EP 4 Lorraine Hansberry - A Revolutionary Artist I Women And Resistance 🌍

This conversation with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla explores the life and legacy of Lorraine Hansberry, focusing on her early life, family background, experiences with segregation, and her groundbreaking work in theater, particularly 'A Raisin in the Sun.' 
The discussion delves into her activism, personal struggles, and the complexities of her identity as a Black woman in America. Hansberry's reflections on her legacy, the political landscape of her time, and her impact on theater and civil rights are also highlighted, providing a comprehensive view of her contributions and the challenges she faced.

Takeaways
*Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway.
*Her early life was marked by the challenges of segregation and racism.
*Hansberry's family background influenced her activism and writing.
'*A Raisin in the Sun' reflects the struggles of Black families in America.
*She faced personal struggles, including depression and complex relationships.
*Hansberry was deeply engaged in civil rights activism throughout her life.
*Her legacy includes significant contributions to theater and literature.
*She critiqued the NAACP for its political stance during her time.
*Hansberry's identity as a Black woman shaped her perspectives on freedom and activism.
*Her work continues to inspire discussions on race, identity, and social justice.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Women and Resistance
01:18 The Life and Times of Lorraine Hansberry
04:52 Childhood Experiences and Family Background
09:09 Education and Early Aspirations
12:12 A Raisin in the Sun: A Reflection of Life
16:08 Activism and Political Engagement
21:19 Complexities of Identity and Family Legacy
25:21 Legacy and Impact of Lorraine Hansberry
26:21 The Journey to Recognition
28:39 Groundbreaking Contributions to Theater
30:39 Activism and Advocacy for Black Rights
32:58 Personal Struggles and Relationships
33:53 Exploring Identity and Freedom
35:03 Critique of Established Organizations
38:40 Legacy and Impact on Future Generations
41:12 Reflections on Life and Death
45:48 A Lasting Legacy of Courage and Love

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:01.494)
Yes, greetings, greetings and welcome again to.

Women and Resistance. And today, as usual, I have with me Sister Aya Fubara, NLE Esquire, who is... has taken this thing to a different new level. Yes, our women for today would be Playwrights.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (00:32.836)
Sister Aya, NLE Square.

Adesoji Iginla (00:42.742)
Lorraine Hansberry. And so without further ado, first question would be,

Would you like to say something before we proceed? mean, my manners, my manners.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (00:56.95)
Well, good evening. What is it that your friends call you?

Adesoji Iginla (01:01.39)
My name is Adesuji Iginla and yes, I am the host, one of the hosts for Women and Resistance. And it's a... Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. You're welcome. You're welcome. I take it you're comfortable. You have an ashtray next to you. He won't want to start a fire, would he?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:15.172)
So I may call you a day so then.

Well, thank you for having me on today.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:31.288)
I have my estuary and I actually have my drink as well.

Adesoji Iginla (01:34.76)
Okay, okay. Make yourself feel at home. So yeah, without further ado, could you tell us a bit about Lorraine Hansberry?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:37.582)
Thank you.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:44.441)
You want me to tell you a little bit about myself. Well, where do we start? I was born Lorraine Vivian Hansberry. I am the last of four children born to my parents. And I was born on the South side of Chicago.

Adesoji Iginla (01:47.854)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:57.303)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (02:01.358)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:07.5)
At a time that was just really a desperate time for Black people in America, the United States of America, born into segregation and discrimination, and a time when it was really difficult for Black people to dream and to see their dreams come to pass.

Adesoji Iginla (02:28.931)
OK.

So we're talking about the 1930s now. This is.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:37.754)
Yes, I was born on May 19, 1930. And it's a very special day, not just because that's the day I was born. It also happens to be the birth date of someone we know pretty well, Malcolm X.

Adesoji Iginla (02:53.674)
Yep, Yes. Speaking of, I mean, that great tradition of having our Black giants moving in sync with each other, what would you say was Lorraine's upbringing like?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:17.37)
To go back down that lane.

Adesoji Iginla (03:18.798)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:23.598)
Well, I was born into what would be considered a middle class family. Of course, a Negro family at the time.

Adesoji Iginla (03:29.154)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:34.971)
My parents had migrated from the South up to Chicago looking for a better life and both my parents were college educated. You may also have heard of my uncle, William Hansberry, who studied under W.E. Du Bois and it was my great honor to eventually be a student of his as well, though not in a class setting as it were.

Adesoji Iginla (03:48.802)
Hansberry, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (04:04.538)
My older siblings were significantly older than me. My sister was about nine years older than me. And so I learned to keep my own company. I loved reading. I was very curious about the world around me. My childhood, despite

our access to income was not idyllic by any stretch of the imagination. I recall that we're talking segregation, we're talking a time where there was only a particular area in Chicago where Black families were allowed to live, could rent, because there were actually covenants in place and most of

Adesoji Iginla (04:41.838)
talking segregation now. Segregation times? Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (04:52.013)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:00.46)
Chicago that prevented Black people from being able to purchase or to rent even if they had the money. And my father was an entrepreneur. He actually started a bank and soon after that went into the real estate business and was quite innovative because he figured out a way to

Adesoji Iginla (05:07.349)
and

Adesoji Iginla (05:14.146)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (05:21.294)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (05:26.796)
Maximize space.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:27.044)
Provide more housing. Yes, well, you can say that, but his goal was to provide more housing options for black people. so he would purchase buildings and then he would set up partitions, if you will. They were called like kitchenettes. And it wasn't a whole lot of room, but it did give the Negro people, the black people a lot more options in terms of.

Adesoji Iginla (05:33.774)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:56.283)
even being able to get housing at all. And that was a source of quite a bit of his fortune. I recall a story as a child. It was Christmas and my mother had bought me this fur coat. It was all white. And I was...

