“The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry”
Listen 35:30
Guest: Imani Perry
Lorraine Hansberry was far ahead of her time as a playwright and social justice advocate. At just 29-years-old, she wrote Raisin in the Sun – the first Broadway play written by a black women. She was also an activist on racial and gender issues, so much so that she was under FBI surveillance. Although Hansberry was married to a man, she identified as a lesbian and joined one of the country’s first lesbian organizations. Still, many people don’t know much about Hansberry’s work or her life, which was cut short from cancer at the young age of thirty-four. Princeton University professor IMANI PERRY wants to change that, so she wrote the book, Looking for Lorraine: the Radiant Life of Lorraine Hansberry.
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