Belated happy birthday Thulani Davis! Born July 19, is an African American playwright, journalist, librettist, novelist, poet, and screenwriter. She is a graduate of Barnard College and attended graduate school at both the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. Here are some of her notable works:
Heavenly belated birthday wishes Ed Bullins! Born July 2, 1935, Ed Bullins is an African American award winning playwright and author who emerged as one of the leading and most prolific dramatists of Black Theatre in the 1960s. Sharing the tenets of the Black Arts movement, Bullins’s naturalistic plays incorporated elements of Black nationalism, “street” lyricism, and interracial tension. He died in 2021. Here are a few of his works:
Heavenly birthday Lorraine Hansberry! Born May 19, 1930, Lorraine Hansberry was an African American playwright and writer. She was the first Black American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her most notable work was A Raisin in the Sun.
Belated birthday wishes Suzan-Lori Parks! Born May 10, Suzan-Lori Parks is an award winning playwright/musician and novelist. She also is a MacArthur Genius Fellow recipient. Her notable works include Getting Mother’s Body and Topdog/Underdog.
Born April 27, 1945, August Wilson was an award-winning playwright. was well known for his plays Fences, The Piano Lesson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. August Wilson passed away in 2005. Other plays are:
Born March 5, Charles Henry Fuller was the playwright for the award winning play, A Soldier’s Play. Soldier’s Play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1982. That play was adapted to a movie, and Fuller was the screenwriter.
Born February 25, Angelina Weld Grimke was a poet, playwright, and teacher. She is best known for her play, Rachel, which was performed in 1916 in Washington, DC. Some of her poems are included in several anthologies.
Today’s post will feature a Detroit playwright: the late Ron Milner. His plays: What the Wine Sellers Buy, Checkmates, and Jazz Set were performed in several theaters in the U.S. I had the honor and pleasure of meeting him. He was intelligent, creative, politically and socially astute. I enjoyed watching his plays.
Today will focus on anthologies featuring African American Drama.
Book 1: Black Theater USA by James V. Hatch and Ted Shine
Book 2: Black Thunder An Anthology of Contemporary African American Drama edited by William B. Branch
Author and Playwright Pearl Cleage is Day 20 Woman of the Day. A prolific writer of several books and plays including “What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day”, “Flying West” and more. Read more about this multitalented writer below.
Website: http://www.pearlcleage.net/
NPR: http://www.npr.org/2014/05/01/308619983/playwright-pearl-cleage-opens-up
Black Past.org: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/cleage-pearl-1948
Youtube videos: AARP Black Community Bookclub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL-F6BrDFRg, reading from her memoir “Things I Should Have Told My Daugher”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnFkhlQJZHg
The CamaraIfe Maktaba 