Welcome to the LHLT website!
This site is the product of a dream begun several years ago when I assumed my position as steward of the Lorraine Hansberry properties. I had been looking for a way to share Lorraine with the public in all her richness and complexities, her many-sidedness. She was a person who occupied many worlds, none really more important to her than the other. This site attempts to show her occupying all those worlds at once. Thus, we see her as artist, activist, public intellectual, & writer and in full movement.
In her short time with us, Lorraine was always growing and evolving. Even as a child growing up in her home, I was struck by her wisdom—she seemed so complete—but I truly believe she was always reaching for more, from herself and from those she encountered. In designing and developing this site, our goal has been to create a portal into Lorraine’s creative imagination. We invite you to step into those spaces.
We have been challenged to create a site that honors the democracies of her spirit, her love for conversation and debate, and her desire to explore. This site is a work in progress. Content and structure will continually be informed by those who visit and the conversations that are created. We intend to develop more interactive features as we go, inviting you to engage on a deeper level.
In addition to exploring Lorraine’s productive work, we invite you to spend some time traveling her Timeline—her evolutionary path—and experience the context of her work, imagination, and passion. And let me say that although we are using the conventional device of a timeline to demonstrate Lorraine’s evolution, it is not meant to seem linear or progressive. There are many pauses, suspensions, and even reversals along the way as would occur within any of our lives.
Lorraine was of a future world—a future of boundless spirit and fully liberated vision, a future that many of us are living to embrace and embody as we, too, evolve.
Enjoy and please return, again and again and again!
Joi Gresham
Director and Trustee of the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust
Joi Gresham bio