Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project

A Raisin in the Sun Producer Phil Rose Remembered

2011-06-10T18:36:00.012-04:00

Last week we heard the sad news that theatrical producer Phil Rose passed away on May 31, 2011 at age 89. His tireless efforts to get Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun produced on Broadway helped change the face of American theater. Other notable productions include The Owl and the Pussycat, Purlie and Shenandoah. He recounted his life and the difficult road to get A Raisin in the Sun mounted on Broadway in his memoir, You Can’t Do That on Broadway!: A Raisin in the Sun and Other Theatrical Improbabilities.

Phil Rose was one of the first people we interviewed for our documentary project about Lorraine Hansberry. He and his wife, actress Doris Belack, welcomed us into their home for the interview. Phil was a generous and kind gentleman with a twinkle in his eye, and a marvelous storyteller.

He told us this story about hearing Lorraine do an early reading of what would later be known as A Raisin in the Sun:

I probably got home about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, but I couldn’t sleep. So I got up at about maybe 7:30, and I called her. I couldn’t wait to speak to her. And what had happened to me during the night, as I couldn’t sleep, I just kept thinking about this family that I had met in her play. So I called her the following morning, early, and she said hello and I said, “Hello, Lorraine. It’s Phil. I want to produce your play.” She said, “What?” I said, “I want to produce your play.” Said, “Do you know what time it is?” I said, “Yes, and I want to produce your play.” She said, “Well, go produce it, but don’t bother me.” [laugh] And she hung up the telephone. And, you know, she didn’t take it seriously. But the next day of course we talked, and that’s how it began.

The idea of producing a straight play about an African American family for Broadway was a huge risk. Most productions with African Americans in the cast were musicals, and even those were not a sure thing. A realistic play about a black family living on Chicago’s South Side was going to be a hard sell, but Rose believed in Lorraine and the play. He described how difficult it was to raise the $100,000 for the production—some of it from hundreds of donors giving $15, $25, or $50 a piece.* “I didn’t have it all raised when we opened it out of town,” Rose told us. “I still needed about $15,000. But I had set the dates, we had been in rehearsal, doing what was illegal, using the money which I wasn’t supposed to be doing.” Rose had dipped into money earmarked for after it opened in New York, and was concerned he would go to jail if the show flopped.

Rose could only afford one night of previews before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Mar 11, 1959 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Although the preview did not go well, opening night was a smash. The show would run for 530 performances and win the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play for 1959.

Phil recalled when he and Lorraine walked into Sardi’s after opening night she received a standing ovation:

They all stood and greeted her as though she was somebody very important, and they had seen something very important. And all during the months of trying to get the show on, I never thought in those ways. I was just hoping it gets on, and who knows what would happen? That was when I first realized that what Lorraine had written was going to be something very important historically, and would change a lot of things. That had never in any way occurred to Lorraine or me. She was just hoping that it gets on, and maybe she’ll make a few bucks. And I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to go to jail. But that night, it showed it to us, because the audience, the people at Sardi’s, knew that they were seeing something that was going to be important.

Phil Rose’s courageous and groundbreaking work helped open new doors by presenting a wider and more inclusive representation of humanity on the Broadway stage. Thank you Phil for all you have done.

*We, too, accept small donations for this project. Make a tax-deductible donation via PayPal to Filmmakers Collaborative on behalf of Hansberry in honor of Phil who believed in our documentary. Use the Donate button on the right side of our blog or contact us directly.

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS ANNOUNCES GRANT FOR HANSBERRY DOC!

2011-05-17T18:03:00.001-04:00

$30,000 Arts on Radio and Television grant will support LORRAINE HANSBERRY DOCUMENTARY PROJECT

May 17, 2011—Waltham, MA—Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, today announced that Filmmakers Collaborative (FC) has been recommended for a grant of $30K to support the Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project, a biographical transmedia project about the artist best known for writing one of the most produced plays in North America, A Raisin in the Sun. FC is one of 1,145 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency’s second round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the Arts Endowment will distribute more than $88 million to support projects nationwide.

