Lorraine Hansberry has many notable relatives including director and playwright Shauneille Perry, whose eldest child is named after her. . Lorraine identified as an American radical and believed that extreme change was necessary to fight against racism and injustice internationally. Top 10 Things to do Around the Eiffel Tower, 10 Things to Do in Paris on Christmas Day (2022), 10 Things to Do in Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. The Washington, D.C., office searched her passport files "in an effort to obtain all available background material on the subject, any derogatory information contained therein, and a photograph and complete description," while officers in Milwaukee and Chicago examined her life history. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Hansberry in the biographical dictionary 100 Greatest African Americans. Princeton Professor Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine, wrote that she was a feminist before the feminist movement. Much of her work during this time concerned the African struggles for liberation and their impact on the world. How would you rate this article? She spent the summer of 1949 in Mexico, studying painting at the University of Guadalajara. Bottom Row (left to right): T. S. Eliot; Lorraine Hansberry; Martin Buber; Otto Neurath. The FBI began surveillance of Hansberry when she prepared to go to the Montevideo peace conference. This made her the first Chicago native to be honored along the North Halsted corridor. Perry explains that though the term radical has negative associations, for Lorraine, American radicalism was both a passion and a commitment. Lorraines experiences growing up in this environment informed her writing, which often dealt with issues of race, class, and identity. Language English. This money comes from the deceased Mr. Younger's life insurance policy. When she died of pancreatic cancer in 1965, she was only 34 years old. . The sq. For some facts about W.E.B Du Bois CLICK HERE, Theatrical release poster for the 1961 film. Image by Eden, Janine and Jim from Wikimedia. She moved to New York City and became involved in the arts scene, working as a writer and editor for various publications. She was born to Carl Augustus Hansberry and Nonnie Louise. After Simone died on. Your email address will not be published. The granddaughter of a freed enslaved person, and the youngest by seven years of four children, Lorraine Vivian Hansberry 3rd was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Copyright 2023 All Rights ReservedPrivacy Policy, Film & Stage Adaptations of Classic Novels, The first Black woman to have a play staged on Broadway, In 1969, four years after Lorraine Hansberrys death, Nina Simone wrote, Princeton Professor Imani Perry, author of, She addressed social issues in her writings. The Lorraine Hansberry residence, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2021, is nationally significant for its association with the pioneering Black lesbian playwright, writer, and activist, Lorraine Hansberry. She also enjoys creative writing, content writing on nearly any topic, because as a lifelong learner, she loves research. A selection of her writings was produced on Broadway asTo Be Young, Gifted, and Black(1969; book 1970). Book Details. and then "L.N." While many of her other writings were published in her lifetime essays, articles, and the text for the SNCC book The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality the only other play given a contemporary production was The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in a family that was deeply involved in the civil rights movement. Hansberry graduated from Betsy Ross Elementary in 1944 and from Englewood High School in 1948. . Follow her on Twitter at@emilykpowers. 1. Born on the 19 th of May in 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, Lorraine Hansberry was a bright daughter of Carl Augustus Hansberry, a political activist, while her mother, Nannie Louise, was a schoolteacher. I saw it on Broadway, its an excellent play and homage to Lorraine Hansberry! Bella Sanchez is a recent graduate from Boston University, and the marketing intern for Beacon Press. In 1938, after her father bought a house in the south side of Chicago, the family was subject to the wrath of their white neighbors, resulting in U.S. Supreme CourtsHansberry v. Leecase. When Lorraine was seven years old, the family bought a house in a mostly white neighborhood. The title is found in the PBS new American Masters category under Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart. In the documentary youll discover that Hansberry truly spoke truth to power.. Important Feminists you should know. Her best-known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of black Americans in Chicago living under racial segregation. An alarm sounds, and a woman wakes. Lorraine Hansberry, (born May 19, 1930, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.died January 12, 1965, New York, New York), American playwright whose A Raisin in the Sun (1959) was the first drama by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. She was particularly interested in the situation of Egypt, "the traditional Islamic 'cradle of civilization,' where women had led one of the most important fights anywhere for the equality of their sex.". She worked on Henry A. Wallace's Progressive Party presidential campaign in 1948, despite her mother's disapproval. Hansberry was associated with very important people. Raisin, her best-known work, would eventually become a highly lauded film starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, and Diana Sands. Hansberry received many awards for her work, including a New York Critics' Circle Award, an award at the Cannes Film Festival. She is best known for writing "A Raisin in the Sun," the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway. Happy travels! Her father was brave and daring enough to move his family into an all white neighborhood during tumultuous times. Since that time, other artists including Aretha Franklin have covered the song, whichbegins: To be young, gifted and black Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) Hansberry was an activist and playwright best known for her groundbreaking play "A Raisin in the Sun," about a struggling Black family on Chicago's South Side. Additionally, she wrote scripts at Freedom. The late artist also has a school, Lorraine Hansberry Academy, in the Bronx named after her as well as an elementary school in Queen, New York, titled in her honor. In 2014, the play was revived on Broadway again in a production starring Denzel Washington, directed again by Kenny Leon; it won three Tony Awards, for Best Revival of a Play, Best Featured Actress in a Play for Sophie Okonedo, and Best Direction of a Play. It was a critical time in the history of the civil rights movement. The song has also famously been recorded by artists including Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway. :). . In April 1959, as a sign of her sudden fame just one month after A Raisin in the Sun premiered on Broadway, photographer David Attie did an extensive photo-shoot of Hansberry for Vogue magazine, in the apartment at 337 Bleecker Street where she had written Raisin, which produced many of the best-known images of her today. 236 pp. Though A Raisin in the Sun is the crown jewel in Hansberrys legacy, she was also known for the playsThe Sign in Sidney Brusteins Windowand Les Blancs. In 1960, during Delta Sigma Theta's 26th national convention in Chicago, Hansberry was made an honorary member. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. A Raisin in the Sun marked the turning point for black artists in professional theater. ", In a Town Hall debate on June 15, 1964, Hansberry criticized white liberals who could not accept civil disobedience, expressing a need to "encourage the white liberal to stop being a liberal and become an American radical." Hansberry's writings also discussed her lesbianism and the oppression of homosexuality. Race & Ethnicity in America Her father, Carl Augustus Hansberry, was a. Lorraine Hansberry was an avid civil rights activist because she understood clearly, that people need a champion in this life. The result is an essay that, nearly two decades later, surpasses any document on Lorraine, old or new, in its exploration of her intimate life. In 2013, Hansberry was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, in recognition of her contributions to American culture and civil rights activism. [1] She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. between family and gender expectations and the way homophobia could crush intimacies in the most heartbreaking of ways even as romantic love made space for them (86). Some books that he created include Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger (1995), Sideways . Kicks. Hansberry herself led an extraordinary life, which is profiled in the . . April 14, 2021. As the first-ever black woman to author a play performed on. Heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it has since closed. She attended the University of WisconsinMadison, where she immediately became politically active with the Communist Party USA and integrated a dormitory. Full title A Raisin in the Sun. She underwent two operations, on June 24 and August 2. In 1938, the family moved to a white neighborhood and was violently attacked by its inhabitants but the former refused to vacate the area until ordered to do so by the Supreme Court where the case was addressed as Hansberry v. Lee. Over the next two years, Raisin was translated into 35 languages and was being performed all over the world. After she moved to New York City, Hansberry worked at the Pan-Africanist newspaper Freedom, where she worked with other intellectuals such as Paul Robeson and W. E. B. She was both a civil rights activist and a feminist deeply involved in the civil rights movement in the United States and her writing often dealt with issues of race and inequality. She was raised in a strong family, the youngest of three children born to Nannie Perry Hansberry and Carl Augustus Hansberry. Her cousin is the flutist, percussionist, and composer Aldridge Hansberry. . In the same year, Hansberry was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which took her life at a mere age of 34. . Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer on January 12, 1965, aged 34. In 2013, Hansberry was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display that celebrates LGBT history and people. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940), to which the playwright Lorraine Hansberry's father was a party, when he fought to have his day in court despite the fact that a previous class action about racially motivated restrictive covenants, Burke v. Kleiman, 277 Ill. App. Hansberry and Nemiroff moved to Greenwich Village, the setting of her second Broadway play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. A Raisin in the Sun Mass Market Paperbound Lorraine Hansberry. She was also the youngest playwright and the first Black winner of the prestigious Drama Critics Circle Awardfor Best Play. At the age of 29, she won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award making her the first African-American dramatist, the fifth woman, and the youngest playwright to do so. In the book, readers get bits and pieces of Perry, too, as she describes her journey with Lorraine, detailing her thoughts as both an admirer, and a biographer. Perry truly brings Lorraine to life in this intimate book. 190-71 111th Ave , Saint Albans, NY 11412 is a single-family home listed for-sale at $799,000. Du Bois and Paul Robeson. It was with those friends and Nemiroff that she kept a secret about the pancreatic cancer that would eventually take her life on January 12, 1965, at age 34. The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry following illustrate her development as a Black woman, activist, and writer. Imani Perrys Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry is a watershed biography of the award-winning playwright, activist, and artist Lorraine Hansberry. In 2013, Hansberry was also inducted into the Legacy Walk, making her the first Chicago-native to receive the honour, along with a position in the American Theatre Hall of Fame in the same year. Later, an FBI reviewer of Raisin in the Sun highlighted its Pan-Africanist themes as "dangerous". Feminism & Gender Later, Hansberry would maintain her own close bonds with Du Bois, Robeson, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin. In 2004, A Raisin in the Sun was revived on Broadway in a production starring Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Phylicia Rashad, and Audra McDonald, and directed by Kenny Leon. Hansberry joined CORE in the late 1950s and became involved in various civil rights campaigns, including the fight against housing discrimination in Chicago. Performers in this pageant included Paul Robeson, his longtime accompanist Lawrence Brown, the multi-discipline artist Asadata Dafora, and numerous others. Not only did Hansberry address social and racial issues in her novels and plays, but she also wrote articles true to her voice and beliefs for a progressive Black journal, James Baldwin was her close friend and confidant. In 1959, Hansberry commented that women who are "twice oppressed" may become "twice militant". The show ran for more than two years and won two Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The statue will be sent on a tour of major US cities. Book Recommendation: 10 Best Books to Read About African History. Celebrating 100 Years of Howard Zinn, Our Supremely Regressive Court of the Unsettled States: A Resisters Reading List, Free eBook Downloads of Resources for the Movement to End Gun Violence, Observation Post: Individual Liberty vs. Public SafetyOur Distorted Thinking About Gun Control, Black Women Physicians Stories Have Gone Untold for Far Too Long, Sister Rosetta Tharpes Ancestral Rocking and Rolling Aint Through Just Yet, The Rebellious Mrs. Rosa Parks Youll Meet in Peacocks Documentary, Beacon Behind the Books: Meet Matt Davis, Chief Financial Officer, with Clifford Manko. Despite not finishing college, Hansberry went on to achieve great success as a playwright and activist. Publisher Random House. Due to racial differences, Lorraine and her family faced racism when she was just eight. He gathered her unpublished writings and first adapted them into a stage play, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which ran off Broadway from 1968 to 1969. The restrictive covenant was ruled contestable, though not inherently invalid; these covenants were eventually ruled unconstitutional in Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948). Copyright 2016 FamousAfricanAmericans.org, Museum Dedicated to African American History and Culture is Set to Open in 2016, Scholarships for African Americans Black Scholarships, Top 10 Most Famous Black Actors of All Time. As a playwright. She was a trailblazer in the civil rights movement and an advocate for social justice. Lorraine Hansberry was born at Provident Hospital on the South Side of Chicago on May 19, 1930. Here are nine radical and radiant facts from Looking for Lorraine to introduce you to one of the most gifted, charismatic, yet least understood, Black artists. The thing I tried to show was the many gradations in even one Negro family, the clash of the old and the new, but most of all the unbelievable courage of the Negro people.. Fact 1: The one fact you might already know! The granddaughter of a freed slave, Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, to a successful real estate broker and a school teacher who resided in Chicago, Illinois. Her grandniece is the actress Taye Hansberry. Being nothing short of brilliant in her approach, Hansberry wielded the full power of the pen in the punchy writing style that was and still is hard to ignore. Her best-known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of black Americans in Chicago living under racial segregation. And thats a fact! The youngest of four siblings, she was seven years younger than Mamie, her . Hansberry traveled to Georgia to cover the case of Willie McGee, and was inspired to write the poem "Lynchsong" about his case. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun exploded onto American theater scene on March 11, 1959, with such force that it garnered for the then-unknown black female playwright the Drama Circle Critics Award for 1958-59 in spite of such luminous competition as Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth . It was, in fact, a requirement for human decency (150). One of her first reports covered the Sojourners for Truth and Justice convened in Washington, D.C., by Mary Church Terrell. Du Bois, whose office was in the same building, and other Black Pan-Africanists. Lorraine Hansberry wrote the plays A Raisin in the Sun (1959) and The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window(1964). Hansberry often explained these global struggles in terms of female participants. At Freedom, she worked with W. E. B. $26.95. . Lorraine Hansberry Speaks! In 2014, the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust published a wealth of never-before-seen letters, writings, and journal entries, her heart and her mind put down on paper. Perry pored over these pages, and four years later wrote Looking for Lorraine. . This script was called "superb" but also rejected. However, Hansberry only attended university for two years before dropping out and moving to New York City where she went to the New School for Social Research. Clybourne Park is a "spin-off" of Lorraine Hansberry's famous 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun, meaning that it centers around some of the play's peripheral events and characters.Specifically, the main characters of A Raisin in the Sun the Younger familywill eventually move into the house in which Clybourne Park is set. The local Chicago government was willing to eject the Hansberrys from their new home but Lorraine's father, Carl Hansberry, took their case to court. Photo of a scene from the play A Raisin in the Sun. The award-winning playwright whose 90th birthday would have been this week first captured the public eye during the civil rights movement. Genre Realist drama. Required fields are marked *. In 1959, Hansberry was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play for A Raisin in the Sun, making her the first black playwright and the youngest playwright to win the award at the time. Hansberry was interested in writing from an early age and while in high school was drawn especially to the theatre. Best known for her plays, Hansberry was the first black woman to write a Broadway drama; A Raisin in the . This page was last modified on 24 February 2023, at 15:15. Hansberry and Simone had been friends and shared a bond over their interests in social justice and radical politics. While she struggled privately to maintain her health, Lorraine never quelled her radicalism and role in the liberation. This experience is reflected in Raisin in how unwelcoming the white community was to the Younger family in Clybourne Park. Posted at 04:07 PM in Beacon Staff, Biography and Memoir, Emily Powers, Imani Perry, Literature and the Arts, Looking for Lorraine, Queer Perspectives, Race and Ethnicity in America | Permalink Hansberry may not have finished college, but she went on to make significant contributions to American culture and society through her art and activism. Time and place written 1950s, New York. Thank you for this detailed and well-written article about an amazing young woman! Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest of four children born to Carl Augustus Hansberry, a successful real-estate broker and Nannie Louise (born Perry), a driving school teacher and ward committeewoman. She was later quoted as saying that American racism helped kill him.. 519 (1934), had been similar to his situation. It was previously ruled that African Americans were not allowed to purchase property in the Washington Park subdivision in Chicago, Illinois. Lorraine Hansberry was an African-American playwright, writer and activist who lived from 1930 to 1965. Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in a family that was deeply involved in the civil rights movement. However, the writer adopted the initials of L.H. The New York Drama Critics Circle Award (NYDCC) is an annual award given by an organization composed of theatre critics who review plays and musicals in New York City. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" Her other works include the plays The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window and Les Blancs, as well as several essays and articles on civil rights and social justice issues. Not only did she have a play, but her drama, A. On June 9, 2022, the Lilly Awards Foundation unveiled a statue of Hansberry in Times Square. It was always, Marx, Lenin and revolutionreal girls talk.. She was the president of her colleges chapter of Young Progressives of America, she and worked on progressive candidate Henry Wallaces presidential campaign. Hansberrys work as a writer and activist was groundbreaking in its exploration of the experiences of African American women. Hansberry, an outspoken Communist, was committed to racial equity and participated in civil rights demonstrations. Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930-January 12, 1965) was a playwright, essayist, and civil rights activist. A Reader's Guide to Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun - Pamela Loos 2008-01-01 Presents a critique and analysis of "A Raisin in the Sun," discussing the plot, themes, dramatic devices, and major characters in the play, and includes a brief overview of Hansberry's other works. . Along these lines, she wrote a critical review of Richard Wright's The Outsider and went on to style her final play Les Blancs as a foil to Jean Genet's absurdist Les Ngres. The paper published articles about feminist movements, global anti-colonialist struggles, and domestic activism against Jim Crow laws. You think you're accomplishing something in life until you realize that at age 29, playwright Lorraine Hansberry had