To Be Young, Gifted and Black (play)

For similarly named articles, see Young, Gifted and Black (disambiguation).

To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in her Own Words, is a play about the life of American writer Lorraine Hansberry, adapted from her own writings. Hansberry was best known for her 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun, the first show on Broadway written by an African-American woman. After her death in 1965, Hansberry's ex-husband and friend, songwriter and poet Robert Nemiroff, collated her unpublished writings and adapted them into a stage play that first ran from 1968 to 1969 off Broadway. It was then converted into an equally successful autobiography with the same title.[1]

Nina Simone wrote a song with this title, inspired by Hansberry's play and book.

  1. ^ Margaret B. Wilkerson (Winter 1999). "Lorraine Hansberry: A Research and Production Sourcebook by Richard M. Leeson". African American Review. 33 (4): 710–712. doi:10.2307/2901367. JSTOR 2901367.