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How I Learned What I Learned
Originally written and performed by August Wilson himself in 2003, How I Learned What I Learned is the autobiographical story of a young black artist's journey through the hardships of growing up in the Hill District, ultimately leading to his success as a writer. The one-man show paints a vivid portrait of Pittsburgh and its characters, defining an era through Wilson's distinctive poetic lens.
96 pages, Paperback
Published March 10, 2020
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132 people want to read
About the author
August Wilson
65 books560 followersAmerican playwright August Wilson won a Pulitzer Prize for
Fences
in 1985 and for
The Piano Lesson
in 1987.
His literary legacy embraces the ten series and received twice for drama for The Pittsburgh Cycle . Each depicted the comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience, set in different decade of the 20th century.
Daisy Wilson, an African American cleaning woman from North Carolina, in the hill district of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bore Frederick August Kittel, Junior, the fourth of six children, to Frederick August Kittel, Senior, a German immigrant baker. From North Carolina, maternal grandmother of Wilson earlier sought a better life and walked to Pennsylvania. After his fifth year, his mother raised the children alone in a two-room apartment above a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue.
After death of Frederick August Kittel, Senior, in 1965, his son changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother.
In 1968, Wilson co-founded the black horizon theater in the hill district of Pittsburgh alongside Rob Penny, his friend. People first performed his Recycling for audiences in small theaters and public housing community centers. Among these early efforts, he revised Jitney more than two decades later as part of his ten-cycle on 20th-century Pittsburgh.
Wilson married three times. His first marriage to Brenda Burton lasted from 1969 to 1972. She bore him Sakina Ansari, a daughter, in 1970.
Vernell Lillie founded of the Kuntu repertory theatre at the University of Pittsburgh in 1974 and, two years later, directed The Homecoming of Wilson in 1976.
Wilson also co-founded the workshop of Kuntu to bring African-Americans together and to assist them in publication and production. Both organizations still act.
Claude Purdy, friend and director, suggested to Wilson to move to Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1978 and helped him secure a job with educational scripts for the science museum. In 1980, he received a fellowship for the center in Minneapolis. Wilson long associated with the penumbra theatre company, which gave the premieres, of Saint Paul.
In 1981, he married to Judy Oliver, a social worker, and they divorced in 1990.
Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary doctor of humanities from the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as a member of the board of trustees from 1992 until 1995.
Wilson got a best known Tony award and the New York circle of drama critics; he authored Ma Rainey's Black Bottom , and Joe Turner's Come and Gone .
In 1994, Wilson left Saint Paul and developed a relationship with Seattle repertory theatre. Ultimately, only Seattle repertory theater in the country produced all works in his ten-cycle and his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned .
Constanza Romero, his costume designer and third wife from 1994, bore Azula Carmen, his second daughter.
In 2005, August Wilson received the Anisfield-Wolf lifetime achievement award.
Wilson reported diagnosis with liver cancer in June 2005 with three to five months to live. He passed away at Swedish medical center in Seattle, and people interred his body at Greenwood cemetery, Pittsburgh on 8 October 2005.
His literary legacy embraces the ten series and received twice for drama for The Pittsburgh Cycle . Each depicted the comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience, set in different decade of the 20th century.
Daisy Wilson, an African American cleaning woman from North Carolina, in the hill district of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bore Frederick August Kittel, Junior, the fourth of six children, to Frederick August Kittel, Senior, a German immigrant baker. From North Carolina, maternal grandmother of Wilson earlier sought a better life and walked to Pennsylvania. After his fifth year, his mother raised the children alone in a two-room apartment above a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue.
After death of Frederick August Kittel, Senior, in 1965, his son changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother.
In 1968, Wilson co-founded the black horizon theater in the hill district of Pittsburgh alongside Rob Penny, his friend. People first performed his Recycling for audiences in small theaters and public housing community centers. Among these early efforts, he revised Jitney more than two decades later as part of his ten-cycle on 20th-century Pittsburgh.
Wilson married three times. His first marriage to Brenda Burton lasted from 1969 to 1972. She bore him Sakina Ansari, a daughter, in 1970.
Vernell Lillie founded of the Kuntu repertory theatre at the University of Pittsburgh in 1974 and, two years later, directed The Homecoming of Wilson in 1976.
Wilson also co-founded the workshop of Kuntu to bring African-Americans together and to assist them in publication and production. Both organizations still act.
Claude Purdy, friend and director, suggested to Wilson to move to Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1978 and helped him secure a job with educational scripts for the science museum. In 1980, he received a fellowship for the center in Minneapolis. Wilson long associated with the penumbra theatre company, which gave the premieres, of Saint Paul.
In 1981, he married to Judy Oliver, a social worker, and they divorced in 1990.
Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary doctor of humanities from the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as a member of the board of trustees from 1992 until 1995.
Wilson got a best known Tony award and the New York circle of drama critics; he authored Ma Rainey's Black Bottom , and Joe Turner's Come and Gone .
In 1994, Wilson left Saint Paul and developed a relationship with Seattle repertory theatre. Ultimately, only Seattle repertory theater in the country produced all works in his ten-cycle and his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned .
Constanza Romero, his costume designer and third wife from 1994, bore Azula Carmen, his second daughter.
In 2005, August Wilson received the Anisfield-Wolf lifetime achievement award.
Wilson reported diagnosis with liver cancer in June 2005 with three to five months to live. He passed away at Swedish medical center in Seattle, and people interred his body at Greenwood cemetery, Pittsburgh on 8 October 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 23, 2022
Mesmerizing
I had never heard ofAugust Wilson but soon learned that he was a famous playwright and won 2
Pulitzer prizes for his plays.
