"...one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe
A song for Lorraine Hansberry's birthday: Nina Simone's "To Be Young, Gifted and Black":
a dedication to Nina Simone's friend, the playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry was the first black woman to have a play performed on Broadway; she and Simone bonded over civil rights and radical politics.
And then, in January 1965, Hansberry died of cancer at the age of 34. A few months before, she had told a group of student essay winners, "I wanted to be able to come here and speak with you on this occasion because you are young, gifted and black." ("Nina Simone's 'Lovely, Precious Dream' For Black Children")
A poem for Lorraine Hansberry's birthday: Langston Hughes's "Harlem" serves as an inspiration for the title of Hansberry's best-known play A Raisin in the Sun.
Harlem
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Works Cited
Hughes, Langston (1902-1967). "Harlem." Poetryfoundation.org. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46548/harlem. Accessed 19 May 2020.
Simone, Nina (1933-2003). "To Be Young, Gifted and Black." Black Gold, RCA, 1970.
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