Editing August Wilson (section)

==Career==
=== 1960s ===
Wilson knew that he wanted to be a writer, but this created tension with his mother, who wanted him to become a lawyer. She forced him to leave the family home and he enlisted in the United States Army for a three-year stint in 1962, but he was discharged after a year<ref>{{Cite web |title=August Wilson {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-literature-biographies/august-wilson |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> and went back to working various odd jobs as a porter, short-order cook, gardener, and dishwasher.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Frederick August Kittel Jr. changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother after his father's death in 1965. That same year, he discovered the blues as sung by [[Bessie Smith]], and he bought a stolen typewriter for $10, which he often pawned when money was tight.<ref Name="Parisreview"/> At 20, he decided he was a poet and submitted work to such magazines as ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harper's]]''.<ref Name="NYT"/> He began to write in bars, the local cigar store, and cafes—longhand on table napkins and on yellow notepads, absorbing the voices and characters around him. He liked to write on cafe napkins because, he said, it freed him up and made him less self-conscious as a writer. He would then gather the notes and type them up at home.<ref Name="NYT"/> Gifted with a talent for catching dialect and accents, Wilson had an "astonishing memory", which he put to full use during his career. He slowly learned not to censor the language he heard when incorporating it into his work.<ref Name="Parisreview"/>

[[File:PittsburghPaAWH2.jpg|thumb|right|[[August Wilson House|Wilson's childhood home]] at 1727 Bedford Avenue in Pittsburgh]]
[[Malcolm X]]'s voice influenced Wilson's life and work (such as ''The Ground on Which I Stand,'' 1996). Both the [[Nation of Islam]] (NOI) and the [[Black Power]] movement spoke to him regarding self-sufficiency, self-defense, and [[self-determination]], and he appreciated the origin myths that [[Elijah Muhammad]] supported. In 1969 Wilson married Brenda Burton, a Muslim, and became associated with the NOI, though he reportedly did not convert.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=December 30, 2020 |title=From Allah to Broadway. August Wilson's roots in the Nation of Islam |url=https://nycreligion.info/allah-broadway-august-wilsons-roots-nation-islam/ |access-date=October 3, 2022 |website=A Journey through NYC religions |language=en-US}}</ref> He and Brenda had one daughter, Sakina Ansari-Wilson. The couple divorced in 1972.<ref name= "Little 2000" />

In 1968, along with his friend [[Rob Penny]], Wilson co-founded the [[Black Horizon Theater]] in the [[Hill District (Pittsburgh)|Hill District of Pittsburgh]].<ref Name="NYT"/> Wilson's first play, ''Recycling'', was performed for audiences in small theaters, schools and public housing community centers for 50 cents a ticket. Among these early efforts was ''[[Jitney (play)|Jitney]]'', which he revised more than two decades later as part of his 10-play cycle on 20th-century Pittsburgh.<ref name= "Little 2000" /> He had no directing experience.<ref Name="NYT"/> He recalled: "Someone had looked around and said, 'Who's going to be the director?' I said, 'I will.' I said that because I knew my way around the library. So I went to look for a book on how to direct a play. I found one called ''The Fundamentals of Play Directing'' <ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4X4UAAAAQBAJ|first1=Alexander|last1= Dean |first2=Lawrence |last2=Carra |date=2009 |title=Fundamentals of Play Directing|edition=5th |publisher=Waveland Press |location=Long Grove, IL |isbn=978-1-57766-648-6 }}</ref> and checked it out."<ref Name="Parisreview"/>

=== 1970s ===
In 1976, Vernell Lillie, who had founded the [[Kuntu Repertory Theatre]] at the [[University of Pittsburgh]] two years earlier, directed Wilson's ''The Homecoming''. That same year Wilson saw [[Athol Fugard]]'s ''[[Sizwe Banzi is Dead]]'', staged at the [[Pittsburgh Public Theater]], the first time he attended professionally produced drama. Wilson, Penny, and poet Maisha Baton then founded the Kuntu Writers Workshop to bring African-American writers together and to assist them in publication and production. Both organizations remain active.

