A Story of Two Wilsons: Janis Burley Wilson grew up in an arts-loving family in playwright August Wilson’s hometown, and now she leads his namesake Center for African American Culture. (S01E06)

We Can Be - The Heinz Endowments · Apr 11, 2018 · 25m

Two Wilsons – Janis Burley Wilson and playwright August Wilson – have intersected in ways both meaningful and magical. The first Wilson is Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, and the present-day Wilson is Janis Burley Wilson, who leads the August Wilson Center for African American Culture as its president and CEO.

Having grown up in August Wilson’s hometown, when Burley Wilson read his plays she recognized the locales he wrote about as places where her extended family lived and thrived. As Janis herself says, that she grew up in the world-renowned playwright's hometown and now…