An independent agency of the federal government, the National Endowment for the Arts advances artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman said, “NEA research shows that three out of four Americans participate in the arts. The diverse, innovative, and exceptional projects funded in this round will ensure that Americans around the country continue to have the opportunity to experience and participate in the arts.”

"We are very grateful to the NEA for its continued support of this project. We believe Lorraine Hansberry, who lived from 1930-1965, is an important artist whose life reveals an important, dramatic, and surprising narrative that organically intersects with the major American social, political and historical movements of her time," says director and producer Tracy Heather Strain. "Hansberry's contributions to the world were much bigger and broader than her groundbreaking play A Raisin in the Sun; her place in history as the first African-American woman to have a dramatic play produced on Broadway; and the individuals whose careers as theater professionals can be traced back to her first play," adds Randall MacLowry, producer and editor. Executive producer Chiz Schultz, who produced To Be Young, Gifted and Black about Lorraine Hansberry in 1969 with Harry Belafonte, Edgar Lansbury and Robert Nemiroff, Hansberry's ex-husband notes, "Hansberry was an artist/activist committed to inspiring audiences throughout the world to stand up for equality, morality and the rights of all men and women, and we are committed to bringing her journey to a new generation." Schultz also produced the PBS American Playhouse production of A Raisin in the Sun starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle.

The Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project is being produced by award-winning filmmakers Strain and MacLowry through their Boston-based company The Film Posse with Chiz Schultz Inc of New York. The team is committed to developing a cross-media project that reaches a variety of audiences. Earlier support allowed the documentary team to complete interviews with 19 individuals who knew Lorraine Hansberry including actors Ruby Dee, director Lloyd Richards (1919-2006) and producer Philip Rose (1921-2011), who are three of a handful of theaters professionals who were instrumental in the success of the original 1959 Broadway production of Hansberry's now classic play.

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA.

The More Things Change…

2010-12-03T10:35:00.000-05:00

According to the New York Times, organizations and communities in the South plan to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with celebrations of secession and the Confederacy while steering clear of mentioning slavery as the root cause of the brutal conflict.

The events include a “secession ball” in the former slave port of Charleston (“a joyous night of music, dancing, food and drink,” says the invitation), which will be replicated on a smaller scale in other cities. A parade is being planned in Montgomery, Ala., along with a mock swearing-in of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy.

In addition, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and some of its local chapters are preparing various television commercials that they hope to show next year. “All we wanted was to be left alone to govern ourselves,” says one ad from the group’s Georgia Division.

That some — even now — are honoring secession, with barely a nod to the role of slavery, underscores how divisive a topic the war remains, with Americans continuing to debate its causes, its meaning and its legacy.

“We in the South, who have been kicked around for an awfully long time and are accused of being racist, we would just like the truth to be known,” said Michael Givens, commander-in-chief of the Sons, explaining the reason for the television ads. While there were many causes of the war, he said, “our people were only fighting to protect themselves from an invasion and for their independence.

Almost fifty years ago, Lorraine Hansberry addressed this issue during the centenary of the Civil War when the nation was in the midst of the civil rights struggle over desegregation.

I am profoundly concerned that in these 100 years since the Civil War very few of our countrymen have really believed that their Federal Union and the defeat of the slavocracy and the negation of slavery as an institution is an admirable fact of American life.

Her comments were made in January 1961 when Hansberry participated in a symposium titled “The Negro in American Culture.” Other participants included James Baldwin, Emile Capouya, Langston Hughes and Alfred Kazin. Nat Hentoff moderated the discussion, which was broadcast on WBAI radio in New York. Hansberry continued:

Person after person will write a book today and insist that slavery was not the issue. They tell you that it was fought for economic reasons, as if that economy were not based on slavery. It has become a great semantic game to try and get this particular blot out of our minds. People spend volumes discussing the battles of the Civil War and which army was crossing the river at five minutes to two and how their swords were hanging, but we have tried to get rid of the slavery issue. To a point that while it has been perfectly popular, admirable, all of my life, ever since Gone With the Wind, it has been an accepted part of our culture to describe the slave system in terms of beautiful ladies in big fat dresses, screaming that their houses have been burned down by the awful Yankees. That this has been such a perfectly acceptable part of our culture. But when someone asked me to write 90 minutes of television drama on slavery, not a propaganda piece in either direction, but, I hope, a serious treatment of family relationships, by a slave-owning family and their slaves, this was considered controversial.

