August Wilson: putting your presence in the light of the past

On 4 November 2008 Barack Obama was elected the first African American President of the United States. His victory made a powerful statement about how far the United States had come on the issue of race. Obama’s election was proof to some that the American Dream is not just a fairy tale. An interesting question is what African-American playwright August Wilson, who passed away in 2005, would have thought of Obama’s election and whether he would have considered Obama a true representative of the African-American voice. In an interview with Bonny Lyons (1997) Wilson is very outspoken about the growing black middle class who according to him “have been offered a contract by America that forces them to leave all that African stuff behind and adopt the values of the dominant - European - culture to be able to participate in American society. The ones who decline stay behind in the ghettos and the ones who accept acquire some power and participation in society, but when they finally arrive where they arrive, they are no longer the same people. They are clothed in different manners and have adopted different ways of life, different thoughts and ideas. They have accumulated and adopted white values”. The primary opposition in Wilson’s plays supports this statement, but has shifted over the years from the conflict between blacks in the so-called underclass who deny their African roots and those who acknowledge them, to middle-class African-Americans who ‘acculturated’[1] to advance in society versus those who discard this behaviour and whose access to a piece of the American dream is limited because of this refusal. All of Wilson’s plays in his Century Cycle - or Pittsburgh Cycle - “revolve around characters in search of themselves, in search of their identity, of their voice, of their sense of belonging in the world”. (Kiffer.2009) August Wilson teaches us that where African-Americans are today is meaningless without acknowledging the journey that has led them there. 

August Wilson was born as Frederick August Kittel on 27 April 1945 to Daisy Wilson and Frederick Kittel, a German immigrant. August was the fourth child and eldest son of six.His father was estranged from the family and his African-American mother was the active parent in the household. Upon his father’s death in 1965 Wilson confirmed his African-American cultural identity and loyalty by being the only child to take his mother's name, becoming August Wilson. Wilson, according to his close friend Chawley P. Williams, “never denied his biracial parentage; he always identified himself as an African-American and acknowledged as a playwright the patronage of his white audience” (Bogumil.2011) In his address The Ground On Which I Stand (1996) he states that “growing up in my mother’s house at 1727 Bedford Ave. in Pittsburgh, Pa., I learned the language, the eating habits, the religious beliefs, the gestures, the notions of common sense, attitudes towards sex, concepts of beauty and justice, and the response to pleasure and pain, that my mother learned from her mother and which could be traced back to the first African who set foot on the continent. It is this culture that stands solidly on these shores today as a testament to the resiliency of the African-American spirit”. Wilson is best known for his Century Cycle chronicling every decade of the African-American experience in 20thCentury America and all but one – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom(1984)– are set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, where Wilson spent his youth and early adulthood. The content of the individual plays is enhanced by the complete cycle. In all plays the characters - 77 in all - stand alone or reappear or are related to characters from previous plays. It is essential to shed some light on the nature of the Hill District and the neighbourhood’s origin to create a greater understanding of the context that inspired not only Wilson’s work but also Wilson himself. “The Hill Districtis a collection of neighbourhoods that is considered by many to be the cultural centre of African-American life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay once called the district ‘the crossroads of the world,’ referring to the neighbourhood's heyday in the 1930s–1950s, the later period of the Great Migration when blacks came to Pittsburgh not only for better jobs, but also for a better way of life. Many Pittsburghers know it as simply ‘The Hill’.” (Pittsburgh Public Theatre, 2008).Strikingly the only play that is not set in Pittsburgh - Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom -launched Wilson’s career and he is now counted among America’s greatest playwrights, having achieved commercial and artistic success on Broadway and critical acclaim, including two Pulitzer Prizes.

