PITTSBURGH, PA. – Spokane mixed media artist Tracy Poindexter-Canton has returned from Pittsburgh after being selected as one of just 10 artists in the nation, and the only artist on the West Coast, to create an original work honoring legendary playwright August Wilson.
Poindexter-Canton’s mixed media piece, “So Live, My Gems,” was inspired by Gem of the Ocean, the first play in Wilson’s acclaimed 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle. The work will now live permanently at the August Wilson House, Wilson’s childhood home in Pittsburgh, which today serves as an arts center and cultural landmark dedicated to preserving and advancing his legacy.
For Poindexter-Canton, the opportunity was both deeply personal and profoundly meaningful.
“To have my work permanently housed in August Wilson’s childhood home is an extraordinary honor,” said Poindexter-Canton. “Being in Pittsburgh and spending time in a place so deeply connected to Wilson’s life and vision made his legacy feel even more alive, rooted and urgent. August Wilson told Black stories with tenderness, complexity, truth and an uncompromising sense of dignity. As a Black artist, that kind of example is both affirming and instructive.”
She said the experience strengthened her sense of responsibility as an artist committed to storytelling, memory and cultural expression.
“It reminded me that our work is never just decorative. It carries history, spirit and witness,” Poindexter-Canton said. “It asks us to honor where we come from, to tell the truth about our people, and to create with intention. I left Pittsburgh feeling even more committed to making work that is layered, honest and anchored in Black life, beauty and resilience.”
Poindexter-Canton’s connection to Wilson’s work stretches back more than two decades. She has been seeing Wilson’s plays since the early 2000s, many of them through Seattle Repertory Theatre while she was an undergraduate student at Seattle University. She has now seen eight of the 10 plays in Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle and plans to see a ninth on Broadway this May.
She credits Seattle Repertory Theatre with helping make Wilson’s work accessible to her during those formative years and notes the significance of Seattle in Wilson’s own life, as he later relocated there.
“August Wilson’s plays have meant a great deal to me as both a writer and visual artist,” Poindexter-Canton said. “I’m deeply grateful to Seattle Repertory Theatre for making so many of his plays available to audiences like me during my undergraduate years. Those experiences stayed with me. Wilson understood how place, language, ancestry and everyday people could hold epic meaning. To create work in conversation with his legacy felt sacred.”
Known for her vibrant, textured mixed media pieces, Poindexter-Canton often blends literary inspiration with portraiture, collage and layered materials to explore identity, memory and Black American life. Her selection for this national opportunity places her work in dialogue with one of the country’s most revered artistic legacies and ensures that her contribution will remain part of the August Wilson House for years to come.