Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart | Screening and Talkback

A film screening and talkback explore the life and times of the trailblazing American playwright.

​Best known for her play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry is an important voice within the US literary canon, and yet little is known about her life. The film Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart is the first feature-length documentary about Hansberry’s complex life. Drawing on her personal papers, archives, home movies and rare photos as source material, viewers will get a sense of Hansberry and the times she lived in as related to race, gender, and sexuality.

The screening will be followed by a talkback with scholar Jimmy Wright, who will share insights about the film and its subject.

James H. Wright is an African American scholar, as well as a civil rights and union activist through the DC 37 Political Action Committee. His work includes program development and instruction in Urban Literature at The 9th Street School, and Literature from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Era at the St. Thomas Community School. He was involved with the Poor Peoples Campaign, in D.C., informing and recruiting from high schools and college campuses in Maryland, Virginia and the D.C. area. Mr. Wright lectures extensively on Black history, Black literature, gay writers of the Harlem Renaissance and the writings and political lives of Baldwin, Lorde, Hansberry, and Hughes. He has presented programs with playwright, Laurence Holder, author, Louise Meriweather and historian, Andrew Robertson. Mr. Wright has lectured and led workshops and panel discussions on the Harlem Renaissance at Freedom Hall, Sisters Space, LGBT Book Store, Everything Goes Café Book Store, SAGE Centre and NJ PAC.

To see the full list of Stonewall 50 programs taking place in branches, visit
www.nypl.org/events/stonewall50

Free

Stapleton Library
132 Canal St.
Staten IslandNY10304











When: Tue., Jun. 18, 2019 at 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm

A film screening and talkback explore the life and times of the trailblazing American playwright.

​Best known for her play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry is an important voice within the US literary canon, and yet little is known about her life. The film Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart is the first feature-length documentary about Hansberry’s complex life. Drawing on her personal papers, archives, home movies and rare photos as source material, viewers will get a sense of Hansberry and the times she lived in as related to race, gender, and sexuality.

The screening will be followed by a talkback with scholar Jimmy Wright, who will share insights about the film and its subject.

James H. Wright is an African American scholar, as well as a civil rights and union activist through the DC 37 Political Action Committee. His work includes program development and instruction in Urban Literature at The 9th Street School, and Literature from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Era at the St. Thomas Community School. He was involved with the Poor Peoples Campaign, in D.C., informing and recruiting from high schools and college campuses in Maryland, Virginia and the D.C. area. Mr. Wright lectures extensively on Black history, Black literature, gay writers of the Harlem Renaissance and the writings and political lives of Baldwin, Lorde, Hansberry, and Hughes. He has presented programs with playwright, Laurence Holder, author, Louise Meriweather and historian, Andrew Robertson. Mr. Wright has lectured and led workshops and panel discussions on the Harlem Renaissance at Freedom Hall, Sisters Space, LGBT Book Store, Everything Goes Café Book Store, SAGE Centre and NJ PAC.

To see the full list of Stonewall 50 programs taking place in branches, visit
www.nypl.org/events/stonewall50

Free

Stapleton Library
132 Canal St.
Staten IslandNY10304

Buy tickets/get more info now