Adesoji Iginla (06:16.242)
the Amin for code.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:24.044)
a pretty simple child in terms of my tastes and I did not like that coat. It reminded me of a rabbit.

Adesoji Iginla (06:32.718)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:33.938)
And but my mother wanted me to put it on and wanted me to prance around and for everybody to ooh and over this coat, which I can imagine cost, you know, quite a pretty penny. And when I went to school. Because of where we lived, I was one of a handful of black students who actually attended that school, Betty Ross, it was a predominantly white school. And.

I got beaten up for wearing that coat. They beat me up, they beat me down, they got the coat all dirty because I was not staying in my place. then for some of the students, felt like I was putting on airs, including the Black students. We finally moved to a part of town that ended up in the Supreme Court's case, Hansberry B. Lee.

Adesoji Iginla (07:06.999)
What?

Adesoji Iginla (07:21.774)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:34.895)
That did not end covenant restrictions, but it did eventually after much agitation. The NAACP actually came out in support of us and we kept appealing until we got to the Supreme Court. It ended up allowing us to move back into that house because we actually were initially evicted by a lower court. But living in that neighborhood, it was horrible.

I couldn't go out to play with the other kids in the neighborhood who were white. I got beaten up most times going to and from school.

Adesoji Iginla (08:06.574)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (08:13.375)
Can you recall any incident that stood out to you whilst you were growing up in terms of mob justice?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (08:22.674)
well, there were so many incidents. It was a pretty scary time. We actually had protection in our home. My father, my parents had hired a man to, a number of people, but I particularly recall this time where there was a mob.

that was gathering outside and my mother and this man, my father was in home, know, ushered me back into indoors to protect me. And a brick was thrown through our window. It was thrown so hard, it shattered the window and embedded itself in a wall in our home and just narrowly missed my head. I recall nights when my mother,

Adesoji Iginla (08:45.23)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (09:11.01)
was the.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (09:14.146)
was patrolling the house trying to protect her children with a gun in her hand, a luger to be more specific. I recall having a sense of not knowing if it was worth it and definitely not feeling like my mother had the protection that she needed, know, at times when my father wasn't around where...

Adesoji Iginla (09:23.543)
Wow.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (09:38.724)
But like a black woman, she did what she needed to do to protect her children and to protect her home.

Adesoji Iginla (09:45.334)
OK, so obviously we know she.

she sort of saw the home as being under siege. So the fact that the home was attacked repeatedly and she finally got a chance to go off to University of Wisconsin to be fact, what would you say was her abiding

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (10:02.242)
It definitely was.

Adesoji Iginla (10:23.214)
reminder of home when she got to Wisconsin.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (10:28.248)
Well, I'm not quite sure what you are asking specifically. There were a lot of things that happened prior to me even going off to the University of Wisconsin. Of course, my older sister had gone to Howard and that was my mother's preference that I go to Howard. My father had invested in an oil business and had

Adesoji Iginla (10:43.681)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (10:57.526)
essentially been swindled out of his investment. There was a lot of stress on him. He created an organization to try to provide different opportunities for black people. My people were race people. We were never to turn our back on our family and definitely never to turn our back on our race. And my father was so harried and

Adesoji Iginla (11:00.814)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:24.57)
came to an understanding that there really was no place for the black man, for the black person, black family, to find rest and comfort in the United States of America. And so he actually bought a home in Mexico. And he had gone down with my mother. They drove down to Mexico, I guess, to get things set up. And unfortunately, he never returned.

Adesoji Iginla (11:42.734)
Hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:54.277)
He had a heart attack and he passed away on another pretty significant date in my life, which is March 10th. That is a date that has brought me deep sorrow, but also freedom as well. March 10th was the date that my father died.

Adesoji Iginla (12:10.872)
Fame.

Adesoji Iginla (12:15.886)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (12:24.302)
March 10th was also the date that my play, A Raisin in the Sun, debuted on Broadway. And March 10th was also the day that I finalized my divorce to my husband. But I made the decision to go to the University of Wisconsin instead.

Adesoji Iginla (12:33.646)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (12:49.066)
I had done some research. I was interested in the programs that they had there and getting there and even finding a place to live was interesting. Could not get housing on campus and eventually did find a place where there was a woman who took in young ladies and my brother and sister who had taken me up there did something that was...

Adesoji Iginla (13:01.614)
I was in, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (13:18.116)
quite smart at the time, which was the lady was not at home. And so rather than wait and give her an opportunity to say that I would not be welcome there, they left me there with my luggage and they went back to Chicago. And so by the time, you know, as a black person in America, you learn to be creative. And so by the time the lady returned, here I was.

Adesoji Iginla (13:34.094)
You

Adesoji Iginla (13:39.97)
Who do we have?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (13:47.643)
She basically left it up to the other girls in the house to decide whether I could stay We had the dinner and it was an audition of sorts, but I was used to being in various environments given the schools that I had also attended and I was quite charming I Knew the right things to say and ultimately as I not just enrolled at the university, but I stayed there as well. Yes

Adesoji Iginla (14:08.033)
Thank

Adesoji Iginla (14:16.63)
Okay, so you've mentioned the Raisin in the Sun, the Explaining the themes of the play, would you say the play was a metaphor for your life or would you say it's an observation of the American experience?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:38.082)
Well, there has been so much written about that play. know, that was an award winning play. I'll talk a little bit more about some of the awards that I received from that play. And of course, I was still a very young woman. I was a young woman when I died, but I was a very young woman when that play debuted. was 28 years old. The first black woman to...

