Riley Temple

Event details

Riley Temple will discuss his latest book Aunt Ester’s Children Redeemed: Journeys to Freedom in August Wilson’s Ten Plays of Twentieth-century Black America. Temple demonstrates how Wilson uses language (including poetry and the blues) to bring each play’s characters to a point of redemption and freedom. Wilson employs fundamental theological doctrines to exhort Aunt Ester’s children to remember by whom and how they were free and made whole. Temple, a Washington, DC arts advocate, holds his JD from Georgetown and a Master in Theological Studies, cum laude, from the Virginia Theological Seminary. Temple will be in discussion with Timothy Douglas (2017 National Black Theatre Festival Lloyd Richards Director Award), Jennifer Nelson (Associate Artist at Mosaic Theater), and Deidra Starnes (Duke Ellington School of the Arts), with moderator Ann Greer (Theater Consultant at The Phillips Collection). 

Creative Voices DC is an initiative of the Center for Art and Knowledge to engage with the creative community of the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, consisting of panels, discussions, or lectures. Inaugurated in 2011 during the museum’s 90th anniversary year, it aims to bring together local visual artists, collectors, curators, writers, designers, and performers. Participants are encouraged to discuss the creative process, current work, and exchange ideas. The idea for Creative Voices DC aligns closely with what museum founder Duncan Phillips felt to be an important part of his life and of his institution: the unwavering appreciation and support of living artists. Phillips believed that “artists speak not only for themselves but for those of us who are intensely interested in other ways of seeing than our own.”