Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures 20240704

Today. Were going to look at August Wilsons fences. Were going to begin a very brief discussion about who and what august was his goal as a playwright. Im going to some stuff that you have heard before from our inclass presentation from, sam hall, but theres going to be some stuff that im going to talk about in a little bit more depth than we talked about last class on thursday, guys are going to look at tbone and weasel. I really hope you all read that and prepare to do that. Im going to give you your very quick pop quiz, the pop quiz for fences. Be easy as we will be done discussing, but were going to take it so you guys can get a grade for it. And you will also have the quiz for tbone and weasel. Lets start with August Wilson. August wilson was born Frederick August cattell or kittel in april 22. On april 27th of 1945, his mothers was daisy wilson. She a cleaning lady. Cleaning lady . His fathers name was Frederick August kittel. He was a german baker. I want you guys to pay attention. Racing in a very specific way. Races always. One of the things that were discussing as, we look at these plays. So his father, frederick kittel, was a german baker. So hes white or hes european. And then his mother, a black woman named daisy. Right. And shes a cleaning lady. I want to understand, were were already talking about a mixed relationship when so his mixed identity is a part of what hes working on when hes writing like how he is negotiating African American existence is, a part of who and what he is as working as an artist and writer. Its part of the mission that hes undertaking. He is the fourth of six children, so and they live in the hill district of pencil. Pittsburgh, pennsylvania. A lot of what wilson is going to talk about deals with the great migration. Ive 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. So was this new kind of or name for. I dont think its quite accurate for me to say slavery. Essentially, thats what it becomes. Weve talked in this room about what sharecropping is right. Good. Thank you. And its its just a system where the black people who used to be the slaves on the on the plantation are now in a position where they are they are renting what used to be the slave cabins. They are renting the they are renting the tools to go work or the same arms on they were enslaved and enter the system in which theyre never able to actually pay for pay for the rental fees, for the things that now using to till the land. So thats why the great thats one of the motivating factors that caused number of blacks to move north northward at the turn of the and pursue a better life in the. I want you guys to think for just a couple of 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 not the man who would go north or the eldest son who would go from the southern to the northern states and their was to make money that they could send home. Thats always the goal. Youll find number of people in pittsburgh, in new york and in chicago who have come north looking make a fortune so that they can either make enough money so that their families can come up to the north and live with them in the north or so they send money home so that the people that they that that are their people down there could have a way of living. So understand that one of the things that wilson is talking about, one of the things that informs what wilson is talking about is the great migration migration in pittsburgh. These rural areas are now dealing with an influx of black people. There are racial tensions that start to get at at the turn of the and afterwards the racial tensions in were white neighborhoods in which black presence is hadnt been before, in which now you have a a growing poor black population who need things to live. They need jobs, they need food, they shelter because its cold. Its colder in pittsburgh than was in South Carolina or in georgia. And the black people who have now migrated north are they get to a point where theyre like, how do we live . Where do we where do we how do we feed ourselves . How do we clothe ourselves . These become the primary concerns, understand that all those things are water informing fences. When we finally get to it. So, so at the age of 15, in 60, he drops out of high school and he joins the army. In 1962 for three years. And want to take just a second to talk about what that means. Why why today do we have black black people, i cant give you the percentages. I would be making stuff up and lying to you, but i believe theres a higher percentage of black people in our current military than, other races. What are some of the motivating, motivating factors for the military . What does it give you hes unmarried at this point ahead . Yeah, we dont a lot of like recruits go to like poor black neighborhoods, poor neighborhoods, people of color to go recruit in black around kids. So and like kind of like push the education like getting paid and using that as like a force to kind of bring more because like they wouldnt get it to like rich white kids. So its right. So i just want you to understand that somehow point was or what a question to do with was. She believes that recruiting agencies go to poor black neighborhoods and recruit black people in greater numbers than they do in rich white neighborhoods. Thats that is a fact of today may have been a fact in the 1960s but its a its a job its a good job it provides money it provides an income. It provides a steady income. Right. And youre risking your life. Yes, but thats part of this. Thats of this. I think about the institutions that take black men away from their families outside of prison and what will become the incarceration the insane incarcerate incarceration based around things that happened in the eighties but we to go back and look at the systems that moved black men away from families. The army was one of them or the Armed Services were one of them, but it wasnt it wasnt in a cruel way i think they were offered this. They said, hey, heres an opportunity for you to get three meals a day place to sleep, training, educate, fashion. And we and you know, you can send a check home to your family. So that is one of the opportune cities for employment and advancement that happened during when wilson was at point. He would have been about 18 years old. But hes in the for three years after he leaves the armys in the late 1960s he comes back to the pittsburgh area and he a group of artists and they the center avenue poets which will later become later he will cofound the black horizon