Adesoji Iginla (14:40.855)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (14:59.438)
28. Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (15:05.198)
Have a play on Broadway.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:05.454)
debut a play on Broadway, yes. And lots of speculation about that play. Certainly as an artist, as a writer, I drew on the things that were familiar to me. And so the family that is reflected in the play is definitely a black family. It's a black family specifically in Chicago. It's a black family.

Adesoji Iginla (15:28.333)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:32.549)
specifically on the south side of Chicago. And so yes, I drew on my experiences. Certainly the daughter who aspired to become a doctor in the play, as some could argue, and I would not dissuade them of that argument that she was loosely based on me.

Adesoji Iginla (15:36.333)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (15:56.319)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:59.109)
course, one of her suitors was an African young man, guess, similar to you. And that was also based on just my readings. I was an voracious reader. And I studied not just art and drama and writing, but I was very concerned about politics and colonialism and Africa. What was happening in Africa was very important to me. And these were not things that were

widely covered. And so these were areas of interest to me. I ended up working with Paul Robeson. Actually, I was an editor for his newspaper, Freedom Ways. And as I said earlier, I worked with WEB Du Bois, got to meet people like John Henry Clark. Of course, Nina Simone and I became good friends.

Adesoji Iginla (16:29.698)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (16:37.155)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (16:43.982)
We're done with this, yeah?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (16:55.67)
as did Jimmy, the rest of you may know him as James Baldwin, he was a dear friend of mine. But yes, definitely the play drew on my experiences living on the South Side of Chicago. There's been some controversy about my playwriting and my activism. Harold Cruz in his book,

Adesoji Iginla (16:59.33)
James Baldwin, yep.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:21.754)
The crisis of the Negro intellectual actually takes me to task quite a bit, not just me, but most writers of that day because he felt like we were, would say, unimaginative, maybe not creative enough, maybe that we were basing our writing on...

Adesoji Iginla (17:42.403)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:45.551)
philosophies that weren't ours. You know, at that point in American history, we're now talking in the 50s, you're looking at MacArthurism, you're looking at all the charges about being communist. And of course, many of us who spoke out ended up with FBI files. And I happen to be one of the people in that group, although they clearly did not know as much about me as they thought that they did.

Adesoji Iginla (18:00.152)
communist here.

Adesoji Iginla (18:14.222)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (18:14.97)
But those were heady times. know, I went to University of Wisconsin to study art and drama. I dropped out a couple of years later. I wanted a different kind of education. I came back to Chicago to stay at my parents' home. And my mother was definitely hoping I would continue school and get married and settle into a middle class.

Adesoji Iginla (18:24.726)
In the second year.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (18:43.542)
Negro life, if you will. But I wanted more. And I did take a course while I was in Chicago. I dropped out of that as well and eventually convinced my mother to let me go to New York City. Yes. And that was quite a heady time for a young woman.

Adesoji Iginla (18:58.028)
New York. Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (19:04.846)
Okay, so let's explore the part of... because we're talking the 50s now. So let's explore the part where you obviously are a communist and well, that's the understanding that people looking at the way you move in terms of your activism and the fact that

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:20.994)
Was I?

Adesoji Iginla (19:32.95)
you didn't seem to dissuade people from thinking that's the case. So one would be

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:38.691)
Well, people had a lot of thoughts about me. I mean, at one point I traveled to Uruguay and I actually represented Paul Robeson at a conference because his passport had been revoked. W.E.B. Du Bois' passport had also been revoked. As a matter of fact, at the time that I worked with him, he had been so maligned that even most respectable black people did not want anything to do with him.

Adesoji Iginla (19:46.411)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:08.216)
He was actually struggling at that time even to provide for himself. So those are accusations. I don't feel like I need to dignify it one way or another.

Adesoji Iginla (20:13.102)
To feed himself. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (20:23.296)
OK. I won't take you to tax on that. OK, so.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:29.632)
And I cannot, even though I am trying to be Lorraine Hansberry, holding this cigarette in my hand is a lot of work. So for those of you who are smokers out there, this is a lot of work. I keep wanting to put it down.

Adesoji Iginla (20:31.468)
Hahaha

Adesoji Iginla (20:45.804)
Yeah, can you imagine? You have to light it up, you know, keep it...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:49.754)
And at some point I'm gonna have to put my glasses on Lorraine did not wear glasses because she was still so young when she died but I need my glasses to be able to read my notes, but Let's continue I can't wait to hear what um What the audience has to say about all of this, please give us your comments. Tell us what you're thinking. Yes Okay, I'm back to look I'm back to Lorraine

Adesoji Iginla (20:56.099)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (21:10.466)
Yes. Yeah, do engage in the chat. Yes, yes, yes. We're talking about her stay in New York now, looking at the way she moved in New York. There was a part that in reading her papers that even raising a son almost never happened because she suffered from depression.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:42.746)
This might be a good time for me to share some of my thoughts. So I'm gonna read this. As Lorraine, without my glasses on, God help us all.

Adesoji Iginla (21:48.067)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:57.153)
Eventually it comes to you. The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is eventually that which must also make you lonely.

Adesoji Iginla (22:12.802)
Mmm

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (22:15.906)
Although in a lot of ways I'm being celebrated today.

It was a lonely existence. was, um, I did not often feel like I could be my full self. I could be truly understood. And like all young women coming of age and coming of age in New York City, of all places, you know, I initially moved to Greenwich, which was quite cosmopolitan. Um, was a lot more racial integration, if you will. Um,

lot of communists and their children.

And it wasn't until later that I actually started to move into Harlem, but even then it was, I would say, under the protection, if you will, of the communists at the time. And so certainly some criticism has been leveled against me that I really did not have an understanding of what the common person went through, African-American, which is the term we use now, but we called ourselves Negroes at the time.

