To Be Young, Gifted and Black

To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in her Own Words is a play about the life of American writer Lorraine Hansberry, adapted from her writings. Hansberry was best known for her 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun, the first show on Broadway written by an African-American woman. After her death in 1965, Hansberry's ex-husband and friend, songwriter and poet Robert Nemiroff, collated her unpublished writings and adapted them into a stage play that first ran from 1968 to 1969 off Broadway. It was then converted into an equally successful autobiography with the same title.