Theatre Arts and Dance
College of Liberal Arts
Twin Cities
Award Year
2022
University Award
McKnight Presidential Fellow Award
Research Title
Rootedness in scholarship and performance practice
No Monument Location
Talvin Wilks is an acclaimed director, dramaturg and playwright with an almost 30 year professional career. For Wilks, politics and history become the rooted foundation in which to examine, by means of drama, identities continually divided by race, class, gender and sexuality and have informed his original works and collaborations which have reached Broadway, off-Broadway and national stages. His strength in these multi-faceted areas of creativity and performance is what makes him an inspiring and compassionate team builder, thoughtful, and highly skilled master-teacher, a generous mentor, and an intrepid advocate for undergraduate students’ intellectual and artistic endeavors.