Is going to be some stuff i will talk about with a little more depth than we talked about last class. Lets start with August Wilson. August wilson was born Frederick August kittle on april 27, 1945. His mothers name was daisy wilson. She was a cleaning lady. His fathers name was Frederick August kittle. He was a german baker. I want you guys to pay attention. Race matters in a very specific way. Race is always one of the things we are discussing as we look at these plays. So, his father, Frederick August kittle, was a german baker, he is white european. His mother is a black woman named daisy. She is a cleaning lady. We are talking about a mixed relationship. His mixed identity is a part of what he is working on when he is writing. Like how he is negotiating africanamerican existence is a part of who and what he is as he is working as an artist and as a writer. It is part of the mission he is undertaking. He is the fourth of the six children. And they live in the hill district of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. A lot of what wilson is going to talk about deals with the great migration. I have mentioned that in this class before. The great migration is what happened after reconstruction in the south. When the social status of black people moved from slavery to freed to the reconstruction era to sharecropping. Sharecropping was this new name for i dont think it is quite accurate for me to say slavery, but that is essentially what it becomes. We have talked in this room about what sharecropping is, right . Good, thank you. It is just a system where the black people used to be the slaves on the plantation are now in a position where they are renting what used to be the slave cabins. They are renting the clothes. They are renting the tools to go work for the same farms on which they were enslaved. And they enter this system in which they are never actually able to pay for the rental fees for the things they are using. Thats one of the motivating factors that caused a number of blacks to move northward at the turn of the century and pursue a better life in the north. I want you guys to think for just a couple minutes about what that does or what that means for black families in the south. Was it whole families moving north, or was it more often than not the man who would go north or the eldest son who would go from the Southern States to the northern states, and their purpose was to make money that they could send home . Thats always the goal. You will find a number of people in pittsburgh, new york, chicago who have come north looking to make a fortune so they can either make enough money so that their families can come to the north and live with them in the north, or so they can send money home so their people could have a way of living. So, understand that one of the things wilson is talking about, one of the things that informs what wilson is talking about, is the great migration. In pittsburgh, because these rural areas are now dealing with an influx of black people, there are racial tensions that get built at the turnofthecentury and afterwards. The racial tensions include white neighborhoods in which black presences hadnt been before. In which now you have a growing poor black population who need things to live. They need jobs, they need food, they need shelter, because it is cold. It is colder in pittsburgh than it was in South Carolina or georgia. The black people who have now migrated north, they are like, how do we live . How do we feed ourselves . How do we clothe ourselves . These become the primary concerns. Understand that all of those things are what are informing fences, when we finally get to it. At the age of 15 he dropped out of high school and joined the army in 1962 for three years. I want to take just a second to talk about what that means. Why today do we have black people i cannot give you the real percentages. I would be making stuff up and lying to you. But i believe there is a higher percentage of black people in our current military than other races. What are some of the motivating factors for joining the military . What does it give you . He is unmarried at this point. Goahead. Dont a lot of Army Recruiters go to poor black neighborhoods with people of color to go recruit like and black and brown kids . And push the education opportunity like getting aid and using that . They wouldnt do it with rich white kids. Prof. Proctor the point was she believes recruiting agencies go to poor black neighborhoods and recruit black people in greater numbers than they do in rich white neighborhoods. That is a fact of today. May have been a fact in the 1960s. But its a job. It is a good job. It provides money. It provides an income. It provides a steady income. Right . You are risking your life, yes, but that is part of this. Think about the institutions that take black men away from their families. Outside of prison and what will become the insane incarceration rate based around things that happened in the 1980s, but we have to go back and look at the systems that moved black men away from their families. The army was one of them. Or the Armed Services were one of them. But it was not in a cruel way. I think they were offered this opportunity. They said, hey, here is an opportunity for you to get three meals a day, a place to sleep, training, education. You can send a check home to your family. That is one of the opportunities for employment and advancement. That happened when wilson was at this point, he would have been about 18 years old. But hes in the army for three years. After he leaves the army in the late 1960s, he comes back to the pittsburgh area and joins a group of artists, and they form poets. Ter avenue later, he will cofound the black horizon theater, a black nationalist Theater Company in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. He stays in pittsburgh until i think 1974 or 1975. Then he begins