Playwright
August Wilson
August Wilson’s plays trace Black American life across the twentieth century through family, work, music, and place. His theatre essays also ask who controls the institutions that produce Black drama.
On the shelves
Books in the collection
Drama
Fences
August Wilson
A Pittsburgh family negotiates the consequences of one man’s disappointments, decisions, and obligations.
Drama
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
August Wilson
A recording session brings musicians and industry power into collision as Ma Rainey insists on her terms.
Essays
The Ground on Which I Stand
August Wilson
Wilson considers artistic control and the institutional conditions Black theatre needs to flourish.
Drama
The Piano Lesson
August Wilson
A carved piano forces siblings to decide what they owe their family’s history and their futures.
From the Lyric
Continue the story
Reading notes / 01
The House Rockers
Kentucky rhythm and blues in the wider history of regional bands, touring, and recording.
Read The House RockersReading notes / 02
The Lyric’s Historic Legacy
Black stages, touring routes, and institutions that made performance possible.
Read The Lyric’s Historic Legacy