CITY OF BONES
#2 August Wilson House
track description:
“piano lessons one and two”
The voices of Romare Bearden and August Wilson discuss the practice of art making over the sounds of Mary Lou Williams’ “Taurus” from Williams’ famed Zodiac Suite album. Wilson, himself a Taurus, drew inspiration for three of his plays from Bearden’s visual artwork, including The Piano Lesson, based on Bearden’s painting The Piano Lesson (Homage to Mary Lou). The track celebrates the direct relationship between these three Pittsburgh artists and their documentation of Black life across their respective mediums; music, visual art, and theatre.
about City of Bones
City of Bones | Gem of the Confluence is a mixtape that explores August Wilson’s artistic life and theatrical work through the rich history of Black music in Pittsburgh, collaging archival audio and play dialogue with the sounds of artists such as Mary Lou Williams, Ahmad Jamal, and more.
The mixtape and installation are based on August Wilson’s play Gem of the Ocean, set in Pittsburgh circa 1904. In the play, the elder Aunt Ester invites a troubled Citizen Barlow to a meeting with his ancestors in the mythological City of Bones.
Following Aunt Ester’s instructions to Citizen Barlow, the mixtape is installed at various sites across the city relevant to this history.