to move westward. He spends a couple years in chicago, then he moves in 1978 to minnesota. And he joins hes going to concentrate on playwriting in minnesota. He joins the penumbra theater and the artistic director is lou bellamy. The penumbra theater is a blackowned, black oriented, and black centered Theater Company in minnesota. Why is the name of the town in minnesota flying out of my head . I used to work my brain is trying to say fargo, minnesota. But it is not fargo. Minneapolis, that would be the name of the giant town that i cannot think of. The penumbra theater in minneapolis, minnesota. And he is working with lou bellamy. Understand that August Wilson gets to a point in his life where what he is writing about is the lives of black people. And i want you guys to think for a couple of minutes about why that is happening. Why is it significant and in what way is it significant that he is writing about the lives of black people . We have talked in this class before about the shift between white artists writing black voices. What does it mean when a white playwright writes a black character into a play . What does their voice sound like . Is it authentic . What is the characters purpose . Black characters were appearing in white movies. That becomes a thing. I will jump just a bit to talk about the Popular Culture that is influencing the way August Wilson is thinking about plays and writing and the presentation of black people. But i am only going to jump for just a couple seconds. I want to talk for a second about the Popular Culture of the 1980s. So in the 1980s, what are the things informing im talking about the 1980s because August Wilson will ultimately talk about we will talk about fences. But what about the things that informed the way wilson was thinking about the world . In the beginning of 1986, what are the popular images that are influencing what wilson is seeing . The movies include e. T, return of the jedi, raiders of the lost ark, Beverly Hills cop, pretty in pink, some kind of wonderful. I know that most of these movies came out before you all were born. Are you at all familiar with these series of movies . Have you heard of them before . If you think about things like the breakfast club, pretty in pink, i think his name is john hughes. John hughes is making a whole genre. We talked about what ideology means. Ideologies are the unspoken and sometimes less clear structures that influence the way people think about america. The way women should behave, the way men should behave. What it means to be straight, what it means to be gay, what it means to be a lot of things. No one says it outright. But it is unspoken, underlying structures that inform the way we think about race and identity and class and gender. Does that make sense . Good. If you have movies like pretty in pink and some kind of wonderful, there is the movie with john cusack holding up the boombox. I cant remember what it is. Is it high fidelity . I cant remember what it is. But you have all of these as the biggest movies coming out in the 1980s. And the primary concern in these movies is technically the beginnings of romcom. I am am not a cinema professor, i cannot tell you the truth about that. But white women, white men falling in love, those are what a lot of those stories are about. Overcoming rejection, obstacles, overcoming blah, blah, blah. Most of our movies in the 1980s are dealing with white folks falling in love. Think for a couple seconds about how we, people of color, appear in those films. Give it a little bit of consideration. We are more often than not marginal or tangential. We are someone else in that story. When we finally make it to August Wilson the things that are motivating August Wilson are his desire to move black people from the margins to the center. And say, what is true about us . What matters to us . What is happening in our lives . Because when we are just on the margins, what we have to say is maybe not part of the main story. It becomes this caricature where we are saying the funny lines. Like i said, prior to this, weve got George Jefferson who began as a marginal character. It is not called the archie bunker show, but it was archie bunker. Then we have good times. Black people showing up in comedy. Black peoples lives in Popular Culture for a long time was something you laughed at. Not laughed with, but laughed at. We were the joke, we were the comedy. Think about eddie murphy. I dont know if any of you looked at or read his early comedy, but think about what that is rooted on. It is different. Black comedians, black people creating black comedy for black people is a different experience than black people appearing in largely white structures as something to be laughed at. I want you guys to consider how that works. On television, you have roseanne, married with children, vcrs become a thing. Mtv at one point in time, Music Television began with music. Video killed the radio star in 1986 or somewhere around there, i was a high school student. You are all looking at me with vacant expressions like, for real . The very first song that ever played on mtv was video killed the radio star. I cant tell you who did that song but i know that was the song. Michael jacksons thriller. Think about Michael Jackson in the 1980s. This is how black people are represented in art. It becomes a thought that people are doing on purpose. People are really considering black artists, black playwrights, black songwriters, black performers im not saying that they are embracing black identity, but they are becoming critical and critically analyzing black identity in a way that is a response to the blacksploitation films of the 1970s. In response to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. We have to look at things in relationship to each other. Weve got the 1960s and what happened during the Civil Rights Movement. We can go back further and look