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Lorraine Hansberry was the first African-American woman to have a play produced on Broadway, with “A Raisin in the Sun.”

Salamishah Tillet's essay, "For Lorraine Hansberry, 'A Raisin in the Sun Was Just the Start," discusses the upcoming debut of the documentary, Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, noting Hansberry's commitment to the ongoing project of social change.

Lorraine Hansberry during “impromptu song-session” at a SNCC fundraiser.

Join the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture librarians and archivists as they unveil their latest pop-up exhibition featuring items from our coveted collection of archival materials. Be the first to get up close and personal with selected items and enjoy an audience Q&A with the collection's curators. 

Image of Lorraine Hansberry and title of documentary, Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart

On Friday, January 19, the national broadcast premier of Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, the first-ever feature documentary about Lorraine Hansberry, will be televised on PBS stations across the United States as part of their American Masters series (9pm EST on PBS; check local listings for more details).

In September 2017, the first-ever feature documentary, Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, screened at the Toronto Film Festival; in January 2018, the film makes its television debut as part of the American Masters PBS series. Throughout 2018, the film will be joined by a number of new print biographies.

Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining Biography: drawing by Hansberry with text below: March 22, 2018, Schomburg Center, NYC. Panel conversation with Margaret Wilkerson, Imani Perry, Soyica Colbert, Tracy Heather Strain. Moderated by Joy-Ann Reid.

Co-presented by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust

 

WHEN
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Panel Discussion 6:30–8:00pm
Public Reception 8:00–9:00pm

WHERE
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd (135th St and Malcolm X Blvd), New York, NY, 10037

This is a free event but as space is limited, please RSVP here.

Seat reservations begin on Thursday March 8, 2018!

Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining Biography: drawing by Hansberry with text below: March 22, 2018, Schomburg Center, NYC. Panel conversation with Margaret Wilkerson, Imani Perry, Soyica Colbert, Tracy Heather Strain. Moderated by Joy-Ann Reid.

On April 23, 1995, as a new Fellow, Margaret Wilkerson delivered the lecture “Lorraine Hansberry: The Making of A Woman of the Theatre” to the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

Dr. Wilkerson reads an excerpt from her 1995 manuscript:

Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining Biography: drawing by Hansberry with text below: March 22, 2018, Schomburg Center, NYC. Panel conversation with Margaret Wilkerson, Imani Perry, Soyica Colbert, Tracy Heather Strain. Moderated by Joy-Ann Reid.

Dr. Imani Perry discusses Lorraine Hansberry in Salamishah Tillet's New York Times essay, "For Lorraine Hansberry, 'A Raisin in the Sun Was Just the Start,” noting Hansberry's commitment to the ongoing project of social change:

Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining Biography: drawing by Hansberry with text below: March 22, 2018, Schomburg Center, NYC. Panel conversation with Margaret Wilkerson, Imani Perry, Soyica Colbert, Tracy Heather Strain. Moderated by Joy-Ann Reid.

On March 27, 2017, Georgetown University Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics presented Dreams Deferred: Crossing Continents and Cultures with ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ in celebration of World Theatre Day. The one-night event, moderated by Soyica Colbert, was in advance of the Arena Stage Mead Center for the American Theatre’s 2017 production of A Raisin in the Sun in Wahington, DC and productions in Sweden at the Riksteatern, directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo, OBE, and at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, directed by James Ngcobo.

Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining Biography: drawing by Hansberry with text below: March 22, 2018, Schomburg Center, NYC. Panel conversation with Margaret Wilkerson, Imani Perry, Soyica Colbert, Tracy Heather Strain. Moderated by Joy-Ann Reid.

On Thursday, March 22, 2018, the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture   will co-present Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining Biography. In addition to the AMERICAN MASTERS documentary, Sighted Eyes|Feeling Heart, three biographical treatments of the artist, activist, and public intellectual will be published in the next several years. The four panelists will share how they navigated the feminisms, intersectionalities, political, and private-public voicings that shaped Hansberry’s life in their biographical treatments of the artist, activist, and public intellectual.

Over the last two weeks we have been sharing information about the panel participants as well as information about the Lorraine Hansberry Papers, held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.

Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining Biography: drawing by Hansberry with text below: March 22, 2018, Schomburg Center, NYC. Panel conversation with Margaret Wilkerson, Imani Perry, Soyica Colbert, Tracy Heather Strain. Moderated by Joy-Ann Reid.

On March 22, 2018, the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will co-present Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining BiographyIn addition to the AMERICAN MASTERS documentary, Sighted Eyes|Feeling Heart, that aired on PBS in January 2018, three biographical treatments of the artist, activist, and public intellectual will be published in the next several years. Reimagining Biography panelists will be asked to address the feminisms, intersectionalities, political, and private-public voicings that shaped Hansberry’s life and her understanding of herself and the worlds she both lived in and created.

In 2010 the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture published an article, “Young, Gifted, Black, and Complicated: The Question of Lorraine Hansberry’s Legacy,” in their newsletter, Africana Heritage. In that article, Steven G. Fullwood, then Assistant Curator, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture puts the incredible legacy of Lorraine Hansberry’s contribution as an artist, activist, public intellectual, and writer into context.