The Playwright as Activist: Lorraine Hansberry’s Legacy

Co-sponsored by The Lillys and the Museum of the City of New York, three distinguished playwrights gathered before a masked audience on Monday, June 13, 2022, to discuss theatre, activism, and the influence of playwright Lorraine Hansberry on their work. The conversation accompanied the unveiling of Alison Saar’s sculpture of Lorraine Hansberry and the Museum’s inaugural Freedom Week: A Journey into Art & Activism. What follows is an excerpt of their conversation edited by and with the panelists.

May 01, 2023

Craft

Digital illustration of three aspects of Lorraine Hansberry: one showing her wearing a crew-neck t-shirt and smoking a cigarette, one showing her wearing a pearl necklace and wearing a suit, the other showing her wearing the same pearl necklace over a sleeveless dress, wearing sunglasses, and holding a microphone from the 1950s

Illustration by Bria Benjamin for The Dramatist. www.briabenjamin.com

Lynn Nottage: I’m so happy to be sitting next to both of you discussing the legacy of Lorraine Hansberry and her work as writer and activist. We’re here to celebrate the unveiling of the Lorraine Hansberry statue commissioned the Lillys and sculpted by renowned artist Alison Saar. The statue made its debut in Times Square, and if you would like to see Lorraine, she’s in residence this week at the Schomburg Center, before beginning a grand tour of the country. I encourage you all to take some time to sit awhile and think with her.

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Lynn Nottage

is the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Recent work includes the libretto for the opera Intimate Apparel (Lincoln Center Theater), the book for the musical MJ (Broadway), Clyde’s (Broadway, 2ST), and the book for the musical The Secret Life of Bees. Other credits include the performance installation (as co-curator) of The Watering Hole at the Signature Theatre; Mlima’s Tale; Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Evening Standard Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award); Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Lortel, NY Drama Critics’ Circle, AUDELCO, Drama Desk, and OCC awards); Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and NY Drama Critics’ Circle). She is the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award, Doris Duke Artist Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and the MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship. She is a Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts and is a member of the Theater Hall of Fame and the Dramatists Guild.

Erika Dickerson-Despenza

is a Blk, queer feminist poet-playwright & cultural-memory worker from Chicago, Illinois. Awards: Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award (2020), Thom Thomas Award (2020), Lilly Award (2020), Barrie and Bernice Stavis Award (2020), Steinberg Playwright Award (2020), Princess Grace Playwriting Award (2019). Select stage plays include: cullud wattah, shadow/land, and [hieroglyph].

Lisa Kron

wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Fun Home in collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori, which won five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Book, Score, and Musical, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Lisa’s other plays include In the Wake, Well, and the Obie Award-winning 2.5 Minute Ride. She received a Tony nomination for Best Actress in Well and a Lortel Award for her turn in Foundry Theater’s acclaimed production of Good Person of Szechuan. Other honors include: Guggenheim, Sundance, and MacDowell fellowships, a Doris Duke Performing Artists Award, Cal Arts/Alpert Award, and the Kleban Prize. Lisa was a writer on seasons 2 & 3 of the HBO series Somebody Somewhere. She is currently working with director Barrie Kosky on a theatrical adaptation of the I.B. Singer short story Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy, and with filmmaker Kirsten Johnson on a film about Susan Sontag.