwrights’ center,” minnesota history, (winter 2006-07): 133-142; rohan preston, “claude purdy gave august wilson his break in st. paul,” (minneapolis) star tribune, 28 july 2009, accessed online. purdy later became an expert interpreter of wilson plays, directing them in such cities as pittsburgh, houston, san francisco and london. 123 david savran, “august wilson,” in jackson r. bryer and mary c. hartig, eds., conversations with august wilson (jackson: university press of mississippi, 2006), p. 22. 124 thad mosley, interview, 30 april 2013. 125 in fact, the guthrie would not have been a good fit for august. the theater was selfconsciously interested only in established playwrights with outstanding national and/or international, reputations. only after august established himself as a major american playwright did the guthrie stage his plays. see daniel gabriel, interview, 31 july 2014. 126 elva branson, interview, 8 may 2017. jacqui shoholm, purdy’s widow, says august came with the intention of working with claude in st. paul. jacqui shoholm, interview, 25 august 2017. 127 thad mosley, interview by the author, 30 april 2013. 128 thad mosley, interview by the author, 23 may 2014. 129 date per jacqui shoholm, widow of claude purdy. 130 maisha baton, interview by lee kiburi, 26 december 2007. 131 ibid. 132 ibid. 133 ron pitts, interview by lee kiburi, 23 november 2007. 134 sala udin, interview by the author, 7 june 2013. 135 ralph proctor, interview by the author, 24 june 2013. 136 shannon, the dramatic vision of august wilson, p. 26. 137 christopher rawson, “the power behind the plays: august wilson has changed the way theater approaches race,” pittsburgh post-gazette, 6 june 1999. 138 august wilson, “feed your mind, the rest will follow,” pittsburgh post-gazette, 28 march 1999; elaine effort, “pittsburgh profiles,” kqv radio, 25 september 1987. 139 christopher rawson, “august wilson, pittsburgh playwright who chronicled black experience,” pittsburgh post-gazette, 3 october 2005. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 1 | s p r i n g 2 0 1 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 1 9 . 2 6 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 18 author bio dr. laurence glasco is associate professor of history at the university of pittsburgh, where he teaches courses in race, ethnicity, and urban history. articles in this journal are licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. this journal is published by the university library system of the university of pittsburgh as part of its d-scribe digital publishing program and is cosponsored by the university of pittsburgh press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/ http://www.pitt.edu/ http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://www.library.pitt.edu/d-scribe-digital-collections http://upress.pitt.edu/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ chapter ix: "i can't take it!": august wilson leaves pittsburgh abstract keywords august wilson journal v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 6 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 1 “hear me talking to you”: improvisation and the auricular imperative in ma rainey’s black bottom by jürgen e. grandt associate professor of english but ma’s music would endure as well, simply because it is the wellspring of it all, and because it “connects,” as per wilson, despite the fact that it rarely features flights of improvisation. jürgen grandt keywords jazz; blues; improvisation; film “hear me talking to you”: improvisation and the auricular imperative in ma rainey’s black bottom at the height of the so-called jazz wars, saxophonist joshua redman released his fourth studio album in 1996. programmatically titled freedom in the groove, redman’s liner notes are really more a manifesto comprising a thinly veiled broadside against the neotraditionalist faction in the music: “i didn’t recognize ‘jazz’ as being categorically separate or substantially different from ‘blues,’ ‘rock,’ ‘funk,’ ‘soul,’ ‘classical,’ ‘indian,’ ‘african,’ ‘indonesian,’ or any other of the countless musical genres i heard piping over the public airwaves or crackling out my mom’s old reel-to-reel tape recorder,” redman wrote as he reminisced about his childhood. “put it in the pocket, but keep it on the edge. give me a naked soul and a mature mind. you can be grounded yet still be free. with a swing. in the groove” (redman).1 the jazz wars of the 1990s and the saxophonist’s involvement in them sound an instructive postlude to the musical conflicts orchestrated in ma rainey’s black bottom. redman ascribes the direction of his artistic pursuits to catholic if conscientious listening. as if in counterpoint, august wilson’s play chronicling a day in a chicago recording studio is ultimately propelled by a failure to listen, by a failure to hear in the music of the other an ally rather than an adversary, much more so than by the racial exigencies of america’s jazz age. students of the play have heretofore focused almost exclusively on the title song—when they have paid attention to the music at all—and have thus missed that the plot actually revolves around the auricular imperative articulated by another tune recorded at the session, “hear 1 the jazz wars pitted the conservationist forces commanded by trumpeter wynton marsalis and supported by ideological barrages from albert murray as well as the combative stanley crouch, against innovators like crouch’s erstwhile protégé david murray or iconoclast john zorn (broecking, “blackness” 127-29; chinen 23-25; coates). the marsalis family’s grip on the music and how it was