Jesús Abraham “Tato” Laviera Sánchez, community activist, poet, declamador, playwright, author, and “a chronicler of life in El Barrio,” was born May 9, 1951 in Santurce, Puerto Rico to Maria Sánchez Ramos, an embroiderer, and Pablo Laviera Ramírez, a political nationalist, bricklayer, and contactor. Laviera … Read MoreTato Laviera (1951-2013)
George Costello Wolfe is one of the most celebrated American playwrights and directors of theater and film. Known for his five Tony Awards, Wolfe was born in Frankfort, Kentucky on September 23, 1954. His mother Anna Lindsey-Wolfe was a librarian and principal at the all-black … Read MoreGeorge C. Wolfe (1954- )
Harold Cruse, a leading intellectual in the second half of the 20th Century, was born in 1916 in Petersburg, Virginia. His father, a railroad porter, divorced his mother and took Cruse to New York at a young age. While in school he worked nights at … Read MoreHarold Cruse (1916-2005)
The fourth of seven children in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, August Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel, April 27, 1945 to an African American mother and a German immigrant father. By the time he was five, his parents divorced. His mother remarried in the late 1950s … Read MoreAugust Wilson (1945-2005)
