Purdue Black Cultural Center Library to sponsor playwright lecture

The lecture, "Understanding August Wilson," will take place at 2:30-4:30 p.m. on Sept. 21 in Multipurpose Room 1 of the Black Cultural Center and is free and open to the public. Kimberly C. Ellis, a Purdue alumna and scholar of American studies, will be the speaker.

Ellis' lecture will coincide with the opening day of the Wilson play "Seven Guitars," co-produced by the Black Cultural Center and the Purdue Division of Theatre.

"We are pleased to welcome Purdue alumna Kimberly Ellis back to Purdue," said Dorothy Washington, librarian at the Black Cultural Center. "With her expertise on Wilson, she will provide a valuable perspective and insight on the creative production of this great American playwright."

Ellis graduated from Purdue with a doctorate in American studies in 2002. She is credited with choreographing 14 dance pieces for the Purdue Black Cultural Center's Jahari Dance Troupe during her studies at Purdue.

August Wilson, who died in October 2005, was known for his series of 10 plays about the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century. Many of the plays are set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, where Wilson spent his childhood.

"Seven Guitars" follows a group of friends in 1948 as they recount the life and death of blues musician Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton. The play runs Sept. 21 to Oct. 1 at the Carol and Gordon Mallett Theatre in the Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts and is part of the center's fall Cultural Arts Series.

Ellis, who hails from the same area of Pittsburgh where Wilson grew up, will draw upon her background in African-American studies, the early civil rights movement and black theater to analyze the meaning and significance of Wilson's work.

She spoke on Wilson's behalf at the 2004 Gwendolyn Brooks Conference in Chicago to pay tribute to Amiri Baraka, one of his well-known artistic influences.

Ellis also is a frequent contributor to conferences and lectures dedicated to Wilson's life and work. She was a featured speaker on "Teaching August Wilson to Young Minds" at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference in November of 2005 in Pittsburg, Pa., presented at the Situating August Wilson in the Canon conference at Howard University in April 2005 and spoke at the August Wilson Festival at Penn State University.

Her written work on Wilson includes a tributary poem titled "Black with Pink Lining," which was published in the May/June 2006 issue of Black Masks, a black theater publication. She is also the creator and co-owner of AW-L: The Discussion List for the Life, Literature and Legacy of August Wilson, which boasts membership of fans, scholars, directors and producers of Wilson's plays.

Writer: Bethany Bannister-Andrews, (765) 494-2073, bbannister@purdue.edu

Sources: Dorothy Washington, (765) 494-3093, dwashin2@purdue.edu

Oluwamayowa Tomori, Black Cultural Center library aide, (765) 496-6660, otomori@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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