Get Ready for Dr. Kimberly C. Ellis on Nov 22!

Kimberly C. Ellis, Ph.D. is a Scholar of American and Africana Studies, an Artist, Activist and Entrepreneur, as well as a playwright, world traveler and international thought leader on culture, gender and social technology. As a playwright and performer, she toured across the United States with her One Woman Show and presented her latest play, “AfroRoma, a Love Story,” in readings in Memphis, Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Ghana at the National Theatre of Ghana. She is the co-founder of the Daisy Wilson Artist Community (DWAC), which became the August Wilson House, for which she is a founding Board member and the first Digital Director.

Dr. Ellis is also the founder of the civic tech project, #BlackPoliticsMatter, the co-founder of #AskaSista, the author of the upcoming book, “The Bombastic Brilliance of Black Twitter,” the creator of #ATripOffTheOldBlock, chronicling her world travels and group trips, and the producer of “You’re Beautiful to Me,” a feature documentary film chronicling the journey with her Mother’s dementia.

As the maternal niece of the late, great playwright, August Wilson, and having grown up on his plays in the famed, Historic Hill District that serves as the setting for the majority of of Wilson dramas, Dr. Ellis is an expert on his works, as both a scholar and practitioner. Dr. Ellis has been teaching me n August Wilson since her 1996 course on “The Black Family” at Purdue University. She taught the first seminar course on August Wilson Dramas at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the first seminar course at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Ellis has also taught Black Theater and August Wilson’s “Fences” in China, using a Mandarin script. 

Dr. Ellis wrote the Introduction to the guidebook, "August Wilson: Pittsburgh Places in His Life and Plays" by Laurence A. Glasco and Christopher Rawson, published by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. Dr. Ellis served as a Consultant on the American Masters / WQED documentary on August Wilson and is also in the documentary, which aired February 20, 2015.

Dr. Ellis is looking forward to the opportunity to finish her memoir about growing up on August Wilson’s plays and what it was like to have such a close relationship with her “Uncle Freddy,” while living in the Historic Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and throughout her time traveling the country in graduate school.