At a performance of any one of the ten plays in August Wilson’s “Century Cycle” (also known as his “Pittsburgh Cycle”), the experience of the African American community in the twentieth century is relived.  Spoken in the voices and embodied in the gestures of actors, the comedy and tragedy of life dramatically grants each member of the audience an opportunity to reconsider the past.  August Wilson was born in the Hill District of Pittsburgh in 1945.  The Hill District (where all but one of the plays is set) remains a vibrant part of the African American community in Pittsburgh, but Wilson does not obscure the varied transitions all communities have faced, oftentimes involuntarily.  History serves as the source of strength in understanding the contemporary moment.  For all of us, a transcendent irrelevance is always lived against a background of immanent relevance.