Reimagining Biography: Meet panelist Margaret Wilkerson
On March 22, 2018, the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will co-present Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining Biography. The four panelists will share how they navigated the feminisms, intersectionalities, political, and private-public voicings that shaped Hansberry’s life in their biographical treatments of the artist, activist, and public intellectual.
Over the next two weeks we will be sharing information about the panel participants as well as information about the Lorraine Hansberry Papers, held at the Schomburg Center. Today we are highlighting Margaret B. Wilkerson, author of Lorraine Hansberry: Am I a Revolutionary? (working title; forthcoming 2018/2019).
Margaret B. Wilkerson is Professor Emerita (UC Berkeley, African American Studies) and former Director of Media, Arts and Culture (Ford Foundation), overseeing grant making in U.S., Africa, Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. The author of 9 Plays by Black Women, the first anthology of its kind, she has published extensively on the playwright Lorraine Hansberry and is author of her biography projected for publication in 2018. Wilkerson is a Kennedy Center Fellow of the American Theatre, and recipient of various educational and theatre awards. She serves on Mills College, and Independent Television Service (ITVS) Boards. She has a B.A. in history (University of Redlands), MA/PhD in Dramatic Art (UC Berkeley), and Honorary Doctorates (University of Redlands and Saint John’s College/New Mexico).
Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining Biography
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Panel Discussion 6:30-8:00pm
Reception 8:00-9:00pm
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Blvd (135th St and Malcolm X Blvd)
New York, NY, 10037
This is a free event, but as space is limited please RSVP here.
Lorraine Hansberry: Reimagining Biography panelists include Margaret Wilkerson (author of the forthcoming Lorraine Hansberry: Am I a Revolutionary? and Professor Emerita of African Diaspora Studies and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley); Imani Perry (author of the forthcoming Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry and a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University); Soyica Colbert (author of the forthcoming Lorraine Hansberry: Artist/Activist (Yale University Press, 2019) and professor of African American Studies and Theater & Performance Studies at Georgetown University); and Tracy Heather Strain, (director of Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes|Feeling Heart, PBS national broadcast January 2018.) The panel will be introduced by Joi Gresham, the executive director of the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust, and moderated by Joy-Ann Reid (national correspondent, MSNBC).