Hansberry’s teleplay, The Drinking Gourd, which was commissioned by NBC through Dore Schary’s company to be part of a series about the centenary of the Civil War, was never produced. It would not be until Roots was broadcast in 1977 that a major television network tackled the subject of slavery.

The essence of Hansberry’s concerns have not changed substantially for portions of American society in the intervening 50 years. As with many topics, Hansberry’s incisive and insightful mind was ahead of her times. This is why we find Hansberry so fascinating and that a documentary about her is so important.

Interview with Louis Gossett Jr. In the Can!

2010-11-13T08:25:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday we traveled to the lovely Harbor Light Inn in Marblehead, Massachusetts to interview Academy Award winning actor Louis Gossett, Jr., who has been touring the country with his book, An Actor and a Gentleman. Mr. Gossett was in the original 1959 Broadway cast of A Raisin in the Sun having secured the role of George Murchison, a well-off college student of whom Sidney Poitier's character Walter Lee Younger famously asks, "Why all you college boys wear them faggoty-looking white shoes?" Gossett's stories about his life and working on Broadway and in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s make an important contribution to our project.

When Gossett accepted the role in A Raisin in the Sun, it was his third time on stage and his second on Broadway. The first time was in 1953 when he was just a 17-year-old kid from Brooklyn who seemed a lot like the playwright, and thus landed the lead role in Louis Peterson's drama Take a Giant Step. Peterson was the first African-American playwright to have a dramatic (or straight) play produced on Broadway. Gossett's moving portrayal of Spencer Scott won him the Donalson Award for Best Newcomer of the Year. Check out Gossett's book for the description of the rarified intensive education he received preparing for his debut that included getting rid of his Jewish Brooklyn accent. Unfortunately Peterson's acclaimed play ran for only 76 performances. The lack of financial success for dramas starring African Americans like Take a Giant Step made it difficult for producer Philip Rose to raise money for A Raisin in the Sun. I'll leave it to others more familiar with the specifics to discuss how hard it still is to mount dramatic plays on Broadway starring African Americans over 50 years since Peterson, Hansberry—and Gossett—helped make history.

*PHOTO: producer/editor Randall MacLowry, camera Jonathan Weaver, Louis Gossett Jr., director/producer Tracy Heather Strain, and sound Susan Bryant. Production assistant Matthew Gavin took the photo.

Inspiration from My Friend, and Hero

2010-11-06T05:48:00.006-04:00

Thursday night I had the great pleasure of attending a reading at the Cambridge Public Library for the book my friend, and hero, Judy Richardson co-edited. Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by the Women of SNCC, recently published by the University of Illinois Press, is a riveting collection of 52 stories from and about women working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, known as SNCC (which is pronounced "snick"). I know Judy originally from Blackside, where I worked for a couple of stints in the 1990s when Henry Hampton was still alive. Judy had been the series associate producer for the multi-award-winning Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years. When we met in 1991, she was co-producing Malcolm X: Make It Plain with Orlando Bagwell and working as Education Director for Eyes on the Prize outreach. We were colleagues again while I produced a couple of projects for Northern Light Productions. Judy and Northern Light owner Bestor Cram subsequently produced the documentary Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968. She is one of the friendliest, energetic and most down-to-earth people I know, and I am delighted that the book she worked on for so many years has been published.

The stories from Hands on the Freedom Plow I heard at the reading were so moving. They prompted me once again to wonder if I had been older, whether I would have had the courage to do what Judy and others Northerners did—leave college and travel to the South, putting one's life on the line alongside Southern activists and residents to stand up and fight for the principles and ideals on which this nation was founded. Lorraine Hansberry, as she was unknowingly dying of pancreatic cancer, asked herself the same question as she watched friends, acquaintances and scores of people she didn't know travel down South for the cause. Even though she was active in civil rights activities, Hansberry questioned whether she was really a revolutionary. She was a great admirer of SNCC, and worked with others including her friends James Baldwin and Nina Simone to raise money for the young activists who were participating in voter registration drives and other civil rights organizing. Hansberry wrote the text for The Movement: Document of a Struggle for Equality to help raise money for the organization. SNCC staff photographer Danny Lyon captured these images.

Danny Lyon also photographed Judy Richardson. See her with other SNCC members at a 1963 lunch counter sit-in at Tottle House in Atlanta and singing at SNCC's Atlanta office. I take inspiration from Judy not just from her past activism, but from the tenacity she—and her co-editors—demonstrated in getting Hands on the Freedom Plow published. I believe she said it took 16 years. I hope this documentary project doesn't take that our team that long, but if it does, I'll look to the stories of the women of SNCC to keep me going.

Link to Hands on the Freedom Plow events.

Original 1961 soundtrack for A Raisin in the Sun released

2010-10-30T21:52:00.001-04:00

Intrada label releases the original score of the 1961 Columbia Pictures adaption of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil and Louis Gossett. Composed by Laurence Rosenthal, this is a limited edition CD that is a unique pairing with Rosenthal's A Raisin in the Sun and Requiem for a Heavyweight soundtracks. Check out what liner writer John Takis has to say about the score:

John Takis | a writer's blog: Announcing: A Raisin in the Sun / Requiem for a Heavyweight
A Raisin in the Sun is the longer score, and headlines the disc (although it is programmed second). It's an outstanding display of Rosenthal's versatility, embracing everything from American jazz to native African rhythms. The heart of the score, however, is pure symphonic emotion. The themes are gorgeous, and beautifully developed -- I particularly enjoy the way Walter Younger's angular and agitated jazz motif surfaces in unexpected places, interrupting or shading the surrounding material.

Hansberry Filmmaker Awarded New Fellowship

2009-11-01T16:50:00.000-05:00

Hansberry director/producer Tracy Heather Strain was in the news recently for receiving a Brother Thomas Fellowship Award from The Boston Foundation. She and the seven other fellows were honored in a ceremony at The Boston Foundation on October 13, 2009, and a week later at The Pucker Gallery, which represents the late Brother Thomas Bezanson, a Benedictine monk and master ceramic artist. To see photos of Brother Thomas's stunningly beautiful works, click here to see the program from the gallery's recent exhibition.

Harry Belafonte Interview, February 2009

2009-06-01T00:06:00.002-04:00

The Big 5-0 for A Raisin in the Sun

2008-12-31T13:23:00.003-05:00

Entertainment at SFGate, news and information for the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2009, many plays, people and other theatrical entities will observe significant milestones, including the 50th anniversary of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun." Chronicle Theater Critic Robert Hurwitt looks ahead to more theater's touchstones taking place in the New Year.

Lorraine Hansberry and the 2008 Campaign: Who Would She Have Supported?

2008-01-19T17:58:00.001-05:00

There has been a lot written about African-American women and whether a majority will support Barak Obama, an African-American man, or Hilary Clinton, a European-American woman, in the Democratic primaries and caucuses. By the way, if you haven't seen or read the debate between second-wave feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem and Princeton University Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell on Democracy Now!, you should check it out!

Since I spend so much time thinking about Lorraine Hansberry, I've wondered what she might have said about this presidential race, and which of these two candidates she would have supported, if she had been inclined to back either. What do you think?

Take our What Would Lorraine Hansberry Do (WWLHD)? poll on the right, and explain your selection in the comments using what she's written to support your position.