theater, which is a black National Theater company. Pittsburgh, pennsylvania, in 19 some so and he stays in pittsburgh until, i think 74 and 1975. And then begins to move westward. He spends a couple of years in chicago and then he moves in 1978 to minnesota and he joins and hes going to concentrate on playwriting in minnesota and he joins penumbra theater and the artistic director for the penumbra theater is lou bellamy. The penumbra theater is, a black owned black, oriented and black centered Theater Company in minnesota minnesota. Why is that of the name of a town in minnesota flying out of my head right now . I used to work brains trying to say fargo, minnesota but its not fargo, minneapolis, that would be the name of a giant town in minnesota that i cant think of right now. So penumbra theater is in minneapolis minnesota and hes working with lou bellamy. Understand that August Wilson gets a point in his life where what hes writing about is the lives of black people. And i want to i want guys to think for just a couple of minutes about why happening. Why is it significant and in what way is it significant that is writing about the lives of black people. Weve talked in this class before about the shift between white writing, black voices. What does it mean when a write a white playwright writes a character, writes a black character into a play . What is is what does their voice sound like . Is it authentic . What is it what is the characters purpose . Black characters who are appearing in white movies become a thing. Im to jump just a little bit to talk about the popular thats influencing the way August Wilson is thinking about plays and writing and the presentation of black people. But im only going to jump for just a couple of seconds. I want to talk for second about the popular of the 1980s. So in the 1980s, what are the things that are informing and im talking about the 1980s because August Wilson will ultimately talk about were going to talk about fences. But lets talk about the things that were informing the way wilson was thinking about the world. So in the mid to in beginning to the like like 1980 19 1986, 1987. What the popular images that are influencing what wilson is seeing youve got the movies e. T. Return of the jedi raiders of the lost ark, Beverly Hills cop Breakfast Club pretty in pink and 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 Breakfast Club, if you think about things like pretty in pink, i think his name is john hughes, if im not mistaken, john hughes is making a whole genre. And its we talked about what ideology means in room before ideology are those unspoken and less clear structures that influence the way people about america the way women should behave, the way should behave, what it means to be straight, what it means to be gay, what it to be. A whole lot of things. No one says it outright, but its always its unspoken. Underlying structures that inform the way we think about and identity and class and gender. That makes sense. Good. So if youve got movies like pretty in pink and some kind of wonderful and i think theres a movie with john cusack holding up a boombox that i cant high fidelity i dont think its high fidelity i cant remember what it is but you have all of these as the big east movies that are coming out in the eighties and the primary concern of this these movies for for a lot of i think this is technically the beginnings of rom com im not a cinema im not a simple professor i cant tell you truth of that. But white women, white men falling love those are what a lot of those stories are about. Overcoming rejection, overcoming obstacles, overcoming blah, blah. So most of our movies, the eighties, are dealing white folks falling in love. I think for just a couple seconds, about how we people of color African American people appear in those give it just a little bit of consideration. We are more often not marginal or tend general. We are someone in that story. Right. So when we make it to August Wilson, we have an instance of so the things that are motivating are his desire to move people from the margins to the center and say, whats true about us, what matters to us . Whats happening in our lives . Because when were just on the margins what we have to say is maybe not its not part of the main story. And so it becomes this caricature here where were saying the funny lines. Like i said, weve got prior to this. Weve got George Jefferson who appear, who began as a marginal character in the its not called the archie bunker show, but it was archie bunker. And then weve got good times, black people showing up in comedy black peoples lives, in Popular Culture for a very long time was something that you laughed at, not laughed with, but laughed at. Right. We were the joke we were the comedy. I think about eddie murphy whos trying his i dont know if any of you have ever looked at or read his early comedy, but think about what thats rooted on. And its different black people black comedians, black people creating black comedy for black people is a different experience than black people appearing in largely white structures. And being something to be laughed at. So i want you guys to consider how that works on television weve got roseanne married with vcrs become a thing in the 1980s mtv believe it or not at one point in time Music Television began with music like thats video killed the radio star think it was 1986 or somewhere around there i was a High School Student and we all know you are looking at me with expressions like for real, the very first song that ever played on mtv. And i dont know it because of a trivial pursuit card was video killed. The radio star . I cant tell you who did that song, but i know that that was the song. And Michael Jacksons thriller think about Michael Jackson in the 1980s. This is how black people are represented in art becomes becomes a thought people are taking are doing on purpose people are people are really considering what happened. Black artists, black black song black black performers are im not saying that they are embracing black identity, but theyre becoming critical and critically analyzing black identity in a way is a response to the blaxploitation films the 1970s in response to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. We always have to look things in relationship to each other. We forget the 1960s and what happened during Civil Rights Movement. We go back further and at the 1950s and we again look at emmett tills mother who realized value of performance by keeping emmett tills casket open. That was an act