CBR13Bingo – UnCannon
Here’s a list:
This random list of things Lorraine Hansberry liked and disliked is delightful.
It’s important to know first what this book is: it’s a collection of quotes, snippets, excerpts from a variety of Lorraine Hansberry’s unpublished writing, and you need to go in knowing that it’s a gut punch. It was edited and published after she died by her ex-husband Robert Nemiroff.
The collection involves various dialogues, bits of speeches, songs, ideas, thoughts and diaries not otherwise published in her writing. It’s a journey and it’s kind of a mess. There’s a wonderful section near the end where Hansberry is answering letters from “fans” (some fans, some enemies) and she tells a Chinese literary scholar that her next work would be chaotic and messy, and well, it is.
My copy of this book (an audiobook) came with a series of speeches and interviews given by Hansberry and that’s also really interesting because you get to see the important ways she felt about politics, and also important, the way she was treated by media figures. Spoiler: Mike Wallace comes off very poorly, but Studs Terkel comes off pretty well.
(Photo: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/853163.To_Be_Young_Gifted_and_Black?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=wWD7sC1XVE&rank=3)
Quotes:
“Write if you will: but write about the world as it is and as you think it ought to be and must be—if there is to be a world. Write about all the things that men have written about since the beginning of writing and talking—but write to a point. Work hard at it, care about it. Write about our people: tell their story. You have something glorious to draw on begging for attention. Don’t pass it up. Don’t pass it up. Use it. Good luck to you. The Nation needs your gifts.”