Within August Wilson’s century-long odyssey, the survival of the past is symbolized through its most significant character, Aunt Ester Tyler. The mistress of 1839 Wylie Avenue, Aunt Ester represents the ingenuity and will of the African spirit to survive the horrors and the degradation of the conditions of slavery and dehumanization. This chapter teases out some of these elements of memory, illuminating how the American Century Cycle structurally signifies Passover themes, while arguing that Wilson dramaturgically deploys such cues as a strategy towards a cultural rehearsal of remembering.

August Wilson once suggested that African Americans leaving the US South during the Great Migration was one of the worst things that happened to the community. Because the Great Migration and the chronicle of African and African American migrants’ histories/herstories are intertwined discussions, this chapter suggests that the American Century Cycle enables Wilson to design a culturally specific study of the affects and effects of the migration on the characters and geographic spaces he plots. It considers how Wilson uses the plays in the cycle to demonstrate his point while also providing hope that, even within the urban North, the realities of the South and transformation of Southern mores will not be forgotten or ignored.

This chapter explores themes of black masculinity and homosocial bonding in August Wilson’s plays by offering careful analysis of several of the characters and plotlines from the American Century Cycle.

This chapter adds to the chorus of critical scholarship aimed at addressing the women characters in Wilson’s dramas. It specifically interrogates what possibilities and limitations Wilson’s constructions of Black women accomplish within the context of when the plays are set, as well as within our contemporary (re)encounters with them. Utilizing the framework of Black feminist theatrical critique to examine Gem of the Ocean (2003) and Seven Guitars (1995), it maintains that even though Wilson chronicles the changing perceptions of Black women across the decades, contemporary (re)encounters with his work illuminate the persistent gender ideologies that his depictions of Black women are built upon.