defined was so firm that free jazzer hartmut geerken derisively if helplessly dubbed them “the arsalis clan” (qtd. in solothurnmann 32). redman continues to be affected by the acerbic criticism he received from the neo-traditionalist camp, as evidenced in song titles like “tribalism” or “jazz crimes,” tunes that he still revisits regularly in concert (redman and wdr). a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 6 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 2 me talking to you.” ironically, george c. wolfe’s cinematographic transposition of the play mutes the auricular imperative, returning the characters to the same old spiraling groove of the american race record. as it turns out, literary critics have been listening to the soundtrack of ma rainey’s black bottom with only one ear. none of the contributors to the cambridge companion to august wilson even once references “hear me talking to you,” nor does patrick maley in his more recent monograph, which, surprisingly, has next to nothing to say about the music (bigsby; maley). astonishingly, doris davis mishears “ma rainey’s black bottom” as a “blues tune” when, harmonically, it is decidedly not a blues, nor do the lyrics conform to the classic blues stanza, crucial details that render levee’s constant dismissal of blues even more tragically ironic (d. davis 175). emily rutter’s gloss on the play is equally puzzling as it completely silences the musical discords, hearing only “ideological conflicts” instead, conflicts that somehow dramatize “still lingering debates about the efficacy of a civil rights integrationist agenda versus a black power cultural nationalist one” (rutter 8). for his part, wilson delineates the blues in the prologue of his play as “music that breathes and touches. that connects” (xvi). unlike the solitary act of writing, collective musicmaking depends crucially on aural connectivity, just as actors on stage must also listen to each other. this auricular imperative, then, is also an ethical one, as it demands an openness and receptiveness to the story of the other. in music, especially in improvised music, selfactualization is subject to an ethics of responsible listening: yes, unscripted music-making gives me the freedom to tell my own, individual story, in my own, individual way—but at the same time, this freedom is, to borrow redman’s terminology, a “freedom in the groove,” and the groove is laid down by a collective. albert murray emphasizes that “as is also the case with the best of the so-called unaltered found objects on exhibition in some of the better avantgarde art galleries, the invention of creative process lies not in the originality of the phrase as such, but in the way that it is used in a frame of reference!” (96). successful music-making therefore comes with an auricular imperative, an interpersonal accountability to the sonorities of the others’ stories. improvised music “displays an ethical valence,” argues daniel martin feige, and its successful performance “exemplifies what it means to recognize and bear responsibility for each other” (118). as such, this sonic dialectic is a direct extension of the calland-response of african american vernacular traditions (both musical and discursive); making improvised music thus “provides opportunities for negotiating difference through creative collaboration,” raymond macdonald and graeme wilson point out—yet these opportunities vanish unless we also listen, and listen carefully, to the possible connective nodes in the stories of the other (104). in this way, too, “the blues are relentlessly dialectical,” seconds adam gussow (whose blues 46-49). wilson’s play dramatizes listening as a profoundly ethical act, a paramount act whose obviation can bring tragic consequences. “listening” to the characters and their music-making also reveals that it isn’t the title song that sounds the auricular imperative, but another rainey composition, “hear me talking to you.”2 the mother of the blues recorded it in june of 1928, the twilight of her career—she would enter a studio only thrice more—with an outfit billed as “ma rainey and her tub jug washboard band.” the leader’s voice is as powerful as ever, but herman brown’s kazoo in particular brings the song perilously close to novelty territory, an impression not even georgia tom dorsey’s expert piano accompaniment can dispel. in the play, levee green, the young, brash trumpet player ma recently hired, has been denigrating ma’s blues as “tent-show nonsense” at virtually every turn (65). even if ma’s combo features neither a kazoo nor a jug, 2 in the following, i shall refer to the historical ma rainey as “rainey,” to the play’s and movie’s fictionalized character as “ma.” jürgen grandt g r a n d t : “ h e a r m e t a l k i n g t o y o u ” : i m p r o v i s a t i o n a n d t h e a u r i c u l a r i m p e r a t i v e i n m a r a i n e y ’ s b l a c k b o t t o m a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 6 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 3 irritable levee cannot help but dismiss “hear me talking to you” as “old jug-band shit” (26). consequently, the final take of the session is less than perfect: ma rainey: levee … what is that you doing? why you playing all them notes? you play ten notes for every one you supposed to play. it don’t call for that. levee: you supposed to improvise on the theme. that’s what i was doing. ma rainey: you supposed to play the song the way i sing it. the way everybody else play it. you ain’t supposed to go off by yourself and play what you want. levee: i was playing the song. i was playing it the way i felt it. ma rainey: i couldn’t keep up with what was going on. i’m trying to sing the song and you up there messing up my ear. that’s what you was doing. call yourself playing music. (101) and yet, just as the trumpeter’s improvised runs are “messing up” ma’s ear, so does her ostensible “old circus bullshit” mess up levee’s ear (64). from the beginning after all, the play aligns ma with the proto-blues of the vaudeville and minstrel shows where rainey got her start as an entertainer, while levee is hell-bent on pursuing the new, faster, danceable sounds of improvised, modern(ist) jazz (abbot and seroff 127-50, 261-2).3 even the ears of sturdyvant, the racist producer of the recording session whose overriding concern is profit, not art, discern that “times are changing. this is a tricky business now. we’ve got to jazz it up … put in something different. you know, something wild … with a lot of rhythm” (19; emphasis added). complaining bitterly that ma’s sides aren’t selling anymore, not even in harlem, sturdyvant hopes that levee’s participation in the proceedings is going to result in a product that is at least somewhat marketable. the producer accurately diagnoses the fickle public’s tastes shifting decisively from blues to jazz in the second half of the 1920s; paramount dropped the mother of the blues the same year she recorded “hear me talking to you” because, as one label executive declared flatly, “her down-home material had gone out of fashion” (qtd. in lieb 41; harrison 33-43). and yet, the border between the two genres was much more porous than the fictional conflict between the singer and the trumpeter dramatizes; wilson himself did not subscribe to a sharp taxonomic distinction, either.4 for instance, the outfit paramount actually promoted as “ma rainey and her georgia jazz band” was comprised of members of fletcher henderson’s orchestra—including “the master of modernism” himself, louis armstrong, with whom rainey’s erstwhile protégée, bessie smith, who would eclipse her musical mother as “the empress of the blues,” also recorded (qtd. in rasula 201-2). moreover, georgia tom dorsey would soon drop his geographical moniker when he reinvented himself as thomas a. dorsey, the godfather of gospel (harris 87-101; turner 154). also highlighting the mélange of blues and jazz, gunther schuller pinpoints what plagues some of rainey’s later discs: often ma rainey received brilliant support on her recordings, as, for example, the superb teamwork of her georgia jazz band, featuring howard scott (trumpet), buster bailey (clarinet), and charlie green (trombone) from the fletcher henderson band on jealous hearted blues. but at other times, the deadly repetitions of phrases by the unknown saxophone player on rough and tumble blues and other ma rainey 1926 records point up how much the blues depends not merely on having a good singer but on a sensitive, imaginative ensemble conception. when that fails, even the best singer will sound, and in fact be, boxed in by the instrumental background. (228) 3 even though we cannot know exactly what levee’s new arrangement of “ma rainey’s black bottom” sounds like—wilson’s stage directions have its rehearsals either interrupted after just a few measures or in the background—the trumpeter’s vision for it falls squarely in line with the modernist mantra to “make it new” (rasula 163-200). the nexus between jazz and modernism has been investigated extensively. for a recent discussion from a literary-critical perspective, see for instance rasula (201-57); see also schleifer (14-20, 145-54). 4 see abbotson 101-2; gussow, beyond 74-5; deveaux and giddins 47-50. a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 6 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 4 scott, green, and especially bailey were all accomplished improvisers, though they normally were accorded more room to stretch on henderson’s recordings than on rainey’s. in terms of his artistic abilities, levee, too, is “boxed in” by the inflexible, conservative arrangement of “hear me talking to you,” “the deadly repetitions” of ma’s musical intransigence. what is lacking in wilson’s fictionalized session is the same ingredient missing from the subpar records schuller cites: the auricular imperative germane to “a sensitive, imaginative ensemble conception,” even when there are no improvised solos. and so, tragically, neither ma nor levee responds to the call “hear me talking to you” issues. as with the title song, wilson faithfully replicates the lyrics in act i when the band rehearses “hear me talking to you” while they are waiting for the star to arrive in the studio, with bassist sow drag handling the vocal duties: rambling man makes no change in me i’m gonna ramble back to my used-to-be ah, you hear me talking to you i don’t bite my tongue you wants to be my man you got to fetch it with you when you come. (wilson 35) combining the two defining blues tropes of travel and of love gone wrong, the auricular imperative issued by “hear me talking to you” applies to the mother of the blues as much as to the young, upstart jazz trumpeter (a. davis 20-7, 66-75). if ma were to make a foray from her comfort zone of “used-to-be” and listen, really listen, to levee’s improvisations, she would hear that his sound is not nearly as “rambling” as she believes, that her down-home blues contain the seeds of levee’s modernist jazz. far from “messing up” her blues ear, “hear me talking to you” actually sounds what amiri baraka famously called “the blues continuum”— otherwise, ella fitzgerald, the improvising jazz voice par excellence, would not have recorded it (baraka 166; fitzgerald).5 and if levee were