Black Wings: A Musical Based on the Life of Bessie Coleman

Book and Lyrics by: Theodore Shank Music by: William Harper

Synopsis: "On a Texas Range in 1922, Cody, a white cowboy is aching with boredom when an open cockpit biplane comes into view, sputters, and disappears.  Soon, Bessie, a young black woman dressed as an aviator, appears carrying a gasoline can.  As night falls, Bessie's gospel-singing spiritual mentos, Moselynne, appears in the heavens commanding her to help her people to fly, to fill the sky with the music of black wings.  But Bessie has a dilemma - at the urging of the jazzy siren-like Dead Aviatrixes she is tempted to fly to stardom.  Cody follows Bessie to Chicago where she descends into the slaughterhouse grime of the city, and

Bessie flies, performing as a stunt pilot in rented dilapidated planes.  The obstacles she faces, including the enmity of veteran World War I pilots who think that women should not lark around in cloudland, almost cause her to lose hope.  When Bessie is about to achieve Moselynne's dream, she is thrown from her rented plane during a risky stunt.  The Dead Aviatrixes and Moselynne celebrate Bessie's life as she joins them." - Theodore Shank, Writer (1)

(1) Theodore Shank, "Black Wings: Synopsis," www-acs.ucsd.edu/%7etshank/bcsyn.html (accessed April 15, 2004)

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