« Rove as Neocondom | Main | Howl On! »
August Wilson, In Memoriam
Pulitzer-prize winning playwright August Wilson Died on October 2, 2005.
Usually, I post the notice of someone's passing with their obituary and little personal comment. Somehow, this time, that didn't seem fitting. A dry recitation of August Wilson's life, a life spent contributing so much to the understanding of the experience of life itself, was somehow, not enough. Not nearly enough.
I found this eulogy written by and posted over at the blog of my friend Driftglass. Driftglass loved the work of Mr. Wilson, and it shows in this loving and beautifully written tribute to him.
He begins his memoriam quoting from the Ebony article describing the event at which he got to meet his hero, August Wilson.
“STANDING behind a lectern on a makeshift stage at Chicago's Printer's Row Bookfair--an annual celebration of literature and authors housed in what once was the city's old bookbinding district--playwright August Wilson, one of the featured speakers of the day, morphs into a cast of characters culled from his native Pittsburgh, the city that inspires and influences so much of his work. As the occasionally scatological dialogue spills from Wilson's mouth, the listeners are transported to a Black pool hall, a lunch counter or a barber shop, where wisdom and wisecracks mix in equal measure. In fact, the mini-drama Wilson plays out is so dead-on accurate, so true to the rhyme and ring of Black talk in Anywhere, USA, that it feels as though a tape recorder lodged in Wilson's brain has just been activated, issuing the jumble of voices.
I write, like any artist, for an audience of one," he says, "basically, to satisfy myself. But I'm also trying to make an aesthetic statement. What I am trying to do is put Black culture on stage and demonstrate to the world--not to White folks, not to Black folks, but to the world -- that it exists and that it is capable of sustaining you. I want to show the world that there is no idea or concept in the human experience that cannot be examined through Black life and culture."
And so, with unwavering honesty, Wilson has set about defining the human experience in decidedly, some might say defiantly, Black terms, using the medium of theater to amplify the voices of Black folks. His writing is an exercise in self-exploration and self-definition, with each character in each play standing as a monument to the strength, perseverance, complexity and, most importantly, the humanity of Black Americans.
In the end, to everyone but his or her close circle, a writer is their words, and August Wilson’s words were American opera; poetry slung down from Heaven and sung like honey thunder. With nothing but a pen he carved a living legacy out of the raw rock of American Apartheid that will last as long as humans stage dramas to explain themselves to themselves.
And he died too soon for me because I’m selfish and I want my heroes to live and fight and nobly prevail forever and ever.
They never do, but Wilson managed to finish his monumental American Cycle. He completed the work of his life, and how many people can reach their final act and lay down in the narrow house having done that?
On that day in 2001 he was a regular, funny, brilliant guy who put all of us wannabes at our ease, all while never giving up the undisputed title of a Great and Serious Man of Letters even for an instant. I got to shake his hand and say how much I admired his work, and he got to leave without the memory of me puking on his shoes out of sheer terror, so we both came out ahead.
I don't remember who, but pity whoever it was that had to follow him that day.
I pity whoever it is that has to follow him now.
‘Bye August, and many, many thanks.
Rest in peace, August Wilson.
Nice article.
By the way, any info from DC on the Million More March? They had a couple of stories from it on NPR.
I have heard enough good on NPR recently that I was able to make a donation in good conscience. I particularly liked it that they had Bush's scripted teleconference with soldiers (proof that it was scripted) on their website and that they have Anne Garels in Iraq again. There are days when NPR and BBC are my main news sources.
Our paper had this on the Million More March - impressive to see a diversity of groups, including both pro-gay and anti-gay, Nation of Islam etc etc etc - demonstration of free speech.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Millions_More.html
Noticed in international news - Condi Rice was unable to twist the arms of the Russians on the issue of nuclear policy for Iran. The have a pivotal vote at the UN. Paul Wolfowitz was arguing that unrestrained free trade (including cutting subsidies to farmers) is the path to uplifting the life status of the world's poor.