to “fetch” the auricular imperative, he would hear that, far from being “old jug-band music,” ma’s blues in fact provide the source material on which his ambitions “to play real music” are based (wilson 25, 26; emphasis in the original). levee, like redman, wants to put the music “on the edge,” but the trumpeter fails to hear that it’s the edge of a foundation laid by ma rainey, bessie smith, and the other classic blues women of the decade. because of the jazz experimentalist’s selective hearing, only exacerbated by his traditionalist boss’s inflexibility, and because both resist the auricular imperative, “tradition and innovation are reduced to imaginary and impotent adversaries, bickering fruitlessly over territory to which neither can lay rightful claim,” as redman would note almost seven decades on amidst yet another sonic skirmish (liner notes). the tragedy of this artistic conflict is amplified by the fact that music serves the same purpose to ma as to her youngest band member. for levee, his jazz innovations are an instrument of self-actualization. the conniving sturdyvant tells him that his compositions “just didn’t sound like the kind of songs i’m looking for right now” when he brought in another combo to play them—a blatant lie, of course—eliciting from levee the plea, “you got to hear me play them, mr. sturdyvant! you ain’t heard me play them. that’s what’s gonna make them sound right” (108; emphases in the original). similarly, to ma, blues “fills things up” and is “life’s way of talking. you don’t sing to feel better. you sing ‘cause that’s a way of understanding life” (82). this, then, is what motivates ma’s histrionics, why she rejects levee’s up-tempo arrangement of the title song as well as his improvised embellishments, why she insists that her nephew, stuttering sylvester, speak the intro to “ma rainey’s black bottom”: the song, after all, is less about a dance, less even about sex, than it is about power and property. in the song, ma reconfigures her black female sexuality as an instrument that she, and she alone, owns, 5 on fitzgerald’s album, “hear me talking to ya” is erroneously credited to louis armstrong. satch recorded his original “heah me talkin’ to ya?” with his savoy ballroom five in december of 1928. “heah” is an instrumental—save for armstrong’s brief vocalization of the title at the beginning—and the okeh label promoted it as a “fox trot”: unlike rainey’s “hear me talking to you,” “heah” is harmonically not a blues, either (fitzgerald; armstrong). g r a n d t : “ h e a r m e t a l k i n g t o y o u ” : i m p r o v i s a t i o n a n d t h e a u r i c u l a r i m p e r a t i v e i n m a r a i n e y ’ s b l a c k b o t t o m a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 6 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 5 something that everybody wants a piece of, but something that, as exclusively her property, she is free to distribute as she sees fit. ma’s music may be outdated, but her understanding of the distribution of power in apartheid america, and how music is subject to it, is as keen as ever: “wanna take my voice and trap it in them fancy boxes with all them buttons and dials,” she complains to cutler, her musical director; “as soon as they get my voice down on them recording machines, then it’s just like if i’d be some whore and they roll over and put their pants on. ain’t got no use for me then” (79). her astute perception and long experience allow her to maximize what little power she has, and her diva tantrums—over sylvester, the bottle of coca cola, or levee’s rearrangement of her song—are strategically deployed to remind sturdyvant and irvin, her white manager, that she, too, knows how the game is played. if levee heeded the auricular imperative, he would also hear in ma’s repeated insistence that “levee ain’t messing up my song” less a musical rebuff and more a statement about retaining selfdetermination while navigating the treacherous waters of the business, and perhaps, just perhaps, he would be able to see through sturdyvant’s deception (62). his unwillingness to hear in the seasoned veteran’s blues anything other than sonic excrement also makes him deaf to all the warnings about the white producer’s real aim. conversely, if ma lent an ear to levee’s experimentations, she might be able to hear that his improvisations are as much about selfactualization as her rote blues. yet precisely because “ma rainey’s black bottom” is, after all, about somatic property, she is unwilling to yield to the auricular imperative, does not notice levee “talking” to her, and thus hears in his improvisational jazz innovations only a threat “messing up” her ears as well as her bottom. instead, the play riffs on the ostensible binary of blues versus jazz in the metonymy of footwear. levee, the improvising jazz innovator, is linked from the very beginning to mobility: he proudly brandishes a brand-new pair of pricey florsheim shoes as he arrives in the studio, and it is certainly no coincidence that the “ramblin’ man” of “hear me talking to you” triggers levee’s extemporized forays later. they also figure prominently in the play’s only instance where the auricular imperative leads to the kind of “connective” music-making wilson highlights in the prologue. during rehearsal, slow drag breaks a string on his bass; as he retunes his instrument, levee exhorts him to “play something for me, slow drag,” which in turn inspires the trumpeter: “a man got to have some shoes to dance like this! you can’t dance like this with them clodhoppers toledo got.” levee has been mocking the pianist’s “farming boots” all along, but now, slow