“If I said the name August Wilson, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?”
“Storyteller.”
“Prophet.”
“Truth-teller.”
“An amazing visionary.”
Friday night (February 20th) PBS aired August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand, a documentary commemorating the 70th anniversary of master storyteller August Wilson’s birth, the 10th anniversary of his death, and Black History Month. A beautifully poignant and funny and educational piece, The Ground on Which I Stand is the first documentary about the Tony and Pulitzer-winning playwright and “distiller of the Black experience.”
The documentary featured exclusive interviews with artists who had the privilege of working intimately with August, archival footage of productions of his play, updated vignettes from his plays, and interviews with the man himself. We are treated to stories and recollections from the likes of Viola Davis, Suzan-Lori Parks, Phylicia Rashad, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Charles S. Dutton, James Earl Jones, Laurence Fishburne, various theatre critics, and August’s widow and costume designer Constanza Romero.
The night it aired, my timeline on Twitter was ALIVE with people loving and appreciating this American Masters episode.
His birth name was Frederick August Kittel Jr. but he was known to the world as August Wilson #AugustWilsonPBS pic.twitter.com/yPjD4TcKfC
— BroadwayBlack (@BroadwayBlack) February 21, 2015
This man’s spiritual energy & rituals he put into his writings is unquestionably God gifted. #AugustWilsonPBS documentary is incredible!
— Dawn M Williams (@Aurora_333) February 21, 2015
When you see an August Wilson play, you will not leave the theatre as the same person you were when you came in. #AugustWilsonPBS
— Dr. Goddess (@drgoddess) February 21, 2015
“We do not need colorblind casting. We need some theaters.” – August Wilson YES. YES. YES. #AugustWilsonPBS — britni danielle (@BritniDWrites) February 21, 2015
Thank you, thank you, thank you August — for being our historian, our distiller, and our champion. A MASTER, indeed. #AugustWilsonPBS.
— Damone Williams (@DamoneWilliams_) February 21, 2015
Watching this documentary did a few things for me:
- It solidified for me that our stories and lives as Black people are worthy, in all their forms. Like Ruben Santiago Hudson said in the doc, “He (August Wilson) wrote the frustrations AND the glory of being Black.” He humanized us. He humanized us in the face of an industry that sought (and seeks) to dehumanize us.
- It encouraged me to continue to meet pen to paper, and give life to the voices of the characters inside of me. If we don’t tell OUR stories, they’ll be told for us. And we all know how that tends to go. So — I’m encouraged to unapologetically tell stories about my people, and for my people.
- It filled me with so much pride to see the community that August, Lloyd and their entire team built. To see actors who a lot of us look up to now, in their heyday…some as young then as I am now…leaving it all on the stage in an August Wilson masterpiece, was inspiring. It has me now looking for those kinds of communities to be part of in 2015.
- It seared in me the passion to carry the baton into the next leg of the race. While his work remains, August is gone. His spirit still permeates the firmament, but we won’t be getting another August Wilson masterpiece. Yes — that’s heartbreaking, in a sense, but it’s also an encouraging reason to galvanize the next generation of young distillers of the Black experience. The next generation of August Wilson’s, and Lorraine Hansberry’s, and Amiri Baraka’s. The next generation of Ruby Dee’s, and Ossie Davis’, and Maya Angelou’s. The next generation of Lloyd Richards’. We have to pick up that baton, and march forward — our eyes fixed squarely upon the prize. We have to do the work of honoring those who came before. We have to, if we intend to be a people who sustain. Telling our stories, all of our stories, is directly linked with our survival.
Do yourself a solid, and watch this powerful, poignant, and necessary documentary on one of our warriors. Do yourself a solid, then get up, get out, and be part of the change we so desperately need.
Thank you for living your best life, Mr. Wilson. #AugustWilsonPBS pic.twitter.com/D7n7TRnydf — BroadwayBlack (@BroadwayBlack) February 21, 2015
