Lorraine Hansberry Home - New York City

Lorraine Hansberry's home is on Waverly Place in New York City.  The noted playwright bought this building in 1960 and lived here until her death in 1965.  She first came to New York from Madison, Wisconsin, in 1950 with the intention of being a writer.  She took a position at the newspaper Freedom, published by Paul Robeson, in 1951 and eventually became involved in the Black Pan-Africanist movement and a major civil rights activist.  Although a closet lesbian, she married publisher/songwriter Robert Nemiroff in 1953.  Nemiroff co-wrote the 1956 hit "Cindy, Oh Cindy" and with the proceeds was able to support Lorraine during the next several years while she worked on her writing.  In 1957 Lorraine completed A Raisin in the Sun and in 1959, she became the first first African-American woman to author a play produced on Broadway.  She also was the youngest American playwright to recieve the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.  The play, which ran for 530 performances, and was nominated for four Tony Awards, was enough of a success that Lorraine was able to move out of her Bleecker Street apartment and buy this building on Waverly Place.  Although separated from Nemiroff since 1957, the couple would continue their working relationship up to and beyond their 1964 divorce.  While living here Lorraine wrote the screenplay for A Raisin in the Sun which was released by Columbia in 1961 and featured the original Broadway cast reprising their roles.  She died on January 12, 1965 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 34.  A Raisin in the Sun was later adapted for Broadway as the musical Raisin in 1973.  

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