August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand Film Screening and Discussion

September 28, 2017

Kansas City (MO)… On Thursday, October 19 at 6:30 p.m., the National Archives in partnership with the Greater Kansas City Black History Study Group and the American Jazz Museum, will host a film screening and discussion of August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand. Post-film discussion will be led by Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley, associate professor at the University of Kansas. A free light reception will precede the program at 6:00 p.m.  

The first documentary about the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning playwright August Wilson is a co-production of the PBS American Masters series and WQED. Unprecedented access to Wilson’s theatrical archives, rarely seen interviews and new dramatic readings bring to life his seminal 10-play cycle chronicling each decade of the 20th-century African-American experience, including the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Piano Lesson. Film and theater luminaries including Viola Davis, Charles Dutton, Laurence Fishburne, James Earl Jones, Suzan-Lori Parks and Phylicia Rashad share their stories of the career- and life-changing experience of bringing Wilson’s rich theatrical voice to the stage. Wilson’s sister Freda Ellis, his widow and costume designer Constanza Romero, as well as friends, colleagues and scholars trace Wilson’s influences, creative evolution, triumphs, struggles and quest for cultural determinism before his untimely death from liver cancer. This program is part of a film series presented in collaboration with the American Jazz Museum and the Greater KC Black History Study Group.

Reservations are requested for this free film by calling 816-268-8010 or emailing kansascity.educate@nara.gov. Requests for ADA accommodations must be submitted five business days prior to events.

The National Archives at Kansas City is home to historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by Federal agencies in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. For more information, call 816-268-8000 or visit www.archives.gov/kansas-city/.   

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