Biography illustrates Lorraine Hansberry's pioneering activism

A new biography of playwright Lorraine Hansberry doesn’t downplay the importance of her well-known work, A Raisin in The Sun — but it definitely looks beyond it.

Imani Perry’s Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry explores her extensive political activism during her short life.

Perry told Morning Edition’s Karen Grisgby Bates that Hansberry “was a feminist before the feminist movement. She identified as a lesbian and thought about LGBT organizing before there was a gay rights movement. She was an anti-colonialist before independences had been won in Africa and the Caribbean."

And fittingly, this interview aired right before Banned Books Week began; A Raisin in The Sun has been challenged at least once before.

Listen to Perry discuss her book below or read a transcript on NPR’s website.