Daily Archives for: May 22nd, 2020

10 Fascinating Facts About Lorraine Hansberry

By | On May 22, 2020 | Updated May 2, 2025 | Comments (5)

Lorraine Hansberry (1930 – 1965) was an American playwright and author best known for A Raisin in the Sun, a 1959 play  influenced by her background and upbringing in Chicago. The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry following illustrate her development as a Black woman, activist, and writer.

Though A Raisin in the Sun is the crown jewel in Hansberry’s legacy, she was also known for the plays The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Les Blancs. 

To Be Young, Gifted and Black was a posthumously produced play and  collection of writings that capped a brief and brilliant career. When she died of pancreatic cancer in 1965, she was only thirty-four years old. Read More→

Categories: Literary Musings Comments: (5)

How Alice Walker Revived Zora Neale Hurston’s Literary Legacy

By | On May 22, 2020 | Updated October 6, 2025 | Comments (15)

By the time of Zora Neale Hurston’s death, most of her considerable body of work was out of print, rarely read or studied. Here we’ll explore how Alice Walker rediscovered Zora Neale Hurston and revived her literary legacy.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891 – 1960) had a dual career as an anthropologist and writer, incorporating regional and cultural realism in her short stories, folklore collections, and novels.

Alice Walker (1944 – ) is an activist, novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for the 1982 novel The Color Purple. Some of her views  and alliances are controversial, yet if there is one good deed she has done, it has been to return Zora to her rightful place in the world of literature.

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Categories: Literary Musings Comments: (15)