Author: Steve Brandsdorfer
2022
Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Expanded To Include “D Byrd@90: Tribute To Donald Byrd And The Blackbyrds” With Musical Direction By Sean Jones And Special Performances Featuring Gary Bartz, Nate Smith, Endea Owens, Frank Lacy, Louis Cato, Brett Williams & The Donald Byrd Cultural Foundation
Pittsburgh’s preeminent Jazz Festival to include A Taste of Jazz featuring food from the City’s most innovative eateries following performance from Ron Carter Foursight at the August Wilson African American…
Poetry on the Vineyard: A Def Poetry Reunion Benefit Performance
Spoken Word Concert with the Original Cast of the beloved HBO show Oaks Bluff, MA – We are excited to announce a special night of Poetry on the Vineyard: A…
August Wilson African American Cultural Center Announces Line-up For Highmark Blues & Heritage Festival – September 14-15, 2022
Featuring funk and reggae legends Steel Pulse; award-winning singer/songwriter Ruthie Foster & roots and soul singer Shemekia Copeland; blues, funk, and R&B singer/guitarist Walter “Wolfman” Washington; multi-Grammy winner Fantastic Negrito; guitarist,…
Women shine in Pittsburgh production of an opera about a famed female adventurer
“Protagonist, message and means of production all resonate to a unifying theme in the Pittsburgh premiere of the opera “Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt.” This…
Read more
Song from the Uproar recalls one woman’s incredible life with all-female cast and crew
Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt will mark a few firsts for the Pittsburgh-based DEMASKUS Theater Collective. Besides being the first opera produced by DEMASKUS, it…
Read moreAugust Wilson African American Cultural Center Launches First Work in New Residency Program: Missy Mazzoli’s Song From the Uproar: the Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt
All-female cast & crew present opera inspired by the life of Swiss explorer and writer May 21 at 2 p.m. & 7 p.m. ET Produced by DEMASKUS Theater Collective, Amanda…
Ron Carter Foursight Quartet, Ledisi, Stanley Clarke, Samara Joy, Incognito With Maysa Leak and More to Perform as Part of August Wilson African American Cultural Center’s Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival September 16-18, 2022
Lineup includes Average White Band, Buster Williams, Orrin Evans Trio, Aymée Nuviola with Gonzalo Rubalcaba and more April 26, 2022 – Pittsburgh, PA –The August Wilson African American Cultural Center…
A Tour Through August’s ‘Landscape’
August Wilson, America’s Shakespeare, is having a “moment,” to use the words of Constanza Romero-Wilson, the playwright’s widow and chief curator of “August Wilson: The Writer’s Landscape,” a new exhibition at the August…
Read more
How Playwright August Wilson Captured the Highs and Lows of Black America
Throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, playwright August Wilson spent much of his time in diners and coffee shops in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, scrawling notes on napkins about the sights, sounds…
Read more
New Pittsburgh exhibit celebrates hometown playwright August Wilson: ‘Everyone’s life experiences are important’
The American playwright – the author of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Fences,” “The Piano Lesson” and more — set almost all of his work in his hometown, writing about some…
Read more
New permanent exhibit highlights the life and work of playwright August Wilson
August Wilson was not nearly as prolific. He broke through with “Jitney” in 1982 when he was 37, and followed with a staggering burst of creativity. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,”…
Read moreNew permanent exhibit highlights the life and work of playwright August Wilson
August Wilson was not nearly as prolific. He broke through with “Jitney” in 1982 when he was 37, and followed with a staggering burst of creativity. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,”…
Read more
‘The Writer’s Landscape’ celebrates famed playwright August Wilson and his Pittsburgh roots
Few Pittsburgh-born artists have had as great an impact on their fields as did playwright August Wilson, who won the first of his two Pulitzer Prizes for drama in 1987…
Read more Walk into August Wilson’s life and plays in immersive new exhibit
Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, who died in 2005, is one of the prides of Pittsburgh – yet until this week, there has been no site in…
Read moreExhibit On Playwright August Wilson Opens At His Namesake Center
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center opens a new permanent exhibit.
Read more
Hits and Misses
The late playwright August Wilson has loomed large over the Pittsburgh cultural landscape for 40 years, but there has not been a permanent exhibit on his life and work available…
Read moreFamily Of Youngest Black Woman Museum Exhibit Designer Who Died From COVID-19 Continuing Her Legacy
She was the youngest Black woman museum exhibit designer and she aspired to start her own firm. The 30-year-old Philadelphia native didn’t get to live out her dream, but now,…
Read more
New August Wilson Center exhibition reveals playwright’s work, life
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center finally has a permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and work of its Pulitzer Prize-winning namesake.
Read more August Wilson Center exhibit immerses visitors in ‘writer’s landscape’
“August Wilson’s work is universal,” said Janis Burley Wilson, the August Wilson Center’s president and CEO. “The themes that he explores in his plays are love, betrayal, trust, hopes, dreams….
Read moreAugust Wilson African American Cultural Center Renames 1839 Gallery to Honor Exhibition Designer Victoria Renée Edwards
Inaugural Exhibition to Feature Works in Collaboration by Multidisciplinary Artists Li Harris and Alisha B. Wormsley, on view April 8 – August 28, 2022 April 1, 2022 – Pittsburgh, PA…
August Wilson African American Cultural Center Opens August Wilson: the Writer’s Landscape Saturday, April 16 First-ever Permanent Exhibition Dedicated to Life of Pulitzer Prize-winning Playwright
February 24, 2022 – Pittsburgh, PA – The August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC) announced today that August Wilson: The Writer’s Landscape, the first-ever permanent exhibition dedicated to the…
2021
World Premiere of CIRCLES, a multi-faceted dance and visual arts work by STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos co-presented by AWAACC and Kelly Strayhorn Theater
Tickets available now for CIRCLES: going in, a full-length dance work, October 28-30 Visual arts exhibition CIRCLES: reclamation on-view now through 31 WHAT: August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC)…
August Wilson African American Cultural Center Announces Fall 2021 Line-up
Featuring Signature Festivals: Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival featuring Chaka Khan Highmark Blues & Heritage Festival featuring Mavis Staples We Want the Funk Festival featuring Steve Arrington, and Ladies of SKYY,…
The Moment Is Always Now for Frederick Douglass
In November of 1857 Frederick Douglass gave a speech at the Federated Church in Edgartown titled The Unity of Man. A few decades later, in 1876, Mr. Douglass returned to…
Read moreAugust Wilson African American Cultural Center Announces Additional Artists for 11th Annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival September 17-19, 2021
Featuring Chaka Khan, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Miller, Christian McBride, Branford Marsalis, Patrice Rushen, Gregory Porter, Jazzmeia Horn, and more July 20, 2021 – Pittsburgh, PA – The August Wilson African…