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Chapter 1 - Pittsburgh’s Hill District

The People, the Places, the History

from Part I - Influences and Inspirations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2025

By
Laurence Glasco
Edited by
Khalid Y. Long  and
Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Khalid Y. Long
Affiliation:
Howard University, Washington DC
Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Affiliation:
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
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Summary

August Wilson was born in 1945 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The community where he spent the early part of his life notably served as the geographic location for nine of the ten plays in his American Century Cycle. This chapter provides historical background and cultural context for the Hill District and spotlights the ways Wilson dramatizes the specificity of the community in his plays.

Keywords

August WilsonPittsburghHill DistrictAfrican American HistoryAmerican Century CycleWylie Avenue

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Type
Chapter
Information
August Wilson in Context , pp. 11 - 25
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading

Bryer, Jackson R. and Hartig, Mary C., eds., Conversations with August Wilson (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006).Google Scholar
Glasco, Laurence, ed., The WPA History of the Negro in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenwald, Maurine W. and Anderson, Margo, eds., Pittsburgh Surveyed: Social Science and Social Reform in the Early Twentieth Century (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Shannon, Sandra G., The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson (Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1995).Google Scholar
Thompson Fullilove, Mindy, Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do about It (New York: New Village Press, 2016).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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