2020 October, a busy month on all accounts - home (new academic year), world (new academic year), world (new COVID measures).
Black History Month for me is about learning and connecting to share. This year I learned about Lorraine Hansberry, the inspiration for the song YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK. She was born in 1930, was a Taurus like me and her favourite book was "Strange Fruit" by Lillian Smith, which deals with inter-racial relationships, something I know a little about too.
She was also an activist, actor and writer. She wrote "Raisin in the sun" the 1st drama by a black woman to be produced on Broadway (1959). The play’s messages are to never let go of a dream and the importance of a support network, which for many is the family. The play’s title came from a Langston Hughes poem:
What happens to a dream deferred? (1951)
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
The song “Young, Gifted and Black” ended up being used as a civil rights anthem. It’s like the passing of a baton to keep the fight and dream alive.
For more on Lorraine, read “Looking for Lorraine” by Imani Perry. The book talks about her involvement with the feminist and LGBT movements as well as with the anti-colonialism.
Young, gifted and black
Oh what a lovely precious dream
To be young, gifted and black
Open your heart to what I mean
In the whole world you know
There's a million boys and girls
Who are young, gifted and black
And that's a fact
You are young, gifted and black
We must begin to tell our young
There's a world waiting for you
Yours is a quest that's just begun
When you're feeling really low
Yeah, there's a great truth that you should know
When you're young, gifted and black
Your soul's intact
How to be young, gifted and black
Oh how I long to know the truth
There are times when I look back
And I am haunted by my youth
Oh but my joy of today
Is that we can all be proud to say
To be young, gifted and black
Is where it's at
Is where it's at
Is where it's at
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