drag’s playing prompts levee to extemporize a duet over king oliver’s “doctor jazz” (40): hello central give me doctor jazz he’s got just what i need i’ll say he has when the world goes wrong and i have got the blues he’s the man who makes me get on my dancing shoes. (wilson 40; oliver)6 on one hand, the lyrics articulate levee’s artistic ambitions: to him, the blues resonate with suffering, but jazz is the healer who shall redeem a world gone wrong. on the other hand, the duet is the most intimate of musical settings, one that requires a heightened level of 6 in fact, none of rainey’s sides feature a bass due to the limitations of 1920s recording technology. generally, the low frequencies emitted by the string bass presented a formidable challenge to even state-of-the art equipment, and many early string bass players doubled on tuba in the studio. this applied across musical genres, of course: for the acoustic 1924 recording of rachmaninoff’s piano concerto no. 2 for the victor label, for example, the string basses were replaced with one bass saxophone (rachmaninoff; cottrell 180). quite often, the bass simply wasn’t utilized at all. paramount had made the switch from acoustic to electric recording some time that same year (and “hear me talking to you” was definitely recorded electrically), but the label was notorious for its lo-fi output, and musicians joked that paramount’s idea of electric recording was to hang a light bulb from the studio’s ceiling (lieb 7, 12, 21-22; van der tuuk 57-60). however, the presence of slow drag’s instrument reveals, quite literally, the blues as the base/bass line of everything that follows, including levee’s modernist jazz improvisations. for an extensive discussion of wilson’s historical “overdubs,” see grandt, “freedom in the groove.” a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 6 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 6 responsiveness. here, levee, the improvising jazz modernist, is able to connect meaningfully with slow drag the blues traditionalist because he listens, and carefully so.7 moreover, ma later on calls the same switchboard as her trumpet player when she is recording “hear me talking to you”—“hello central, give me 609”—but neither can hear the blues continuum connecting both performances (rainey). tellingly, that stanza is missing from the curtailed performance in act i when irvin interrupts the rehearsal (wilson 35). even so, levee’s improvisation on the recorded take is his effort to push the music forward, to the edge, and his character is recurrently associated with kinesis, “the celebration of velocity” as albert murray would put it (165-78). ironically, levee’s own biography mirrors the standard narrative of jazz historiography: he is a native of the mississippi delta, the mythical cradle of the blues; he has spent some time in new orleans, the birthplace of jazz, as he haughtily informs slow drag; and now he finds himself in chicago, the city that made louis armstrong into a jazz star (wilson 54). improvisation, declares trombonist george lewis, “is about the necessity to reinvent yourself in any given moment. it’s about mobility. if you don’t move, you’re dead,” contrapuntally bringing to mind schuller’s “deadly repetitions” again (qtd. in broecking, “don’t” 24). not coincidentally, ma’s ambitious young trumpeter intends to christen his own band that is to bring dance music to the people “levee green and his footstompers” (81). and no wonder, then, that levee’s florsheims become the catalyst for the deadly violence at the end of the play. ma’s character, on the other hand, is consistently linked to stasis, or at least a drastically diminished radius of mobility. suffering from corns, “ma know something about bad feet,” she counsels dussie mae, her paramour, before she changes into a pair of slippers for the recording session, but eventually ditches even those and walks around the studio barefoot—no dancing shoes for the mother of the blues (60, 73). in stark contrast, levee’s warm-up rite consists of slipping into his new florsheims: “yeah! now i’m ready! i can play some good music now!” (24). these accoutrements, therefore, symbolize the musical counterpoint between stubbornly conservative ma and impatiently modernist levee. for levee, jazz music is kinesis; for ma, blues music is stability. to be sure, ma, too, recently made a purchase even more kinetic than levee’s—a new automobile. however, she doesn’t know how to drive, and the car is now stationary in the shop after sylvester, her chauffeur-nephew, managed to get into a fender-bender on the way to the recording session. sonically immobile, ma remains impervious to the auricular imperative, roundly rejecting all pleas to try out levee’s jazzed-up arrangement of “ma rainey’s black bottom”: “i’m doing it the old way,” she declares flatly, and when irvin gently persists, she threatens, “now, if that don’t set right with you and sturdyvant . . . then i can carry my black bottom on back down south to my tour, ‘cause i don’t like it up here no ways” (62, 63). ma will issue the same ultimatum again later in the play, that she much prefers the stasis of her georgia “used-to-be.” she is in a position where whatever freedom she has laid claim to in her groove must be defended; levee, on the other hand, is yet to find a (collective) groove. echoing schuller as well as lewis, macdonald and graeme wilson observe that “improvisation is a defining feature of our humanity: if you do not improvise you are not alive” (105). this is precisely what motivates levee, not just as an artist, but as a human being. ma, on the other hand, will soon