Hansberry was appalled by the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place while she was in high school. Despite a warm reception in Chicago, the show never made it to Broadway. Drake Facts. The play has also been adapted into a film and has become a classic of American literature and theatre. Her grandniece is the actress Taye Hansberry. The American dream means something different to each character in A Raisin in the Sun. A Raisin in the Sun portrays a few weeks in the life of the Youngers, a Black family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. . Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. She herself, knew what it was to be discriminated against.. And how amazing that she had already accomplished so much. Her mother, Nannie Hansberry, was a schoolteacher and a member of the NAACP. Fact 8: Though she married a man, Lorraine identified as a lesbian. Three years later, Hansberry devoted all her attention towards writing joining the Daughters of Bilitis the year after. Activism Later, Hansberry would maintain her own close bonds with Du Bois, Robeson, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" To be young, gifted and black Hansberry's most famous work, "A Raisin In The Sun" remains one of the best known plays ever written by a Black female playwright. In fact, she was an active participant in the civil rights movement and used her talents as a writer and playwright to shed light on issues of race, gender and class in America. However, Karl Linder is the only character to appear in both . Pointing to these letters as evidence, some gay and lesbian writers credited Hansberry as having been involved in the homophile movement or as having been an activist for gay rights. . In 1960, during Delta Sigma Theta's 26th national convention in Chicago, Hansberry was made an honorary member. 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. This article is about the top 10 interesting facts about Lorraine Hansberry. He was known as a race man who sought to make the world a better place for African Americans. Discuss these differences and how they conflict with one another. A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) was their first incubator and in 2012 they became an independent organization. She extended her hand. She was the daughter of a real estate entrepreneur, Carl Hansberry, and schoolteacher, Nannie Hansberry, as well as the niece of Pan-Africanist scholar and college professor Leo Hansberry. Commissioned by NBC in 1960 to create a television program about slavery, Hansberry wrote The Drinking Gourd. She later joined Englewood High School. also named Lorraine Hansberry the Godmother of her daughter, Lisa Simone. Picture 1 of 1. . She was also the youngest playwright and the first Black winner of the prestigious Drama Critic's Circle Award for Best Play. McKissack, Patricia C. and Fredrick L. Young, Black and Determined: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry. The NYDCC was founded in 1935, and its first awards were given in 1936. . Hansberry was the youngest American, fifth woman and first black to win the award. Lorraine Hansberry wrote the plays A Raisin in the Sun (1959) and The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window(1964). Lorraine's father, Carl Augustus Hansberry, was a real-estate speculator and a proud race man. 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. The show ran for more than two years and won two Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Progressive Education Her promising career was cut short by her early death from pancreatic cancer. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (2004, Mass Market, Reprint) $0.99 + $5.65 shipping. Her favorite topics are psychology, sociology, anthropology, history and religion. Setting (time) Between 1945 and 1959 Setting (place) The South Side of Chicago Protagonist Walter Lee Younger Feminism & Gender Kicks. Hansberry agreed to speak to the winners of a creative writing conference on May 1, 1964: "Though it is a thrilling and marvelous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so, doubly dynamic to be young, gifted and black.". Fast Facts: Lorraine Hansberry Her first play, A Raisin in the Sun, continues to be her most influential piece and has managed to find new audiences through the decades, wining Tony Awards in 2004 and 2014 and also the title of Best Revival of a Play. Posthumously, "A Raisin . In 1969 a selection of her writings, adapted by Robert Nemiroff (to whom Hansberry was married from 1953 to 1964), was produced on Broadway as To Be Young, Gifted, and Black and was published in book form in 1970. She was the fourth child born to Nannie Perry Hansberry and Carl Augustus Hansberry in Chicago, IL. Lorraine Hansberry was one of the most brilliant minds to pass through the American theater, a model of that virtually extinct species known as the artist-activist . 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. She used her writing to redefine difference. In 1989, he became s a full writer. 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. In the introduction of the live version, Simone explains the difficulty of losing a close friend and talented artist. There are a million boys and girls However, in 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her contributions to the arts and the civil rights movement. . Hansberry was born into a Black family and grew up when the civil rights movement could use all the voices it could get. Book Details. Hansberry graduated from Betsy Ross Elementary in 1944 and from Englewood High School in 1948. Lorraine believed that the artists voice in whatever medium was to be as an agent for social change. As well as being a political activists, Lorraine Hansberry was also a brilliant writer. In 1944, she graduated from Betsy Ross Elementary. Terkel, Studs. The youngest of four siblings, she was seven years younger than Mamie, her . The award-winning playwright whose 90th birthday would have been this week first captured the public eye during the civil rights movement. She is buried at Asbury United Methodist Church Cemetery in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Both of these talented writers wanted to incorporate themes of race and sexual identity into their stage work, something that was considered quite radical at the time. 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. 