performance. She was like, you wont this wont happen behind closed doors any more. Think about private versus public voice. What does it mean when we are forced to something in private as opposed to what happens when we make it public . Think about the developments in technology that have happened between the 1950s and the 1980s, think about the advancements we make in telephone. Think about the advancements we get in recording, recording technologies. Think about the advancements weve made in film and television itself, for example, in the way that should sense to you guys. Now, there are videos every time something out there if somebody meets you in in the grocery parking lot and they start acting funny you first thing whats the first thing that happens what is the first thing that happens if you in a public space and something and you think things are going to go bad thats not a rhetorical question you can leave. Yes the first one somebody pulls out a phone and recording. We have all of these instances right now of things used to happen and without any evidence. But now theres evidence right. Theres evidence not only from local cameras, but every individual everybody in this room has their own phone. So they have a way of document eating their existence and that these crazy things happen to us. Right. Because thats thats what it African American existence becomes for a while. We to the public. You were treating us in this way. And oftentimes what comes back is people go, what . It cant be that you are exaggerating well now. Now we get to the point where our phone comes out. Were like, were not exaggerating this is whats happening. And so then what happens subsequently is this weird justification . Oh, i have understand the context for that, right . That was taken out of context, but maybe it wasnt taken out of context. So when we get back to August Wilson in the 1980s, the things that are informed, his artistic vision and, his life as a writer include all of those pop culture reference that i talk to you. And so hes seeing a large whats whats informing his television and his movie habits. Hes like, thats thats white peoples world whos writing about us. And when they write about us, what are they saying . Thats driving him as as a playwright . Good. So lets talk about really briefly, im going to go through the contextualization of the 1980s. A lot of this is stuff that i was alive for. And we have different relationship to this. Like i realized as i was putting this up here this morning that you guys are going to look at a lot of the stuff that im about to say as stuff that only ever existed in a history book but i in high school from essentially here on right so everything that im talking about are things that i have a memory of having happened while i was in high school so i was a little bit younger than where you guys are right . So in 1980, mount st helens explodes. I cant begin to tell you what the images of ash pouring all over all over those people looked like and it was on my television for days. Images of people covered in ash we all saw. Its what informed us on october 10th, 1988, president jimmy carter signed legislation establishing the boston African American National Historic site. Its the oldest black church, america, and thats what happened in 1980s. It was on the, ah, january 20th, 1981. Its inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who is the 40th president of the united states. This matters you know, im not an economics, but reaganomics is something that you can look up and look how it affected the world. One of the things that is the most important part about that that well talk about later deals with the tax cut in which we went from, i think 70 tax rate on. Theres a way to say that i dont know what it is, but theres a 70 tax rate, tax rate gets dropped to like 37 or 35 from the wealthiest in the country over the course of five years. We lose as a country, 750,000,000 billion sorry, not million billion over five years. We as a country lose 750 billion in tax revenue based on something. But based on this bill that was signed by Ronald Reagan march 30th, 1981, someone tried to kill Ronald Reagan, everybody about it. Im only talking about the things that showed on the news four days, april 12th, 1981 is the launch of, the first launch from the Space Shuttle in cape canaveral, january 29th. Reagans tax cuts cost seven cost to america, 750 billion over the next five years. September 12th, 1981. Sandra. Sandra day oconnor becomes the first female justice of the supreme court. These are big that we couldnt not see. So im absolutely positive on. Some level these stories impacted or were in the were in the awareness of August Wilson i dont even say that necessarily impacted fences but these are the things that hes thinking about as you guys think about what the themes are 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 way the way that the publics awareness of the world of the nation of the national identity. March 2nd, 1982, the Senate Passes a bill eliminating the practice of bussing to it to achieve racial integration so bussing stops. In 1982 was racism fixed in 1982 now i dont think it was bussing was born a way to to i think was initially initially built a way to integrate blacks and whites it was it had to do with equality you all remember what do you know of that from history why we bussed those do we talk about this couple glasses low a couple of classes ago the one black young woman who had to go to school in mississippi and. The 5000 National Guard people who went mississippi just so she could go to school. So that would have been so 1954 and 1955, 1954, 1955. All of these things related to each other, black being allowed to go to largely white institutions being allowed to. And we in this room have to think very specifically about what that means for us. We here at tulane looking, at the racial demographics of tulane, have to consider, have to always consider what that means to us. We are a of this history september 20th 1984. The cosby show premieres and weve talked about that in this room. The cosby show was one of the first times we have represented action of a black doctor, male doctor, married to a black female lawyer. And they have five kids who are all successful and professional and living life in a way that is that is not abject poverty. That is not just a joke. That is not in pain. The things that the the cosby we have to consider what their primary concerns are. We can think about vanessa, who was looking a boyfriend, very smart. It became layered it became what black