a play produced on Broadway. Hansberry's most famous work, "A Raisin In The Sun" remains one of the best known plays ever written by a Black female playwright. Lorraine Hansberry, likely at a welcoming event for the African-American Students Foundation in 1959. Louis Gossett, Jr., credited her with being a bit ahead of here time, but nonetheless, an effective female activist. She used her writing to redefine difference. Hansberry worked on not only the US civil rights movement, but also global struggles against colonialism and imperialism. She expressed a desire for a future in which "Nobody fights. She explored the issues of colonialism and imperialism through her own lens as well as the female perspective. Lorraine Hansberry The Member of the Wedding The Metamorphosis The Natural The Plague The Plot Against America The Portrait of a Lady The Power of Sympathy The Red Badge of Courage The Road The Road from Coorain The Sound and the Fury The Stone Angel The Stranger The Sun Also Rises The Temple of My Familiar The Three Musketeers An innovative network of theatres and community organisations, founded by the National Theatre in 2017 to grow nationwide engagement with theatre, expands. I found myself wishing I could have been Lorraines friend, or at the very least, a fly on the wall during some of her passionate discussions about politics, race, literature and art with friends and colleagues. There are several pieces of evidence that suggest Hansberrys same-sex attraction. Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1930. Near the end of her life, she declared herself "committed [to] this homosexuality thing" and vowing to "create my lifenot just accept it". A documentary has been made about her writing, Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain is so taken with Lorraines work that she put together a powerful documentary so people would know who she was and what she stood for. . She is a tremendously important historical figure and through the documentary, Strain and her crew are making the public aware of just who Lorraine Hansberry was, what she stood for, and why her radical work is so important to the world today. Terkel, Studs. Lorraine Hansberry, child of a cultured, middle-class black family but early exposed to the poverty and discrimination suffered by most blacks in America, fought passionately against racism in her writings and throughout her life. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (2004, Mass Market, Reprint) $0.99 + $5.65 shipping. A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. Her father, Carl Augustus Hansberry, was a successful real estate entrepreneur involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Urban League. Her play premiered on Broadway in 1959 and made history by being the first Broadway production written by an African American woman. . . . Fact 5: Indeed, Lorraine was an outspoken political activist from a young age. The success of the hit pop song "Cindy, Oh Cindy", co-authored by Nemiroff, enabled Hansberry to start writing full-time. Hansberry wrote two screenplays of Raisin, both of which were rejected as controversial by Columbia Pictures. Discover Walks contributors speak from all corners of the world - from Prague to Bangkok, Barcelona to Nairobi. In 1950, Hansberry decided to leave Madison and pursue her career as a writer in New York City, where she attended The New School. 2. Lorraine Hansberry was an American playwright whoseA Raisin in the Sun(1959) was the firstdramaby anAfrican American woman to be produced on Broadway. Their white neighbors tried their best to make them move . Baldwin remembers: Her face changed and changed, the way Sojourner Truth's face must have changed and changed . At the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust, which represents and oversees the late writer's literary work, there's a guiding mantra: "Lorraine Is Of The Future." Rachel Brosnahan and Oscar . In 1961, the play was made into a movie. Image by Unknown Author from Wikimedia. Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the late 1940s, but she left before completing her degree. We get rid of all the little bombsand the big bombs," though she also believed in the right of people to defend themselves with force against their oppressors. When Irvine read the lyrics after it was finished, he thought, "I didn't write this. History Faced . She was 34 years old when she died after a two-year fight with pancreatic cancer. According to Kevin J. Mumford, however, beyond reading homophile magazines and corresponding with their creators, "no evidence has surfaced" to support claims that Hansberry was directly involved in the movement for gay and lesbian civil equality. The Hansberry's were routinely visited by prominent black people, including sociology professor W. E. B. In 1989, he became s a full writer. To be young, gifted and black Hansberry wrote The Crystal Stair, a play about a struggling Black family in Chicago, which was later renamed A Raisin in the Sun. It is the opening scene . The award is given for excellence in the field of theatre, with categories including Best Play, Best Musical, Best Foreign Play, and Best Revival. She identified as a lesbian and thought about LGBT organizing before there was a gay rights movement. The moving story of the life of the woman behind A Raisin in the Sun, the most widely anthologized, read, and performed play of the American stage, by the New York Times bestselling author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. Louis Sachar Facts 8: Sideways Stories from Wayside School.