August Wilson was the first African American playwright to have a Broadway theater bear his name, a fitting tribute to a dramatist who brought African American culture and lived experience to the stage. In this course, we will read, watch, and examine the first five plays in Wilson’s American Cycle, a ten-playseries representing each decade of the African American culture’s 20th century. We will explore Wilson’s life and the influences behind his work while focusing on Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Seven Guitars, tracing his powerful interpretation, celebration,and perseveration of African American culture
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OUR INSTRUCTOR: Ladrica Menson-Furr, PhD
Ladrica Menson-Furr, PhD, is assistant dean of undergraduate programs and associate professor of African American literature. Menson-Furr is the author of August Wilson’s Fences and August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and has published on Zora Neale Hurston and Pearl Cleage. She has led academic programs in African American studies and served as a Provost’s Fellow and a Tennessee Board of Regents’ Maxine Smith Fellow.