In 1978, Wilson moved to [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]], at the suggestion of his friend, director [[Claude Purdy]], who helped him secure a job writing educational scripts for the [[Science Museum of Minnesota]].<ref Name="NYT"/> In 1980 he received a fellowship for [[The Playwrights' Center]] in Minneapolis. He quit the museum in 1981, but continued writing plays. For three years, he was a part-time cook for the [[Little Brothers of the Poor]]. Wilson had a long association with the [[Penumbra Theatre Company]] of St. Paul, which was initially funded by a federal [[CETA Employment of Artists (1974-1981)|Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) grant]] and which premiered some of his plays. He wrote ''Fullerton Street'', which has been unproduced and unpublished, in 1980. It follows the [[Joe Louis]]/[[Billy Conn]] fight in 1941 and the loss of values attendant on the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] to the urban North.<ref name= "Little 2000" />

=== 1980s ===
Throughout the 1980s, Wilson wrote the majority of his work including ''[[Jitney (play)|Jitney]]'' (1982), ''[[Ma Rainey's Black Bottom]]'' (1984), ''[[Fences (play)|Fences]]'' (1985), ''[[Joe Turner's Come and Gone]]'' (1986), and ''[[The Piano Lesson]]'' (1987).

In 1987, St. Paul's mayor [[George Latimer (Minnesota politician)|George Latimer]] named May 27 "August Wilson Day". He was honored because he is the only person from Minnesota to win a [[Pulitzer Prize for Drama]].<ref name= "Little 2000" />

=== 1990s ===
In 1990, Wilson left St. Paul after getting divorced and moved to [[Seattle]]. There he developed a relationship with [[Seattle Repertory Theatre]], which produced his entire 10-play cycle and his one-man show ''How I Learned What I Learned.''<ref name= "Little 2000" />

Though he was a writer dedicated to writing for theater, a Hollywood studio proposed filming Wilson's play ''Fences''. He insisted that a Black director be hired for the film, saying: "I declined a White director not on the basis of race but on the basis of culture. White directors are not qualified for the job. The job requires someone who shares the specifics of the culture of Black Americans." The film remained unmade until 2016, when [[Denzel Washington]] directed the film ''[[Fences (film)|Fences]]'', starring Washington and [[Viola Davis]]. It earned Wilson a posthumous Oscar nomination.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Viagas|first1=Robert|title=Denzel Washington's Fences Film Begins Shooting Today|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/denzel-washington-39-s-fences-film-begins-shooting-today-com-382902|date=April 22, 2016|work=Playbill|access-date=April 25, 2016}}</ref>

Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary Doctor of Humanities from the University of Pittsburgh, of which he was a trustee from 1992 until 1995.<ref>{{cite news | author=Bruce Steele | title=Remembering August Wilson 1945–2005 | url=http://www.umc.pitt.edu/media/pcc051010/august_wilson_2005OCT10.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902071459/http://www.umc.pitt.edu/media/pcc051010/august_wilson_2005OCT10.html | work=The Pitt Chronicle | publisher=The University of Pittsburgh | date=October 10, 2005 | archive-date=September 2, 2006| access-date=October 1, 2008}}</ref>

Wilson maintained a strong voice in the progress and development of the (then) contemporary Black theater, undoubtedly taking influences from the examples of his youth, such as those displayed during the [[Black Arts Movement]]. One of the most notable examples of Wilson's strong opinions and critiques of what was Black theater's state in the 1990s, was the "On Cultural Power: The August Wilson/Robert Brustein Discussion" where Wilson argued for a completely Black theater with all positions filled by Blacks. Conversely, he argued that Black actors should not play roles not specifically Black (e.g., no Black Hamlet). Brustein heatedly took an opposing view.

=== 2000s ===
In 2005, Wilson's final installment in his ten-part series ''The Century Cycle'', titled ''Radio Golf'', opened. It was first performed in 2005 by the [[Yale Repertory Theatre]] in [[New Haven, Connecticut]] and had its [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] premiere in 2007 at the [[James Earl Jones Theatre|Cort Theatre]]. It would become known as Wilson's final work.<ref>{{Cite news | last =Brantley | first =Ben | title =In the Rush to Progress, the Past Is Never Too Far Behind | newspaper = The New York Times | date = May 9, 2007 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/theater/reviews/09radio.html | access-date =  March 15, 2017}}</ref>