Adesoji Iginla (23:28.159)
Negros yeah

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:30.453)
experience but you know I remember being on 125th Street and giving speeches and I feel I did my best to talk with my people to understand my people. I met a young man we called him Rosie and we actually lived together.

He got to meet my family and I realized that although he was an activist, he was very much enamored with middle class trappings and materialism. Unfortunately, he ultimately also became a heroin addict to the extent that it cost us where we lived. I got evicted and

Adesoji Iginla (24:10.87)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:26.874)
We were going to get married at one point, but he actually already had a wife on the noes to me. That was definitely a heartbreaking situation for a young woman, but most young people at some point will experience something of that nature. And it was actually shortly after that that I met the man who would become my husband, whom I call Bobby.

Adesoji Iginla (24:33.934)
.

Adesoji Iginla (24:50.986)
Okay. Hold that thought with regards to Bobby. Let's explore the aspect of

understanding what the common man or the common Negro man's life is in the United States based on her background, which in a sense is quite a bit of a complexity in the sense that you're trying to mirror something that you clearly are not. Some would say, what's the word, cosplay.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:30.394)
Well I am offended by that.

Let's let's address the elephant in the room. I'm well aware that In some quarters people considered my father a slumlord He was a raceman who Wanted to do right by himself and his family and he also wanted to make things better for the Negro people I feel like he was very much misunderstood

Adesoji Iginla (25:40.429)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (26:06.029)
Hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:06.458)
You know, the housing market, the housing situation was very difficult in Chicago. And when you have that many people crammed into small places, it's very easy to have code violations. And the city of Chicago...

Adesoji Iginla (26:22.702)
Hmm?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:27.672)
harassed and targeted landlords like my father with numerous code violations as a way to try to diminish him and to diminish black people. And I take on bridge at anyone who would say that my father or my family or even I by extension since I was a partner on paper.

Adesoji Iginla (26:55.766)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:56.068)
for some of those properties and I did receive income for quite some time from some of those properties. I take on Bridget anyone who would say that we were exploiting our own. This is a capitalist society and my parents who remained Republicans were doing their best to achieve the American dream. Now, certainly I chose to live my life a little differently and that's why I moved to New York.

Adesoji Iginla (27:17.91)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (27:25.314)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (27:25.85)
But A Raisin in the Sun, in most of my writing, shows exactly where my heart was. And my heart is for our people, for the Negro race, yes.

Adesoji Iginla (27:37.646)
Okay. Okay. So, obviously you put your political linings into your writings and your activism represents that. So how do you justify the fact that whilst you're doing that, your father business was also exploiting people not four times, but sometimes a hundred times the price.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (27:51.384)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (28:06.024)
of the normal rent. How do you reconcile the two? Because here we have an activist penning thoughts, the American thoughts, onto paper, putting on the stage in front of people, representing their grievances with society, or still partaking in the same grievance, but this time on the side of the oppressor.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (28:34.594)
It's unfortunate that we have an opportunity to talk about my life and the ways that I contributed, which are still relevant today. Some people describe me as someone who was ahead of her time and that you want to focus on something that I've clearly debunked already. The issue is the housing situation for black people moving north in particular was precarious.

Adesoji Iginla (28:43.726)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (28:51.934)
No, I mean, yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:04.866)
I think that those people would have preferred a roof over their heads than to be out on the streets and that's a service my father provided.

Adesoji Iginla (29:13.696)
Yeah, I mean, I am not doubting the needs were met. I'm just sort of exploring how one can possibly reconcile the two. But since

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:27.48)
Well, but that's what makes human beings the complex beings that we are. And that there's always that conflict and we're always growing and evolving and challenging things. yes, so in New York, I marched and I spoke out for tenement rights. I fought for the rights of Negro people and...

Adesoji Iginla (29:33.923)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:00.395)
Looking back now, could certainly, suppose, and you are making the argument that maybe I could have been more vocal with my family and our dealings. But again, I think you me a disservice.

Adesoji Iginla (30:14.53)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:22.892)
I died at age 34.

Adesoji Iginla (30:25.112)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:26.648)
I was the youngest in my family. My family had experienced a lot of trauma.

And I think most of us can relate to sometimes not always being in sync with our families, but that's our family anyway. And families forever.

Adesoji Iginla (30:45.624)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:51.768)
I would like to focus on some of the things that I did, if you don't mind.

Adesoji Iginla (30:55.21)
Okay, no, I was gonna go there. Because I mean, you've laid out to rest in terms of your reconciling, even though

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:02.01)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:06.072)
because my father in his own right was a revolutionary and that was something that I aspired to be as well. And so in 1959, I made history as the first black woman to have a play produced on Broadway with The Raising and the Son. It's about a black family struggle and their resilience. This play went on to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

Adesoji Iginla (31:14.69)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (31:20.941)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:31.053)
making me the first black playwright and the youngest recipient of that prestigious award. And it wasn't easy to do this. As you brought up earlier, I battled depression for most of my life. I moved quite a bit just trying to make ends meet. I worked as a waitress. I did what was required to.

make a living but also to fight for my people. Now I did get a lucky break if you want to call it that because my husband interesting enough well I call him Bobby but yes my husband actually ended up coming into quite a bit of fortune when a song that he wrote to a calypso

Adesoji Iginla (32:15.265)
Robert?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:30.554)
was Calypso song, Calypso was the rage at the time. If you would recall, Harry Belafonte had some hits at the time. And the song was called Cindy Cindy. And it was actually based on a song from my people, the Gullah Geechee people, the people of the Negro race.

a work song and they put the melody of that song in words and then put it to a calypso beat. I suppose again, one could say here comes a group of people capitalizing on the culture of the Negro race, but at any rate, and his partner put out the song and it ended up being recorded by people like Ed Fisher and it did very well. And based on the royalties from that,

Adesoji Iginla (33:07.982)
Mmm

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:21.92)
I was able to stop working and looking for a way to make a living, particularly after Freedom Ways paper was closed for lack of funding. And I was able to focus on my writing in spite of all of the other challenges. And so my work was more than just theater.