discover that her curtailment of any improvisatory efforts results in a career that has dead-ended. what both ignore, with tragic consequences, is the auricular imperative—that “individual musicians do not fully know who they are, or become who they are, outside of their interactions with others,” as charles hersch puts it (371). to be sure, the artistic conflict in the play is exacerbated by the 7 the only duet recording of “doctor jazz” with a vocalist and a string player i have been able to unearth is on petra van nuis and andy brown’s album lessons lyrical. like levee and slow drag’s performance, their version was played ‘live’ in the studio without any overdubs or multi-tracking, showcasing guitarist brown’s staggering pyrotechnics (email from petra van nuis, june 15, 2018). significantly, in the liner notes van nuis writes that “playing jazz music requires [. . .] embracing the moment with openness and acceptance of whatever presents itself.” in a duo setting in particular, there is no room to hide behind one’s musical partner, and the “principles of surrender, humility, intuition, [and] mindfulness” are comparatively amplified (van nuis). g r a n d t : “ h e a r m e t a l k i n g t o y o u ” : i m p r o v i s a t i o n a n d t h e a u r i c u l a r i m p e r a t i v e i n m a r a i n e y ’ s b l a c k b o t t o m a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 6 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 7 racial exigencies of apartheid america, specifically sturdyvant’s devious machinations, but it is not triggered by them. because neither ma nor levee defers to the auricular imperative in their interactions with the other, both of their careers come to a close. the music, however, doesn’t. wilson’s stage directions at the very end have us hear “the sound of a trumpet [. . .], levee’s trumpet, a muted trumpet struggling for the highest of possibilities and blowing pain and warning” (111). this stage direction follows levee’s impulsive murder of toledo after the pianist accidentally scuffed the precious florsheims, symbolically arresting the trumpeter’s improvisational pursuits and “celebration of velocity.” the disembodied sound of levee’s instrument finally no longer neglects the auricular imperative: in “struggling for the highest of possibilities” of improvised jazz, it also hearkens back to the “pain and warning” of the blues, sounding the blues continuum, articulating the connectivity of blues as the bedrock of all popular american music wilson highlights in the prologue. in fact, music history proves levee right: in the decade after rainey’s retirement, the swing big bands would draw depression-weary americans to the dance halls in droves, and the decade after that would resound with the muted bebop trumpets of dizzy gillespie and miles davis blowing harmonically expanded possibilities. but ma’s music would endure as well, simply because it is the wellspring of it all, and because it “connects,” as per wilson, despite the fact that it rarely features flights of improvisation. kelis’s global mega-hit of 2003, “milkshake,” is after all as much about dairy products as “ma rainey’s black bottom” is about dancing: “my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard // damn right / it’s better than yours; i could teach you / but i’d have to charge” (kelis). and rainey, if perhaps not august wilson, would surely recognize in cardi b and megan thee stallion’s “wap” baraka’s blues continuum writ large, nothing other than a raunchier, bolder version of “come on and show the dance you call your big black bottom / it puts you in a trance” (cardi; wilson 86). quite literally, george c. wolfe’s movie adaptation closes on a different note. its script, written by ruben santiago-hudson, follows wilson’s play very closely, including levee cradling the dying toledo in his arms toward the end. but instead of the disembodied sound of levee’s trumpet, we hear the mournful strains of toledo’s orphaned piano, soon joined by an equally lugubrious cello. the film ends with an entirely new scene, where a clean-cut, young, all-white swing big band is recording levee’s song for a gleeful sturdyvant, showing but one instance of what the barakas accurately termed “the great music robbery” (baraka and baraka 328-32). the beginning of the film is very different as well: it commences with two shadowy figures running through ominously dark woods to the sound of barking dogs—yet the figures are revealed to be not fugitive slaves, but two teenaged boys on their way to a ma rainey tent show outside barnesville, georgia. these new bookends of the plot also contribute to the auricular imperative being almost completely muted. the conflict between ma and levee is less musical and more personal: even though levee has his eyes on dussie mae in barnesville already, his obbligatos behind ma are musically astute, making for an engaging and sensitive call-and-response. clearly, there is some auricular attentiveness with levee. his brief solo, too, fits snugly into the musical context of ma’s blues, visually amplified by the fact that in the film, levee plays not the trumpet, but the cornet, an instrument that soon fell out of favor with jazzers (berendt 208-10). his boss, though, is resentful of his invasion of the spotlight and of his energetic performance garnering at least as much applause as her own; his solo, fiery as it is, does not herald the harmonic inventions of the jazz to come. missing, therefore, is most of the opening dialog between sturdyvant and irvin in wilson’s play, including the producer’s realization that ma’s downhome country blues needs “jazz[ing] it