Isaiah Matthew Wooden – författare

Showing how twenty-first-century Black theater and media arts challenge dominant conceptualizations of timeReclaiming Time: Race, Temporality, and Black Expressive Culture examines works by contemporary Black artists in multiple media— drama, film, performance art, and photography— that trouble dominant conceptualizations and normative configurations of time in relation to race in the twenty-first century. Isaiah Matthew Wooden explores the ways in which an intentional and sometimes ludic engagement with time and temporality has enabled these artists to probe urgent questions and themes concerning the conditions of contemporary Black life.Wooden surveys a diverse array of performance-based and visual texts to explore the rich practices of contemporary Black expressive culture: dramatic works by playwrights Eisa Davis, Tarell Alvin McCraney, and Robert O'Hara performance art and photography by visual artists Jefferson Pinder and LaToya Ruby Frazier and feature-length cinema by director-producer Tanya Hamilton. These works expose normative time as specious and evidence the transformative potential in honing practices of Black temporal experimentation and intervention. By putting this cross-disciplinary set of texts in conversation with each other, Wooden sheds new light on the shrewd ways that they each reflect an investment in unbinding time from the exigencies of normativity and teleology, as well as on their shared commitments to reclaiming time to reimagine and represent Blackness in all its multiplicities.

Showing how twenty-first-century Black theater and media arts challenge dominant conceptualizations of time Reclaiming Time: Race, Temporality, and Black Expressive Culture examines works by contemporary Black artists in multiple media - drama, film, performance art, and photography - that trouble dominant conceptualizations and normative configurations of time in relation to race in the twenty-first century. Isaiah Matthew Wooden explores the ways in which an intentional and sometimes ludic engagement with time and temporality has enabled these artists to probe urgent questions and themes concerning the conditions of contemporary Black life.Wooden surveys a diverse array of performance-based and visual texts to explore the rich practices of contemporary Black expressive culture: dramatic works by playwrights Eisa Davis, Tarell Alvin McCraney, and Robert O'Hara performance art and photography by visual artists Jefferson Pinder and LaToya Ruby Frazier and feature-length cinema by director-producer Tanya Hamilton. These works expose normative time as specious and evidence the transformative potential in honing practices of Black temporal experimentation and intervention. By putting this cross-disciplinary set of texts in conversation with each other, Wooden sheds new light on the shrewd ways that they each reflect an investment in unbinding time from the exigencies of normativity and teleology, as well as on their shared commitments to reclaiming time to reimagine and represent Blackness in all its multiplicities.

August Wilson is one of the twentieth century's most important and acclaimed playwrights. This volume demonstrates Wilson's significance to contemporary theatre, culture, and politics by providing fresh and compelling insights into his life, practices, and contributions as an artist and public intellectual. Across four thematically organized sections, contributors situate Wilson's work in his social, cultural and political contexts, examine ongoing developments in Wilson studies, explore the production contexts of his plays, and explicate his dramaturgical sensibilities and strategies. This is the authoritative guide to Wilson's career and artistic legacy for students, theatre practitioners, and general readers interested in this remarkable figure.