Here it is from another angle. Not to be confused with an iPad.
Of course, it's not the writing machine but the writer writing on the writing machine that matters, in this case playwright Lorraine Hansberry, born on this day in 1930 (she died in 1965.) In the following clip, Hansberry expounds on what kind of subject matter makes for the best plays:
Seemingly reductive but ultimately expansive, I dare say.
Except why dare say it when I can show it? Not the original 1959 Broadway production, which except for a few photos is lost forever, but the next best thing, the 1961 film version. Watch and listen as Sidney Poitier, Diana Sands, and Cleveland native Ruby Dee, all original cast members of that Broadway production, recite Hansberry's disquieting dialogue:
Very powerful scene, but if the always compelling Poitier is Lorraine Hansberry's idea of a "most ordinary human being", then where does that leave me?
I'm just below that big yellow dude, right scoop, center row, third from the left.
Can you imagine the heft of that typewriter?!? As for Lorraine Hansberry, brilliant! A great and inspiring person from a great and inspiring family.
ReplyDeleteMitchell, elsewhere on the internet, there's been some theorizing that Lorraine Hansberry was a very slight woman, and thus the typewriter looks bigger than it actually is. Still, I doubt you could pick it up easily as a laptop.
DeleteAs for her family, if you're familiar with a central plot point of Hansberry's play (not touched on in that clip), you'll understand why this was all very personal to her.
This from Wikipedia:
"In 1938, [Hansberry's] father bought a house in the Washington Park Subdivision of the South Side of Chicago, incurring the wrath of some of their white neighbors.[6] The latter's legal efforts to force the Hansberry family out culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940). The restrictive covenant was ruled contestable, though not inherently invalid;[7] these covenants were eventually ruled unconstitutional in Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948)."
The above may be too divisive for a Florida textbook, but not this blog.
WHERE are the California Raisins singing "I heard it through the grapevine"?
ReplyDeleteOh, you won't find me there, Debra. I can't carry a tune.
Delete"Eat these eggs!"
ReplyDeleteHi, Kirk!
Happy 93rd birthday in heaven to playwright Lorraine Hansberry, gone so very long now, a victim of cancer who, at the age of 34, ran off with The Reaper. Thanks for shining the spotlight on Lorraine and her best known work A Raisin In The Sun. My first exposure to the compelling story was when I studied the film adaptation in my college cinema course. I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing one of the gripping scenes this morning. I never tire of watching actor Sidney Poitier practice his craft. The crackling dialogue remains relevant to this day. In fact, I sense a growing gap between men and women in the 21st century, between young and old and rich and poor, along the ever-present racial and political divisions and other worrisome gaps that have developed, reemerged or widened in recent years.
Can't we all just get along?
Thanks again for remembering Lorraine Hansberry, the gifted playwright who gave us A Raisin In The Sun and left us too soon. Have a safe and happy weekend, good buddy Kirk!
"In fact, I sense a growing gap between men and women in the 21st century, between young and old and rich and poor, along the ever-present racial and political divisions and other worrisome gaps that have developed, reemerged or widened in recent years."
DeleteIt's a backlash, Shady, and you can't have a backlash against the things you mentioned unless there has already been what you and I (but not Ron DeSantis, Jim Jordan, Lauren Boebart, Clarence Thomas, or Scott Baio) would consider as significant progress on those fronts.
What's needed now is a backlash to the backlash.
We still have a typewriter sitting in its case in a corner in the dinning room.
ReplyDeleteA conversation piece, Mike?
Delete