Her play, "A Raisin In The Sun," which tells the story of a black family that tries to move from its South Side Chicago neighborhood into a white neighborhood, that play is an American classic today. When the playwright Lorraine Hansberry died in 1965, she was only 34, but had already made her mark on American literature. One of the most individualistic pianists, composers, and arrangers of his generation, Ahmad Jamal's disciplined technique and minimalist style had a huge impact on trumpeter Miles Davis, and Jamal is often cited as contributing to the development of cool. Ahmad Jamal Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More AllMusic.
With chord names, drum notation and introductory text. For piano, bass and drum set. Lead time before shipment : 24 hours - In Stock. 24.99 - See more - Buy online. As a person.Ahmad Jamal: The Ahmad Jamal Collection. Ahmad Jamal is a famous American pianist, composer, and educator, who was born on July 2, 1930.
"Looking For Lorraine: The Radiant And Radical Life Of Lorraine Hansberry" shows she was more than this beloved play, though, says biographer Imani Perry.IMANI PERRY: She was a feminist before the feminist movement. And I got a boy who's got to sleep in the living room because I got nothing, nothing to give him but stories, like on how rich, white people live.GRIGSBY BATES: "Raisin" remains one of the most produced works by a black American playwright. And I'm thinking, I'm 35 years old. Biography One of the most individualistic pianists, composers, and arrangers of his generation, Ahmad Jamals disciplined technique and minimalist style had a huge impact on trumpeter Miles Davis, and Jamal is often cited as contributing to the development of cool jazz throughout the 1950s.(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A RAISIN IN THE SUN")SIDNEY POITIER: (As Walter Lee Younger) I'm looking in the mirror this morning.
In 1964, after protesters proposed blocking streets to tie up traffic, some New Yorkers were outraged. Black Americans were trying to gain their rights peacefully, and the national pace felt slow. And, says Perry.PERRY: She reveled in her identity, even as she railed against injustice.GRIGSBY BATES: In the early '60s, black impatience with segregation was growing. She was an anti-colonialist before all of the independences had been won in Africa and the Caribbean.GRIGSBY BATES: In other words, she was intersectional before that became a thing.
Kennedy asked the group to spread the word that the Kennedy Administration had done a lot for civil rights. Hansberry was there, so were James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne. In 1963, Attorney General Robert Kennedy gathered a group of black intellectuals and celebrity activists in a New York living room. She became more and more outspoken the better she was known.GRIGSBY BATES: And, says Imani Perry, Hansberry was not afraid of head-on confrontations.
Hansberry didn't want to upset her proper family, so she and Nemiroff had an unconventional, but very real relationship. Gay gathering spots often were raided and the people in them arrested. It would have been very difficult and even dangerous for her to be out in multiple ways.GRIGSBY BATES: In early 1960s New York, homosexuality was illegal. Perry says Hansberry wasn't out in the sense we're familiar with today.PERRY: She was a member of one of the first lesbian organizations in the country, the Daughters of Bilitis. They separated before she became famous.PERRY: But he remained her best friend, her closest confidant.GRIGSBY BATES: Nemiroff supported her work financially, and it was to him that she gave her drafts for honest criticism. Although she'd grown up part of Chicago's Negro elite early on, Hansberry had lived on a ghetto street like the ones her characters in "Raisin" were trying to escape.PERRY: It's why, as Baldwin said, she was able to give voice to black America with "A Raisin In The Sun." It was a truthful depiction.GRIGSBY BATES: Although she wrote about loving women in her private papers, Hansberry was married to theater producer Robert Nemiroff for several years, says Perry.
A few years after Hansberry's death, Simone co-wrote a song to honor her friend, and it became an anthem for young, black America. Both women financially supported Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. She was one of the few people who he could turn to in every way.GRIGSBY BATES: She was close to singer/activist Nina Simone, too. Again, Imani Perry.PERRY: When they met, he was already famous. They enjoyed mutual adoration.
Imani Perry disagrees.PERRY: She wasn't anti-white, but she was a very strong proponent of black self-determination.GRIGSBY BATES: Lorraine Vivian Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer on January 12, 1965. Some took exception to her criticism of white allies that needed to be prominently featured in the movement and interpreted that as being anti-white. Oh, what a lovely, precious dream to be young, gifted and black.GRIGSBY BATES: Hansberry's work was widely but not universally beloved.
Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.(SOUNDBITE OF AHMAD JAMAL'S "SWAHILILAND") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. What would she have produced had she lived longer? But the reality is she had produced so much.GRIGSBY BATES: Which is why Perry thought it was time to bring the overlooked contributions - artistic, social and political - of this young, gifted and proudly black artist to the forefront now.
0 kommentar(er)