at the 1950s. We again look at emmett tills mother who realize the value of performance by keeping his casket open. That was an act of performance. She was like, this wont happen behind closed doors anymore. Think about private voice versus public voice. What does it mean when we are forced to keep something in private, as opposed to when we make it public . Think about the developments in technology that have happened between the 1950s and 1980s. Think about the advancements we make in telephone, in recording technologies. Think about the advancements we have made in film and television itself. For example, and the way that should make sense to you guys now, there are videos. Every time something happens out there, if somebody meets you in the Grocery Store parking lot and they start acting funny, whats the first thing that happens . What is the first thing that happens if you are in a public space and you think things will go bad . That is not a rhetorical question. You can leave, yes. Somebody pulls out a phone and starts recording. We have all of these instances right now of things that used to happen without any evidence. But now, there is evidence. There is evidence not only from local street cameras, but every individual. Everybody in this room has their own phone so they have a way of documenting their existence and that these crazy things happen to us. Because that is what africanamerican existence becomes for a while. We say to the public, you are treating us in this way. And often times what comes back is people will go, it cannot be that bad. You are exaggerating. Well now, we get to the point where the phone comes out and we are not exaggerating, this is what is happening. What happens subsequently is this weird justification. I have to understand the context. That was taken out of context. Maybe it wasnt taken out of context. So when we get back to August Wilson in the 1980s, the things that are informing his artistic vision and his life as a writer include all of those popculture references that i talked to you. He is seeing a large what is informing his television and movie habits, he is like, that is white peoples world. Who is writing about us . When they write about us, what are they saying . Thats whats driving him as a playwright. Good. So, lets talk about really briefly, i will go through the contextualization of the 1980s. A lot of this is stuff that i was alive for. Relationship to this. I realized as i was putting it up here, you guys will look at a lot of the stuff im about to say as stuff that only ever existed in a history book. But i was in high school from essentially here on. Everything i am talking about are things i have a memory of having happened while i was in high school. I was a little younger than where you guys are now. In 1980, Mount Saint Helens explodes. I cannot begin to tell you what the images of the ash pouring all over those people look like. It was on my television for days. Images of people covered in ash. We all saw it. It is what informed us. On october 10, 1980, president jimmy carter signed legislation establishing the boston africanamerican National Historic site. It is the Oldest Black Church in america. That happened in the 1980s. It was on the news. January 20, 1981, the inauguration of ronald reagan. The 40th president of the united states. This matters. Im not an economics professor. But reaganomics is something you can look up and look at how it affected the world. One of the things that is the most important part that we will talk about later deals with a tax cut in which we went from a 70 tax rate that gets dropped to 37 or 35 . From the wealthiest people in the country. Over the course of five years, we lose as a country 750 million . Million. Not over five years, we as a country lose 750 billion in tax revenue, based on this bill that was signed by ronald reagan. March 30, 1981, someone tried to kill ronald reagan. Everybody knew about it. I am only talking about the things that showed up on the news for days. April 12, 1981, the first launch from the Space Shuttle in cape canaveral. January 29, reagans tax cuts cost america 750 billion over the next five years. September 12, 1981, Sandra Day Oconnor becomes the first female justice of the supreme court. These are big stories we couldnt not see. I am absolutely positive on some level these stories impacted or were in the awareness of August Wilson. I dont say that it even necessarily impacted fences, but these are some of the things he is thinking about. When you guys are thinking about what the themes are in fences, and as we move from the deeply personal to the public, i want you to think about the way the public is becoming aware. Because of the publics growing awareness of the world, nation, the national identity. March 2, 1982, the Senate Passes a bill eliminating the practice of busing to achieve racial integration. Busing stops in 1982. Was racism fixed in 1982 . No, i dont think it was. Busing was born i think busing was initially built as a way to integrate blacks and whites. It had to do with equality. Do you all remember what do you know of that from history . We talked about this a couple classes ago. The one black young woman who had to go to school in mississippi and the 5000 National Guard people who went to mississippi just so she could go to school. That wouldve been so, 1954, 1955. 1954, 1955. All of these things are related to each other. Black people being allowed to go to largely white institutions. Being allowed to. And we in this room have to think specifically about what this means for us. We here at tulane, looking at the racial demographics of tulane, we have to consider what that means to us. We are a part of this history. September 20, 1984, the cosby show premieres. We have talked about that in this room. It is one of the first times we have the representation of a black male doctor married to a black female lawyer. And they have five kids who are all successful and professional. They are living life in a way that is not abject poverty, not just a joke, that is not in constant pain. The things that concern the cosby family, we have to consider what their primary concerns are. We can think about vanessa, who is looking for a boyfriend. Very smart. It became layered. What black people are was something new because of the cosby show. Ldorf raised 70 million for relief in ethiopia. He does this with a giant televised concert. 1986, for the first time Martin Luther kings holiday is officially recognized for the first time. January 28, 1986, the challenger Space Shuttle explodes, killing seven astronauts. It is one of those things i am 50 years old now. And i can remember where i was when this happened. I was in high school. This was my senior year of high school. How old were you guys . Do you have a memory of 2011 . Of what happened to the world on september 11, 2001 . Do you guys remember that . Do you have images of the towers falling in your head . Just a generational thing. There are several things that have happened in our country and in the world that we as people have images fed to us on television. One of those for me was the explosion of the challenger Space Shuttle. We watched it launch and moments later, we watched it explode. We watched seven astronauts disintegrate. We watched it as a nation. In 2001, september 11, we watched airplanes hit the twin towers in new york. Then we watched in real time the towers fall on fire. And we watched it happen. I find it interesting that you guys were too young to have a memory of where you were. And then may 25, 1986, i included this one, hands across america. The 1980s were a special, special time. But you guys should have a reference of hands across america as of last week. What is your reference for hands across america . It is jordan peeles us. Good. Think about the things that have global impact. That is one of them. So, this is the world that is informing August Wilson as he is writing the play fences. One more thing to talk about, then we will discuss fences as a class. I want to talk about the pittsburgh cycle. The pittsburgh cycle is a series of 10 plays that August Wilson undertook to move black identity, black concerns, black lives, from the margins to the center. He did it on purpose. His goal it wasnt that he was necessarily he may or may not have held animosity for White America. But White America is not the central concern of his plays. White people are not the central concern of his plays. Black lives, black identity, black existence gets moved to the center of his plays and playwriting. The pittsburgh cycle begins in well, it is different. He premiered with jitney. The first play he wrote was called jitney. It premiered in 1982. The second play he wrote was ma raineys black bottom. It was set in 1927 but premiered in 1984. It is an amazing play. It deals with five black musicians and one black female singer. Do you guys know who Big Mama Thornton is . Have you ever heard of Big Mama Thornton . You should look up Big Mama Thornton. If you are hanging out listening, you might want to listen to Big Mama Thornton. You can go back and listen to ma rainey. You can go back and go, oh there are a different type of singer. You will get nina simone, but thats kind of crossing over and ma two mainstream, rainey, we have a contemporary reference even here. You need to go at some point in time and listen to miss doreen. She plays clarinet. You will begin to have an understanding of who ma rainey was. She is amazing. After her, we have joe turners come and gone. This premiered in 1984 and was set in 1911. Which set innces, 1957 but premiered in 1987. We will talk about fences, in just a second. He also wrote the piano lesson,. Im of the ocean, radial golf and i think clybourne park. Lets talk about fences. August wilson is influenced and in conversation with more artists than just playwrights. All of these things inform him. He stops concerning himself with white representation. He specifically begins to seek out black representation. One of the artists that he cifically looked to was let me show you. Was romare bearden. Let me show you. I didnt break it and i am proud of that. [laughter] i have a question, does it have to deal with sexuality . Prof. Proctor yes, it does have to deal with sexuality. For a while, one of the other characters in the play is an opportunist. A young woman who is an opportunist. Who has built a relationship with ma. The play intimates that it is of a sexual nature. Yes, dealing with that is part of it. [video clip] when i first began to do collages, i had no idea i would develop such simple processes with my work. These are natural things that i saw. [indiscernible] these are the elements. Thats right. Tray because so these are the elements of my environment. Prof. Proctor bring the africanamerican experience or bring the universal to the africanamerican experience. What is significant about bringing the universal to the africanamerican experience . What is significant to you about an attempt to bring the universal to the africanamerican experience . It makes it something everyone can understand. Makes it easy for you to relate to it. Does not matter if you are black, white, whatever. You can relate to it more. Prof. Proctor the idea of empathy, how does it impact what you are saying . People feel more empathy, they will help out with more of the issues going on in the community. Prof. Proctor making the black experience understandable. We all have children. I think about trayvon martin. Every time i think about august ilson, August Wilsons artistic purpose i find myself , thinking about trayvon martin. I want to know why the newspaper, the media depicted him as such a monster deserving of such treatment. All i saw was a 17yearold boy who had been followed home. Empathy, that is