Adesoji Iginla (33:44.462)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:44.795)
It was a statement, it was a demand for dignity, it was a reflection of the realities faced by black families back then. And it was something that had never been seen before, as much as I can recall, on Broadway in that way. And of course, Sidney Poitier was acted in it for I think probably like the first 190,

Adesoji Iginla (33:48.792)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:14.144)
outings of the play and then eventually Oscar Davis took over in that role and Ruby Dee was in that role, was in that play as well and it was just groundbreaking beyond the theater and the stage and of course after...

Adesoji Iginla (34:14.401)
episodes. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:33.974)
unfortunately my death and dying much earlier than I anticipated that I would. In addition to that play and other plays that were later either published based on my work, what I had written, plays that I had actually worked on like Sydney Brunson's Tear's Window. My husband also, although

people didn't realize until after I died that we had actually gotten divorced, also was able to put out a play called To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, which also went on to do very well. And of course, there is the song that was written by my dear, dear friend, Nina Simone, also titled To Be Young, Gifted, and Black. I certainly encourage all of your listeners to go and revisit that song. But beyond the stage, I was deeply engaged in...

Adesoji Iginla (35:18.478)
And the last one.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:32.815)
the right to fight for Negro people across the world. You know, I wrote about Kwame Nkrumah and I was very deeply disturbed by the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. I met with Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin and other, guess you would call us black intellectuals to push for real change. I did fundraisers for SNCC. And actually, if you recall,

the story of the three young men who were killed in the South. Yes, before they found their bodies, they found a car, a station wagon, and that was a station wagon that had been purchased with some of the proceeds from a fundraiser that I had done for SNCC, and that just hurt me to my core.

Adesoji Iginla (36:06.848)
And yeah.

Freedom Riders.

Adesoji Iginla (36:26.456)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:32.258)
I actually wrote this in my diary. Do I remain a revolutionary? Intellectually, without a doubt. But am I prepared to give my body to the struggle or even my comforts?

Adesoji Iginla (36:42.424)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:51.724)
I had hoped that once I got better that I too, like my friend Jimmy, would go down to the South and put my body on the line to back up what I said I believed and what I wrote about. But that was not meant to be.

Adesoji Iginla (37:06.914)
to be. Yeah.

OK, speaking of putting one's body on the line, it was said that she

She said, I quote, homophobia was a philosophical, active, anti-feminist dogma. Because she subscribed to The Ladder, the first national lesbian publication, now we're delving into some of the complexities of your life. And she proceeds and says how lesbian, okay, someone wrote a piece in The Ladder saying how lesbians should dress and act.

she retorted in a letter to the editor that as a child of a black elite she wrote she had been taught how to dress and act for the dominant social group. It has not changed which hotels would deny her entrance or stop the cops from snaring at her mother when a brick shatters her window. A piece meant Hanbury believed won't get you very far. Her demand was freedom and nothing less.

Would you say you subscribe to that view?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:24.402)
absolutely. I absolutely believe that we should be fighting back. like Malcolm X said, the ballot or the bullet, mean, like we should be fighting back. There's no way that this country is never going to change for black people just trying to appease whiteness. That's just not going to work. For all my fame and I guess you would say fortune, when I traveled with...

Adesoji Iginla (38:40.11)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:52.395)
Shall we say a female friend of mine? We were denied a room and it was perceived even though we had reservations and You and I can both speculate as to why that was

Adesoji Iginla (39:04.654)
Now, it's also important that we understand how supportive your husband was.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:16.142)
Well, before we talk about my husband and you know, he was my best friend, he was very, very important in my life. And certainly, we may not be having this conversation today, but for his devotion, his dedication to keeping my legacy alive. You know, since you're always looking for the salacious, so much so that...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:46.853)
Three years after our divorce, he married another black woman, very accomplished in her own right. And together, they dedicated themselves to going through my papers, eventually donating some, not all, of my papers to the Schomburg Library.

Of course, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black came out. That was all due to the efforts of Bobby. And today, their daughter is actually the trustee for my foundation.

Adesoji Iginla (40:29.644)
OK.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:30.202)
And so clearly he loved me and was devoted to me. when we talk about freedom, which was the thing that I was always angling for, for black people, but also for me as a woman, for women as a whole, you know, I was very much impacted by a book written by Simone de Beauvier.

Adesoji Iginla (40:46.232)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:00.088)
I it was the second sex. And I didn't agree with everything she had on there, she had in the book, but it did make me think about this notion of freedom. And since you brought up the latter and what rights we have to live authentically, to be fully who we are. And...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:28.044)
As a young woman, were certainly times when I was very much struck by my attraction to other women, which of course was something that would have been considered a taboo. And so in this day and age now where there are now spaces, although still being threatened, where a Black

person can be black, can be woman, and can be lesbian, those spaces weren't quite as readily available in my time.

Adesoji Iginla (42:10.74)
Okay, if we still to explore the political angle of your personality.

You took on Braj Witt, the vice president of the New York chapter of the NAACP for buckling under the... Well, you you claim you're not, but you accuse the New York chapter of buckling under the pressure of the anti-communist pressure. When one of them even shouted down Paul Robeson during a panel that was specifically to help black people find jobs in radio and television.

