To find the legacy of August Wilson
we have to look at what he’s done. As stated in the article “A tough lesson
about the N-word” to know a person’s aims, it may help to know his history
(Bogira). August Wilson is an American playwright who’s best known for his
cycle of 10 plays that demonstrate the 20th century African-American
experience. All but one of Wilson’s plays are set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District,
the neighborhood where Wilson was born. While he misses his home he also
dislikes it, he has said that he has this sort of love-hate relationship with
Pittsburgh. Wilson wrote his first notable play in 1979, for which he earned a
fellowship at the Minneapolis Playwright Center. This is where it all began for
Wilson, in 1987 he earned his first Pultizer Prize for his play “Fences”
(Wilson).[1]
His plays were about how African Americans struggled in the 20th
century. He was so renowned that fourteen days after Wilson’s death, the
Virginia Theatre in New York City’s Broadway Theater District was renamed the
August Wilson Theatre.
His
legacy reveals a larger message about race, power, and language in the sense
that his plays demonstrated how African-Americans were treated in the 20th
century. They had no power and were treated terribly because of their race. Language
played an important part because in his plays he would use the N word to show us
what it was like to be an African-American in the 20th century.
Wilson certainly wrote plays regarding African-American experiences in the 20th century and missed his home in Pittsburgh, but what was the legacy he left behind? You made a solid point in talking about the renaming of the Virginia Theater and other accolades of Wilson, but I can't really grasp the idea of his impact and legacy without a little explanation.
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