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In 1965, Lorraine Hansberry died of cancer at age 34. As if prescient, in the six years she had between the triumph of her first play and her death, she was extraordinarily prolific. Her second play to be produced on Broadway, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, ran to mixed reviews and closed on the night that she died. To Be Young, Gifted and Black, an autobiographical portrait in her own words was posthumously produced in 1968 and won the record for longest Off-Broadway running drama, subsequently touring across the country. In 1970, Les Blancs, her play about the inevitability of struggle between colonizers and colonized in Africa, and the impending crisis that would surely grow out of it, ran on Broadway to critical acclaim.
A Raisin in the Sun has been translated in all continents and over 30 languages, and performed in numerous productions abroad. In the U.S., in over 45 years, through stage, film, television and book publications, literally millions of people have had some acquaintance with the American Southside Chicago Younger family and their fears, frustrations, longings and dreams. A study of audiences during those years would reveal a progressively growing social consciousness as Americans began to catch up with the artist's prophetic vision in sensing the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement, growing awareness of feminism including not only the strength of women, but also their vulnerability in interpersonal relationships with their men, the essential nurturing bonds of family and the need for all members, from youngest to oldest, to have space in which to dream. During her career as a playwright, Hansberry wrote many articles and essays on literary criticism, racism, homophobia, world peace and other social and political issues. Above all else, in her writings and public speeches is the insistent theme that neither individuals nor groups should ever permit moneyed values to transcend personal integrity and firm social commitment. In her own society in the near half century since the advent of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway, however, one grim reality remains: African Americans are still the most rigidly segregated population of American citizens with millions concentrated in major urban metropolises across the country. Lorraine Hansberry knew well that grim ills follow from such circumstances blighting the lives of masses of people and threatening the fabric of society. She knew as well that human beings themselves (not blind chance) play the major roles in charting the course of human affairs. Human purposes and human dreams, as she repeatedly expressed it, should always aim high enough to "embrace the stars." Today, A Raisin in the Sun continues to resonate holding the power still to reach new audiences and influence new generations. Fortunately, at the playwright's death, she left behind file cabinets holding her public and private correspondence, speeches and journals, and various manuscripts in several genres: plays for stage and screen, essays, poetry and an almost complete novel. In addition to the above works, her published writings (Vintage Books) include The Drinking Gourd, What Use Are Flowers? and The Movement, a long essay written as text for a photojournalistic treatment of the Civil Rights Movement. A documentary on the life and works of the artist is currently underway and two biographies are forthcoming in 2005 and 2006, respectively. The Uncollected Works of Lorraine Hansberry will also be published in 2006. - Jewell Handy Gresham Nemiroff
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When
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun appeared on Broadway in
1959, the artist became at twenty-nine the youngest American playwright,
the fifth woman and the only African American to date to win the
New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the Year. The
play represented a landmark. In its authentic depiction of Black
American life, and the vivid demonstration of so gifted a creator,
cast and director, A Raisin in the Sun made it impossible for the
American stage to ignore African American creativity and subject
matter thereafter. In 1961, the film version won a special award
at the Cannes Film Festival and the screenplay written by Hansberry
was nominated for a Screen Writer's Guild Award. 