what ideology has to do with. If we can construct the black experience as something that is hostile, aggressive, something that is violent, the treatment of black people becomes justified by our criminal justice systems. If we can perform the narratives of blackness in such a way that it becomes universal, maybe there can be empathy. Maybe then we can get the rest of america to go this demonizing of blackness that is happening, lets step away from that. That is a mother and a son. When we look at rose and troy in fences. We are hearing the story of a man and woman. They dont really concern themselves with the white world around them. They are concerned with their lives. That process of exposing or showing the deeply personal by showing the specific and personal. It is an attempt to make that story universal. Husband and wife. It is not about this black husband. That is my question for you guys. Is the story specifically about this black man and black woman . Or, is it about men and women . Do you understand my question . [indiscernible] there are symbols of africanamerican men and women. And how we interact with each other. It probably showed more of a proper life. How africanamerican husband and wife interact with each other. Prof. Proctor would you say fences humanizes the black experience . , directbrutal way, a bruta way i say it do. From the dialogue of the main character, his dialogue towards his children and wife. Prof. Proctor let me ask you guys this yes maam . I think it is about a shared experience of oppression. Something black men and women both go through as well as what is intertwined with the relationship between black men and women inside the home. The way they have their own forms of oppression. Some of the things she was going through with her husband. The way he was treating her. It was very misogynistic. Go get this for me, woman. There was a lot of that. Prof. Proctor i am not contesting you. Thank you for a great comment. This is my question. We can describe the relationship between troy and rose as oppressive, right . We can describe it as misogynistic. Take a couple seconds and give me an example from the play of what you think or what you would describe as oppressive or misogynistic. Im not saying you are wrong, im asking everybody to support that position. What were some specific examples from the play that you might describe as misogynistic or abusive . He just expected rose to wait on him and get him whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. Prof. Proctor rose doing as she was told, yes. Absolutely. You are 100 correct. I think that is a reflection of the state of women in the domestic sphere. This play was set in 1957. We have to think about things like i love lucy, leave it to beaver, good times, and the idea of the american dream. What was a womans role in a household in 1957 . What was a womans role even me saying that isnt necessarily true. When i say there were broader things, when a huge number of men left the country to go fight in world war ii and came back, women went and worked. When all the men left the country to fight in the war, women went to work. This image that we have of the white woman with the rag on her head, that was a symbol. Rosie the riveter. Women went to factories and then they came home. What being female meant and the domestic sphere meant is being questioned. Women had a different lived experience because of world war ii. The other thing that happened is the mccarthy era when you could be in trouble for being called a communist was the worst thing ever. You could appear before the house of unamerican activities committee. That was a thing that was able demand used to scare a lot of into proper behavior. Women had their place. There was an idea in American Culture that women had their place. There are things that we would look at and call utterly crazy. Magazines specifically for white having your mans drink ready when he came home from work, being dressed nice, wearing a pair of heels and stockings and having a full face of makeup on. These things were in magazines. Ive seen them. They all exist. We can go back and look at them. This was rhetoric that was being talked specifically to white women. And black women were trying to figure out how we fit into the american society. Black womens hair is part of that story. Black womens jobs are a part of that story. Caring for white peoples kids. How black american identity fits into the fabric of american society. It is all a part of the story. I feel remnants of that in my grandmother and the way she carries herself. She put rollers in her hair long single night for as as ive never seen her mess and night. I dont know how she does it. I bet that is so uncomfortable. Guests ifannot have the house is messy. You have to uphold this image that you are well kept. Prof. Proctor it is the public versus private. If your house is messy people can come in. I dont member my grandmother going to bed without rollers in her hair. I remember as a boy thinking how do you sleep on that. Its not from de blasio. That idea of presentation what would you say ruths primary concern is in the play . Anybody i have not heard from. Maintaining the family. The most important thing to ruth in this play is maintaining the family. I think also maintaining the image that they are a happy family, kind of. Prof. Proctor are they a happy family . In my opinion, no. I would say it got to the point where they are. They had problems and even when the baby came about, she tried to still have a family presence. She neglected her duties as having a wife. I wouldnt say that is a complete family. Prof. Proctor you said neglected her duties as a wife. Which duties are you talking about . Being there i guess for her husband in whatever capacity she was before. Doing things that she would normally do. Youre not on your own but it is not the same. Prof. Proctor im not sleeping