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. She was also a civil rights activist and a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The group of 1960's would-be idealists, iconoclasts and intellectuals who hang out in the Greenwich Village apartment of Sidney and Iris Brustein (Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan) include a painter, There are several pieces of evidence that suggest Hansberrys same-sex attraction. Carl died in 1946 when Lorraine was fifteen years old; "American racism helped kill him," she later said. Hansberry was associated with very important people. It seems, in fact, that, as with her dear friend the author James Baldwin, Hansberry is having a curiously vibrant renaissance some 54 years after her death, at the age of thirty-four from pancreatic cancer, on January 12, 1965. Hansberry herself led an extraordinary life, which is profiled in the . Hansberry was raised in an African-American middle-class family with activist foundations. Lorraine herself became involved in the civil rights movement at a young age, participating in protests and joining organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry following illustrate her development as a Black woman, activist, and writer. Hansberry wrote her first play, The Crystal Stair, during the same period, based on a struggling family in 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. When Irvine read the lyrics after it was finished, he thought, "I didn't write this. . Updates? There are a million boys and girls This article is about the top 10 interesting facts about Lorraine Hansberry. She was 34 years old when she died after a two-year fight with pancreatic cancer. Hansberry was also a prominent civil rights activist, and her writing and activism helped to shape the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. The following year, she collaborated with the already produced playwright Alice Childress, who also wrote for Freedom, on a pageant for its Negro History Festival, with Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Douglas Turner Ward, and John O. Killens. . Lorraine Hansberry was an avid civil rights activist because she understood clearly, that people need a champion in this life. She was a trailblazer in the civil rights movement and an advocate for social justice. On June 9, 2022, the Lilly Awards Foundation unveiled a statue of Hansberry in Times Square. She attended the University of WisconsinMadison, where she immediately became politically active with the Communist Party USA and integrated a dormitory. She underwent two operations, on June 24 and August 2. 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. Taken from us far too soon. Her play premiered on Broadway in 1959 and made history by being the first Broadway production written by an African American woman. Lorraine Hansberry Elementary School was located in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Fact 3: Lorraine was a talented visual artist. The production won Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play for Rashad and Best Featured Actress in a Play for McDonald, and received a nomination for Best Revival of a Play. 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 attended theUniversity of Wisconsinin 194850 and then briefly the School of theArt Institute of ChicagoandRoosevelt University(Chicago). On June 20, 1953, Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish publisher, songwriter, and political activist. This script was called "superb" but also rejected. The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry following illustrate her development as a Black woman, activist, and writer. 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. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honour in the United States, awarded by the President to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of the country, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavours. In the same year, Hansberry was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which took her life at a mere age of 34. Fact 2: Lorraine was raised in the South Side of Chicago. Hansberry was appalled by the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place while she was in high school. Setting (time) Between 1945 and 1959 Setting (place) The South Side of Chicago Protagonist Walter Lee Younger . Princeton Professor Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine, wrote that she was a feminist before the feminist movement. In 1959, Hansberry made history as the first African American woman to have a show produced on BroadwayA Raisin in the Sun. 2. . Picture Information. An innovative network of theatres and community organisations, founded by the National Theatre in 2017 to grow nationwide engagement with theatre, expands. Her best-known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of black Americans in Chicago living under racial segregation. Previously, she worked as an intern at the UN Refugee Agency and Harvard Common Press. 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. A Raisin in the Sun Mass Market Paperbound Lorraine Hansberry. Gift of Kayla Deigh Owens, Playbill used by permission. 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. 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, Freedom, concerning governmental issues. Their white neighbors tried their best to make them move . 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 In college, she took classes in stage design and sculpture, and turned her dorm room into an art studio. . In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Hansberry in the biographical dictionary 100 Greatest African Americans. 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. Lorraine was inspired by her father and the play that she wrote may have been a little ahead of its time, but it won top prize from the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle, which was no small feat. The African-American historian and scholar who is best known for his research on African history and culture. 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. Genre Realist drama. Then, she smiled. ft. home is a 3 bed, 2.0 bath property. Lorraine Hansberry is best known as the playwright of A Raisin In The Sun, the groundbreaking play about a working class African-American family on the South Side of Chicago that illustrates how the American Dream is limited for Black Americans.The play is widely hailed as one of the greatest-ever achievements in theater. Activism 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. Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930-January 12, 1965) was a playwright, essayist, and civil rights activist. Her father, Carl Hansberry was an activist who fought against racial discrimination in housing. Commissioned by NBC in 1960 to create a television program about slavery, Hansberry wrote The Drinking Gourd. Despite not finishing college, Hansberry went on to achieve great success as a playwright and activist. and then "L.N." 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. 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. She explored the issues of colonialism and imperialism through her own lens as well as the female perspective. He added minor changes to complete the play Les Blancs, which Julius Lester termed her best work, and he adapted many of her writings into the play To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which was the longest-running Off Broadway play of the 196869 season. 