up.” also cut is sturdyvant’s diatribe about the waning profitability of ma’s records, with the exception of one line radically transposed—the only such reallocation in santiago-hudson’s script. in the film, levee is trying to convince slow drag of his superior musical talents with the exact same observation a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 6 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 8 that, in the play, is part of sturdyvant’s opening harangue: “you know how many records she sold in new york? and you know what’s in new york? harlem. harlem’s in new york!” moreover, the filmic version of cutler plays obbligato fills that almost drown out levee’s extemporizations on the title song, and he also solos more on “hear me talking to you” than the cornetist does all day in the studio. the protagonist’s instrument, too, becomes a kind of synecdoche for the demotion of the auricular imperative in the film. jazz saxophonist branford marsalis—older brother of trumpet-playing wynton—composed the soundtrack and coached the actors; historical accuracy demanded that he put a cornet in levee’s hands (even though the other characters still refer to him as a trumpeter), since this is what is on rainey’s original recording of the title song. he modeled levee’s music on that of joe “king” oliver, a contemporary of rainey, mentor of louis armstrong, and composer of “doctor jazz,” who would make the switch from cornet to trumpet only late in his career. oliver, too, was an innovator, like wilson’s levee, but “louis armstrong is king oliver 2.0,” adjudges marsalis (qtd. in hoffman). accordingly, “in the shadow of joe oliver” contains no jazz improvisation at all, and “levee’s song” doesn’t even feature a brass instrument. chadwick boseman’s levee is thus musically closer to shirley clay, the cornetist on “ma rainey’s black bottom,” and a name only the most erudite of jazz cognoscenti recognize today. deemphasizing the radical, experimental modernism of levee’s music for the film also results in the auricular imperative ceasing to be central to the recording process. with the auricular imperative diminished decisively, the dynamic between levee and his employer instead morphs into a conflict over star power and the limelight.8 director wolfe explains in the accompanying netflix documentary that he understands levee’s character as the personification of the rising popularity of bessie smith, another talent a generation younger than the mother of the blues, who ma sees as a threat to her own career (even if the real bessie smith was already an established star in her own right by 1927). to put it differently, wilson’s ma feels threatened by levee’s musical innovations, while wolfe’s ma feels threatened by levee’s allure and pizzazz, a shift that obviates the auricular imperative and foregrounds instead the social dynamics in a racist america. this is accentuated by the interpolation of scenes taking place outside the studio—the vaguely threatening throng of white onlookers gathering around ma’s car accident, or the disapproving looks of the white patrons of the grocery store down the street where slow drag and sylvester attempt to purchase a coca cola for ma. a similar reversal occurs in terms of the dramatization of kinesis and stasis. in the film, too, levee proudly brandishes his costly florsheims, and ma is also plagued by foot pain. but the filmic levee notices an ostensibly new door in the studio when he first arrives, not the relocation of the band room (wilson 24). toward the end, he manages to break open the bolted door, only to emerge into an unused shaft—from one trap into an even more claustrophobic one. the last time we see the mother of the blues, on the other hand, she is back in her brand new automobile alongside dussie mae and sylvester en route to her next gig in memphis, the erstwhile home base of w. c. handy, the father of the blues (handy 89171). the auricular imperative does not even appear in the duet between levee and slow drag. “doctor jazz,” shorn of its lyrics, is demoted to the ironic soundtrack to toledo’s lecture about racial uplift, with levee’s cornet only hurling a string of mocking, aleatory bleats at the pontificating pianist instead of interacting with the walking bass—the very instrument that, 8 a related issue is the tricky question of how to transpose a script about music that is partly improvised in the moment onto the stage. marsalis put the challenge rather bluntly, if somewhat hyperbolically: “george [wolfe] doesn’t know anything about music. i don’t know anything about theater” (qtd. in johnson). theatrical productions have featured actor-musicians, or actors mimicking playing their instruments to rainey’s actual recordings (teague 564-68). marsalis pre-recorded the music of ma’s combo with his own band, and then coached the actors to imitate the recorded sounds convincingly on their instruments (hoffman). clearly, this asks the actors to respond to the auricular imperative, but it is a studied response, not an improvised one. g r a n d t : “ h e a r m e t a l k i n g t o y o u ” : i m p r o v i s a t i o n a n d t h e a u r i c u l a r i m p e r a t i v e i n m a r a i n e y ’ s b l a c k b o t t o m a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l | v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 6 9 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u 9 in the absence of any percussion, is most responsible for generating that complex propulsion called “swing” (deveaux and giddins 220-1; grandt 63-8). and yet, the auricular imperative reemerges in a very different scene, in a slightly different