Lorraine Hansberry

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Lorraine Hansberry (born May 19, 1930 in Chicago , † January 12, 1965 in New York , NY ) was an American playwright and political activist.

Life

Childhood and youth

Hansberry was born in Chicago , Illinois, the youngest of four children to real estate agent Carl Augustus and teacher Nannie Louise Hansberry. Her uncle was the history professor William Leo Hansberry . Hansberry's parents were both politically committed to the black community and against racial segregation , Carl Hansberry was also an active member of the NAACP and National Urban League . Lorraine Hansberry grew up in the Woodlawn Neighborhood in southern Chicago.

In 1938, the family moved to a white suburb of Chicago, where they were subjected to violent racist reprisals: The purchase of the house was challenged by an agreement that would forbid African Americans from buying houses in the area. Carl Hansberry charged against it, which ultimately led to the fundamental decision in the Hansberry v. Lee, 311 US 32 (1940) in the United States Supreme Court ruling in favor of the family. These experiences inspired Lorraine Hansberry later to her best-known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun .

New York City

Hansberry studied at the University of Wisconsin – Madison before moving to New York City in 1950 , where she attended New School and became involved in the civil rights movement. In 1951 she began writing for the African American magazine Freedom . In 1953 she married Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish activist, songwriter and writer. On their wedding night, the couple took part in protests against the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg . From 1953 Hansberry began to write his own literary texts. In 1956 Nemiroff landed a worldwide hit with his song Cindy, Oh Cindy , which put Hansberry in the financial position to devote himself full-time to writing.

Hansberry's breakthrough came with the play A Raisin in The Sun , which premiered in 1959. It was the first play by a black writer to be produced on Broadway . The play has been translated into 35 languages ​​and received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award . She also created the script version, which was filmed in 1961 by Daniel Petrie with Sidney Poitier (German title: A spot in the sun ).

In addition to various essays, Hansberry wrote the book The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality on the civil rights movement and the plays Daszeichen am Fenster , Les Blancs and Jung, gifted and black .

She attended the unofficial Baldwin - Kennedy meeting on May 24, 1963 .

In 1964, Hansberry and Nemiroff divorced, but continued their work together. Several texts, and in particular a letter correspondence with the lesbian magazine The Ladder , suggest that Hansberry was homosexual.

death

In 1964, Hansberry contracted pancreatic cancer . She died the following year, aged only 34. Nina Simone , a close friend of Hansberry, wrote the song To Be Young, Gifted and Black in her memory and sang the song at her funeral.

reception

Lorraine Hansberry was included in the Daughters of Africa anthology edited by Margaret Busby in London and New York in 1992 .

Works

  • A raise in the sun . 1959
  • A spot in the sun . Screenplay, 1961
  • On summer . Essay, 1960
  • 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 . Edited by Robert Nemiroff. 1994

literature

  • Margaret B. Wilkerson: The Sighted Eyes and Feeling Heart of Lorraine Hansberry. In: Black American Literature Forum . Vol. 17, No. 1, Black Theater Issue (Spring 1983), pp. 8-13.
  • Anne Cheney: Lorraine Hansberry. Twayne, Boston 1984, ISBN 978-08057-7365-1 .
  • Patricia C. McKissack and Fredrick McKissack: Black and Determined: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry. Holiday House, New York 1998, ISBN 978-08234-1300-3 .
  • Janet Tripp: The Importance of Lorraine Hansberry. Lucent Books, San Diego, California 1997, 2nd edition 1998.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the information on the page of the Chicago Public Library Lorraine Hansberry Biography . See also the entry on Lorraine Hansberry Biography on Biography.com . See also Biography of Lorraine Hansberry on Gradesaver and Petri Liukkonen: Lorraine Hansberry. Biography. . See also Lorraine Hansberry Biography on SparkNotes . Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  2. ↑ See the information on the page of the Chicago Public Library Lorraine Hansberry Biography . See also Lorraine Hansberry Biography on Biography.com and Biography of Lorraine Hansberry on Gradesaver . See also Petri Liukkonen: Lorraine Hansberry. Biography. and Lorraine Hansberry Biography on SparkNotes . Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  3. ↑ See the information in Lorraine Hansberry Biography on Biography.com and Petri Liukkonen: Lorraine Hansberry. Biography. . See also Lorraine Hansberry Biography on SparkNotes . Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  4. ^ The Baldwin-Kennedy Meeting of 1963. In: GVSHP | Preservation | Off the grid. June 5, 2018, Retrieved May 26, 2019 (American English).
  5. ↑ See Village Voice: Lorraine Hansberry's Letters Reveal the Playwright's Private Struggle . See also Petri Liukkonen: Lorraine Hansberry. Biography. . Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  6. ↑ See the information in Lorraine Hansberry Biography on Biography.com and Petri Liukkonen: Lorraine Hansberry. Biography. . See also Lorraine Hansberry Biography on SparkNotes . Retrieved July 28, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Hansberry, Lorraine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American playwright
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1965
Place of death New York , NY