people are was something new because of the cosby show, 1985, bob raises 70 billion for relief in. Ethiopia. He does this with a giant concert. Giant televised concert, 1986 for the very first time, january 20th, 1986, Martin Luther king is officially the Martin Luther king holiday, is officially recognized for the first time january 28th 1986. The challenger Space Shuttle explodes, killing astronauts. I its one of those things im 50 years old now and i can remember where i was when this happened i was high school. I was this was my senior year of high school. How old were you guys . Do you have a do you have a memory of 2011 of what happened to world on september the september 11th, 2001 . Do you guys remember that . Do you have of the towers falling in your head . Okay. Just a generational thing. There are several things that have happened in our country and in the world that we as a as people, we got images fed to us on television. One of those for me was the explosion of challenger Space Shuttle. We watched it launch and just moments later, we watched it explode and we watched seven astronauts disintegrate. We watched as a nation in 2000, 2000, one september 11th. We watched airplanes hit the twin towers in new york. And then we watched in real time, towers fall on fire and. We watched it happen. So im i find it interesting that as a group of people you guys were too young to have a memory of where you were at those times and then made 25th 1986. I this one hands across america the eighties were a special special time but you guys should have a reference for hands across america as of last week. What is your reference for hands across america . Its jordan peeles us good. So when i think about the things that are have Global Impact thats one of them. So this is the world that is informing August Wilson as he is writing the play fences is one more thing to talk about and were going to discuss fences as a class. I want to talk about the pittsburgh cycle, the pittsburgh cycle is a series of ten plays that August Wilson to move black 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 held he may or may have held animosity for White America. But White America isnt the central concern of his plays. White people are not the central concern of his plays. Black black identity, black black existence gets moved to center of his plays and his playwriting. The pittsburgh begins in well, its different. So he with jitney. The first play he wrote was called jitney. It premiered in 1982. The play he wrote was ma raineys black bottom. It was set in 1927, but it premiered in 1984. Ma raineys black bottom is an amazing play. Its a wonderful that deals with, i think, five black musicians and, one black female singer named ma rainey black. Shes do you guys know who Big Mama Thornton is . Have you ever heard of Big Mama Thornton . Okay, you should up Big Mama Thornton if you just hanging out at your house, listening or doing homework, you might want to listen to Big Mama Thornton. You could actually to ma rainey. You can go back. Go. Oh, ma rainey, is there a different type of singer you will get . Nina simone but nina simone is kind of crossing over into a, what, two mainstream form . Ma rainey was. We do have a contemporary for ma rainey, if you will even here in new orleans, have you ever seen doreen play in the quarter. Yall need to go to the quarter at some in time and listen to ms. Doreen. She plays clarinet. Youll begin to have an understanding of who ma rainey was. If you go listen and talk to, ms. Doreen, shes amazing. But after ma raineys, then weve got joe turners come and gone, which premiered. In 1984, and it was set in 11. And then finally we get to fences, which is set in 1957, but. Premiered in 1987. Were going to talk about fences in just a second. I and he also wrote the piano lesson two trains running, seven guitars. King hedley gem of the ocean and radio, gulf. I think clybourne park, if im not mistaken, he also includes clybourne park. Lets talk about fences. August wilson is influenced and in conversation with more artists than just playwrights. I know that all of these things inform and at some point in time he he doesnt. He stops. He stops concerning himself with white representation and he specifically begins to seek out black and black art. One of the artists that he specifically looked to was roma bearden. Here, let me show you. So so that. Started. I didnt break it and im really proud of that. I have a question about ma raineys has to do with, like, sexuality. Ma raineys black bottom. Yes. In fact, ma raineys black bottom. It does, in fact, have to do with sexual fear for while ma rainey had a one of the other characters in the play is dusty mae. And dusty mae an opportunist, a young woman who is an opportunist who has built relationship with ma. And the play tells you the play intimates that. It is of a sexual nature. So yes, dealing with that is a part of that. Like the train, the surf and. When i first began to build collages, i had no idea that i was going to develop developing through my work like the train and the surf and the guitar but these were all natural things that i saw. I used to like around mecklenburg county, north carolina. People had to deal with the train. So these are the elements of my. You know, just jumping off this. I used train because so many the lives of black people had to do with the train. And so these are just the elements in life. A screen. Bring africanamerican, bring the africanamerican express sense 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 attempt to bring the universal to the africanamerican experience . Yes, it makes it something that everyone understand, like it makes it easier for you to like, i guess, relate to it, to the story, like it doesnt matter. Youre black, white or whatever. You can relate it more. How does the idea of impact what you were saying . Well people feel more empathy towards like black people . They would try and help more of the issues that are going on in community. We kind of like. Making the black experience understandable. We have we all have children, right . I think about Trayvon Martin time. I think about August Wilson. Im stuck and August Wilsons also August Wilsons artistic purpose. I find myself thinking about Trayvon Martin, and i want to know why i why the newspaper, why the media depicted him as such a monster deserving of such treatment. When all i saw was a 17 year old boy who had been followed home. Right. Empathy. Thats what it thats what ideology has to do with. If ideologically we can construct the black