Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom launched August Wilson’s remarkable career. It’s a knock-down powerful story that, with humor, energy and raw truth, goes straight to the heart of the Black experience in America. It’s 1927. It’s Chicago, and blues legend “Ma” Rainey and her band are making a record. Their white producers love the money the music brings in, but they don’t much care for the musicians who create it. Racial oppression, personal conflicts and a yearning to make a mark in the world collide in a drama as earthy as the music that inspired it. Directed by Timothy Bond.