Revisiting August Wilson’s “The Ground on Which I Stand” in the Wake of Black Lives Matter
from Part II - Politics and Debates
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2025
August Wilson forged a formidable legacy as an advocate for Black art and aesthetic practices on and off the stage. In 1996, he delivered a speech at the Theatre Communications Group national conference entitled, “The Ground on Which I Stand,” in which he made a case for the importance of creating, supporting, and sustaining Black art and cultural institutions. The speech continues to serve as an important manifesto for those interested in dismantling the harmful systems and structures that persist in the theatre. This chapter revisits Wilson’s speech and places it in conversation with more recent demands to upend and dismantle white supremacy in the arts, including those articulated by the collective of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color theatremakers organizing under “We See You, White American Theatre.”
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge-org.demo.remotlog.com is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.