way. in the play, a petty squabble about sandwiches launches toledo into his soliloquy about “the leftovers” of history, his pontificating disrupted frequently by the interjections of not only levee, but cutler and slow drag as well (56-9). in the film, though, the trigger is levee’s harrowing account of his childhood trauma. a clearly unsettled toledo is carefully fingering a few slow, bluesy notes before he delivers his ruminations over minor chords, and no one dares to interrupt him: [sings:] everybody—[speaks:] everybody come from different places in africa, right? different tribes and things? soonawhile they began to make one big stew. you had your, uh, your carrots and your peas, and your potatoes over here and over there you had the meat and nuts, uh, okra, corn, and you mix it up, cook it real good to where the flavors flow through. and then you got one thing: you got—a stew. now you take and you eat that stew. you, you take, and you make your history, with that stew. but you look around and you see some carrots, over there, and some peas over here. and—that stew is still there. you done made your history, and it’s still there. you can’t eat it all [laughs]. so what you got. you got some leftovers, that’s what it is. see: we’s the leftovers. the colored man is the leftovers. what’s the colored man gon’ do with himself [sighs]. that’s what we’re going to find out. [sings:] but first he’s got to know that he’s a leftover. shots of working-class african americans gazing pensively into the distance are interpolated into toledo’s recitatif, underscoring the communal significance of levee’s childhood trauma, before the film abruptly cuts to the bustling chicago street outside of the studio. while the characters in the play are “waiting to find out” what will happen to the “leftovers,” in the film toledo’s voice become truly oracular, endowed with certainty over what shall come to pass (wilson 57; emphasis added). clearly, the pianist has listened to levee’s pain and suffering, has understood and is empathizing with it, and as a consequence creates the most bluesy moment of the entire film—at one point, glynn turman’s toledo even laughs to keep from crying—and one that is only possible because of the auricular imperative being heeded. this drastic recontextualization lends toledo’s monologue a new and profound gravitas lacking in the original, where the pianist’s excursions point more toward his penchant to “misappl[y] his knowledge,” as per wilson (20). here, then, is the meeting of levee’s “naked soul” and toledo’s “mature mind” that redman calls for in his liner notes. what this scene also demonstrates is that what is ultimately at stake isn’t even how wolfe’s film diminishes and recontextualizes the auricular imperative from the sonorities emanating from wilson’s play. the real issue this scene reminds us of is that we need not only to look, or read, attentively—but we also need to listen. the auricular imperative applies to literary-critical practice as much as to fictive characters in a play or movie, perhaps even more so. for unless we listen, really listen, to what happens on the page or screen, we are liable to miss what emerges from the deeper grooves of america’s race record(s). a u g u s t w i l s o n j o u r n a l v o l . 4 | f a l l 2 0 2 2 a u g u s t w i l s o n . p i t t . e d u d o i 1 0 . 5 1 9 5 / a w j . 2 0 2 2 . 6 9 i s s n 2 5 7 7 74 3 2 ( o n l i n e ) 10 works cited abbotson, susan c. w. “from jug band to dixieland: the musical development behind august wilson’s ma rainey’s black bottom.” modern drama, vol. 43, no. 1, 2000, pp. 100-8. abbott, lynn, and doug seroff. ragged but right: black traveling shows, “coon songs,” and the dark pathway to blues and jazz. u of mississippi p, 2007. armstrong, louis. “heah me talkin’ to ya?” the complete hot five and hot seven recordings. columbia/legacy c4k 63527, 2000. 4 cds. baraka, amiri. blues people: the negro experience in white america and the music that developed from it. morrow quill, 1963. ---, and amina baraka. the music: reflections on jazz and blues. william morrow, 1987. berendt, joachim e. das grosse jazzbuch: von new orleans bis jazz rock. 5th rev. ed. fischer, 1985. bigsby, christopher, ed. the cambridge companion to august wilson. cambridge up, 2007. broecking, christian. “blackness and identity in jazz.” america and the musical unconscious, edited by julius greve and sascha pöhlmann, atropos, 2015, pp. 127-39. ---. “don’t call my music j***?” jazz thing no. 102, feb.-march 2014, p. 24. cardi b and megan thee stallion. “wap.” vulture, https://www.vulture.com/2020/08/watch-cardib-megan-thee-stallion-music-video-for-wap.html. chinen, nate. playing the changes: jazz for the new century. pantheon, 2018. coates, ta-nehisi. “crouching stanley, hidden gangsta.” village voice 20 july 2004, https://www.villagevoice.com/2004/07/20/crouching-stanley-hidden-gangsta/ cottrell, stephen. the saxophone. yale up, 2012. davis, angela y. blues legacies and black feminism: gertrude “ma” rainey, bessie smith, and billie holiday. pantheon, 1998. davis, doris. “‘mouths on fire’: august wilson’s blues women.” melus, vol. 35, nr. 4, 2010, pp. 165-85. deveaux, scott, and gary giddins. jazz. 2nd edition, norton, 2015. feige, daniel martin. philosophie des jazz. suhrkamp, 2014. grandt, jürgen e. “‘freedom in the groove’: overdubbing history in august wilson’s ma rainey’s black bottom.” zora neale hurston forum, vol. 21, 2009-2010, pp. 60-78. gussow, adam. beyond the crossroads: the devil and the blues tradition. u of north carolina p, 2017. ---. whose blues? 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