August Wilson Remembered
In celebration of the wide-ranging legacy of interdisciplinary collaborations found in August Wilson's plays, we have several events that have come across our desks in the past few weeks. Shortly after Pittsburgh's African American Cultural Center took on the name of its native son and became the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, the arts organization has hit the ground running with building projects and unique public programs. Raising over half the money needed to build the contemporary multi-million dollar facility, the Center recently broke ground on its confirmed site in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh this month. Designed by San Francisco-based architect Allison G. Williams (who also worked on Baltimore's African American history museum and San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora), the August Wilson Center for African American Culture includes a 500-seat theatre, enhanced classrooms, a community center, street-level gift shop, permanent gallery spaces and a 200-seat performance space.
With less than a week separating the two, award-winning actor and playwright Will Power presented, for a limited engagement, his one-man autobiographical performance titled Will Power: Poet to Playwright. Employing the talents of tastemaker DJ Reborn, Poet to Playwright succeeded in re-capturing their amazing energy initially seen in Flow.
Inspired by Wilson's personal charge to young playwrights to "tell your story," the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland College Park, is accepting proposals for their conference by the same name on the work of August Wilson. Scheduled March 9 through 11, the conference's aim is to bring playwrights, scholars, dancers, visual artists, actors, and a host of others to the table to discuss the various intersections between their practice and Wilson's work.
3 November 2006