World Premiere for A Raisin in the Sun at 2008 Sundance Film Festival

2007-12-01T20:13:00.001-05:00

A RAISIN IN THE SUN / U.S.A. (Director: Kenny Leon; Screenwriter: Paris Qualles)—After moving to Chicago’s South Side in the 1950s, a black family struggles to deal with poverty, racism, and inner conflict as they strive for a better life. Adapted for the screen from Lorraine Hansberry's play, this is a moving portrait of dreams deferred. Cast: Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sean Patrick Thomas. World Premiere.

Powered by ScribeFire.

ABC put the trailer up last night. Look for the video titled "Don't Miss A Raisin In The Sun!"

Post Interview Posing

2007-11-25T21:08:00.001-05:00

Executive Producer Chiz Schultz & Playwright William Branch
Originally uploaded by unit2A

One of interviews we've completed was with William Branch who met Lorraine Hansberry in New York. He was one of the organizers of the First Conference of Negro Writers held at the Hudson Hotel in New York in early March 1959. Hansberry was invited to speak at the gathering, which happened about two weeks before the Broadway premiere of A Raisin in the Sun. It was at the conference where she gave a speech that is often quoted today. Two of our favorites phrases from her address: "I am black and female" and "...the human race does command its own destiny and that destiny can eventually embrace the stars."

A Quick Update: We're Still Moving Forward!

2007-10-24T11:00:00.001-04:00

The Office
Originally uploaded by unit2A

Our team is hard at work continuing our research and development for this documentary project about the late great Lorraine Hansberry. Business affairs—whether it is writing fundraising proposals, dealing with legal issues, or estimating our budget and schedule—takes up much more of our time right now than we'd like. When we have time to dive back into the content, i.e. Hansberry's story, especially contemplating her powerful words, we are delighted and inspired. Gotta get back to the proposal writing.

A Long Legacy: Hansberry's Words Continue to Inspire

2007-08-06T08:31:00.001-04:00

Liberty City artist portrays urban life at Fort Lauderdale exhibit - 07/27/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

Liberty City artist portrays urban life at Fort Lauderdale exhibit
A self-taught painter from Liberty City depicts his world in a show in Fort Lauderdale
Posted on Fri, Jul. 27, 2007
BY ANI MARTINEZ armartinez@MiamiHerald.com

When Addonis Parker watched Woody Woodpecker as a 4-year-old boy, he thought, ''I could do better.''

So his mother handed him a drawing pad and paint and told him to prove it.

Parker, 34, hasn't stopped painting since.

''My mother trained my mind away from poverty,'' he said. ''We weren't from a well-to-do family, so she helped me understand there was another life I could live.''

Parker, of Liberty City, is a self-taught painter. In his own words, he depicts ''urban life through urban eyes.''

A collection of Parker's paintings went on display Thursday at the Old Dillard Museum in Fort Lauderdale. The exhibit, called Young, Gifted and Black . . . and That's a Fact, is at the museum through Aug. 31. The exhibit title is inspired by To be Young, Gifted and Black, a collection of writings by American playwright Lorraine Hansberry, author of the groundbreaking drama A Raisin in the Sun.

Celebrating Black Theater...and Film!

2007-07-30T11:13:00.000-04:00

Tonight in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the National Black Theatre Festival holds its Opening Night Gala. I'm excited to make it down here finally, even though I can only attend this evening's kick-off. This year's festival begins on a sad note because the visionary founder Larry Leon Hamlin passed away last month. Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting his widow Sylvia and several people in the office—all dressed in their traditional purple and black—working hard to make this week-long event run smoothly. With the help of my aunt and uncle, and through the kindness of the festival planners, I'm spreading the word about our Hansberry documentary, and placing our postcards at the various festival-related venues around town.

I suspect that most everyone of the theater folks in the room tonight will have participated in at least one production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Take James Pickens, Jr. of Grey's Anatomy, who, according to the local news, was already in Winston-Salem yesterday. Pickens played Walter Lee in the 25th anniversary celebration of the play at the Roundabout Theatre which was directed by Harold Scott. Honoree Billie Allen, one of six recipients of a Living Legend Award, was Diana Sands' understudy in the original Broadway production. Some of the other festival awardees include the Negro Ensemble Company/Theatre Longevity Award, Lou Bellamy/Lloyd Richards’ Director’s Award, and Leslie Lee/August Wilson’s Playwright Award. The theater festival also gives out an Outstanding Achievement in Film Award, and this year's recipient is Warrington Hudlin, DV Republic Founder and Chief and President of the Black Filmmakers Foundation. Should be a fun and moving evening.

