"Whatever my individual desires were to be free, I was not alone. There were many others who felt the same way." ~ Mrs. Rosa Parks

November 2005

Famed Playwright of African-American Experience Passes at 60
By Thomas J. S. Shannon

August Wilson passed away on October 2 from liver cancer. Considered a great playwright of his time, he was born Frederick August Kittel (He changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother after his father’s death in 1965) in 1945 to a baker and a cleaning woman. Growing up with five siblings in poverty, Wilson encountered racism in school. He dropped out of his predominantly white high school (he was the only black in his school) in tenth grade because of a teacher accused him of plagiarizing a paper. He educated himself at the library, and in the streets. Going from one menial job to the next, Wilson began to write, submitting poems that eventually got published in the publications at the University of Pittsburgh. Wilson once said, “My generation of blacks knew very little about the past of our parents.” Because of this lack of knowledge, Wilson attempted to educate through his plays and shed light on black issues. In 1968, Wilson co-founded Hills on the Horizon, writing such plays as Jitney and Fullerton Street. But it wasn’t until his breakthrough play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, that Wilson received major critical acclaim. Wilson went on to write such plays as Fences, Joe Turner’s Come & Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, and Seven Guitars. Radio Golf, his final play, released in April of this year, was the signaling of the completion of a 10 year-10 play cycle to track the African-American experience in the 20th century. Wilson is the recipient of many awards, including two Pulitzer prizes, a Tony award, and many more from critics’ circles.

In an interview with Caroline Jackson-Smith, Associate Professor of African American Studies here at Oberlin, Wilson and his work were further discussed.

Q: How did you know August Wilson?

A: From 1989-1991, I was the director of the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale. I was very involved in Yale’s theater department. I was at a festival in 1983 where I got to see one of his plays (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) before it went to Broadway, and I have also directed several of his plays, including Jitney, Joe Turner’s Come & Gone, and Seven Guitars.

Q: What struck you most about Wilson and what do you remember him by?

A: I came of age during the Black Power Movement, and what stuck with me most about August Wilson was the vibrant way he portrayed the complexity, dignity, and cultural vitality of the African-American experience. The language in his plays was so beautiful, but the language also included a spiritual dimension to it. I find that the further we move into the 20th century, the more those spiritual dimensions become more crucial on the stage.


Q: What do you think he’d want to be remembered by?

A: I think he’d most want to be remembered by and is most proud of, an indomitable spirit to do justice to the experiences of our ancestors and the black community and the issues we face.

Q: Why do you think his work is important to not only the black community, but the greater community?

A: After his death, many started comparing August to Tennessee Williams and other great playwrights. Some even went as far as to name him the greatest dramatist in American history. The first time I interviewed him in 1984, we were commenting on the Black Power Movement. We figured our jobs were to tell the story of our struggles and the movement, and allow Americans to look differently at themselves, revaluating themselves as Americans and people. We also wanted to the global community to hear our story so that they too might look differently at themselves.


Back To Front Page



INSIDE THIS WEEK'S IN SOLIDARITY

Letter from Francisca Chaidez-Gutierrez
Hate Crime hit close to Oberlin
Marjane Satrapi
Lord/Saunders and Sewage
New World Boder
Ramadan in Oberlin

John Roberts
What Did You Say?!?!?
Students Advocating for Peace in Sudan
Columbus Day
Hate groups, post-Katrina
Violence in New Orleans



| Home | About Us | Contact Us | Archives |

Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved