The U.S. Postal Service will honor Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson as their 44th addition to the Black Heritage series. He will be featured on a commemorative Forever stamp officially released Thursday, Jan. 28, at 11:30 a.m. It’s available for pre-order here. 

The Postal Service will host a virtual celebration through its social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter. News of the stamp’s release is being shared with the hashtags #AugustWilsonForever and #BlackHeritageSeries. More information about participating in this virtual event can be found on the U.S.P.S. website. 

August Wilson, who died in 2005, is a Pulitzer prize-winning playwright renowned for bringing previously marginalized voices to American theater. The stamp, designed by Ethel Kessler and Tim O’Brien, features an oil painting of Wilson from a 2005 photograph. Behind Wilson lies a white picket fence, a tribute to his play “Fences,” the sixth in his ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle. “Fences” was turned into a movie, which was filmed in Pittsburgh. Each of the plays in this cycle explore African American experiences throughout the 20th century.