Would you say you still hold that view with regards to the NAACP being outmoded as you put it?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (43:03.768)
Definitely at the time of my death. Yes. I felt very strongly about that I mean it was just absolutely disgraceful what they did to WB Du Bois wasn't it? Yeah, certainly you would agree with me on that count. You know the shocking and jiving on any level is not something that I I can stomach which is why with all my characters

I gave them that dignity. In fact, that was my issue with Portnum and Bess, which was a Broadway show that had done very, well prior to A Raisin in the Sun. And it was building lives on caricatures and stereotypes and basically robbing us of our full humanity. And if that story were to be told, it should be told by us. so looking back now, if I were still living today and I would have had the...

the gift of hindsight. Definitely, I think that the times that we're in show that the NAACP has largely been ineffective. I'm not opposed to what little good that they've done. But I would say now that even though I was aligned to some degree with the Marxists and the communists, that they too, looking back now, were problematic because it seems like in every instance, white people just want to control us.

Adesoji Iginla (44:31.971)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:33.114)
It's you know, we can have freedom but only on their terms and so even with the communists They decided who was part of the in group and to that degree I would agree with Harold cruises sometimes very strident Criticisms of me and other black intellectuals of the time because

philosophies weren't ours. In fact, let me read from something that he wrote, of course, long after I had passed on, at which point I am going to have put my glasses on.

Okay. Harold Cruz wrote, first off, the Negro creative intellectual as writer, artist and critic has no cultural philosophy, no cultural methodology, no literary and cultural critique on himself as people or an America. Hence, he cannot create, establish and maintain a code of cultural ethics, an artistic standard, a critical yardstick or any kind of cogent and meaningful critique on society.

that might enable him to fashion viable and lasting institutions in the cultural spheres that motivate progressive movements. We still today are dependent on white people to tell us what is possible and what the parameters are. And that is a problem. Whether we're talking about the Negro race here, black people in the United States of America, or in the UK where you are, anywhere in the diaspora, and unfortunately, even on the continent.

Adesoji Iginla (45:51.448)
validation.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:06.712)
We just have not expanded our imaginations beyond the confines of Western philosophy to our great detriment.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:26.424)
But I say all of this to say this, you know, there was a documentary that recently came out about my life. I'm very grateful for people who are researching my papers. As you know, I alluded earlier to the fact that initially Bobby Nermhoff, that was my husband, had donated some of my papers to the Schomburg in keeping with my desires that my papers were readily accessible to my people. So hopefully you all have heard about Terro Schomburg.

Adesoji Iginla (46:26.637)
You

Adesoji Iginla (46:36.622)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:56.158)
but it was important to him to only tell part of the story because.

not to anyway invalidate what he meant to me or how he has kept my legacy going, but it was important to him to even after my death continue to curate me in a way that he hoped would be more palatable to the people and to my race as well. And so he kept out all of the papers that in any way demonstrated that I was a lesbian.

Adesoji Iginla (47:34.19)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:34.35)
and in my papers I described myself.

as heterosexual married lesbian. And it wasn't until after his death that his wife actually donated the rest of the papers to the Schomburg. And to that extent, I am grateful that she is letting me be seen as my full self. But I say all of this to say I was going to talk about this

documentary that is called Sighted Eyes Feeling Heart and they got it from my words as well. I'm going to presume that there will still be other writings about me. Because although I died so young, I was committed to thinking. I was committed to exploring. I was committed to challenging myself.

Adesoji Iginla (48:22.058)
Of course, of course, of course.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (48:37.386)
And yes, I was a complex human being and I would argue so are all of you watching and listening. So don't just look at me as a pariah, but I said this in my writing. I say all of this to say that one cannot live with sighted eyes and feeling heart and not know and react to the miseries which afflict this world.

I think that the human race does command its own destiny and that destiny can eventually embrace the stars. And that's how I looked at the world and I looked at...

Adesoji Iginla (49:14.734)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:21.102)
the different aspects of myself as I gave myself permission to explore.

Adesoji Iginla (49:29.277)
Charles Shields also wrote a book titled, what's the title of the book again? It's titled, Lorraine Hansberry, The Life Behind A Raisin in the Sun. The title of the book again is Charles J. Shields. And in it, said, raising depends on the tension produced by such a shock. So we're talking about the American experience now.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:44.11)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:58.232)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (49:58.4)
It admits a fact denied by people of many races and politics. What a particular black person wants may not always be consonant with freedom. American history has placed such weight on the meaning of those wants that it can be hard to look at them straight on. And then he goes on to give you kudos. And he says one thing Hansberry never did was turn away.

Would you say that's an accurate depiction?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (50:31.802)
I never did. I grappled with it all, perhaps with too many cigarettes and too much alcohol. But I was fully present and not afraid to face my own demons, even when I was afraid to face them.

Adesoji Iginla (50:41.044)
Hmm

Adesoji Iginla (50:53.56)
So it must be said that in the course of your writing, when did you discover USC?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:03.386)
you know, I had these stomach pains for quite some time and at one point the doctors said I was anemic and you know, period where for like five weeks I didn't drink and I didn't smoke and those were interesting days. But it wasn't until long after the play was the...

play initially debuted, I believe it was about 1963 in particular where I was now told that I needed to undergo surgery and that first surgery was successful, we thought, and I went on to buy a new property. You know, I should say this, and forgive me for moving a little bit away from your question, I'm gonna come back to it.

after the very successful run of that play, A Raisin in the Sun. it, you know, initially the powers that be did not want to fund that play. It really took cobbling together a few dollars here and there and so on and so forth to make it happen. And we ended up having to go off Broadway first to really prove that there was a market. So it was shown in Chicago as well before it now debuted on Broadway.

