Pittsburgh visual artist Anire Mosley creates in several mediums, including “Birth of North Star,” a large untreated and unframed canvas tfeaturing Frederick Douglass.
Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh pays homage to native son and playwright August Wilson
By Albert C. Jones
America, The Diversity Place
AUGUST WILSON CENTER, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — If you are to go looking for August Wilson, the playwright, you are most certain to find him in Pittsburgh. He was born here and started developing his storytelling voice, what he drew out the African-American experience, in the city’s Hill District.
The childhood home of Wilson and his five siblings, at 1727 Bedford Avenue, was declared a historic landmark by the State of Pennsylvania on May 30, 2007. August Wilson died October 2, 2005.
If you go looking for August Wilson on Broadway, The Great White Way, you will most certainly find him here along with illuminations from “The Pittsburgh Cycle.” Those are his ten-play series for which he was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, a Tony Award, and a long list of distinguished honors befitting an amalgamated voice of the Africa-American experience.
The August Wilson Theater is here in New York, at 245 West 52nd Street, in what was formerly the Virginia Theater. The theater, another testament of this man’s life work, was renamed on October 16, 2005.
There are than a few memories of August Wilson here on Broadway. In the 1980s, James Earl Jones played Troy Maxson in “Fences” and Mary Alice his wife Rose. Those roles were reprised on Broadway in 2010 by Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. Here, on Broadway, Davis also played lead roles in August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars” (1996) and “King Hedley II” (2001). Others, giants in the industry, too numerous to mention, have also brought to life characters created by August Wilson.
While “On the Road,” coming down from the Lummi Nation near Bellingham, Washington, if you go looking for August Wilson in Seattle, you are most certain to find his name, image and biography on the portal at August Wilson Way. It’s a huge honor to place, in essence, the August Wilson doorway as an entry point to this 74-acre entertainment campus and park. Seattle Center, among other attractions that include the Space Needle, has several theaters for the performing arts.
Republican Street, from Warren Avenue to Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, was rededicated August Wilson Way on November 7, 2008. Seattle was August Wilson’s home from 1990 until his death in 2005.
August Wilson can also be found wherever in the world one or all ten plays in The Pittsburgh Cycle are being performed. Timeline of the plays includes each decade of African-American life during the 20th century. Those plays are “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Fences,” “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” “The Piano Lesson,” “Gem of the Ocean,” “Two Trains Running,” “Jitney,” “Seven Guitars,” “King Hedley II” and “Radio Golf.”
Monday is not open to the public, but is otherwise a work day for staff at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, downtown here, in the Cultural District, at 980 Liberty Avenue. Though closed, persistence, however, brought out welcoming grace in Treshea N. Wade, manager of communications and e-marketing. She granted security clearance to enter the center and directed a college student intern to provide a guided tour.
The drive from Morgantown, where the stay had been for seven days, is 75 miles on Interstate-79 North. There, the story is Jerry West, collegiate All-American at West Virginia University, Olympic gold medalist, basketball royalty, NBA icon and the player best defined as “Mr. Clutch.”
Leaving that city seemingly tucked away in the mountains for Pittsburgh, its three rivers, city on a hill that cannot hide and the confluence of August Wilson, the seminal staged voice of the African-American experience, brought great expectations. His voice, populated with a myriad of voices, played out over a century of insightful dramas.
Arrival to the Culture District is morning, just before the lunch hour. The Cultural District is home to the August Wilson Center, Pittsburgh Ballet, Civic Light Opera Association, called the Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Public Theater and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Before coming here, partnership proposals were delivered to the H. J. Heinz Company at 1 PPG Place. Partnership proposals were also delivered to Arthur J. Rooney II, president, and Arthur J. Rooney Jr., vice president, at Pittsburgh Steelers’ headquarters, 3400 South Water Street.
August Wilson Center, two stories and a multiple-use facility, has seven exhibition galleries, a 486-seat theater, an education center, a 4,000-square-foot gallery for art exhibits within its 65,000 square feet. Its spaces are available to rent to businesses or for community events. Center price tag was $39.5 million. Architect Allison G. Williams, design principal for San Francisco-based firm Perkins+Will, designed the August Wilson Center.
While the security officer waits on the phone for a response, to see if someone will come from the office, thoughts of the last place visited still linger. Jerry West is to the hall of fame what August Wilson is to being ranked among Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, among others, as a great American playwright.
“On the Road: People Bridges to People” is a connector for sure, but this project has the capacity to herald stories across the nation of ordinary people doing extraordinary things and accomplished people shrouded in the greatness of their American experience. August Wilson’s voice is to Pittsburgh what James Baldwin’s voice is to Harlem.
Morgantown remembers its basketball legend Jerry West with the Coliseum, a statue and state highway name. He is also the iconic symbol on the NBA logo. Pittsburgh follow suit in the way it honors August Wilson. The August Wilson Center for African American Culture began as “Plans for Progress” — an action plan for Pittsburgh’s African American community. The plan was initiated by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the NAACP in 1996. The plan galvanized support throughout the city for an African American museum. After numerous planning and funding milestones, construction began in 2006.
On May 30, 2009, the August Wilson Center held a community open house, previewing the facility with entertainment. Nearly 10,000 people attended a street fair and had the first chance to see inside the new center. The grand opening was held September 17 and 19, 2009 with a world premiere tribute ceremony, celebrating the name, August Wilson, and his accomplishments. The gala was hosted by actors Delroy Lindo and Anna Maria Horsford.
On this day, “New Works” exhibit is on the second floor. Anire Mosley, local visual artist, displays works conceptualized then created during one year as an August Wilson Center Fellow. The collection includes a portrait of August Wilson on a large untreated and unframed canvas.
If you go looking for August Wilson, you will easily discern that art begets art: “The August Wilson Center Fellows Program is a one-of-a-kind opportunity designed to give local artists access to a broad range of support systems that will allow them to excel in their craft. The six Fellows selected will work on a self-identified project over a one-year period. The Center will provide each Fellow with a generous stipend of up to $10,000 and both administrative and creative support.”
Mosley is also creator of a 12-inch by 12-inch acrylic on board of August Wilson, which is viewable on the Web site of Pittsburgh Artist Registry, where it says: “Anire Mosley has spent nearly a lifetime in the arts, exploring many types of media, including photography, printmaking, drawing, painting, sculpture and graphic design.”
Pittsburgh has a storied history of contributors, legends really, in the arts and sports. In search of The Del-Vikings, the doo-wop group formed in this city in 1955, didn’t materialize for lack of resources. It would have taken at least one week to set the scene to key in on various aspects of the group’s identity, history, especially why Pittsburgh was elemental to its formation. “Come Go with Me” and “Whispering Bells,” both Del-Vikings hits, sent doo-wop to new heights.
August Wilson Theater, formerly the Virginia Theater at 245 West 52nd Street on Broadway, was renamed to honor the American playwright on October 16, 2005.