{"id":131,"date":"2022-10-30T15:50:51","date_gmt":"2022-10-30T15:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imanqureshi.com\/?p=131"},"modified":"2022-10-31T00:06:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T00:06:06","slug":"lorraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imanqureshi.com\/?p=131","title":{"rendered":"Lorraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some time ago I got lost in reading every scrap I could find on the internet about Lorraine Hansberry. A particular delight was listening to her actual voice in this interview with Studs Terkel which I massively recommend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/studsterkel.wfmt.com\/programs\/lorraine-hansberry-discusses-her-play-raisin-sun<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of many gems from her letters, notes and journal entries, were these lists she would write each year – of likes, dislikes, regrets, etc. In 1959 she writes: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hate
\u2026
My loneliness
My homosexuality
Stupidity
\u2026
Jean Genet\u2019s plays
Jean Paul Sartre\u2019s writing
Not being able to write
Death
Pain<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Then in 1962:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


I like
69 when it really works
The first scotch
The fact that I almost never want the third or even the second when I am alone. Praise fate!
The inside of a lovely woman\u2019s mouth
The way little JW looks in the movies
Her coquettishness
Her behind\u2014those fresh little muscles
Parts of the lingering memory of a betrayer<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What I would give to have bumped into Lorraine Hansberry at a party sometime between 1959 and 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was reminded of these delights, when while on my attachment I opened the notebook I\u2019d brought with me. There on the front page was one of Lorraine\u2019s journal entries from 16th<\/sup> September 1964, which I had carefully transcribed into my own notebook. And all I can say is, I related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI sit at this desk for hours and hours and sharpen pencils and smoke cigarettes and switch from play to play \u2013 Sidney, Touissant, Les Blancs and \u2013 nothing happens. I begin to think more and more of doing something else with my life while I am still young. I mean, almost anything \u2013 driving an ambulance in Angola or running a ski lodge in upstate New York, instead of this endless struggle. I expect the theatre will kill me.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The great tragedy is of course that she died just four months after she wrote that, criminally prematurely, at the age of 34 \u2013 a fact which, whenever I remember it, breaks my heart anew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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