Interesting Article Regarding A Raisin in the Sun

2007-07-26T11:07:00.001-04:00

Star Community Newspapers

Reading more of a pleasure than requirement for teenagers

BY STEFANIE WHITE, McKinney Courier-Gazette
(Created: Wednesday, July 25, 2007)

Some high school students are required to read during the summer, but Helen Talley said more teens are choosing to read on their own.

“Actually, I think they are reading more for pleasure during the summer,” Talley said. “It seems once school goes out, the shelves are empty.”

Talley, McKinney Memorial Public Library young adult coordinator, said the library has had a few requests on required summer reading books.

“‘A Raisin in the Sun’ is one that everyone is having to read,” Talley said. “We get a request almost on a daily basis.”

We Gotta Grant

2007-06-14T20:40:00.000-04:00

We are pleased to announce that the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded us with an Arts on Radio and Television Grant. We are so honored to receive their support. On to the humanities!

Happy Birthday Lorraine and Malcolm!

2007-05-21T07:48:00.000-04:00

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. Malcolm X, nee Malcolm Little, was born on the same day in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. Lorraine died when she was 34 years old of pancreatic cancer on January 12, 1965. Malcolm X attended her funeral, and about five weeks later, at the age of 39 on February 21, 1965, he was assassinated.

A Producer's Long Relationship with Lorraine Hansberry

2007-03-09T16:57:00.000-05:00

From Executive Producer, Chiz Schultz: Years after being profoundly moved and thrilled by the original Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun, Edgar Lansbury, a friend of mine, called me and asked if I would meet Bob Nemiroff, Hansberry’s ex-husband, who wanted to produce a compilation of her writings and work off-Broadway. Bob and I met at Belafonte Enterprises, where I was working for Harry Belafonte, developing projects for feature films and television. It was 1968. Bob asked me to read a play he had written, To Be Young, Gifted and Black. It was inspiring, funny, dramatic, exciting and revealed a woman I realized I knew nothing about. How I would have liked to know her!

I recommended the play to Belafonte, whose company proceeded to invest in the production, along with Lansbury and some others. The play, with Cicely Tyson among others, opened in 1969 at the Cherry Lane Theater and was the longest-running off-Broadway play that season. That began a lifelong friendship with Bob Nemiroff that later led to his asking me to produce the television production of A Raisin in the Sun starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle, as well as a documentary special on Hansberry’s life and legacy.

After more than ten years, the Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project is in pre-production, with an exceptional producer/director, Tracy Heather Strain; award-winning editor, Randy MacLowry; and esteemed advisers such as Hansberry’s biographers Margaret Wilkerson and Michael Anderson; two-time Pulitzer prize winning historian, David Levering Lewis; the late Lloyd Richards, original director of A Raisin in the Sun; Hansberry scholar, Professor Steven Carter; and women’s studies scholar Beverly Guy-Sheftall.

Our documentary and the educational outreach program to schools and universities both here and abroad are long overdue. We are excited to use some of the latest interactive digital tools and social networks to connect with students and the public at large as we embark on this exploration of Hansberry's life, art and times. By getting to know Lorraine Hansberry, both the artist and the woman, we can receive a new understanding of and respect for our fellow humans and the inspiration to follow our dreams.

It's Time for a Documentary on Hansberry

2007-02-09T00:14:00.000-05:00

Lorraine Hansberry's best known work A Raisin in the Sun is the most read American play in American schools, but what do you really know about this woman who helped change the face of American theater? Yes, she died at 34 years old of pancreatic cancer, but as people will learn from our project, she was much more than just a one hit wonder.