Folio Fiction Discussion Group: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (A Play)

Folio's Fiction book discussion group features a list of classic fiction, curated and led by Folio Librarian Lillian Dabney.

This month features   by August Willson. The time is 1927. The place is a run-down recording studio in Chicago. Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer is due to arrive with her entourage to cut new sides of old favorites. Waiting for her are her black musician sidemen, the white owner of the record company, and her white manager. What goes down in the session to come is more than music. It is a riveting portrayal of black rage...of racism, of the self hate that racism breeds, and of racial expression.Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: A Play

was a major American playwright whose work has been consistently acclaimed as among the finest of the American theater. His first play, , won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best new play o…