377 Phillis Wheatley & the Playwright

Ben Franklin's World

2023 marked the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Phillis Wheatley's published book of poetry in the British American colonies.

Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved African woman who, as a teenager, became the first published African author of a book of poetry written in English.

Ade Solanke, an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, has written two plays about Phillis Wheatley’s life to commemorate the semiquincentennial of Wheatley’s literary accomplishments. She joins us to not only explore the life of Phillis Wheatley, but also how playwrights use and research history to help them create dramatic works of art. Works of art that can help us forge an emotional connection with the past.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/377 Sponsor Links

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 008: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America
• Episode 086: Ben Franklin in London
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
• Episode 132: Indigenous London
• Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
• Episode 170: New England Bound: Slavery in Early New England

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