Ep. 7 - CHADWICK BOSEMAN: History x Purpose = Destiny
Chadwick Boseman as Levee Green in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020). Photo credit: Netflix
Episode 7 looks at the artistic journey of CHADWICK BOSEMAN best known for the iconic role T’Challah/Black Panther in the Marvel Universe films.
A purpose-driven artist, Chadwick Boseman's creative choices (and willingness to struggle) led to his destiny of creating celebrated portrayals of historical and fictional people.
In this podcast we talk about Chad – as he was known to those closest to him – through the eyes of Howard University Professor emerita Vera J. Katz, classmate and colleague director/playwright Psalmayene 24, and the Boston Sisters. We talk about our connections with Chadwick Boseman as student, actor/director/writer, his work creating Hip-Hop theater with Howard classmates, and his portrayals in historical drama films and biopics.
The Boston Sisters ends the podcast with a conversation on his performance as Levee Green in the film adaptation of the August Wilson play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom bringing Chadwick Boseman’s artistic journey full circle.
*Note: Year the Iola's Letter scene between Ida B. Wells and Thomas Moss in Memphis takes place is 1892, not 1893 as mentioned in the podcast.
Professor Vera J. Katz (left); Psalmayene 24 (right)
VERA J. KATZ
Vera J. Katz is Professor Emerita of Howard University and an esteemed acting and directing professor. Professor Katz’s teaching techniques have shaped the careers of many of today’s brightest stars from Broadway to Hollywood. Her former students include
Chadwick Boseman who’s most well-known for his iconic portrayal of Black Panther.
Blackish’s Anthony Anderson
Phylicia Rashad, now serving as Dean of the Howard University College of Fine Arts
Debbie Allen, a recent Kennedy Center Honors Awardee
Corey Hawkins who recently appeared in the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights
Professor Katz’s career teaching African American actors at Howard University and the Duke Ellington School for the Arts in Washington, DC spans 50 years. She’s encouraged her students to bring their culture and history into their creative work, and shares her techniques in her highly anticipated book A Katz Walk: Tools and Techniques for Actors and Directors.
Connect with Professor Katz on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
PSALMAYENE 24
Psalmayene 24 (a.k.a. Gregory Morrison) is a Howard University alumni and an award-winning playwright, director, and actor. Psalm—as his colleagues call him—is currently The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Mosaic Theater. He is the writer and lyricist of The Blackest Battle (Theater Alliance) and the writer, director, and lyricist of the film The Freewheelin’ Insurgents (Arena Stage).
Directing credits include Flow by Will Power (Studio Theatre), Necessary Sacrifices: A Radio Play by Richard Hellesen (Ford’s Theatre), Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu (Studio Theatre), Native Son by Nambi E. Kelley (Mosaic Theater), and Word Becomes Flesh —recipient of five 2017 Helen Hayes Awards, including Outstanding Direction of a Play—by Marc Bamuthi Joseph (Theater Alliance).
His one man play, Free Jujube Brown!, is recognized as a seminal work in Hip-Hop Theatre and is published in the anthology, Plays from the Boom-Box Galaxy: Theater from the Hip-Hop Generation (TCG). His most recent work Dear Mapel, written and performed by Psalmayene 24, is a coming of age story from adolescence to major life milestones accentuated by the absence of his father Mapel.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was Chadwick Boseman’s final film before his death from cancer in August, 2020 at age 43. Chad would win Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe, Critics Choice, and NAACP Image awards posthumously for his performance as trumpet player Levee Green in the film.
Directed by George C. Wolfe and adapted by Ruben Santiago-Hudson from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom celebrates the transformative power of the blues and the artists who refuse to let society’s prejudices dictate their worth. Denzel Washington is one of the producers, and Branford Marsalis produced the score.
Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey (Academy Award® winner Viola Davis). As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious cornet player Levee (Chadwick Boseman) is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry.
Available on Netflix
Chadwick Aaron Boseman
Chadwick Aaron Boseman (November 29, 1976 - August 28, 2020) is best known for his iconic role as T’Challa/Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film franchise which produced the film Black Panther. He’s also known for his roles in several historical biopics including 42 in which he portrays baseball great Jackie Robinson. In Get On Up, Chadwick plays the Godfather of Soul R&B singer James Brown. And in Marshall he is civil rights attorney and future supreme court justice Thurgood Marshall. In historical fiction films Chadwick is Commander “Stormin” Norman Earl Holloway as seen in flashbacks of fellow Vietnam War comrades in Da 5 Bloods, and the ambitious trumpet player Levee Green in the 1920s Blues Jazz era drama, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Born in Anderson, South Carolina, Chadwick attended and graduated from Howard University’s theater arts department where he majored in directing and also studied acting and playwriting. (Howard’s College of Fine Arts was named for him in 2021.) Award-winning actor, Howard alumna, and current dean of the College of Fine Arts Phylicia Rashad requested a sponsorship from Denzel Washington for Chadwick and other promising Howard theater students to attend the British American Dramatic Academy at Oxford.
Chadwick also collaborated with fellow Howard classmates in writing, directing, and producing Hip Hop plays and festivals. His play Deep Azure (2005), is included in the anthology Say Word!: Voices from Hip Hop Theater edited by Daniel Banks and published by University of Michigan Press.
In 2018, Chadwick Boseman delivered the commencement speech at his alma mater, Howard University, where he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. The speech can be viewed on YouTube. A transcript (with video) is available in this Washington Post feature.
You can stream and watch films featuring Chadwick Boseman mentioned in this episode via subscription, rent, or buy:
42 (2013) directed by Brian Helgeland - available on HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Apple tv, YouTube
Get On Up (2014) directed by Tate Taylor - available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple tv, YouTube
Marshall (2017) directed by Reginald Hudlin - available on Amazon Prime, Apple tv, YouTube
Black Panther (2018) directed by Ryan Coogler - available on Disney+, Apple tv, TBS, TNT
Da 5 Bloods (2020) directed by Spike Lee - available on Netflix
Also check your local library to borrow these titles on DVD.
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Use the MBGLtd contact form for information about the play Iola’s Letter: The Memphis Crusade of Ida B. Wells by Michon Boston