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. Her promising career was cut short by her early death frompancreatic cancer. Lorraine identified as an American radical and believed that extreme change was necessary to fight against racism and injustice internationally. Baldwin remembers: Her face changed and changed, the way Sojourner Truth's face must have changed and changed . How would you rate this article? A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. The play was the first one to be produced on Broadway by an African-American woman and won an award at the Cannes Film Festival when its motion picture came out. 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. 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. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 - January 12, 1965) was an African-American playwright and writer. In 2017, Hansberry was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. 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's writings also discussed her lesbianism and the oppression of homosexuality. We followed her. (James Baldwin, The Cross of Redemption). American Society Hansberry, an outspoken Communist, was committed to racial equity and participated in civil rights demonstrations. At first Sideways Stories from Wayside School was not a popular book in US. Fifteen years before Lorraine was unsealed, Harris meticulously and accurately charted Hansberry's queer life; she did not rely on institutions, but New York City dykes. A studio recording by Simone was released as a single and the first live recording on October 26, 1969, was captured on Black Gold (1970). Lorraine Hansberry was deeply influenced by her uncles activism and scholarship, and her work often reflected her own commitment to social justice and civil rights for African Americans. After moving to New York City, she held various minor jobs and studied at the New School for Social Research while refining her writing skills. One of her first reports covered the Sojourners for Truth and Justice convened in Washington, D.C., by Mary Church Terrell. In 1959, Hansberry commented that women who are "twice oppressed" may become "twice militant". 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. The sq. However, many scholars and historians believe that she may have been a closeted lesbian. The play was later renamed A Raisin in the Sun and was a great success at the Ethel Ballymore Theatre, having a total of 530 performances. Hansberry's evolving politics were groundbreaking, and many questions remain about how they impacted her workboth plays she wrote after Raisin included gay charactersand how her ideas . Lorraine Hansberry attended theUniversity of Wisconsinin 194850 and then briefly the School of theArt Institute of ChicagoandRoosevelt University(Chicago). In 1950, Hansberry decided to leave Madison and pursue her career as a writer in New York City, where she attended The New School. Louis Gossett, Jr., credited her with being a bit ahead of here time, but nonetheless, an effective female activist. Lorraine Hansberry is often viewed as a visionary because of her ability to predict many of the relevant issues to the African-American community today. In doing so, he blocked access to all materials related to Hansberry's lesbianism, meaning that no scholars or biographers had access for more than 50 years. When she died of pancreatic cancer in 1965, she was only 34 years old. 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. . Biography & MemoirDisability Upon his ex-wife's death, Robert Nemiroff donated all of Hansberry's personal and professional effects to the New York Public Library. Written by Oscar Brown, Jr., the show featured an interracial cast including Lonnie Sattin, Nichelle Nichols, Vi Velasco, Al Freeman, Jr., Zabeth Wilde, and Burgess Meredith in the title role of Mr. Lorraine Hansberry was an American playwright whoseA Raisin in the Sun(1959) was the firstdramaby anAfrican American woman to be produced on Broadway. This script was called "superb" but also rejected. 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. He then spent several years travelling and studying in Africa, including Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. . 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. On September 18, 2018, the biography Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, written by scholar Imani Perry, was published by Beacon Press. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Conversations with Lorraine Hansberry - Mollie Godfrey 2021-01-15 Hansberry was a closeted lesbian. She reached out to the world through her plays. James Baldwin wrote the introduction to Hansberrys biography, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black with an endearing letter to Hansberry titled Sweet Lorraine.. Picture Information. Colleagues of hers included famous actor Sydney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee. The title of Hansberrys now-iconic play A Raisin In the Sun was inspired by Hughes poem Harlem. One could argue that the play illustrated the poems sentiment: Quotes from A Raisin in the Sun 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 original Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun was directed by Lloyd Richards and starred Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee Younger, the head of the household. The play opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, and was a great success. Corrections? In 1938, her father bought a house in the Washington Park Subdivision of the South Side of Chicago, incurring the wrath of some of their white neighbors. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 January 12, 1965) was a playwright and writer. Her mother, Nannie Perry, was a schoolteacher active in the Republican Party. For local insights and insiders travel tips that you wont find anywhere else, search any keywords in the top right-hand toolbar on this page. . 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. The 29-year-old author became the youngest American playwright and only the fifth woman to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Carl Hansberry's brother, William Leo Hansberry, founded the African Civilization section of the History Department at Howard University. Hansberry worked on not only the US civil rights movement, but also global struggles against colonialism and imperialism. The play was a critical and commercial success. Lorraine Hansberry. The production also led Hansberry to become the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics Circle Award. . Dana Hanson-Firestone has extensive professional writing experience including technical and report writing, informational articles, persuasive articles, contrast and comparison, grant applications, and advertisement. The Hansberry Project is rooted in the convictions that black artists should be at the center of the artistic process, that the community deserves excellence in its art, and that theatre's fundamental function is to put people in a relationship with one another. Their white neighbors tried their best to make them move . Taken from us far too soon. Paul Robeson and SNCC organizer James Forman gave eulogies. . Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. On June 20, 1953, Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish publisher, songwriter, and political activist. According to Baldwin, Hansberry stated: "I am not worried about black men--who have done splendidly, it seems to me, all things considered.But I am very worriedabout the state of the civilization which produced that photograph of the white cop standing on that Negro woman's neck in Birmingham. A Raisin in the Sun Mass Market Paperbound Lorraine Hansberry. Religion Fact 9: This isnt a major life milestone of Lorraines, but its too fascinating not to include it!) She came from a well-established family where both her parents had successful careers.. Hansberry received many awards for her work, including a New York Critics' Circle Award, an award at the Cannes Film Festival. Hansberry was the godmother to Nina Simone's daughter Lisa. Fact 3: Lorraine was a talented visual artist. Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in a family that was deeply involved in the civil rights movement. Fact 6: In 1963, she met with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in New York City days after the protests and unrest in Birmingham Alabama (along with her close friend James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Clarence Jones and Jerome Smith, among others). In college, she took classes in stage design and sculpture, and turned her dorm room into an art studio. $26.95. This money comes from the deceased Mr. Younger's life insurance policy. Her most famous play, A Raisin in the Sun, is an exploration of the challenges faced by a black family in Chicago as they struggle to achieve the American Dream in the face of systemic racism and poverty. . Politics & Current Events In 1999 Hansberry was posthumously inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. 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The latter's legal efforts to force the Hansberry family out culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940). 519 (1934), had been similar to his situation. Book Recommendation: 10 Best Books to Read About African History. 1937 Carl moves his family to a home in the Woodlawn. Fact 2: Lorraine was raised in the South Side of Chicago. She was 34 years old when she died after a two-year fight with pancreatic cancer. She moved to New York City and became involved in the arts scene, working as a writer and editor for various publications. There's something of an inside joke tucked into Lorraine Hansberry's rarely-produced second Broadway play, which director Anne Kauffman has brought to life in a starry revival at BAM. Lorraine Hansberry (19301965) was a playwright, writer, and activist. Leo Hansberry was a prominent figure in the Pan-Africanist movement, and he founded the African Civilization section at Howard University, where he was a professor of African history. 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. Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lorraine-Hansberry, BlackHistoryNow - Biography of Lorraine Hansberry, Lorraine Hansberry - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Lorraine Hansberry - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). To Be Young, Gifted and Black was a posthumously produced play and collection of writings that capped a brief and brilliant career. At the newspaper, she worked as a "subscription clerk, receptionist, typist, and editorial assistant" besides writing news articles and editorials. . 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. In 2013, Nemiroff's daughter released the restricted materials to Kevin J. Mumford, who explored Hansberry's self-identification in subsequent work. The awards are considered one of the most prestigious in American theatre and winners are often considered to be among the best productions of the year. Perry truly brings Lorraine to life in this intimate book. Learn about her personal life,. All mourned her premature death. In the same year, her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window, was released on Broadway but was unable to become a major hit. In 1959, Hansberry made history as the first African American woman to have a show produced on BroadwayA Raisin in the Sun. However, Hansberry admired Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex. Hansberry resided in a third-floor apartment in this building from 1953 to 1960, the period in which she created her . . In his remarks, President Obama noted that Lorraine Hansberry refused to be confined by any identity but her own, and helped blaze a trail for generations of Americans who have been inspired by her example.. She admonished the Kennedy administration to be more active in addressing the problem of segregation in the community. Image by Unknown Author from Wikimedia. The presiding minister, Eugene Callender, recited a message from Baldwin, and also a message from the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. that read: "Her creative ability and her profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world today will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn." Mumford stated that Hansberry's lesbianism caused her to feel isolated while A Raisin in the Sun catapulted her to fame; still, while "her impulse to cover evidence of her lesbian desires sprang from other anxieties of respectability and conventions of marriage, Hansberry was well on her way to coming out." 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). Lorraine Hansberry was a master scribe. Hansberry's ex-husband, Robert Nemiroff, became the executor for several unfinished manuscripts. A selection of her writings was produced on Broadway asTo Be Young, Gifted, and Black(1969; book 1970). Learn more about Lorraine Hansberry Hansberrys work and activism were instrumental in advancing the cause of civil rights in America, and she remains an important figure in the history of the movement. Over the next two years, Raisin was translated into 35 languages and was being performed all over the world. Lorraine Hansberry was 28 when she met James Baldwin, 34 at the time. 