Hansberry graduated from Betsy Ross Elementary in 1944 and from Englewood High School in 1948. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed 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). For some facts about W.E.B Du Bois CLICK HERE, Theatrical release poster for the 1961 film. Free shipping. When Irvine read the lyrics after it was finished, he thought, "I didn't write this. She became close friends with James Baldwin and Nina Simone. 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). They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. In the same year, her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, was released on Broadway but was unable to become a major hit. Hansberrys uncle, William Leo Hansberry, founded the Howard University African Civilization section of the history department, her cousin Shauneille Perry is an actress and playwright, and her younger relatives, Taye Hansberry is an actress and Aldridge Hansberry is a composer and flutist. As well as being a political activists, Lorraine Hansberry was also a brilliant writer. Hansberry's most famous work, "A Raisin In The Sun" remains one of the best known plays ever written by a Black female playwright. . If the name Lorraine Hansberry doesnt ring a bell, we have some interesting information that may just give you an aha moment. Many icons of the early African American Civil Rights Movement, e.g., Langston Hughes, visited the Hansberry home 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. 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. Hansberry wrote The Crystal Stair, a play about a struggling Black family in Chicago, which was later renamed A Raisin in the Sun. The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry following illustrate her development as a Black woman, activist, and writer. In 1969, Nina Simone first released a song about Hansberry called "To Be Young, Gifted and Black." She used her writing to redefine difference. . Her friend Nina Simone said, we never talked about men or clothes or other such inconsequential things when we got together. Louis Sachar Facts 8: Sideways Stories from Wayside School. Her mother, Nannie Hansberry, was a schoolteacher and a member of the NAACP. 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.". Hansberry was appalled by the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place while she was in high school. Kicks. 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. Read all About It. On June 9, 2022, the Lilly Awards Foundation unveiled a statue of Hansberry in Times Square. Despite a warm reception in Chicago, the show never made it to Broadway. 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 . Lorraine Hansberry (19301965) was a playwright, writer, and activist. Du Bois, who served as one of her mentors. How would you rate this article? The American dream means something different to each character in A Raisin in the Sun. On March 11, 1959, Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway and changed the face of American theater forever. I am in Houston and may go see Clybourne Park at the Midtown A&T Center before I leave town next week. 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. Her father, Carl Hansberry, was a successful real estate broker and a prominent figure in the African American community, who fought against racial segregation and discrimination. How could we improve it? She also enjoys creative writing, content writing on nearly any topic, because as a lifelong learner, she loves research. It aired recently on PBS and if you didnt catch it, you can find out more. 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.. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 January 12, 1965) was a playwright and writer. If people know anything about Lorraine (Perry refers to her as Lorraine throughout the book, explaining why she does so), theyll recall she was the author of A Raisin in the Sun, an award-winning play about a family dealing with issues of race, class, education, and identity in Chicago. In 1959, Hansberry made history as the first African American woman to have a show produced on BroadwayA Raisin in the Sun. In 1999 Hansberry was posthumously inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. 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. A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. Colleagues of hers included famous actor Sydney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee. James Baldwin wrote the introduction to Hansberrys biography, Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life. All rights reserved, Playbill Inc. National Museum of African American History & Culture. Due to racial differences, Lorraine and her family faced racism when she was just eight. Check another American writer in Lorraine Hansberry facts. In fact, she is considered to be one of the greatest female, and African-American playwrights in all of the history of Broadway. Breaking her familys tradition of enrolling in Southern Black colleges, Hansberry took admission in the University of Wisconsin in Madison, changing her major from painting to writing. . Lorraine Hansberry Speaks! Much of her work during this time concerned the African struggles for liberation and their impact on the world. She was born to Carl Augustus Hansberry and Nonnie Louise. She is remembered for her first play, A Raisin in the Sun, which opened on Broadway in 1959, just six years before her death - and sometimes for her memoir, which was the inspiration for Nina Simone . [1] She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. 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. 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. ft. home is a 3 bed, 2.0 bath property. Du Bois. Hansberry may not have finished college, but she went on to make significant contributions to American culture and society through her art and activism. Lorraine Hansberry was born in 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, into a family of civil rights activists. Hansberry traveled to Georgia to cover the case of Willie McGee, and was inspired to write the poem "Lynchsong" about his case. 1937 Carl moves his family to a home in the Woodlawn. Download Our Free Black Liberation eBook Bundle! In 1952, Hansberry attended a peace conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, in place of Robeson, who had been denied travel rights by the State Department. 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." In January 2018, the PBS series American Masters released a new documentary, Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, directed by Tracy Heather Strain. Hansberry's funeral was held in Harlem on January 15, 1965. Bella Sanchez is a recent graduate from Boston University, and the marketing intern for Beacon Press. 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. 190-71 111th Ave , Saint Albans, NY 11412 is a single-family home listed for-sale at $799,000. 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. It went on to inspire generations of playwrights and performers. 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 major theme throughout playwright Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is how racism impacts daily life for this multi-generational family, not only in relations between black and. Princeton Professor Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine, wrote that she was a feminist before the feminist movement. 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. She expressed a desire for a future in which "Nobody fights. 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. 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). In 1964, Hansberry and Nemiroff divorced but continued to work together. 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. Suggested Posts. 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. As the first-ever black woman to author a play performed on. . 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. To those around them, the Hansberrys were inspirational both parents were college. In her early twenties, having just arrived in New York from the Midwest, she published poems in radical journals; worked as a journalist for Freedom, a black leftist newspaper published by the. Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. Lorraine Hansberry, a celebrated African American playwright and writer, was not openly gay during her lifetime. She was brought up alongside three siblings. Progressive Education Tags: american birth day 19 birth month may birth year 1930 death day 12 death month january death year 1965 playwright. MLS # 3441616 Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart has had a vigorously successful run. 