experience as something that is hostile something that is aggressive, something that is violent, then the treatment of black people becomes justified by our criminal justice systems. Right. But if can perform the narrative of blackness in such a way that it becomes universal, then maybe there be empathy, maybe we can get more. We can get the rest of america to go, you know what . This this demonizing of blackness that has happened on an ideological level, lets step away from that and lets find out at it. Theres just a mother and thats a son. When we look at rose and we look at troy in fences, were hearing the story of a man and a woman right. They dont they dont really concern with the white world around. Thats not theyre theyre concerned with their lives and. That process. Exposing or showing the deeply personal by showing the specific and personal its an attempt to make that story universal right oh a husband and wife its not about this black husband this what is it or i guess thats my question for you guys is story specifically about this black man in this black woman or is it about men and. Do you understand my question . Okay. Yes, jamila, i feel like the problem there really is like symbol of of African American men, the african africanamerican woman, how like we interact with each. Okay. And feel like it probably should like more of a private life of African American experience. Okay how how like husband, africanamerican husband or wife interact each other . Would you that fences humanizes the black experience experience. Oh, i. In a brutal way. I see. I see do i in directly from from dialog to like to was from the man character africanamerican man his dialog his children or his wife. Okay. So let me ask guys this. What are. Yes, maam. I was just going to say that the the plays about, um, a shared experience of from black people that black men and women both go to, as well as like, like lets intertwine and with the way that they like relationship between black men and women at home, inside the home, like, you know, the way they have their own forms of like, i guess oppression for like a man to a woman, like some of the things that she was going through with her husband. Okay. And the way he was treating her, it was very like misogynist. It would just play, go game, go this for me. Woman like, you know, theres a lot of that. Okay, so lets talk about this just a second. Im not contesting. 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 that as a misogynistic. So take just a couple seconds and tell me from the play. Give me 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 you to support that answer that that position. What were some specific examples from the play that you might describe as misogynistic or abusive. The fact that he didnt expected rose to wait on him like give him whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, like or. Yeah so rose doing. She was told to go. Yes, yes, absolutely. Were 100 correct. I think it. I think that that is a reflection of the state of women the domestic domestic sphere. So 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, right . What was a womans role . A household in 1957 . What was a womans role . And even me saying that isnt necessarily true because we have to like when i say there were broader things that happened the world when all them when a huge number men left the country to go fight in World War Two and then came back women went and worked when all the men left the country to go fight in a war, women went to work. This image that we have of, the woman with the white woman with the stocking, with a rag on her head, doing the thing that was a symbol for, i think, rosie the riveter. So women went to factories and then they came home. And so who and what female meant and what the domestic sphere meant is being questioned it women had different lived experience because of World War Two and then the other thing that happens after World War Two is the mccarthy era when you be in trouble for you could be called being called a communist. That was the worst thing ever. You can appear the house of unamerican activities committee. Right so thats that was a thing that was a boogeyman that was used to scare a lot of americans into what i cant say the government into proper behavior right and women had their place thats not right or that there was an idea in American Culture that women had their place women and their place was in home. There are things we would look at and call utterly crazy magazines specific for white women about what having your mans drink when he came home from work, having being dressed nice, wearing a pair of heels and stockings and, having a full face of makeup on these were in magazines. Ive seen. They all exist and we can go back and look at them primarily. And this was a rhetoric was being taught specifically to white women and black women were trying to figure out how we fit into the American Society black womens hair. A part of that story, black jobs are a part of that story. Going out and being domestics, caring for white peoples kids. All of that. A part of this story, how we how black american identity fits into the of American Society is all a part of the story. Youre going to say i still see like remnants that in my grandmother and then the way that she carries herself for one she like put rollers in her hair every single night for as long as i lived, ive never seen her miss a night. I dont know how she does it. And i bet thats uncomfortable but also it. We cannot have guess if the house is messy like, you know, thats a thing like you have. You have to uphold image that you are very well kept you know right again its that public versus private. If your house is messy, people can come in. I also, dont ever remember my grandmother to bed without rollers in her hair. You and i remember as a boy thinking, how do you sleep on that . Is not comfortable at all. But that that idea of presentation. What would you ruths primary concern in this play. Anybody i have not heard from. Yes neil those who maintain maintaining their maintaining the family the most important thing to ruth in this play is maintaining the family right. I mean, i think also like maintaining the image that theyre a happy family kind of maintaining image. Are they a happy family . I mean, in my opinion, no. She i say it got to the point where are they . I mean, theyve had problems. And even like when the baby about she would like she tried to still have like a family presence was she just like neglected duties i guess as being a wife . I wouldnt say thats like