Biography

When A Raisin in the Sun was first presented at Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York City, on March 11, 1959, playwright Lorraine Hansberry was only 20 years old. Tragically, she died of cancer only six years later, in 1965. Nevertheless, during her short life she left a lasting mark on the literary world. She won the Best Play of the Year Award for A Raisin in the Sun (only the fifth woman, and the first black playwright, to do so). Her 1961 film adaptation of the play won a Cannes Festival Award and in 1989, the play appeared in an unabridged form on American Playhouse. IN 1953, she married Robert Nemiroff (who produced To Be Young, Gifted, and Black – a portrait of Hansberry composed from her own words, which became the longest-running off-Broadway drama of 1969). It was during a run of her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, that she died, at age 34. Family • Born in Chicago on May 19, 1930 • The youngest of four children • Her parents were well-educated African Americans who fought against discrimination • As a child, lived with her family on the South Side of Chicago • Later, her family became one of the first black families to move into a white neighborhood • When treated unfairly, the Hansberry’s defended themselves. Literary Experiences • Hansberry felt the inclination to record her own experiences, thus A Raisin in the Sun is often considered autobiographical. • Hansberry was one of the first playwrights to create realistic portraits of African-American life. • A Raisin in the Sun received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play of the Year. • She was the youngest playwright, the fifth woman, and the only black writer at that point to win the award. • Her promising career was cut short when she dies in 1965, at the age of 34, to cancer. Harlem Renaissance • 1920-1940, mainly in New York City; used to be called the “New Negro Movement” named after an anthology of notable African-American words entitled The New Negro and published by philosopher Alain LeRoy Locke in 1925. • Instead of using direct political means, African American artists, writers, and musicians employed culture to work for goals of civil rights and equality. For the first time, African American paintings, writings, and jazz became absorbed into mainstream culture and cross racial lines, creating a lasting legacy. • Writers include Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Claude McKay, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and many others. Later writers who were inspired by this period include Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison. • Musicians include Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald.