Live performance and writing for stage and screen is an important part of African-American literature. From the power of Paul Robeson’s performances to the artful insight of August Wilson, African-American authors and artists have found value in the form and function playwriting.

The relationship between literature and performance is direct and dynamic. Performance takes on particular meaning for African Americans. Lou Bellamy, founder of Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul Minnesota points out that for blacks, the importance of performance goes back to the fields of slavery. "That existence was so dismal, so horrifying that the taking on of another personality, another way of dealing with those issues, was part and parcel of the existence. This idea of acting things out, the idea of telling stories and so forth was a way of passing culture from generation to generation, as well as providing that psychological safety valve."

Lou Bellamy on Black performance and existence

But mainstream America corrupted black expression, making it into minstrelsy. These performances usually consisted of white performers in ‘blackface’ whose acts played upon stereotypes of blacks.

In the early twentieth century, this destructive satire pervaded American entertainment, from Broadway, to the "Birth of a Nation," Hollywood's first feature, released in 1915. These painful portrayals went on with little to counter them on stage or screen. Then came Paul Robeson.

The son of a slave, Paul Robeson was more than an actor. He was a singer, all-American athlete, multi-lingual and a noted scholar. As an actor, Robeson's commanding presence on stage and screen added a dignity to any role he played. In his 1958 autobiography, Here I Stand, Robeson wrote about the community that nurtured his creativity.

Paul Robeson dramatic reading

Robeson used the power of his voice for social change. According to Mahmoud El Kati (Macalaster College) , "He became the champion not only of the civil rights struggle of Black people in this country, but the working class rights for people all over the world. And he took a stand against injustice, as perpetrated by the American power structure."

Taking a stand for the underclass, and a friendly relationship with the Soviet Union, made Robeson the target of conservatives. He fell victim to the ‘red Baiting’ and ‘Blacklisting’ of the McCarthyism of the 1950s. Despite his mistreatment in America, he continued to tour the world as an artist and activist. For Robeson the two were inseparable. As he stated in his collection of essays Paul Robeson, Tributes, Selected Writings, "The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice; I had no alternative.

Over the decades, African-American writing for the stage and screen has evolved and continued to have impact. Today, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson follows in this great tradition. "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom" was Wilson’s first nationally noted play. It established a number of his thematic and stylistic standards that his subsequent work retains. Among Wilson’s recurring motifs are the use of blues and black music as metaphors for spirituality, struggle and survival.

Wilson describes his writing process as often mystical. He relates the ‘voices of the people’ and allows them to speak through the characters who live in his plays. Bellamy points out that, "one of the most wonderful things that August does, because he's a poet, is that he can capture the musicality of the black experience in the language that he uses."

Wilson is a strong advocate of African-American artistic self-determination. He encourages the growth of black theater. He also hopes his work transcends time and culture. "The specifics of the plays are Black American culture, but if you look at what the plays are about, but if you look at what the plays are about, they’re about love, honor and duty, betrayal.

You see, they're about the things that we all know, and that embrace all cultures. And no matter who you are, you can connect with that." While his work is well received throughout the world, August Wilson's writing is returning African-American performance to the role it played in the past, using creativity for cultural survival.