a complete fan. Lets back up you said neglected her duties as being the wife or which duties are you talking about as far as like or not or as far as i guess being there for her husband in like whatever capacity she was before being for her husband and like doing things that she would like normally do as a wife when she found out about the baby is like, are going to take care of the baby, but like kind of, you know, youre not your own, but like you wont get the same. Im sleeping with you every dear like you. Thats thats no longer the thats no longer a thing. Yeah. So, i mean, i guess maintain and just she was burning that bridge. Yeah. But she still like she still would be a mother to the child and like still care children. So i guess it is still i a family which is like not holistic approach is that it she respond did she say is that you have showed me such disarray that i cant im not i will no longer share my person i will no longer share my body with you because that is the only thing i have. Like, what would it have . Could she have left him . Yeah. Really. I mean, im just curious where where would she go . And i dont think she had that much money. I think she had them with me. She stunk. But thats her reality. And i dont know that she necessarily of it as being stuck. And also, i think people didnt really divorces and people didnt get divorces. That wasnt maybe that wasnt an option. And is that is another part in like maintaining this perfect image. I identity. It also has to do with her identity my identity, that thing that tells me who i am is your wife troy. Its the mother of this he has and troy. This is troys second relationship from which he has kids right . Shes already wife two. What were her options . What were options as a black woman. In 1957, she knew he had a few of and she had few any making. I dont want to say that it was making the most of a bad i think its family i think its family i think its family. I think its financial that he says she really didnt have much money so why leave something that is so more financially stable more than you will be on your own then know just stay okay i. I feel like that factors into as well so does family mean think about your own families do you have cousins sisters brothers. How bad you guys have family members that have maybe crossed the line . I them im good but you dont have family. Tell me. Tell me. Nobody your family has has pushed the of what family means, you know. But okay i believe. I have relatives who are in jail i have relatives i how many of you just quick show of hands. How many of you know a man or woman in your family who has cheated. Does cheating mean the relationships over over just you figure thats grown folks right . You figure out you figure out how to get to what next. When youre there rose was figuring out. Through fences lets about fences lets talk about the what is a fence really quickly you guys what exactly this is not trying to trick you whats a fence something that gives someone you know its something that keeps someone in or out. Mary its a barrier or a boundary. Okay, what is . Troys activity. What is he trying to do . Jordan what is it that troy is trying to do through this whole play build or, finish a fence right. Good. What . At the beginning of the play, theres baseball bat that is leaning against a tree trunk. You all remember that . Good. Troy has an image in his of what he was supposed be. Remember he . Says i was just born at the wrong time. What that mean . And i use. Can i ask you to speak up my bat saying like basically like black people were like allowed to play baseball professionally and stuff that so like he grew up in era where he had to like just be like ah forget sports and stuff. Let me go work a 9 to 5 so i can take care of my family. Right. So some of it has to do with what he perceives as a mans responsibility, right . I could have been i cant remember the line exactly, but i think its something like, you know, i could have been dream is i could have been a great baseball if i didnt have do this. So has this perception that the fortunes of a black man have shifted from when he was younger to where he is now . Right. Good. The set is described a dilapidated front porch right. Or sorry, back porch. Why . Why do you think most of this play takes place on the porch. Thats where you see a lot of black people grow up. A lot of black people grow up on the porch. Yes, thats not me being funny. I mean, i get it. It to do with community. Right . It has to do with. When i moved down here to new orleans, i didnt realize that porch sitting was an actual thing. But porch sitting is an actual thing. You sit out on the porch when gets too hot. Hey say hey you made was hey know this is walking by hey and if you dont say hey you uppity oh you must be from up. People just sit outside theres a sense community right good. But the porch is unfinished troy has a way of not following through troy has a way of not finishing what hes started right. Troy has way of not completing the relationship that he invested in because he goes off and finds another woman and has another baby troy has a way of not being present in own life right. How do you guys have a response to idea what do you think of that idea of masculine . What do you think the idea of masculinity reference centered in the character of troy or his eldest son in . This play. Why can troy of wakanda, his family, afford this house. Get a job . He has a job, yes. His brother could see this is from his brother gets a disability. So its a little bit. He always has shame. Troy is ashamed that troy is ashamed that he the only way he can this house is because of his brothers disability check. Right . So theres an investment even we dont want you to want to talk about, but theres an investment in. His brother not moving out. Theres an investment in. His brother still being and being disabled. Right he has that. That has to be his reality. He loses house if his brother moves out, if his brothers moved to a facility or if his brother dies. Right. So theres that dependency on that. What else does this place about troy . What else does this place say about the nature of of troys version masculinity . Jeremiah oh, brother. To talk about it like his relationship towards his son. Okay, which son is younger . His youngest son, corey, how he want to play sports. Hes also. And he we know the chacha drew dream to work out with sports. He he will playing sports because i like he wanted to be a realist and get a job and stuff and i feel like i really dont understand the relationship thats