Publishers Weekly
02/08/2021
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.)
From the Publisher
Colbert . . . has accomplished the mighty task of resurfacing and reconciling the many facets that Hansberry possessed. . . . A devoted and deeply felt account of the development of an artist’s mind.”—Dave Itzkoff, New York Times Book Review“Brilliant. . . . Colbert mines Hansberry’s work as both a playwright and essayist. . . . As a scholar of African-American theater as well as literature at Georgetown University, Colbert is unparalleled in her understanding of both fields and Hansberry’s influence in each.”—Imani Perry, New York Review of Books“Here is Hansberry resurrected from the archives, from her scripts, scraps and drafts. . . . Colbert adds detail and dimension to Hansberry’s work. . . . Loving, lavishly detailed.”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times“This scholarly biography hits the mark as a fresh and timely portrait of an influential playwright.”—Publishers Weekly“A fully formed portrait of this brilliant, complex woman. . . . Recommended for enthusiasts of American literature, and anyone who is interested in learning more about this transformational woman, whose vision for the country is as relevant today as ever.”—Library Journal“Reading Colbert’s book makes one want to return to Hansberry’s voice, to read her works more carefully. . . . [An] illuminating study.”—Robert Israel, Arts Fuse“Radical Vision, the new biography by Soyica Diggs Colbert, gives Hansberry her due as an activist of the first order who made the most of her all-too-short life.”—Michael Giltz, BroadwayDirect.com, “Top Theatre Books to Read this Summer”Winner of the 2021 Outstanding Book Awards from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education2021 George Freedley Memorial Award Finalist“Colbert offers a luminous, Black feminist study of the life of the mind of one of our most formidable cultural intellectuals. Combining dazzling archival research with rigorous and expansive close-readings of rare documents and Hansberry’s rich range of dramatic works, Radical Vision attests to the fact that the world of the Black woman artist is ‘a story of ideas’ urgently in need of telling.”—Daphne A. Brooks, author of Liner Notes for the Revolution“A rich narrative that takes readers on a journey through Hansberry’s intellectual life, as she reckons with some of the most difficult aesthetic and political problems of her time—and ours.”—Paige A. McGinley, Washington University in St. Louis“Colbert makes the study of Hansberry’s literary work inseparable from her lived experience of complicating identity categories. This exquisite biography of Hansberry is groundbreaking.”—Margo Natalie Crawford, University of Pennsylvania
Library Journal
04/01/2021
Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright best known for her masterpiece A Raisin in the Sun, comes alive in this comprehensive biography. Colbert (African American studies and performing arts, Georgetown Univ.) pulls from Hansberry's distinctly separate public and private lives to produce a fully formed portrait of this brilliant, complex woman. Born in 1930, Hansberry understood the work it took to achieve racial justice from an early age, when her family moved into a predominantly white Chicago neighborhood. Her move to New York City in 1950 marked the beginning of her writing career as well as her deeper involvement in civil rights. Colbert illustrates how Hansberry's firsthand experience of suffering as a Black woman influenced her writing. The influences of existentialism and feminism, as well as her role as a lesbian and wife, defined her radical vision for racial justice in the U.S. Hansberry's marriage to Robert Nemiroff and friendships with James Baldwin and Nina Simone are just some of the many illuminating aspects of this vivid biography. VERDICT A scholarly yet accessible account of the life of a singular American artist and activist. Recommended for enthusiasts of American literature, and anyone who is interested in learning more about this transformational woman, whose vision for the country is as relevant today as ever.—Megan Duffy, Glen Ridge P.L., NJ
JUNE 2021 - AudioFile
Soyica Diggs Colbert, professor of African-American studies and performing arts at Georgetown University, has written a deep and highly informative intellectual biography of playwright Lorraine Hansberry. Disappointingly, Lisa Reneé Pitts is off her usually fine mark in its aural delivery, which in too many passages sounds stilted and tense. Because Colbert's prowess as a sensitive researcher and her craft as a writer are so strong and so little of this depth has been available on Hansberry, listeners may choose to bear with the substandard performance if listening is the only way they can experience the text. F.M.R.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
