Lorraine Hansberry

Infobox Writer
name = Lorraine Hansberry


imagesize = 145px
birthdate = birth date|1930|5|19|mf=y
birthplace = Chicago, Illinois
deathdate = death date and age|1965|1|12|1930|5|19
deathplace = New York City
occupation = playwright, author
nationality = United States
period =
genre =
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influences =
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Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930 - January 12, 1965) was an African American LGBT playwright and author of political speeches, letters, and essays. [Lipari, Lisbeth. "Queering the borders: Lorraine Hansberry’s 1957 Letters to The Ladder" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Marriott Hotel, San Diego, CA, May 27, 2003 Online <.PDF>. 2008-06-28 ] Her most famous work, "A Raisin in the Sun", was inspired by her family's legal battle against racially segregated housing laws in Chicago during her childhood.

Early life

Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois, Hansberry was the youngest of four children of Carl Augustus Hansberry (a prominent real estate broker) and Nannie Louise Perry, and niece of William Leo Hansberry. She grew up on the south side of Chicago in the Woodlawn neighborhood.

The family then moved into an all-white neighborhood, where they faced racial discrimination. Hansberry attended a predominantly white public school while her parents fought against segregation. Hansberry's father engaged in a legal battle against a racially restrictive covenant that attempted to prohibit African-American families from buying homes in the area. The legal struggle over their move led to the landmark Supreme Court case of "Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32" (1940). Though victors in the Supreme Court, Hansberry's family was subjected to what Hansberry would later describe as a "hellishly hostile white neighborhood." This experience later inspired her to write her most famous work, "A Raisin in the Sun".

Career

Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but found college to be uninspiring and left in 1950 to pursue her career as a writer in New York City. She worked on the staff of a Black newspaper called "Freedom". It was at that time she wrote "A Raisin in the Sun". The play was a huge success. It was the first play written by an African-American woman and produced on Broadway. It also received the New York Drama Critics Award making Hansberry the youngest and first African American to receive the Award.

Death

She died on January 12, 1965, of pancreatic cancer at the age of 34.

Other works

"The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" ran for 99 performances on Broadway [ [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3219 Internet Broadway Database: The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window Production Credits ] ] and closed the night she died. Her ex-husband Robert Nemiroff became the literary executor for several of her unfinished works. Notably, 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 1968-1969 season. It appeared in book form the following year under the title, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words".

She left behind an unfinished novel and three unfinished plays, the content matter dealing with many types of emotions.

"Raisin", a musical based on "A Raisin in the Sun," opened in New York in 1973, (Book by Nemiroff, music by Judd Woldin, lyrics by Robert Britten.) winning the Tony Award for Best Musical.

Legacy

A result of the success of "A Raisin in the Sun" was Hansberry's becoming the foremother of the modern African-American drama. She also contributed to the understanding of abortion, discrimination, and Africa. In San Francisco, The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, which specializes in original stagings and revivals of African-American theatre, is named in her honor. Singer and pianist Nina Simone, who was a close friend of Hansberry, used the title of her unfinished play to write a civil rights-themed song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" together with Weldon Irvine. The single reached the top 10 of the R&B charts. [ [http://www.boscarol.com/nina/html/where/tobeyounggifted.html The Nina Simone Web, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" (1969)] ] 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).~

Her grand-niece is actress Taye Hansberry.

Lincoln Unversity's freshman female dormitory is named Lorraine Hansberry Hall. [ [http://www.lincoln.edu/residence/hansberry.html Lincoln University website] ]

Her Works

* "A Raisin in the Sun" (1959)
* "A Raisin in the Sun (film)", screenplay (1961)
** "A Raisin in the Sun (film)", produced (2008)
* "On Summer" (Essay) (19??)
* "The Drinking Gourd" (1960)
* "The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality" (1964)
* "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" (1965)
* "To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words" (1969)
* "Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays / by Lorraine Hansberry" Edited by Robert Nemiroff (1994)

Bibliography

*James, Rosetta. Cliff Notes on Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun". Lincoln, Nebraska: Cliff Notes Inc., 1992
*"Toussaint" - This fragment from a work in progress, unfinished at the time of Ms. Hansberry's untimely death, deals with a Haitian plantation owner and his wife whose lives are soon to change drastically as a result of the revolution of Toussaint L'Ouverture. (From the Samuel French, Inc. catalogue of plays)

References

[http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3219 1. The Internet Broadway Database]
[http://www.glaad.org/publications/resource_doc_detail.php?id=3093 2. GLAAD: Creating Role Models]
[http://www.glbtq.com/literature/hansberry_l.html 3. Hansberry, Lorraine]
[http://www.boscarol.com/nina/html/where/tobeyounggifted.html 4. The Nina Simone Web: To Be Young, Gifted And Black (1969)]

ee also

* African American literature

External links

* [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/corhans.htm Biography]
* [http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/Chap8/hansberry.html PAL: Perspectives in American Literature]
* [http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/hansberry_lorraine.html Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color - Lorraine Hansberry]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=443 Lorraine Hansberry's Gravesite]