Lorraine Hansberry Project

FINDING HER VOICE: LORRAINE HANSBERRY IN THE VILLAGE

Produced by Frank Collerius
Director Jefferson Market Library -- New York Public Library
Conceived and directed by Cecilia Rubino
Associate Professor of Theater at The New School
Introduced by Rich Blint
Professor of Literary Studies & The Director of Race & Ethnicity at The New School.

Lorraine Hansberry, the first African American woman to have a play on Broadway, moved in 1950 to Greenwich Village. Just as her career as a writer began, she was deeply influenced by a radical bohemian downtown New York. After residing in Harlem for a time, Hansberry moved back to the Village to write her groundbreaking work A Raisin in the Sun and with the proceeds bought her first home on Waverly Place. In her final Broadway play The Sign in Sydney Brustein’s Window, Hansberry tapped the stories of fellow Village artists and activists.  She died in 1965 of cancer at the age of 34, leaving a legacy of work that continues to need to be urgently shared.  Finding Her Voice: Lorraine Hansberry in the Village is an online theater event which features actors reading selections of Hansberry’s plays, journals, letters and from critical accounts of her remarkable work.  

Performers: Shaunice Alexander, Jmar Reid, Elia Monte-Brown, Melody Louisdhon, Jersten Ray Seraile, Benjamin Bailey, Mickey Theis

Understudies: Zhane Taylor-Watson, Noah Murray

To Be Young Gifted & Black

Music performance arranged and mentored by Nathan Koci, New School/Mannes Faculty
Singers: Shaunice Alexander, Zhane Taylor-Watson, Jasmine Holland

FINDING HER VOICE: LORRAINE HANSBERRY IN THE VILLAGE: Created during covid for the New York Public Library

https://vimeo.com/495429704  Password: Hansberry