August Wilson was one of the first African
Americans to create a "10 play cycle" covering every decade of the
20th century. He has received two Pulitzer prizes from "Fences"
and also "The Piano" Lesson. His plays all
center about the African-American struggle in 20th-century America. This
created an opportunity for African Americans actors to obtain a
position in one of his many plays. His physical legacy is
having the Broadway’s Virginia Theatre getting renamed as August Wilson
Theatre, it was the first theater to be named after an African American. His
legacy of plays showed everyone how much African Americans had to endure during
the 1920's. He has left us with a lot more than just a theater, he has made
many people think about what life was like for African Americans in that time
period and what they have had to do to get where they are now.
His legacy revealed a larger message showing us
that now African Americans have opportunities that they didn't have in the
1920's-1950's time period. He showed us that through his play "Fences",
fences is about "Troy Maxson, who in his youth played in the Negro Leagues
but then became a garbage man." (Shteir, Rachel) That play showed us how
Troy wanted to play professional baseball but had to battle tons racism. I like
what Benjamin Bailey said about race that “Race is not about what one is, but
rather what one counts as in a particular time and place.” That is exactly what
Wilson has shown us all, in that time era of his plays African Americans were
considered to be the lesser race and now you look around and every race is
equal. Everyone has an equal opportunity to get what they want. You can see now
we have an African American president and they never would have thought we
would have that back then.
I like how you take his legacy into two different way physical and non-physical. I agree that African Americans didn't have as much opportunities as they do now. I also agree with your point that Benjamin Bailey wrote as well that Race is about what we are in a particular time. Lastly i agree about the point that now the race scales have tipped but i disagree about the point that all races now are equal.
ReplyDeleteI like how you said in your second paragraph African- American don't have many opportunities I think that is very true and very insightful how you put his play fences into your paragraph to give a sense of context and to back up your argument on his voice.
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