with you anymore. Thats no longer a thing. She still would be a mother to the child and care for the children. I guess it is still maintaining the family. Prof. Proctor did she respond . Did she say you have shown me such disrespect that i will no longer share my person, body with you . That is the only thing i have. Could she have left him . Really . Im just curious. Where would she go . I dont think she had that much money. Prof. Proctor that is a reality. I dont know if she thought of it as being stuck. In that day people didnt really get divorced. Prof. Proctor maybe that wasnt an option. A part in maintaining this perfect family image. Prof. Proctor identity. My identity, the thing that tells me who i am is your wife. It is the mother. This is troys second relationship from which he has kids. She is already wife number two. What were her options . What were her options as a black woman in 1957. She had few, if any. Prof. Proctor i dont want to say it was making the most of a bad situation. I think it is family. Financial situations, like you said she really didnt have much money. Why leave someone that is more financially stable then you will be on your own. I feel like that factors in as well. Prof. Proctor what does family mean . Think about your own families. Do you have cousins, sisters, brothers . How many family members have maybe crossed the line . I have them. [laughter] nobody in your family has pushed the boundaries of what family means . Nobody. Prof. Proctor i believe you. I have relatives who are in jail. Quick show of hands, how many of you know a man or woman in your family who has cheated . Does cheating mean the relationship is over . [laughter] you figure that is grown folks. You figure out how to get to what happens next when you are there. Rose was figuring that out. Fences, lets talk about fences. What exactly is a fence . This is not trying to trick you. It is something that keeps the someone in or out. It is a barrier or boundary. What is troys activity . What is it that troy is trying to do this whole play . Build or finish a fence. Good. At the beginning of the play there is a baseball bat leaning against a tree trunk. Troy has an image in his head of what he was supposed to be. He says i was born at the wrong time. What does that mean . Saying basically black people werent allowed to play baseball professionally and stuff like that. He grew up in an era where he had to forget sports, let me go work to take care of my family. Some of it has to do with what he perceives as a mans responsibility. I cant for member the line exactly his dream as i couldve , been a great baseball player if i didnt have to do this. He has this perception that the fortunes of a black man have shifted from when he was younger to where he is now. The set is described as a dilapidated front porch. Back porch, im sorry. Why . Why do you think most of this play takes place on the porch . Usually wear a lot of black people grow up. Prof. Proctor yes, thats not me being funny, i get it. It has to do with community. When i moved to new orleans i did not realize that porch sitting was an actual thing, but it is an actual thing. You sit on the porch and say hey to all your neighbors walking by. If you dont say hey, you uppity. You must be from up north. [laughter] people sit outside, there is a sense of community. The porch is unfinished. Troy has a way of not following through. Troy has a way of not finishing what he started. Troy has a way of not completing the relationship he invested in. He goes off and finds another woman and has another baby. Troy has a way of not being present in his own life. Do you guys have a response to that . When you think of the idea of masculinity, what do you think it represented in the character of troy or his eldest son in the play . Why can troy and this family afford this house . He had a job. Prof. Proctor he has a job, but his brother gets a disability check. He always has shame. Troy is ashamed that the only way he can get this house is because of his brothers disability check. There is an investment in his brother not moving out. There is an investment in his brother still being there and being disabled. That has to be his reality. He loses his house if his brother moves out or if his brother dies. There is that dependency on that. What else does this play say about troy . What does it say about troys version of masculinity . His relationship toward his son his youngest son. , he wants to play sports. Troy possum dream did not work out with sports. Troy wont let his younger son play sports. I dont really understand the relationship. He knows it is a different time. He still wont let him play sports. Prof. Proctor why do you guys think troy wont let cory play sports . So he wont be disappointed. Troy thinks the reason he wasnt able to play sports is because he is black. Really it is because he got old. They didnt want to draft an old guy into the league. He doesnt want his son to face the same racism he thought he experienced. He is keeping him from opportunity. Not even allowing him to have the opportunity to be scouted. Prof. Proctor your hand was up . Could it be jealousy . I thought it was. I was thinking that, too. Is getting so many chances the void that is being filled through the lack of discretion in what he is failing to do is beyond him. He cant find a way to come to terms with himself. He chooses to fight with his son. He gives him strikes and at the end when his son mentions the only way you are able to have this house because of your brother he gets angry and they start fighting. It is a resentment i feel. He takes it out on others. They are able to do what he wished he could have done. It is like he is aware and conscious but he is taking it out. I feel like he was trying to protect him because he didnt want him to fall in the same footsteps as him and get to that point in his life to have to struggle