August Wilson’s plays show his ability to draw upon and transcend the turbulent years he spent at his now-famous Hill District address at 1827 Bedford Avenue. With the benefit of time and distance, Wilson wrote a series of compelling dramas that speak not just to the tensions within a single Black family but also to conditions faced by the Black masses still impacted by the trauma of slavery and the effects of cultural fragmentation. We thus see in Wilson’s series of symbolic and sometimes clearly allegorical characters evidence of an overarching narrative about the counterbalances between forces that set Black families asunder and the resilience that reunites and bonds them together. This chapter explores the ways Wilson’s plays demand that we regard “family” in both literal and figurative terms through an analysis of the Black family portraits on display in them.

The October 1990 issue of Spin Magazine featured an essay by Wilson, “I Want a Black Director,” in which he described the challenges he encountered while attempting to sell the film rights for Fences in Hollywood. Wilson noted that studio executives were especially hostile to his request to have a Black director helm the project, dismissing it as a sign of the playwright’s naiveté. For Wilson, the disregard he experienced only served to reinforce his view that his work should be directed by artists who, as he put it, shared the sensibilities of Black Americans. This chapter explores the importance of Wilson’s declaration in the essay, contemplating how it proved an important clarion call for the entertainment industry to reevaluate its racist beliefs and hiring practices.

While many scholars have explored the ways in which “Africa” functions as a potent, living memory that animates August Wilson’s characters and audiences, this chapter suggests it is time to raise new questions about Wilson’s representation of Africa in his dramaturgy. In particular, it argues that Wilson’s American Century Cycle has projected an “Africa” not contemporaneous with African America. Indeed, this “Africa” stands outside of historical time. Accordingly, it is time for us to raise a new line of critical inquiry: What are the implications of such an ahistorical representation?

This chapter explores themes of black masculinity and homosocial bonding in August Wilson’s plays by offering careful analysis of several of the characters and plotlines from the American Century Cycle.

One critically overlooked aspect of August Wilson’s work is his repeated meditations on acts of perception. This chapter argues that it is precisely in this facet that an understanding of what the playwright learned from Romare Bearden – especially the artist’s collages of the 1960s – can prove most helpful in considering the cultural work Wilson’s monumental body of work does.