Epic Walking Tours visits Lorraine Hansberry’s Greenwich Village residence, tracing the path of one of America’s most influential playwrights and uncompromising voices for civil rights, creativity, and justice.
In the heart of Greenwich Village, amidst the bohemian enclaves and intellectual salons, Lorraine Hansberry found sanctuary and inspiration. A playwright of profound insight and unflinching honesty, Hansberry forged her most significant work during her time living in the Village.
The Village as a Canvas
Hansberry’s journey to Greenwich Village began in 1950 when she moved to New York City. Initially residing in Harlem, she soon became involved in local activist struggles, such as the fight against evictions, while attending The New School in Greenwich Village. Around this time, she also joined the staff of the Black newspaper Freedom, where she worked alongside luminaries like W. E. B. Du Bois, immersing herself in the pressing issues of racial, economic, and gender inequality.
In 1953, Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff, a songwriter and producer. The couple moved into a third-floor apartment at 337 Bleecker Street, a building that housed a hat shop on its ground floor. The apartment became a sanctuary for Hansberry—a place where she began to unpack her ideas. It was here that she began to shape the story that would become A Raisin in the Sun.
The Birth of a Masterpiece
Inspired by her experiences and observations, Hansberry crafted a play that delved into the aspirations and struggles of a Black family in Chicago. The title, drawn from Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” encapsulated the central theme: the deferred dreams of African Americans in a society rife with systemic oppression.
In 1956, Hansberry completed the first draft of her play. Despite initial doubts, she refined her work with the encouragement of her husband and others. The play’s journey to the stage was fraught with challenges, from securing funding to finding a suitable director. However, in 1959, A Raisin in the Sun premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, marking a historic moment in American theater. Two centuries after the first Broadway theater opened, it became the first play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway and the first to be directed by a Black director, Lloyd Richards.
The play’s portrayal of the Younger family’s dreams and dilemmas resonated deeply with audiences, earning critical acclaim and several Tony Award nominations. Sidney Poitier’s portrayal of Walter Lee Younger and Claudia McNeil’s depiction of Lena Younger brought the characters to life with depth and authenticity.
A Home in the Village
In 1960, using the profits from A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry purchased a townhouse at 112 Waverly Place, just west of Washington Square. The house, built in 1826 and altered with a brick façade in the 1920s, had previously been the residence of Ashcan School painter Everett Shinn. Shinn had transformed the rear courtyard and carriage house into a playhouse where he designed sets and staged performances. Hansberry’s acquisition of the property signified her deepening roots in the Village and her commitment to the community.
During her time at 112 Waverly Place, Hansberry continued to be an outspoken civil rights advocate. She co-chaired the NAACP Life Membership Committee and worked to establish an NAACP branch in Greenwich Village. In 1963, she participated in a historic meeting between civil rights activists and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to discuss race relations in the United States, alongside her friend and fellow writer, activist, and Greenwich Village resident James Baldwin. In 1964, at Town Hall on West 43rd Street, she delivered a much-discussed speech titled “The Black Revolution and the White Backlash,” further cementing her role as a leading voice in the civil rights movement.
Legacy in the Village
Lorraine Hansberry’s influence on Greenwich Village is commemorated through various historical markers and educational initiatives. In 2017, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation unveiled a plaque at her residence at 112 Waverly Place, celebrating her connection to the neighborhood and civil rights legacy.
As visitors move through the layered streets of Greenwich Village—where radical thought once found fertile ground in basement cafés and brownstone salons—they unknowingly trace the path of Lorraine Hansberry, a writer who dismantled convention with precision and clarity. Her legacy endures not as sentiment, but as a living argument for the written word as an instrument of cultural reckoning and transformation.