like that. Prof. Proctor in your opinion one of the things that is happening is troy is protecting him . From what . Troy is protecting cory from what . Failure, i guess. Prof. Proctor absolutely possible. Like a father, you have to love your children. Troy coming up had to get a job and struggled. Prof. Proctor you said something really interesting. Im not saying either of you are wrong, thank you for adding that. When i said what is troy protecting cory from, you said america. Prof. Proctor the realities of what it means to be black and male in america. That is also a possibility. What they were saying about masculinity, i think black men tended to use what they go through as a black male in america as an excuse for how they act inside the home. Prof. Proctor ok. If you are going to write a thesis statement for this class, you might, that is a good place to start. That is what i mean about the complexity of character. The nature of who and what troy is his wildly complex. Everything you have just said fuels what makes up that character. That is what i mean by having a layered character. A character with depth. A character who is a fully rounded person. Do you see how that might be different than the comedic character that showed up in the jeffersons . That is what August Wilson is doing. He is actually allowing black existence to be a complex thing. He is doing an artistic rendering of black existence that is complex, layered, not simple or easy. How do you think White America took this play . How did they view it . Oscars andnated for viola davis won. I dont know how White America took this play. Is it like for them or is it one of the realities of American Theater that we had to deal with business deal with at the, if we look economic realities of black and white people in most urban areas, even here in new orleans, in portland more than 60 of the orleans a new orleans, 60 of the population is africanamerican, but 80 , 85 is owned of the wealth by the white community. Thats a reality. Great. I have a Theater Company. I want my Theater Company to be financially successful. That means i will charge i will be conservative. The largest portion of the population cannot afford 30. I saw raisin in the sun. So, there are groups of black people in new orleans that are like, if we are going to support we are going to pick this one. I see all that and there was a black audience, but one of the realities is, if i have 250 seats in my audience, i have got to market that to the people who have money. This play, in fact all of August Wilsons plays, are aware of the realities of that. It is putting black lives and black existence on screen. Can you give me an example that is happening right now of a black artist who is centering black identity and black lived experience . There was an artist who got killed over the weekend named nipsey hussle. Prof. Proctor i was thinking of a movie maker. Now i am leaving you. Jordan peele . Prof. Proctor jordan peele said something this week, because if you Say Something on twitter they are mad about it. Prof. Proctor oh yeah. [laughter] i am going to paraphrase what he said. Anybody who missed it he , essentially said i am not interested in casting white guys in my movie, because i have seen that movie already. Right . Centering the black experience, centering africanamerican identity, is a part of this project. For so long in america, artistic representation, blackness has been marginal or tangential. Now we are going, what happens, and i dont even know if there is necessarily animosity toward the white world. Animosity toward the dominant culture is not necessarily part of this play. It is there. It is the reality. But the playwright is saying, you dont concern me. I spent 24 hours a day seven days a week thinking about being in white culture. This play is about black people being around black people. Right . Cool. Talk to me about bono. His best friend. How does that relationship work . Let me back up. Troy has several relationships in this play. He has a relationship with ruth, with cory, and you can use the play to talk about or defined those relationships. What is the nature of his relationship with his son . Is he jealous . Maybe. Is he protecting him . Maybe. At some point, he says, i dont have to like you. Liking you its not one of the jobs i signed up for. It is the job of a father to raise his son. To raise his son so he can go into a world that is perhaps hostile and is going to try to kill him. Im going to give you the skills you need to be strong, to survive. That is his role. As a father. But liking him or even loving him, is that the job of the father . In a country in which so many black men had to leave their families, maybe they were leaving we have talked about in this room. About the separation of black men from families. We have talked about what that has to do with the history of slavery, in the context of the great migration. This play is also dealing with that. Troy is considered a good guy because he stated, kind of. He stayed, kinda. But he didnt, right . Because he is going to sleep with this other woman. What does fatherhood, what does masculinity all of leos people who have to write thesis statements for your final papers should be thinking about these kind of things. What does fatherhood mean . What does manhood mean . [inaudible] bono and troy . I think bono has not resentment, but he sees in troy what his father was to him. I guess they have that conversation, they were telling each other about their experiences and in bonos experience, he was going from woman to woman, he couldnt stay put. I think that is what he sees in troy. He has some concern. Prof. Proctor tell me about bonos relationship with his wife. He is super devoted to his wife. Prof. Proctor the playwright gives us a representation of a man who is devoted to his woman. Troy exists bono is a foil, opposite. His existence in this