Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry

Colbert (Black Movements), professor of African American studies and performing arts at Georgetown University, sheds light in this sweeping account of playwright Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965) as an artist and Black radical. Colbert argues that Hansberry, who died at age 35 of cancer, has been misrepresented as a “liberal darling rather than a radical” since the success of her 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun. To that end, Colbert focuses on her other works as a journalist, short story writer, as well as playwright, and convincingly shows that Hansberry was far from a one-hit wonder. The author analyzes one of Hansberry’s last plays, What Use Are Flowers, seeing it as a contemplation on materialism and the value of art; chronicles how Hansberry “marched on picket lines” and “spoke on street corners in Harlem”; and surveys how Hansberry’s work engaged with philosophical ideas in her era, such as existentialism and absurdism (which she saw as an “indulgent reprieve” for many of her male contemporaries). “For Hansberry,” Colbert writes, “the theater provided a space to investigate how illusions inform humans’ ability to make material changes.” This scholarly biography hits the mark as a fresh and timely portrait of an influential playwright. Photos. (Apr.)