108. Or Does It Explode? Lorraine Hansberry

The author of the famous play, A Raisin in the Sun, explores questions of violence, sexuality, and more during her too brief life. 

• L. Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun: A Drama in Three Acts (New York: 1959).

• L. Hansberry, "The Negro Writer and His Roots: Toward a New Romanticism," The Black Scholar 12 (March-April 1981): 2-12.

• L. Hansberry, Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays, ed. R. Nemiroff (New York: 1994).

• L. Hansberry, "Simone de Beauvoir and The Second Sex: An American Commentary," in B. Guy-Sheftall (ed), Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought (New York: 1995), 128-142.

• R. Nemiroff, To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1969).

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• J. Baldwin, "Sweet Lorraine," in R. Nemiroff, To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1969), ix-xii.

• A. Baraka, "A Wiser Play Than Some of Us Knew," Los Angeles Times (March 22, 1987).

• S.D. Colbert, Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry (New Haven: 2021).

• I. Perry, Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (Boston: 2018).

Philosopher V. Denise James on Hansberry on Myisha Cherry's UnMute podcast