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Popular voices and scholars determined to define August Wilson's legacy exclusively in terms of his play writing mislead those unfamiliar with his work by depoliticizing his legacy as playwright and activist in African American and American theatre. This article examines the event that inspired this analysis of the Wilson-Lloyd Richards's formula and his conflict with Robert Brustein in order to promote Wilson's quest to live art and life "seamlessly" as a necessary model for preserving his legacy.
After August Wilson passed away on 2 Oct 2005 several events were planned to celebrate his life and his legacy, including a conference at the University of Maryland in March 2007. A variety of scholarly and popular articles were also published, like Caroline Jackson Smith's tribute to Wilson in Black Masks in which she described him as a brilliant storyteller with a fierce commitment to African American empowerment (Smith 9). In his famous 1996 speech "The Ground on Which I Stand" Wilson explained that "it is difficult to disassociate my concerns with theatre from the concerns of my life as a Black man, and it is difficult to disassociate one part of my life from another. I have strived to live it all seamless . . . art and life together, inseparable" (Wilson 494). Wilson's own wish to see his art, life, and politics as inextricably entwined should provide a model for scholars investigating his legacy, and should serve as a caution for those who would attempt to parse his art from his activism and ultimately fragment his seamless legacy.
As those familiar with Wilson's legacy know, Wilson's politics were very visible during his lifetime but not always concise. He identified himself as a "race man" with a distinct Afrocentric worldview, and "a cultural nationalist . . . trying to raise consciousness through theater" (Metzger et al 605). Yet he also identified himself as an artist, insisting that he did not write primarily to effect social change (Lyons 2). His career offers numerous examples of his willingness to engage in charged political debate in order to illuminate America's tense racial history and the economic disparities in American society and theatre. These presentations include but are not limited to: "Blacks, Blues and Cultural Imperialism" (1988; documented in...