Reimagining Biography: Meet panelist Soyica Colbert

On March 27, 2017, Georgetown University Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics presented Dreams Deferred: Crossing Continents and Cultures with ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ in celebration of World Theatre Day. The one-night event, moderated by Soyica Colbert, was in advance of the Arena Stage Mead Center for the American Theatre’s 2017 production of A Raisin in the Sun in Wahington, DC and productions in Sweden at the Riksteatern, directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo, OBE, and at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, directed by James Ngcobo.

Dr. Soyica Colbert moderated discussions that explored Hansberyy's A Raisin in the Sun in three different cultural contexts —South Africa, Sweden, and the United States—as well as the larger cross-current themes of racial equality and justice, the legacies of Hansberry, the Civil Rights movement, and apartheid. The program included remarks from Ambassador Mninwa Mahlangu, Embassy of South Africa; Linda Zachrison, Cultural Counselor, Embassy of Sweden; and Joi Gresham, Director and Trustee, Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust; as well as a discussion with Josette Bushell-Mingo, OBE, Artistic Director, Riksteatern; James Ngcobo, Artistic Director, Market Theatre; and Lab Think Tank member Kwame Kwei-Armah, among others.

Dr. Colbert’s remarks begin at 40:09.

The event was originally livestreamed by HowlRound TV at howlround.tv on Monday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m. EDT (New York); Tuesday, March 28 at 12:30 a.m. BST (London); Tuesday, March 28 at 1:30 a.m. SAST (Johannesburg); and Tuesday, March 28 at 7:30 a.m. CST (Shanghai).

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 Soyica Colbert (author of the forthcoming Lorraine Hansberry: Artist/Activist  (Yale University Press, 2018) and professor of African American Studies and Theater & Performance Studies at Georgetown University; Imani Perry (author of the forthcoming Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (Beacon Press, September 2018) and a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University); Tracy Heather Strain, (director of Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes|Feeling Heart, PBS national broadcast January 2018); and Margaret Wilkerson (author of 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). 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).