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What the Wine-Sellers Buy Plus Three Four Plays by Ron Milner Foreword by Amiri Baraka Introduction by Woodie King Jr.

The four Milner plays collected here —Checkmates, What the Wine-Sellers Buy, Jazz-Set, and Urban Transition —are characterized by their attention to African American social and psychological culture. Checkmates (1990) explores the relationships of two black couples who are generations apart in age and attitudes —one new at the games and realities of love, the other experienced. What the Wine-Sellers Buy (1974), a coming-of-age tale set on Detroit streets in the 1950s, looks at the conflict between the lure of the streets and a mother's teachings. The highly innovative Jazz-Set is Milner's tribute to jazz —a play that works like a jazz composition, where the musicians and music are one, and characters' life experiences and memories are "played" as music. Urban Transition (1995) picks up on themes introduced in What the Wine-Sellers Buy to examine how the drug subculture has made its way into current mainstream culture.

"Detroit is to the Black Theater movement what New Orleans is to jazz, because of the contributions of three men: Lloyd Richards; Woodie King; and Ron Milner." —August Wilson "Ron Milner, a native Detroit writer, is one of the most produced and highly respected African American playwrights. Since the 1960s his works have become staples of African American theaters around the country" —Bill Harris, Wayne State University

African American Life Series $37.95s cloth / ISBN 0-8143-2977-2 $22.95s paper ISBN 0-8143-2929-2 232 pages / 6 x 9 2001 contents > introduction [partial] > extract from "Checkmates" >