The plays in the Century Cycle bring the world and experiences of African-Americans to life and by doing so Wilson elevates everyday black life to art on the stage. Choices and experiences of earlier generations are topics that are addressed in all of Wilson’s plays and denying that heritage causes a tremendous sense of loss, consciously or subconsciously, to those characters who are willing to betray their history to advance in life. Each play of the series tells a unique human story against the backdrop of its decade. The themes in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984), Two Trains Running (1992) and Radio Golf (2005) are no exception, but they stand out because the decades they represent are key episodes in African-American history. Ma Raineyis set in the 1920s when the Harlem Renaissance cultivated a new black cultural identity; Two Trains Running is set in the aftermath of the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King and in the heyday of black power, in both plays the Great Migration is revisited; Radio Golf is set in 1997 and the only play that is set among the black bourgeoisie. In that same year Tiger Woods won the Masters Tournament and infuriated many African-Americans by refusing to be identified as solely black. Moreover these plays are known as the ‘workspace plays’, which elevates their themes from a private to a communal setting, making them more representative of the collective African-American experience. According to fellow author Dennis Watlington Wilson believed that “you should start making connections to your parents and to your grandparents and [start] working backwards.”(Bogumil.2011) In analogy with this, Radio Golf, Wilson’s bookend play, will be discussed first. The advantage of retracing your steps is that it is easier to recognise recurring patterns.

Radio Golf is a contemporary play, but stages a direct confrontation of past and the present. The plays title refers to Roosevelt Hicks’ golf program on WBTZ, a local radio station, and also symbolises the rise in economic status the sport spells. The play is set in a campaign office in the Hill District but its main characters are “rooted more in their social, economic, and political circumstances than their cultural heritage.”(Bogumil.2011) The characters in Radio Golf are historically bound to characters, places and events in 1904, the year the chronologically first play of the Century Cycle, Gem of the Ocean (2004), is set. Harmond Wilks is an Ivy League-educated real estate developer who inherited a successful real estate firm built by his father and grandfather. He is about to declare his candidacy to become Pittsburgh’s first black mayor and at the same time - together with his educated and ambitious wife Mame and bank vice-president friend Roosevelt Hicks - wants to redevelop the neglected Wylie Avenue in the Hill District. The project relies on federal funding and a ‘game’ of city politics and backroom deals plays off stage; it is suggested that Harmond and Roosevelt are used as black front men for white money when both men - naively - believe they are equal partners in this capitalist game. Wilson was indignant about the fact that money made by black sports and black music was owned by whites and not spent in black neighbourhoods. (Lyons.1999) All this new world wheeling and dealing is interrupted - or even disrupted - when an older world represented by Old Joe and Sterling, Hill District natives and both characters in other plays of the Cycle, enter the stage fighting against the destruction of an old house at 1839 Wylie. Harmond and Roosevelt need this house torn down for their real estate project, but it appears to have an eloquent past directly related to Harmond’s own. The house was the home of Aunt Ester, the 287-year-old matriarch who frequently visits characters in all ten plays of the Cycle. The house symbolises the beginning and the end of many journeys of Wilson’s characters. The heritage of the other nine plays echoes in the story of Harmond Wilks, who struggles to preserve his identity and integrity in a changing world. He ultimately realises how far he has strayed from his roots and at what cost and has to decide whether he is willing to pay the price. In the end Harmond decides to honour his ‘blood’s memory’[2] by somehow saving Aunt Ester’s house and by doing so jeopardises his business, his candidacy, his marriage and his friendship with Roosevelt, who is not willing to make personal sacrifices to pay homage to his ancestors. On two occasions in the play Roosevelt is accused of being a ‘Negro’ - a name given by black people to a black man who thinks he is white and who is at the same time being called nigger by white people - and of being in ‘black face’. Both names symbolise a black person parading cultural and racial disloyalty. Radio Golfis all about what is right and wrong and explores (in)justice, which is another important theme in Wilson’s plays. With Radio Golf, Wilson shows his audience a changed society and raises the question what it is means to be African-American today. This corresponds with a fundamental position in his work; Wilson is constantly struggling with the question how and if black cultural heritage can be preserved when it is integrated in mainstream white society without acculturation. 