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. 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. Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. In 1952, Hansberry attended a peace conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, in place of Robeson, who had been denied travel rights by the State Department. Their goal is to create a space where the entire community can be enriched by the voices of professional black artists, reflecting autonomous concerns, investigations, dreams, and artistic expression. Who are young, gifted and black She used her writing to redefine difference. She became close friends with James Baldwin and Nina Simone. Much of her work during this time concerned the African struggles for liberation and their impact on the world. Type of work Play. Open your heart to what I mean Fact 5: Indeed, Lorraine was an outspoken political activist from a young age. 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. Also in 2013, Hansberry was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. I am in Houston and may go see Clybourne Park at the Midtown A&T Center before I leave town next week. The Hansberry family had many friends and relatives that were involved in the arts. Lorraine was taught: "Above all, there were two things which were never to be betrayed: the family and the race.". Fact 7: Nina Simones song To Be Young, Gifted and Black was written in memory of her close friend Lorraine. 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. She later joined Englewood High School. In fact, she is considered to be one of the greatest female, and African-American playwrights in all of the history of Broadway. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 - January 12, 1965) was a playwright and writer. While she struggled privately to maintain her health, Lorraine never quelled her radicalism and role in the liberation. James Baldwin believed "it is not at all farfetched to suspect that what she saw contributed to the strain which killed her, for the effort to which Lorraine was dedicated is more than enough to kill a man.". Lorraine died at age thirty-four from pancreatic cancer. Her mother, Nannie Hansberry, was a schoolteacher and a member of the NAACP. She wrote in support of the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya, criticizing the mainstream press for its biased coverage. Lorraine believed that the artists voice in whatever medium was to be as an agent for social change. Hansberry's classmate Bob Teague remembered her as "the only girl I knew who could whip together a fresh picket sign with her own hands, at a moment's notice, for any cause or occasion". Colleagues of hers included famous actor Sydney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee. It was at one of these demonstrations that Hansberry met her husband and closest friend, Robert Nemiroff. Her father founded Lake Street Bank, one of the first banks for blacks in Chicago, and ran a successful real estate business. Hansberry often explained these global struggles in terms of female participants. At the same time, she said, "some of the first people who have died so far in this struggle have been white men.". Patricia and Fredrick McKissack wrote a children's biography of Hansberry, Young, Black, and Determined, in 1998. After moving to New York City, she held various minor jobs and studied at theNew School for Social Researchwhile refining her writing skills. Lorraine's uncle, William Leo Hansberry, taught African history at Howard University. Hansberry was born into a Black family and grew up when the civil rights movement could use all the voices it could get. She died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 34. Lorraine Hansberry has many notable relatives including director and playwright Shauneille Perry, whose eldest child is named after her. The youngest of four siblings, she was seven years younger than Mamie, her . Image by The Public Domain Review from Wikimedia. Lorraine Hansberry (19301965) was a playwright, writer, and activist. Lorraine Hansberry Biography. 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. In 1958 she raised funds to produce her play A Raisin in the Sun, which opened in March 1959 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, meeting with great success. Du Bois, who served as one of her mentors. She was also the youngest playwright and the first Black winner of the prestigious Drama Critic's Circle Award for Best Play. He even took his battle against racially restrictive housing covenants to the Supreme Court, winning a major victory in the landmark case Hansberry v. Lee. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 - January 12, 1965) was an African-American playwright and writer. The title of the song comes from a speech she gave to young people. Heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it has since closed. Written and completed in 1957, A Raisin in the Sun opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, becoming the first play by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. When the play opens, the Youngers are about to receive an insurance check for $10,000. Lorraines papers, including her letters and unpublished works, were private for years, with the public hearing only whispers or half-formed truths about some of the most significant aspects of Lorraines identity: her sexuality and her radical political leanings. . All rights reserved, Playbill Inc. National Museum of African American History & Culture. . A penetrating psychological study of the personalities and emotional conflicts within a working-class black family in Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun was directed by actor Lloyd Richards, the first African American to direct a play on Broadway since 1907. She was also a lesbian who kept her sexual preference as classified information, not able to come out during the tumultuous era in which basic human rights were denied on a regular basis, for certain groups of people in society. 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. Hansberry was particularly interested in the intersections between race, class, and gender, and she believed that these issues were all interconnected. In the introduction of the live version, Simone explains the difficulty of losing a close friend and talented artist. Free shipping. 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. She was an anti-colonialist before independence had been won in Africa and the Caribbean.. Her experiences with discrimination and activism served as inspiration for her most famous work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, . When she was only 29 years old, Hansberry became the youngest American and the first African-American playwright to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. . Lincoln University's first-year female dormitory is named Lorraine Hansberry Hall. Image by Unknown Author from Wikimedia. Now More Than Ever, Nine Radical and Radiant Facts You Should Know About Lorraine Hansberry, When Colin Kaepernick Took the Risk to Take a Knee, Coming Home to the Motherland and Coming Out: A Cup Of Water Under My Bed Gets Translated to Spanish, Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, Ring In the Zinntennial! Not only did she have a play, but her drama, A. :). . 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.