As Lorrainne Hansberry’s 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun, opens with Denzel Washington on Broadway, Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz is being recognized for her book which devotes an entire chapter to exploring the play’s significance.
Excerpt’s from Spitz’s book, Illuminating Childhood, Portraits in Film, Fiction, and Drama, are quoted in a University of Michigan Press blog post about the play. “Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun, was both her first and the first by any playwright of color to astonish Broadway,” Spitz writes in the book. “Crossing boundaries of race, ideology, and class, it puts onstage an unforgettable portrayal of parent-child relations, bridging all gaps, and the maturity of Hansberry’s grasp, at the age of twenty-eight, is breathtaking.”
To read the full blog post and for more on Illuminating Childhood, click here.
Tags: HonorsCollege