As stated before the advantage of retracing your steps is that recurring topics and themes are more easily recognised. This becomes evident when examining Two Trains Running and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom after Radio Golf. Both plays revolve around similar themes of money, capitalism, shifts of social standing, urban development, equality and the connections among hard work, rightful compensation, fate, luck, dreams and identity. (Bogumil.2011) Two Trains Running is set in main character Memphis’ diner in the Hill District against the symbolic backdrop of trains that, during the Great Migration, took African-Americans up north questing for the American dream. The diner is situated in a neighbourhood that falls victim to progress. Other businesses have disappeared because of an urban renewal campaign and the diner provides the only refuge left for the characters in the play. They all fear for loss of their identity once their community no longer exists. Memphis wants the fair market value for his restaurant and “understands enough of the capitalist system to not be tempted by the short-term money and thereby lose out on the long-time rewards he knows are out there.”(Bogumil.2011) He works the system to his advantage, but loses his wife due to his hard work. At the same time the black - rather successful -undertaker West tries to cheat Memphis as well by offering him a settlement for his restaurant in order to sell his own business and the diner as a package deal to the city council later. The homeless Hambone is cheated out of his proper wages by Lutz and spends the last nine and a half years of his life trying to collect them. What appears to be madness has become his focus for living and he keeps repeating his claim for rightful compensation - ‘I want my ham!’ - during the play. Two Trains Running is Wilson’s first post-Civil Rights play and shows the complexity of social change. It focuses on how little everyday life of many African-American was affected by the high ideals of the Civil Rights Movement and how they continued to live in the same conditions they had lived in for decades. Wilson approaches historical events through his characters instead of chronicling history. When we get to know the characters and their struggles, we begins to view the characters and their decisions within the context of their time and then history starts corresponding with the effect it has (had) on their lives. In Two Trains Running we also meet a young Sterling, who represents an older world in Radio Golf, as a passionate manfull of dreams hoping for a lucky break playing scraps, courting Risa - the diner’s waitress - and owning a Cadillac. He and his mate Wolf “pursue illegal or suspicious means of income representing the capitalism’s underclass. These characters also tend to look for supernatural influences to give them a leg up and provide them with the wealth that will turn their lives around. Wolf and Sterling spend what few dollars they have seeking the advice of Aunt Ester about their fate and throw twenty dollars into the river as an offering to the old sage.” (Bogumill.2011) By presenting characters in different plays at different phases of their lives, Wilson also shows how people personally learn and grow throughout history and that they become representatives of that history when their position within their community changes over the years. In Radio Golf, Sterling is the ‘community elder and oral historian’[3] whilst Hollowoy portrays that role in Two Trains Running.

In Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom power - or the lack of power - plays an important role, but the themes and topics mentioned before are just as significant. The play is the only one in the Cycle that is not set in The Hill District, but in Chicago. The setting of the play is a recording studio in 1927 and this play is a complex record of the history of the blues and how it voices the unique experiences of African-Americans. While the white agent - Irvin - and studio boss - Sturdyvant - wait for blues diva Ma Rainey to show up for her recording date, the black musicians in her band rehearse, bicker, tell stories and dream; each bringing his own perspective on the problems facing black people in American society. The southern blues style of Ma Rainey at this point in time still sells well in the South, but not in northern cities. This decrease in popularity was directly related to the Harlem Renaissance, with its origins in New York, and young artists sought musical innovation. The studio owner is in the music business to make money and wants ‘to jazz up’ the song Ma Rainey’s Black Bottombecause he believes it will sell more records and the young musician Levee who proposes to drop ‘this old jug band shit’ in favour of his swing version of the song supports him. This causes friction with the other band members, who wish to maintain the integrity of the traditional blues and are loyal to Ma Rainey, who herself does not feel the need to change her tune. Levee on the other hand sees this musical transformation as the key to his own economic success, which will provide him - if he succeeds - with the respect and the material wealth he so desires. Levee is ‘street smart’ and can write music; he is young and impulsive and tries to win the white man’s favour to achieve his goals, but he fails to understand “the hierarchically structured environment of the northern studio in which black musicians receive their orders from a white manager and studio owner through a horn.” (Borgumil.2011). The other members of the band -Toledo, Cutler and Slow Drag - are more experienced and have more or less accepted that they are seen as ‘leftovers’ by white people. Toledo - who is educated and well-read - tells Levee that ‘the challenge is now set forth for the black man to acknowledge the past, but at the same time not lose sight that it is his destiny as a black man to forge his presence in history: You already got leftovers and you can’t do nothing with it. You already making you another history.’ Toledo perceives African-American emancipation as a slow process, but Levee is too impatient and self-centred for such a slow process. He wants change now and seeks liberation in his music. Ma Rainey herself is not unlike Memphis from Two Trains Running; she has a full understanding of her situation and plays it to her advantage the best she can. She knows all Irvin and Sturdyvant want is her voice and that they do not care for her personally: ‘if you colored and can make them some money, then you’re all right with them. Otherwise you just a dog in the alley’. The play ends tragically with Levee stabbing Toledo because he feels he is being disrespected by both black and white. Levee cannot tap into Ma’s strength and privileges with the studio boss and he refuses to be a ‘leftover’ thus signing his own fate as well as Toledo’s. If Toledo represents the ‘community elder and oral historian’ in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottomand Levee represents change and upward mobility then one could argue that by destroying the past, Levee destroys the future.