why i want to bring it up because i really want to start a relationship between because he knows a different now hes doing a world level play sports thats why i want to bring up that topic. Why do you guys think thank you. Why do you guys think troy . Troy wont corey play sports so he wont disappointed . Oh because troy thinks the reason why he able to play sports was because he was black when. Really . Its because he got old and. They didnt want to draft or got into the league, but so he doesnt want his son to like face that same racism that thought he experienced. Okay, so then hes keeping them from it. But he says keeping them from opportunity and not even allowing him to have the opportunity to be scouted. Okay, pull your hands up. So is it could it be jealousy . Thats said. I thought it was. Yeah, i was thinking to i was thinking is like he hes getting so chances like uh or the void as being feel to the lack his uh discretion and what hes like failing to do is like beyond him and, he cant find a way to like come to terms with it. So he chooses to fight with his son and, like, gives him strikes. Uh, and like at the end when his son mentions like that, like the only way that youre able to have this house because your brother, like, he gives really angry and they start fighting against, its like a sort of, uh, resentment i feel in himself, but he takes it out on others theyre able to do. Hes not. Or what he wish he could have done. Okay. So its like hes aware, but its like he or hes conscious, hes taking it out and like in ways that are, uh, i guess, uh, reasonable or the, i just feel like hes of kind of like protect them because i dont want to like fall in the same well footsteps as him being like get to that point in his life. He had to struggle like that. So in your opinion, one of the things thats happening is, troy, is protecting you to protecting him from what. I wouldnt want marvin to give a voice to this. Troy is protecting corey from what i. Yes, i know youre i guess from failure possible. Thats an absolutely possible. Well, your hand came up. I first heard what you said and what say, too, is, i mean, like a father. I mean, god love your children. So you dont want to follow the same pattern, too. And and in the same situations, trying to have a just and then come back again up like get a job and struggle, struggle before. You said something really interesting and i you said i dont know when i said, what do you think, troy . And im not saying either of you were. I agree with both of you. Thank you for adding that. What i said is troy protecting corey. You said america, america. The reality of what it means to be black and male. America. Thats thats also a possibility he going off that what youre saying about what you say about masculinity i think black men tend to use their like what they go through as a black in america as excuse for how they act inside home. Okay that is really that is a good you know what if youre going to write a thesis statement for this class and you might, thats a really good to start. Im just say so yes we have to we have to always thats. What i mean about the complexity of character troy, the nature of who and what troy is, is wildly complex and literally everything that you have just said fuels what makes up that character. Thats what i mean by having a layer thats a layered character that is a character who has depth, that is 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 . Thats what thats what August Wilson is doing. Hes actually black existence to be a complex thing, not just allowing it. Hes doing an artistic rendering of black that is complex that is layered, that is not that is not simple or easy right. Yes. How you think White America kind of this play like how did they view it and i like because it won or was nominated like four oscars and like viola davis won for like hers. It was like i dont know how White America is of his play. I dont know how white people read this play. Yeah, because im not in it is like for them or is it like okay so one of the realities of American Theater that weve always have to deal with is this. If we look at the economic of black and white people in most rural urban areas, like even here in new orleans, in new orleans, more 60 of the population is africanamerican. But 80 some, 80 to 85 or higher percent. The wealth is owned by the White Community right, but thats a reality. Great. So i have a theater and i want my theater to be financially successful successful. That means ive got to charge 50. Lets just. Ill be conservative. Let me say i had to charge 30 for a ticket. Right the largest portion the population cant afford my 30 tickets. This past weekend, i in i saw raisin in the sun at, our Cultural Center 25 to get in and see it white no and i say okay so there are groups of people in new orleans that were like, you know what, if were going to support a theater, were going to pick this one. So went and saw that. And there was a largely audience. But one of the realities here is if ive got 250 seats or 200 seats in my audience, ive got to market it. Market that to the people who have money. So this play in fact all of August Wilsons plays are aware of the realities of that right. Its putting black lives black existence on screen. Were can you give me an example thats happening right now of a black artist who centering black identity and black lived experience. Its the reason artists i just got killed over the weekend was nipsey hussle. Nipsey hussle i was i was thinking of a moviemaker leading it out of jordan peele jordan peele said something this past week because if you Say Something, were put it on twitter. What do you say theyre mad about it. Oh, yeah. Jordan peele was a im going to paraphrase what he but anybody who missed it he essentially said hes like yeah im not interested in casting white guys in my movie because ive seen that movie already right centering blackness centering the black experience, centering africanamerican identity is a part of this project, right. Because for so long in america, in American History and america, american artistic representation blackness has been marginal, tangential, right . So now were going, what happens and i dont even know if theres necessarily animosity toward the white world, like animosity toward the culture isnt necessarily a part of this play. Its there, its the reality. But the playwright himself is saying, you concern me that i spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, thinking, being in white culture, this play, its about black people being around black