Why do I not trust either of these neocons?
If you're bored, knock this one around:
http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm
It has happened again BUT THIS TIME the people with the car bomb in the middle of a busy Iraqi nieghborhood ARE NOT BRIT
They are AMERICAN
UNITED STATES CAUGHT IN IRAQ CAR-BOMBING
Friday, October 14, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.com
It's happened again - allied troops being caught with bombs. This time it is the Americans captured in the act of setting off a car bomb in Baghdad. Last time, as FMNN reported only weeks ago, two British soldiers, apparently working for British intelligence, were caught near Baghdad similarly equipped.
According to the Mirror-World, "A number of Iraqis apprehended two Americans disguised in Arab dress as they tried to blow up a booby-trapped car in the middle of a residential area in western Baghdad on Tuesday. … Residents of western Baghdad's al-Ghazaliyah district [said] the people had apprehended the Americans as they left their Caprice car near a residential neighborhood in al-Ghazaliyah on Tuesday afternoon. Local people found they looked suspicious so they detained the men before they could get away. That was when they discovered that they were Americans and called the … police." Just as in the British incident, the Iraq police arrived at approximately the same time as allied military forces - and the two men were removed from Iraq custody and wisked away before any questioning could take place.
The incidents are said to be fueling both puzzlement and animosity among Iraqis. Yet the motivation behind such activities remains formally unknown since in both cases the soldiers involved have been removed with an efficiency that has quashed any attempts at an interrogation.
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=1326
Cable news coverage:
http://bert.secret-wg.org/Trips/IETF55/CNN-entrance.jpg
Geee...
Hmmm
American and Brit military getting caught with civillian cars FULL of explosives, dressed as ARABS...Parking such cars in busy nieghborhoods on the eve of a politically sensitive event....
"Yet the motivation behind such activities remains formally unknown..."
F**KING DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Man this is just becoming completely intolerable.
Christy
Especially interesting considering the website it's posted on comes from some really conservative free trade libertarian types, some of whom write for places like Washington Times and New York Post.
We have some strange bedfellows nowdays because bad domestic and foreign policy has something to offend almost anyone, except hardcore neocons.
Posted by: not my president at October 15, 2005 01:09 PM
Its not about right and left anymore.
It is about right and wrong.
My God , ARE WE REALLY setting off car bombs on the streets of Iraq and blaming it on a ghost named Zarcawi???
I hate to say it but g**dammit that is EXACTLY what appears to be happening..
There is nothing good here. Nothing good there at all. Something...wicked..this way comes.
Our children and grandchildren will PAY for this, even if we COULD stop it today, we can't stop the VENGENGE that is coming.
Ok heres the kicker Not My Prez..
If writers on that site KNEW friday AMERICANS had been caught dressed as arabs with a car bomb in Iraq.. if those are writers from the NY Times and the WaPo, they just made it OBVIOUS they are CONCEALING WAR CRIMES
Its not in thier papers today.
This happened on the eve of the election..
OMFG I JUST REALIZED
THIS is why Bagdhad was BLACKED OUT
ok maybe
what a tangled web
Christy
What about this one .. from MN Vets for Peace
I have thought since the lst Gulf War that our news outlets largely serve propaganda purposes.
One of the hand-picked soldiers for scripted press conference is a public-affairs soldier --
Guess the real soldiers are fighting the war and were too busy.
http://villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/001948.php
Bush Told Blair of "Going Beyond Iraq"
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1592808,00.html
French news are showing CNN reporters flanked by Abrams tanks, while Condi Rice reports a nice quiet peaceful voting day in Iraq
There is some seriously creepy shit going on.
It is no wonder journalists are getting popped in record numbers. It makes sense if such plots exist, as they so obviously do, reporters would be the ones stumbling upon it again and again.
Everything is exactly assbackwards of what it should be.
Christy
You probably know but http://www.robert-fisk.com is good.