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. She is best known for writing "A Raisin in the Sun," the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway. Du Bois, the Civil Rights activist, author, sociologist, and historian, and Paul Robeson, the musician and actor, were friends of the Hansberry family. She wrote about her love for women and her struggles with her sexuality in personal papers published posthumously. . The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre of San Francisco, which specializes in original stagings and revivals of African-American theatre, is named in her honor. She left behind an unfinished novel and several other plays, including The Drinking Gourd and What Use Are Flowers?, with a range of content, from slavery to a post-apocalyptic future. 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. Founded in 2004 and officially launched in 2006, The Hansberry Project of Seattle, Washington was created as an African-American theatre lab, led by African-American artists and was designed to provide the community with consistent access to the African-American artistic voice. She was passionate about the causes and people that she stood in support of. She also had several close relationships with women throughout her life, including a long-term relationship with a woman named Una Mulzac. Lorraine Hansberry became involved in the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 and joined people like Lena Horne and James Baldwin to test Robert Kennedy's position on civil rights. Fact 4: Lorraine worked at the progressive black Freedom Newspaper (published by Paul Robeson) with W. E . Lorraine Hansberrys father, Carl Augustus Hansberry, was involved in the Supreme Court case. Lorraines experiences growing up in this environment informed her writing, which often dealt with issues of race, class, and identity. Bella Sanchez is a recent graduate from Boston University, and the marketing intern for Beacon Press. Written when she was just twenty-eight, Lorraine Hansberry's landmark A Raisin in the Sun is listed . In 1952, Hansberry attended a peace conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, in place of Robeson, who had been denied travel rights by the State Department. Risking public censure and process of being outed to the larger community, she joined the Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian organization, and submitted letters and short stories to queer publications Ladder and ONE. An innovative network of theatres and community organisations, founded by the National Theatre in 2017 to grow nationwide engagement with theatre, expands. Also in 2013, Hansberry was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Du Bois, whose office was in the same building, and other Black Pan-Africanists. In 1964, Hansberry and Nemiroff divorced but continued to work together. Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, United States. . She got her start in her hometown of Tryon, North Carolina, where she played gospel hymns and classical music at Old St. Luke's CME, the church where her mother ministered. When she was young, her family famously fought against racial segregation, attempting to buy a home that was covered by a racially restrictive covenantultimately leading to the Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee. Lorraine was graceful, poised, and elegant (journalists and critics always also seemed to mention her petite frame or collegiate style), but could be icy and confrontational when the situation demandedand sometimes it was demanded. She was also a civil rights activist and a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). This gave her a platform for sharing her views. Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison but left before completing her degree to pursue a career as a writer. . She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Hansberry may not have finished college, but she went on to make significant contributions to American culture and society through her art and activism. Much of her work during this time concerned the African struggles for liberation and their impact on the world. Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart has had a vigorously successful run. It is the opening scene . She is a graduate of Le Moyne College. Lorraine surrounded herself with many people who were important to the civil rights movement, as well as people who held a measure of influence and celebrity status in the world. Image by Columbia Pictures from Wikimedia. The title of the song refers to the title of Hansberry's autobiography, which Hansberry first coined when speaking to the winners of a creative writing conference on May 1, 1964: "Though it is a thrilling and marvelous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so, doubly dynamic to be young, gifted and black." Hansberry wrote two screenplays of Raisin, both of which were rejected as controversial by Columbia Pictures. At the same time, she said, "some of the first people who have died so far in this struggle have been white men.". The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry following illustrate her development as a Black woman, activist, and writer. They must harass, debate, petition, give money to court struggles, sit-in, lie-down, strike, boycott, sing hymns, pray on stepsand shoot from their windows when the racists come cruising through their communities. This made her the first Chicago native to be honored along the North Halsted corridor. Also in 1963, Hansberry was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Lorraine Hansberry was a history-making playwright and author who became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. Norma Brickner is a Journalism and Digital Media major at SUNY-New Paltz. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Hansberry in the biographical dictionary 100 Greatest African Americans. It appeared in book form the following year under the title To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words. Among the hates: being asked to speak, cramps, racism, her homosexuality, and silly men. Hansberry was interested in writing from an early age and while in high school was drawn especially to the theatre. To those around them, the Hansberrys were inspirational both parents were college. James Baldwin wrote the introduction to Hansberrys biography, Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life.