(born April 27, 1945, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 2, 2005, Seattle, Wash.) U.S.
playwright. He was largely self-educated. A participant in the black aesthetic movement, he cofounded and directed Pittsburgh's Black Horizons Theatre (1968), published poetry in African American journals, and produced several plays, including Jitney (1982), before his Ma Rainey's Black Bottom opened on Broadway in 1984. Inspired by the colloquial language, music, folklore, and storytelling tradition of African Americans, he continued his cycle of plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, with Fences (1986, Pulitzer Prize), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), The Piano Lesson (1990, Pulitzer Prize), Two Trains Running (1992), Seven Guitars (1996), Gem of the Ocean (first produced 2003), King Hedley II (2005), and Radio Golf (first produced 2005).
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