play actually shows us more of the tarnish on troy. I dont think the movie really implies it, but i think 10 kind of puts himself i think bono kind of puts himself in troys shoes. I am just trying to make connections. I think he kind of sees how troy is how he was with his father and his son, he doesnt want he doesnt have resentment that he vocalizes, but they were just in conversation. He was sharing his experience, so i guess he sees that between troy and his son and how troy and rose are to each other. Prof. Proctor bono is a corrective. Remember his friend who would keep calling him up, going what are you doing . We should leave. That is bono. He is literally that friend calling you up going, you are about to mess up. You done messed up. That moment of somebody, the interjection, or the interlocutory think is the big college word for it. I think the representation of what a man is supposed to be changes with whatever he is directed to. His relationship with bono, he is going to boast about women or all these women that he had, and like they are drinking all the time. That is his idea of being a man when he is with bono. Prof. Proctor or freedom. What do you mean by that . Prof. Proctor does he get to be free with bono . He gets to tell his story. He actually gets to be kind of a star. He gets to be entertaining and fun. So his relationship is carefree, kind of. It is a double whammy. Why . He can in a sense be carefree, but not too carefree, because bono is not passing judgment on him and he is not going to let him slip. Prof. Proctor bono is totally passing judgment. He is, but in context of his head. He is conscious of it. He is a man at the end of the day. He is going to let a man be a man, but he is very conscious of it. I could tell by that conversation they had. Prof. Proctor but bono moves away from him at the end of the play. Thats what im saying. It is the double whammy. He removes himself. He would just rather not engage. Prof. Proctor im going to let sync on this ship all on your own. Got it. I saw a hand back there. We have got about four minutes left. I just want to close this discussion and i want you to think about things. One, the place we are studying from Langston Hughes to pearl clean, all of these plays are in conversation with each other. I want you to think about for colored girls who have committed suicide when the rainbow is enough in relation to this play. For colored girls, she is voicing and taking the place or allowing a black womans voice to be heard. These are the private thoughts of a black woman. This is the private world we have always been told not to show to the public. In the same way, August Wilson is, with plays like fences and the entire pittsburgh cycle, moving the private lives of black identity into the center of the artistic mission. I want you to think about what that means in terms of, in context with each other. Absolutely those two, as well as passover, which we watched in class. In what way is the film of the plate passover also still in conversation with this play . In passover, they cant get off that corner. They are stuck. They cant go anywhere. Much like troy, who is stuck and cant go anywhere. Much like the women in for colored girls are stuck and cant go anywhere. What does that say about black existence . What are black artists saying about the nature of black existence . That is why want to leave with you. Please, you will get a pop quiz on this play and on tbone and weasel on thursday. We will talk about tbone and weasel thursday. Thank you. Have a great day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] to lectures in history on the go by streaming our podcast anywhere, anytime. Youre watching American History tv. All weekend, every weekend on cspan 3. American history tv products are available on the cspan store. Check out all of the cspan products. This weekend on American History to the, three women reflect on their contributions and the challenges of working on nasas Apollo Program. My supervisor would tell me its time to go on at 6 00, but i recognized in order to be thought of as equal to these guys i was going to have to work the same way these guys were, whether i got paid or not. In that. Ed i think because of that i became accepted as a member of the team and that was really key. I was not thought of as different. Although once i was in the control center that was a whole different experience. Sitting there listening to the chatter we would here at three, 4, 5 channels and i kept hearing a particular channel being mentioned, someone saying, hey, have you seen whats on general whatever . I would hear this off and on. I finally thought, i wonder what is on that channel, and i tuned it in and it was me. There was a camera there were cameras all over the place, but theyre supposed to be on the room as a whole. This camera was just on me. I had no idea how long. I did not say anything about it. We did not even know the term Sexual Harassment or hostile workforce. Theres two different ways to think about that. One is its a little voyeuristic on the part of the dudes watching you and it is harassing and uncomfortable, but the other way to think of it is, so let them look and let them all know. Let everybody who is not in this know, there is a woman here. I am here. Get used to it. [applause] nasaarn more about the Apollo Program from some of the women who worked behind the scenes sunday at 7 p. M. Eastern. Youre watching American History tv on cspan3. Margaret crayton talks about her book, the electrifying fall of rainbow city. Spectacle and assassination at the 1901 worlds fair, in which she recounts the assassination of president William Mckinley at the 1901 worlds fair in buffalo. This was recorded in buffalo, new york in 2016. Leslie hi. Welcome to buffalo, new york for our regular book event. My name is leslie zemsky, and it is my pleasure to welcome our special guest, margaret