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. She reached out to the world through her plays. Her cousin is the flutist, percussionist, and composer Aldridge Hansberry. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 - January 12, 1965) was a playwright and writer. In April 1960, she wrote a fascinating list of what she liked and hated. Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 19, 1930. The youngest of four siblings, she was seven years younger than Mamie, her . We would like, said Lorraine, from you, a moral commitment. He did not turn from her as he had turned away from Jerome. Fact 5: Indeed, Lorraine was an outspoken political activist from a young age. Her father, Carl Hansberry was an activist who fought against racial discrimination in housing. Du Bois and Paul Robeson. Hansberrys work as a writer and activist was groundbreaking in its exploration of the experiences of African American women. Image by Unknown Author from Wikimedia. The African-American historian and scholar who is best known for his research on African history and culture. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 - January 12, 1965) was a playwright and writer. 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. Lorraine died at age thirty-four from pancreatic cancer. 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. 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. There are several pieces of evidence that suggest Hansberrys same-sex attraction. Hansberry originally wanted to be an artist when she attended the University of Wisconsin, but soon changed her focus to study drama and stage design. Gift of Kayla Deigh Owens, Playbill used by permission. Perry explains that though the term radical has negative associations, for Lorraine, American radicalism was both a passion and a commitment. . This article is about the top 10 interesting facts about Lorraine Hansberry. 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 is best known for writing "A Raisin in the Sun," the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway. 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. She worked on Henry A. Wallace's Progressive Party presidential campaign in 1948, despite her mother's disapproval. Hansberry was also a prominent civil rights activist, and her writing and activism helped to shape the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. She was later quoted as saying that American racism helped kill him.. Picture 1 of 1. She attended the University of Wisconsin in 194850 and then briefly the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Roosevelt University (Chicago). 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. Lorraines goal was to change society for the better. These were important voices for the movement to bring equality for all people as a basic right of all within the United States. . 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. Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine died at a young age of 34 from cancer. . She was an American writer, who stood the literary world on its head with her prolific enigmatic and radical writing. 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. Updates? She continued to write plays, short stories, and articles in addition to delivering speeches regarding race relations in the United States. She moved to Harlem in 1951 and became involved in activist struggles such as the fight against evictions. She holds academic degrees which are: AA social Science document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). . $3.52. Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1930. 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. Drake Facts. Her father was brave and daring enough to move his family into an all white neighborhood during tumultuous times. A Raisin in the Sun, her most famous work, debuted on Broadway in 1959 and was the first play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway. . It was, in fact, a requirement for human decency (150). Written when she was just twenty-eight, Lorraine Hansberry's landmark A Raisin in the Sun is listed . Your email address will not be published. She explored the issues of colonialism and imperialism through her own lens as well as the female perspective. She was also the youngest playwright and the first Black winner of the prestigious Drama Critics Circle Awardfor Best Play. Image by Friedman-Abeles from Wikimedia. 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. 2. It was the first play written by an African American woman to appear on Broadway. Biography. . Lorraine Hansberry was an American playwright whoseA Raisin in the Sun(1959) was the firstdramaby anAfrican American woman to be produced on Broadway. 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. Fact 2: Lorraine was raised in the South Side of Chicago. 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. Du Bois , poet Langston Hughes, singer, actor, and political activist Paul Robeson, musician Duke Ellington, and Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens. Among the hates: being asked to speak, cramps, racism, her homosexuality, and silly men. . 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 . . Hansberry and Simone had been friends and shared a bond over their interests in social justice and radical politics. 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. Carl died in 1946 when Lorraine was fifteen years old; "American racism helped kill him," she later said. 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. Three years later, Hansberry devoted all her attention towards writing joining the Daughters of Bilitis the year after. Additionally, Hansberry was known to be a champion of civil rights and social justice, and she was involved in several LGBTQ+ organizations and causes during her lifetime. . Her father, Carl Hansberry was an activist who fought against racial discrimination in housing. Hansberry was the daughter of parents who were also outspoken advocates for civil rights. Lorraine Hansberry. She died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 34. When Lorraine was seven years old, the family bought a house in a mostly white neighborhood. In Perrys words, this moment captures the tension . Lorraine Hansberry has many notable relatives including director and playwright Shauneille Perry, whose eldest child is named after her. She attended the University of WisconsinMadison, where she immediately became politically active with the Communist Party USA and integrated a dormitory. 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. Fast Facts: Lorraine Hansberry 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 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. Among the likes: her homosexuality, Eartha Kitt, and that first drink of Scotch. 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. The title of the song comes from a speech she gave to young people. Carl Hansberry was also a supporter of the Urban League and NAACP in Chicago. 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. Read more. . We may all come from different walks of life but we have one common passion - learning through travel. It was always, Marx, Lenin and revolutionreal girls talk.. Paul Robeson and SNCC organizer James Forman gave eulogies. The familys home was frequently visited by prominent African American leaders, such as W.E.B. Like Robeson and many black civil rights activists, Hansberry understood the struggle against white supremacy to be interlinked with the program of the Communist Party. 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. She moved to New York City and became involved in the arts scene, working as a writer and editor for various publications. Learn about her personal life,. 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. The play opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, and was a great success. Book Recommendation: 10 Best Books to Read About African History. She even wrote anonymous letters to the publication alluding to her own lesbian relationships. Corrections? 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. Publisher Random House. She identified as a lesbian and thought about LGBT organizing before there was a gay rights movement. and then "L.N." 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. . Lorraine Hansberry was the niece of Leo Hansberry, who was a Pan-Africanist scholar and college professor.

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