Welcome to “What’s Good,” a column where we break down what’s soothing, distracting, or just plain good in the streaming world with a “rooting for everybody Black” energy. This edition is all about Danielle Deadwyler in The Piano Lesson, in theaters now and on Netflix Friday, Nov. 22.
What’s Good? Danielle Deadwyler. But you already knew that. This is the only time in this column’s history in which I am writing about the same performer twice. The last time I offered up my words at the altar of Deadwyler’s excellence, it was for her work as Miranda in Station Eleven and Cuffee in The Harder They Fall. Two years ago, I wrote that “Deadwyler has emerged as one of the most exciting talents in the game. It’s not easy to stand out in an ensemble cast, especially as a Black actress, but Deadwyler continues to.” In The Piano Lesson, she’s at it again, stealing scenes in a stacked cast and delivering another performance that should have the Academy on its knees in admiration.
Who It’s Good For: If there was ever a time for August Wilson’s work, it’s now. Wilson wrote plays about Black America for Black America. Sure, he often talked about how his plays might land with white people, and that they could help make them see Black Americans differently, but there was no mistaking the fact that Wilson devoted his craft to telling stories of working class Black folks in Pittsburgh (The “Century Cycle” or “Pittsburgh Cycle” are what his now-famous 10 Pittsburgh-set plays are referred to), the city where he was born and raised and continued to pay tribute to until his death in 2005. Wilson’s Pulitzer-prize winning writing is challenging, evocative, steeped in history and committed to honoring his ancestors. It stands in stark contrast to the anti-literacy, anti-history, anti-truth agenda of the incoming U.S. administration. August Wilson’s work needs to be preserved and protected, fought for like its existence is imperative to upholding the fabric of a country and filling in the gaps of Black humanity so much of the pop culture of the 20th century leaves out, because it is.
To answer who August Wilson’s work is for is to ask who is art for? Who is language for? Who is spirituality for? His words crack open the soul of humanity and ask: What is legacy? What does it mean to be alive? To LIVE? And how do the weeds of America’s past cling to its present and future? August Wilson’s work can be summed up by the James Baldwin quote, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read… Only if we face these open wounds in ourselves can we understand them in other people. An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian. His role is to make you realize the doom and glory of knowing who you are and what you are,” Baldwin said. He was referencing …read more
Source:: Refinery29