people. Cool. Talk to me for just a couple of seconds about bono. His best friend. How does that work . I would describe. Im sorry. Let me back up. Troy has several relationships in this play. He has a relationship with bono he has a relationship with bruce. He has a relationship with corey. Right. And you guys are in you can use the play to talk about or define those. What is the nature, his relationship with his son . Weve about that already. Is he jealous maybe. Is he protecting him . Maybe at some point in time he says, i dont have like you liking you was not one of the jobs that i signed up for its job of a father to raise his son to raise his son so he can go out into a world that is perhaps hostile and is going to try and kill. Im going to give you the skills you need to be strong to survive. Thats his role as a father. But liking him or even loving. Is that actually the job of the father. In . A country in which so many black men had leave their families . Maybe they were leaving. And we can talk about weve talked in this room about separation of black men from families as weve talked about what has to do with the history of slavery weve talked about what it has to do with in the context of the great migration so. This play is also dealing with troy is considered a good guy because he stayed kind to but he didnt right because hes going to sleep with this other woman. What fatherhood what does masculine all of you people who have to write theses thesis statements for your final papers should really be thinking about these kinds of things. What is mean . What does manhood mean. Danielle yes, it is in the context of, uh, bono trouble. Yes. Thank you. I way off track or i think like bono, some sort of fight, not resentment. Um, but he sees like in troy, his father was to him. So like they have, i guess a or something i cant remember. But they were telling each other like about their experiences or something and, and like in bonos experience like his father was a go on from woman to woman. I couldnt stay, but i guess, i guess we kind of seasoned. So he has like some concern on okay on bono for a second tell me about bonos relationship with his wife hes like hes super devoted to super devoted so the playwright gives us a representing action of a man who is, in fact devoted to his woman right. Troy exists. Bono is a foil opposite bono bonos existence in. This play actually shows us more of the tarnish on troy. I think its the i dont think the movie really applies it, but i feel like, uh, bono kind of themselves in like puts himself like his sons shoes or like choice shoes. And so when i know im just trying to make connections, but i guess how he kind of sees how, uh, troy is like, how he was with his father and like his, he doesnt want, uh, i guess doesnt have like some resume that he actually like, but they were just like conversation. He was like sharing his experience. So i guess he sees that between troy son and like how troy and rose are to each other. Bono is a corrective bone. You should get out. Yeah. Good. You remember his . Who would keep calling him up going . What you doing . You should leave. Thats bono. Yeah, bono is literally. Thats their friend calling. You are going. Youre about to mess up. Okay, you dont mess though like thats that that moment of somebody the interjection or the interlocutor i think is the college word for it. Yes. I think troys of what a man is supposed be changes of however its directed to so with his relationship with bono hes going to like most of all women or all these women they have or you know, like hes like theyre drinking like all the time. Like, you know, thats his of being a man when hes with bono in the t shirt or. Or freedom every. Huh. What do you mean by that . Does he does he get to be free with bono. He gets to tell story. He actually gets to be kind of star. He gets to be entertaining and fun. So his relationship with bono its care free kind of its a double whammy. Its a double whammy the way because he gets it he can in a sense be care for you theyre not to care for you because i bono isnt passing judgment on i mean not going to let them like slip or hell always totally passage judge who he i mean he is but like im saying like in context of his, like hes hes hes conscious of it like, you know yeah. So i mean, he he hes a man in a daze. Hes gone. Hes hell Say Something or hell like hes going to let it may be a man, but like hes hes very conscious that he knows, but i could tell by like that conversation that he had. Yeah, but bono moves away from him at the end of the play. Yeah bonos like he look like. Thats what im saying. Its double whammy. Like he he thinks he just removes himself like you. He rather not engage you right there. Just like every year. Ima let you sink on this ship all year. Got good. I saw him back there. All right, so weve got about 4 minutes left. Ladies and gentlemen, i just want to close this discussion, and i want guys to think about things. One, the plays that were studying in this from Langston Hughes to little lynn nottage to pearl klieg, all of these plays are, in fact, conversation with other i want you to think. For colored girls who have committed suicide when the rainbow is enough in relationship to this play for colored girls weve got into soccer shanghai who is voicing and taking the place of or shes allowing a black womans voice to be heard these are the private of a black woman. This is the private world that weve always been told not to show to the public right in the same way August Wilson is place like fences and the entire philadel sorry pittsburgh cycle moving the private of black identity into the center of the mission right. I want you guys to think about what that means in terms of in context with each other, not necessarily into soccer. Shanghai and August Wilson, but absolutely. Those two as well as passover, which we watched in class in what is the movie or the film of the play . Passover also still in converse with this right . So in passover where they cant get off that corner, theyre stuck. They cant go anywhere much like troy who is stuck and cant go anywhere right much. The women in for colored are stuck and cant go anywhere. What does that about black existence . What does that say about the nature . What is what are black artists say about the nature of black existence . So thats what i want to leave you with. Please. All of you read. You will you will get a pop quiz on this play fences and youll get a pop quiz on t bone in weasel on thursday and well talk about t bone weasel on thursday. Thank have a great day. Oh