Adesoji Iginla (52:07.606)
Rays in the Sun yet.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (52:32.378)
But the success of the play was such that it was optioned by Hollywood for a movie. And we negotiated for me to be the screenwriter for that movie, which again, wasn't heard of. had no particular expertise in that area. They paid me 50,000 just to be the writer for that script, in addition to about 300,000, I believe.

for the option for the movie. And I worked really hard to make sure that it stayed true to my vision, although there were many changes that they made even during production and then again during the editing process. But I'm proud of how it turned out. But from those proceeds, as you can imagine, I was in a good place financially. And I ended up buying a place about 40,

Adesoji Iginla (53:03.662)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:29.144)
miles outside of New York City, and I called it chiddling.

Children in the States, yes. But yes, and so it was during this time that I recognized that I did have an illness. In fact, initially the doctors would not tell me that it was cancer until we got to a point where there was really not much that they could do for me. But I had some dear friends. Like Nina Simone, she came to the hospital. She actually brought her betrothal with her.

Adesoji Iginla (53:39.47)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:05.006)
so that I could hear her music and definitely surrounded by a lot of love during that.

Adesoji Iginla (54:14.126)
Your friends also took up a collection whilst you were in hospital, although not to pay for your care, but was to keep your play, Sydney Brunston's Window, running. So the play will close on January 12, 1965, in the evening.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:25.988)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:33.518)
which was the same day that I died.

Adesoji Iginla (54:35.47)
Yes, at age 34 years old. Looking back at such a short run, bearing in mind Raising in the Sun came out when you were 28. So technically you were only six years in the limelight. Looking at that six years, what would you say you want to be remembered for?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:40.366)
What a tragedy.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (55:08.772)
Hmm. Those were heady times. You know, I didn't necessarily seek out fame. But I'll tell you what. I responded to as many of the fans as I could. I, I was getting...

offers to speak at so many different events and I went to as many as I could. I particularly like to engage with the young people because I wanted to infuse this sense of hope and also this sense of responsibility. We have a responsibility to ourselves. We have a responsibility to our race. That's something that was definitely instilled in me by my parents. I have to tell this story.

Adesoji Iginla (55:48.834)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (56:03.48)
I don't have much love for him. Robert F. Kennedy at the time, with the civil rights movement raging and black people being brutalized in the South, he just wanted to make it go away. And so I got a call from Jimmy, my good friend James Baldwin, Jimmy and I had a lot in common. But...

Jimmy said, you know, Robert F. Kennedy wanted to meet with some of us.

And we met at an apartment that they owned in New York City. And I really did not have time for the shenanigans, if you will. He was very dismissive of a young man who was there, who had actually been beaten up.

and had come to New York City. Teen was one of the freedom writers and had come to New York City to get some treatment. And he wanted to disregard him and basically talk to those of us, you know, more forward facing, if you will, more famous black so-called intellectuals. And I gave him a talking to. I told him the person he needed to speak to was that young gentleman and that...

Adesoji Iginla (57:20.162)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (57:29.498)
we would not be used in that way. This was in 1963 and that the country and he and his role needed to stand up and protect black people. And once I was done with my say, I walked out and I think the rest of the people walked out with me. What do I wanna be remembered for? I wanna be remembered as a deep thinker.

I want to be remembered as someone who

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (58:05.624)
was a revolutionary who was willing to, though I never had the chance to live it out as fully as I wanted to, I was willing to put my body on the line for what I believed, which is the freedom of Black people across the globe. I want to be remembered as a woman who was courageous enough to

Adesoji Iginla (58:26.307)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (58:35.136)
be free. I want to be remembered for someone who loved deeply and wanted to be loved. You know, growing up...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (58:47.67)
My mother wasn't very demonstrative in terms of affection. You know, when you got sick, yes, you you would get cuddled a little bit more and then, you know, be nursed back. But perhaps it was the times and the fact that she had to be so strong. But I did not get the love that I wanted. And being married to my husband, I also did not feel like we were.

sexually as compatible as I would have desired. And so I would also like to be remembered as a woman who

Adesoji Iginla (59:19.585)
Hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (59:26.744)
did not allow herself to be constrained, but.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (59:33.945)
was courageous enough to be her full self. Yes. I do want to share quickly, you know, just for those who may not know, as I have stated earlier, I was the first black woman to have a play produced on Broadway, A Raisin in the Sun in 1959. I've told you about the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, which I got at age 29.

I also received Tony Award nominations in 1960 and posthumously in 2022. My play was nominated for Best Play at the 1960 Tony Awards. In 2022, the Broadway revival of The Sign in Sidney Brunstein's Window earned multiple Tony nominations. A Reason in the Sun, of course, was adapted into major films in 1961 and 1989, and again in 2008.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:10.574)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:00:27.514)
reintroducing my work to millions worldwide. And in 2008, the ABC TV adaptation of my play won multiple NAACP Image Awards and was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards. As I said, I was a financial supporter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:48.866)
snake.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:00:52.012)
I also, in 1969, Nina Simone honored me when she wrote the song and performed it, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black. And that, I still want black people to hold onto that. How amazing it is to be young, to be gifted, and to be black. And in 2013, the US Postal Service issued a Lorraine Hansberry Forever stamp.

as part of the Black Heritage Series. In 2010, I was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Wow, moved up from the South Side of Chicago. Part of my legacy includes the Hansberry Theater in San Francisco, which was opened in 1981 and is still there. Revival of my works, LeBlanc's, the sign in Sidney Brunstein's window.