Wilson’s plays are a meditation on time and address the past, the present and the future through a variety of characters. We learn and grow from storytelling and there is power in repetition. Therefore stories must be told again and again. Wilson’s work provides a window into African-American history honouring the African oral tradition of storytelling using the specific African-American vernacular - called ‘blues iambic’ by actor Stephen McKinley Henderson in an interview with The New York Times (2006) - and black music ranging from spirituals to rap, but the blues is the backbone of all his plays. His work portrays the humanity and integrity of the African-American people. African-American history deserves the stage provided by Wilson’s work and should be honoured and remain at the heart of the African-American community instead of causing embarrassment. There is a need for his work because people tend to forget easily - or run away from uncomfortable truths - and Wilson’s plays serve as a reminder to those who believe they can or need to distance themselves from their roots and ‘acculturate’ in order to move up in society. His plays also satisfy the hunger for those who want to (re)connect with their roots. His legacy has created an enormous pool of actors and directors created around African-American theatre who need to explore their ‘blood’s memory’ to find their own song and sing in their own voice. It has also opened doors for young playwrights writing for regional theatre. Although Wilson specifically documented the African-American experience, his plays appeal to all human beings because of the universal feel to his work - apart from the African-American conflict, topics and themes - and the plays reach a global platform because connectivity is the common denominator. The language and the characters in his plays are pure and are written with craft and humanity. “Wilson’s plays are not theatrical travelogues or historiographies, but rather surgical incisions into the soul of humankind. We journey but not to an ordinary terminus but into the land of the ancestors, into the world of our spirit, into the core of our ‘blood's memory’. In Wilson's world, our journey may sometimes be difficult, but it is never long. The ancestors are always around us, the spirits are always with us, and the blood's memory is always in us.”(Dumas.2005). The surge of films addressing the historical position of African-Americans in the US, such as The Help (2011), Django Unchained (2012),The Butler (2013) and Twelve Years A Slave (2013), the cult status of African-American singers - such as Beyoncé - and media icons - such as Oprah Winfrey -, and the on-going popularity of rap music suggest that the time is right for African-Americans to contemplate the road they have travelled. The question remains whether current African-American heroes to the nation have acculturated to be able to participate in US society or that they have managed to stay truthful to their African-American identity and have reached their destination nurturing and honouring their African roots. ? Anne-Marieke Staal, 2014

Bibliography:

Primary Sources:

Wilson, August (1985). Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Blues.New York: Penguin Group

Wilson, August (1992). Two Trains Running. New York: Penguin Group

Wilson, August (2007). Radio Golf. New York: Theatre Communications Group

Secondary Sources:

Bogumil, Mary L (2011). Understanding August Wilson. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press

Dumas, Charles (2005). For African-Americans, Wilson’s plays are ‘blood’s memory’. Retrieved from: www.articles.mcall.comon 15 June 2014

Elkins, Marilyn (2000). August Wilson. A Casebook. London: Psychology Press

Kiffer, Meredith (2009). August Wilson: The Search For Black Identity And Social Standing In 20thCentury America. Retrieved from www.augustwilson.neton 15 May 2014

Lyons, Bonnie. Wilson, August (1999). An Interview With August Wilson. Contemporary Literature. Vol. 40, No 1 (pp 1-21). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press

Piepenburg, Erik. McKinley Henderson, Stephen (2006). A Blues Iambic. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com/interactive/2006/08/25/theater/20060825_GUITARS_AUDIOSS.htmlon 1 July 2014

Pittsburgh Public Theatre (2008). August Wilson’s Radio Golf Education Resource Guide. Pittsburgh: BNY Mellon Charitable Fund

Wilson, August (2001). The Ground on Which I Stand. New York:  Theatre Communications Group

[1]Word used by August Wilson in a 1997 interview with Bonnie Lyons (1999)

[2]Wilson labelled cultural memory ‘blood memory’: recollections of a shared past that emerges unexplained from irrepressible ancestral ties with Africa.

[3]Phrase used by Mark William Rocha in his essay ‘Loud Talking’ on Two Trains Running cited in Bogumil (2011)