This book was a monolog and Was his Autobiography.. I have only seen 1 monolog performed in my life and that was, Monster in a Box by Spalding Gray. It was also mesmerizing. How 1 person can stand up and keep your attention for over an hour is beyond me, But I've seen it done twice. The 1st was on TV and this 1 was an audiobook.
His dialog begins
My ancestors have been in America since the 17th century, and for the 1st 244 years they have never been without a job. Since 1863 it has been hell. It has been hell because the ideas ind attitudes that the Americans had
toward the Slaves.
Then his dialog ends with this.
Demand respect from everyone, Your government, Your schools, your church, Your parents, Your lover, yourself. Demand respect. If it costs you your life, then you have lived a good life and died an honorable death.
Wilson's last comments took me back to berkley in the 1,970s. I was riding on a city bus, heading For Telegraph Avenue.2 men were on the bus arguing, 1 white the other black. It was a racial argument. When the bus stopped they both got off, still arguing I got off the bus and saw a crowd Of people hanging around them... Favorite both on the ground but the black man was on top of the white man, beating his head on the cement sidewalk. The white man was unconscious. My fear was that the black man was going to kill him or already had and no one was stopping it, just staring. I rushed over to the fight and said, Stop I'm the police! The young black man immediately got off the guy and begin walking, I stepped in beside him and for about Half a block we walked silently. I looked over at him and he was in a daze. He had lost himself in the fight. He turned to looked at me and said, you are not the police. I said nothing, but Add that moment a police woman walked up to him, grab his arm and took him
Of course, this is not what Wilson means by demanding respect. I have thought of this fight for many years in times like this when it has come back to my mind. I always wondered what happened to the black man and to the white man. But back then I really did not want to know because I was afraid of the Answer. I just hope that things worked out for both of these people.
I had never heard ofAugust Wilson but soon learned that he was a famous playwright and won 2
Pulitzer prizes for his plays.
This book was a monolog and Was his Autobiography.. I have only seen 1 monolog performed in my life and that was, Monster in a Box by Spalding Gray. It was also mesmerizing. How 1 person can stand up and keep your attention for over an hour is beyond me, But I've seen it done twice. The 1st was on TV and this 1 was an audiobook.
His dialog begins
My ancestors have been in America since the 17th century, and for the 1st 244 years they have never been without a job. Since 1863 it has been hell. It has been hell because the ideas ind attitudes that the Americans had
toward the Slaves.
Then his dialog ends with this.
Demand respect from everyone, Your government, Your schools, your church, Your parents, Your lover, yourself. Demand respect. If it costs you your life, then you have lived a good life and died an honorable death.
Wilson's last comments took me back to berkley in the 1,970s. I was riding on a city bus, heading For Telegraph Avenue.2 men were on the bus arguing, 1 white the other black. It was a racial argument. When the bus stopped they both got off, still arguing I got off the bus and saw a crowd Of people hanging around them... Favorite both on the ground but the black man was on top of the white man, beating his head on the cement sidewalk. The white man was unconscious. My fear was that the black man was going to kill him or already had and no one was stopping it, just staring. I rushed over to the fight and said, Stop I'm the police! The young black man immediately got off the guy and begin walking, I stepped in beside him and for about Half a block we walked silently. I looked over at him and he was in a daze. He had lost himself in the fight. He turned to looked at me and said, you are not the police. I said nothing, but Add that moment a police woman walked up to him, grab his arm and took him
Of course, this is not what Wilson means by demanding respect. I have thought of this fight for many years in times like this when it has come back to my mind. I always wondered what happened to the black man and to the white man. But back then I really did not want to know because I was afraid of the Answer. I just hope that things worked out for both of these people.
January 16, 2021
You already know August Wilson from Fences. You know him from Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, from the Piano Lesson. But I'm here to advise you read How I Learned What I Learned (properly written in two lines because it is two points: one is how he learned, one is what he learned). This is Wilson's autobiography, in his more natural language.I know this is ridiculous because he won two Pulitzers and a Tony. Maybe more than that. But this play is on a different level. It isn't more beautifully written or more honest than his other work, but it is more vulnerable, more exact. Fiction writers and playwrights are not required to tell us the full truth of their life experiences. They show us their own truths through others' stories. But August Wilson lays it all out on the line in How I Learned What I Learned and each scene holds some tiny, perfect diamond-formed-from-pressure truths. I've seen and read this play many times and never fail to cry when I read the full breadth of his language carefully, carefully winding me up the mountain that built him.This is a play that I prefer to read, though I have seen it performed beautifully, because it is difficult to take in full weight of Wilson's words when it's all spilled out in a monologue. I want to read this book like a bible, like a book on craft or habits, one section at a time to learn the lessons, to fully appreciate the life that ended with this piece.
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June 10, 2021Having read his entire Century series, I feel 10000% rewarded reading this piece. I could hear Wilson's smoky, East Coast accent and tempo reading every bit. Such a personal look into his life and, I'd guess, his inspiration for many of his characters. I love CY and his part... I wish that I could have seen this performed by Wilson himself, but will certainly look for it in Bay Area theatres in case it becomes a show. This is probably my favorite of all his work.
December 28, 2020
Excellent!! Mr. Wilson is a master at dialogue. I thoughtI might get bored reading a one man show but just the opposite happened for me. I could not put it down! What a fantastic way to write a memoir!
December 27, 2022
What an amazing life! What a moving play about the experiences that made little Freddie Kittel into America’s greatest playwright.
January 21, 2023
First time reading any August Wilson…gorgeous, extravagant stuff, funny, cutting and inspiring in equal measure. Blew right through it.
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April 6, 2024Saw this performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland in 2022. I don't usually like one-man shows but it was excellent.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews