Lorraine Vivian Hansberry

 

Legacy

Raisin, a musical based on A Raisin in the Sun, opened in New York in 1973, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical, with the book by Nemiroff, music by Judd Woldin, and lyrics by Robert Britten. A Raisin in the Sun was revived on Broadway in 2004 and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Revival of a Play. The cast included Sean Combs (“P Diddy”) as Walter Lee Younger Jr., Phylicia Rashad (Tony Award-winner for Best Actress), and Audra McDonald (Tony Award-winner for Best Featured Actress). It was produced for television in 2008 with the same cast, garnering two NAACP Image Awards.

Nina Simone first released a song about Hansberry in 1969 called “To Be Young, Gifted and Black.” 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.” Simone wrote the song with a poet named Weldon Irvine and told him that she wanted lyrics that would “make black children all over the world feel good about themselves forever.” When Irvine read the lyrics after it was finished, he thought, “I didn’t write this. God wrote it through me.” In a recorded to introduction of the song, Simone explained the difficulty of losing a close friend and talented artist.

Patricia and Fredrick McKissack wrote a children’s biography of Hansberry, Young, Black, and Determined, in 1998.

In 1999 Hansberry was posthumously inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Hansberry as one of his 100 Greatest African Americans.

The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre of San Francisco, 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. 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).

Lincoln University’s first-year female dormitory is named Lorraine Hansberry Hall. There is a school in the Bronx called Lorraine Hansberry Academy, and an elementary school in St. Albans, Queens, New York, named after Hansberry as well.

On the eightieth anniversary of Hansberry’s birth, Adjoa Andoh presented a BBC Radio 4 program entitled “Young, Gifted and Black” in tribute to her life.

In 2010, Hansberry was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.

In 2013, Hansberry was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display that celebrates LGBT history and people. This makes her the first Chicago-native honored along the North Halsted corridor.

Also in 2013, Lorraine Hansberry was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Lorraine Hansberry Elementary School was located in the 9th Ward of New Orleans. It was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It has since closed.

In 2017, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

 

Works

  • A Raisin in the Sun (1959)
  • A Raisin in the Sun, screenplay (1961)
  • “On Summer” (essay) (1960)
  • The Drinking Gourd (1960)
  • What Use Are Flowers? (written c. 1962)
  • The Arrival of Mr. Todog – a parody of Waiting for Godot
  • 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)
  • Toussaint. This fragment from a work in progress, unfinished at the time of 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. catalog of plays.)

 

LINKS

http://www.eurweb.com/2014/05/lorraine-hansberry-biopic-in-its-developmental-stages/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thstrain/hansberrydoc?ref=category

_in_the_sun_broadway_revival_shows_why_it_remains_relevant.html

https://www.gordonparksfoundation.org/education/features/a-raisin-in-the-sun?view=slider

http://www.biography.com/people/lorraine-hansberry-9327823

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap8/hansberry.html

http://www.gradesaver.com/author/lorraine-hansberry/ http://kirjasto.sci.fi/corhans.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorraine_Hansberry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Raisin_in_the_Sun

http://experiencinghistory.blogspot.com/2011/03/raisin-in-sun- hits-broadway.html

http://www.biography.com/people/langston-hughes-9346313

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois http://www.essence.com/2010/12/02/vintage-vamp-ruby-dee/ http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/4376/A-Raisin-in-the-Sun

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3208286?uid=3739840&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21104100787713

Langston Hughes Poem: Comment

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/175438/president-and-mrs-obama-set-to-see-denzel-washington-in-a-raisin-in-the-sun/

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0710/p09s02-coop.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_McNeil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3208286?uid=3739840&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21104100787713

Robert Hooks: Always About the Ensemble

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/175558/the-obamas-meet-the-youngers-see-the-president-first-ladys-date-night-at-a-raisin-in-the-sun/

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Actor-Louis-Gossett-Jr-in-a-Scene-from-the-Play-A-Raisin-in-the-Sun-Posters_i5336614_.htm

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/hansberry-william-leo-1894-1965 http://urbancrazes.com/headline/my-mentor-danny-glover/

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/113211-A-Raisin-in-the-Sun-TV-Movie-with-McDonald-Rashad-and-Combs-to-Debut-at-Sundance https://www.telecharge.com/eventoverview.aspx?cityName=NY%20City%20Area&productId=9976

http://www.raisinbroadway.com/

http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2013/03/06/lorraine-hansberry-her-chicago-law-story/

http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/04-2014/denzel-washington-and-company-take-the-stage-as-a-_68125.html http://lhlt.org/

http://www.broadwayworld.com/norfolk/article/PBS-to-Air-A-RAISIN-IN-THE-SUN-REVISITED-Documentary-1025-20131004#.U3v8c9JdU3k

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/black-playwrights-keepin-real-article-1.1604961

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/24/the-many-visions-of-lorraine-hansberry

https://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/lhansberry.html

https://www.shakespearetheatre.org/watch-listen/black-history-month-highlighting-playwright-lorraine-hansberry-2/

Pages:

iforcolor

ARCHIVIST, EDUCATOR, HISTORIAN, and ARTiST
Dale Ricardo Shields is highly accomplished African American actor, director, producer, and educator with a distinguished career in theatre and academia.

Here's a summary of his background and achievements:

Early Life and Family:
Born on November 4, 1952, in Cleveland, Ohio.
His family has a strong musical background; his grandfather and father were founding members of the Shields Brothers Gospel Quartet of Ohio, and his mother was part of the Turner Gospel Singers.
He is a cousin of boxing promoter Don King.
Education:
Graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in 1970.
Holds both a BFA (1975) and MFA (1995) from Ohio University.

Career and Contributions
Theatre Professional:
Actor: Has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and in regional productions. His television credits include The Cosby Show, Another World, Guiding Light, Saturday Night Live, and the ITV series Special Needs. He has also appeared in commercials and films.
Director and Stage Manager: Has extensive professional credits in these roles, including projects at Lincoln Center, The Henry Street Settlement House (New Federal Theatre), The Negro Ensemble Company, and The Joseph Papp Public Theatre.
Assistant Director: Served as assistant to Lloyd Richards and assistant director for the New Federal Theatre premiere of Ossie Davis's play A Last Dance With Sybil starring Ruby Dee and Earl Hyman.

Educator:
Professor: He is a Professor of Acting, Directing, Black Theatre, Black Studies, and Stage Management. He has taught at various institutions, including Ohio University, The College of Wooster, Denison University, Macalester College, Susquehanna University (as artist-in-residence), and SUNY Potsdam.
Workshops and Programs: Conducted workshops for Joseph Papp's Playwriting in the Schools Program (PITS) at The Public Theatre for six seasons and represented the United States at the ASSITEJ Theatre Festival in London, England, in 1988.
Artistic Activist and Historian:

Iforcolor.org: Creator and archivist for the Black History website Iforcolor.org, dedicated to preserving and sharing information about African Americans and artists of color. He also maintains the "Black Theatre/African American Voices" website on Facebook.
Project1VOICE Liaison: Serves as the Project1VOICE Liaison for the state of Ohio, directing "One Play One Day" events in Cleveland since 2011.

Awards and Recognition:
The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award: Recipient in 2017.
Paul Robeson Award: Recipient in 2021 (jointly presented by the Actors' Equity Association and Actors' Equity Foundation).
AUDELCO/"VIV" Special Achievement Award: Received in 2017.
Tony Award Nominee: Nominated for the "Excellence in Theatre Education Award" in 2015 and 2017.
Ebony Bobcat Network (EBN) Legend Award: Received from Ohio University in 2022.
ENCORE AWARD / The Actors Fund: Received in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024.
Outstanding Professor Awards: Has received two of these and three "Educational Program of the Year" awards as a university professor.
The HistoryMakers archives: Interviewed and included in The HistoryMakers archives, permanently housed in the Library of Congress.
Dale Ricardo Shields is recognized for his profound impact on the lives of his students and his unwavering dedication to preserving and promoting Black theatre history and culture.