Member-only story
‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ Reminds Us of Our Glory
August Wilson’s plays are important for the culture. Here’s why.
The reason why you always hear people revere August Wilson's plays is that they celebrate Blackness in a way that validates our experiences. Wilson’s plays feel familiar. Authentic. Nonstereotypical except where they do showcase stereotypes, there is a full-bodied explanation for why a person is the way they are. And that kind of nuance is difficult for White playwrights to do, which is why Wilson’s pieces are so universally embraced.
With Wilson’s piece Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom being reimagined for the streaming screen, courtesy of Netflix, people outside of metropolises finally have access to a star-studded lineup that sheds light on a small piece of Black history wrapped up in a fur stole, swaggered hips, and music that provides a base for nearly everything popular now.
Viola Davis portrays legendary blues singer Ma Rainey in all her sensual glory even as she casually negotiates legal contracts as if she graduated from Harvard Law. And Chadwick Boseman, he of Black Panther fame, shows up and shows out in his final role wherein he portrays a skilled trumpeter who knows his value and dares to openly question God. (Boseman died earlier this year.)
