A Raisin in the Sun | by Lorraine Hanesberry

A Raisin in the Sun playwright was the first African American woman to write for a play that went to Broadway. Originally called "The Crystal Stair" in 1957, the play was changed to "A Raisin in the Sun", after a Langston Hughes poem. It focused on the lives of a Black family in Chicago, aspiring the "American Dream". It hit broadway 3 years later, featuring Sidney Poitier. The author went on to write " A Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" in 1964 - which focused on political and social issues an taboos. Sadly, the author encountered an untimely death at age 34; however, her legacy lives on - not just fro Black women, but all women. Summary: First produced in 1959, A Raisin in the Sun was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and hailed as a watershed in American drama. Not only a pioneering work by an African American playwright - Lorraine Hansberry's play was also radically new representation of black life, resolutely authentic, fiercely unsentimental, and unflinching in its