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:33.154)
Chicago.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:01:48.483)
and my essays continue to be studied and performed. And in 2022, the Broadway revival of The Sign and Sidney Brostein's Window reintroduced me to a whole new generation. There are also so many books by me and other books that have been written about me. So of course, if you're going to talk about me, I'm looking for it right here. You definitely want to get To Be Young, Gifted, and Black. You might not be able to see that on the screen.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:12.045)
Yep.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:17.411)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:02:18.446)
And of course it was adapted by Robert Nemiroff. There's also Looking for Lorraine, The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry. That was written by Imani Perry. You've already mentioned Lorraine Hansberry, The Life Behind A Raisin in the Sun by Charles J. Shields. Another one that came out, I absolutely love it when black women write about me.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:31.242)
in MoneyPayRi.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:02:47.194)
And this is, yes, Radical Vision, a biography of Lorraine Hansberry by Soyika Diggs Colbert. This one came out in 2021. There's another one that's in the works as well. And there's, of course, this one, Conversations with Lorraine Hansberry, edited by Molly Godfrey. And the documentary, Sighted Eyes, Feeling Heart, which came out in 2017.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:48.162)
their radical vision.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:15.854)
Tracy Heather.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:03:17.08)
The Black Theater, The Making of a Movement, which came out in 1978, features a segment on my impact on black theater. And then of course, the documentary on my dear friend, Nina Simone, What Happened, Miss Simone, which came out in 2015, also discusses my influence on her. In fact, her song, Mississippi Goddamn, was influenced by me. There've been many television specials.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:36.343)
And yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:03:45.851)
Yes, so definitely. My legacy endures. I was a complex woman. Yes, I was a lesbian. I loved women. I loved men. I loved black. I loved white. I came from a middle-class background and I spoke up for people who had less than I did. And I also enjoy the trappings of wealth. I am all of those things.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:07.246)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:04:13.624)
And all of those things are worth studying and some of them worth emulating, but perhaps not the cigarette smoking.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:20.334)
You

Yes, held one in at the end, Still have the smoke.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:34.53)
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you very much for taking your taking time out of your very, busy schedule to, you know, sit with us and walk us through your life. And we're going to break with tradition. Who are we having next week?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:04:55.62)
well in the tradition of women and resistance because I was all about resistance. I'm so grateful that you all are doing these series because people need to study us, just to...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:05:13.548)
not just to celebrate our successes, but to understand the complexities. Because I think that when you look at your own life, you might also see that there are some parallels. Something that I did that I'm really astounded that I did as a young woman is I took myself seriously enough that I kept my writings. I journaled. I considered myself a writer and I wrote. I affirmed my work.

And I think that that's something that too many of us are not doing in this day and age. And I would like to extol all of us, that tradition of reading, that tradition of studying, that tradition of finding a group of people that you can think critically with, people that challenge you and people whom you challenge, that tradition of fighting for our rights and not laying down.

even though it costs us our life because I believe racism killed my father as it has killed so many other black folk. But next week, I understand you're going to be covering someone who even predates me and that is Nanny. Nanny of the Maroons. And so if you think my life was extraordinary,

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:30.616)
Maroons. Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:06:37.056)
Wait till you find out who Nanny of the Maroons was and why, if you're a Black woman, this is your time to rise up and to break free of the constraints and to live fully and hopefully.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:40.384)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:47.598)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:06:55.618)
Our men will come along.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:57.952)
Hmm. That's strain out the gauntlets. yes. I straightened out the gauntlets. Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:07:10.874)
But thank you for having me this evening and thank you for giving me this opportunity to reintroduce myself.

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:12.803)
the thing.

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:20.236)
Yeah, I mean, you've met or better still, some new audience have found you and hopefully they will explore the books, get to know Lauren Hansberry more. And the thing about all of the people that we're going to be going through is they were not acting in isolation. You will find that as a result of one, you got to know somebody else.

which is the idea of even though you are the face, there's a community behind you.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:07:58.811)
I'm so glad you say that because I know that eventually you're going to cover Claudia Jones. Claudia Jones and I were roommates. And I recall vividly when she was, God, so harassed by the FBI. And they eventually locked her up and then finally deported her. And can you imagine without giving away her story yet?

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:04.556)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:08.567)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:08:24.526)
that Trinidad and Tobago where she came from, that government because again, black people being controlled by whites, whether they're communist, socialist, oligarchs, whatever. That country refused to grant her entrance to back home. And it was ultimately the UK where you currently are that allowed her.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:39.416)
to letter in.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:08:48.618)
a place to go after she was deported. So we will talk about there. There's so many people's lives that intertwined with mine. So many people who impacted me and whom I impacted. But yes, we do not act alone.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:59.126)
Hmm.

Yeah, yeah. yeah. So it's next week, it's going to be Nani, the queen of the maroons. So all you Caribbean folks.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:09:16.452)
Come on in. And you know, on behalf of you as our host, I would ask all of our viewers, our listeners, please like, please subscribe, please share. Why not?

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:16.524)
Welcome into the islands.

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:30.638)
Yeah, of course, of course, of course. And each one bring one. Don't just hug this experience alone, you know, share it with somebody else. And we're talking about women. Women are essentially, as Thomas Sankara would say, they are the mothers of revolution.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:09:50.904)
And as I would say, we are everything.

Thank you so much again for having me.

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:57.942)
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And to our listeners who would you can download this podcast on all your podcast platforms by midday tomorrow. So there is already two episodes outstanding there for you. This will be the number three. And yes, next week it's going to be Queen Nani, Queen of the Maroons. And you're going to find out

how she comes into the picture. But until next week.

No rain?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:10:37.306)
to be young, gifted, and black, and fabulous.

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:41.518)
And to stop smoking as well. Yes. Good night everybody.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:10:50.628)
Good night!