February 11, 2026 - Meaningful Movie - Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart

What: Meaningful Movie "Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart"

When: February 11 , 2026 at 7 pm

Where: The Park Church - Beecher Hall (enter via parking lot door near Gray St.)

🆓 The movie event is free and open to all.

🍿 ☕ 🫖 🍪 Pop Corn, Coffee, Cookies

Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart

"So brilliantly effective — reviving interest in an unjustly under-appreciated American icon! An ambitious and stimulating look at one of the 20th century’s towering playwrights, intellectuals, and artists! Bravo!!”

~ Michael Eric Dyson, Georgetown University

"This well-made and scored film presents the extraordinary life of “Young, Gifted and Black” revolutionary artist and civil rights activist Lorraine Hansberry. Experience her powerful mind and voice during the decade when America awakened to liberation."

~ Jennifer DeVere Brody, Stanford University

Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart sheds valuable light on all aspects of her play, A Raisin in the Sun, including the daunting challenge of securing investment and a venue for this production about a working class Black family, the casting process, artistic debates and finally its public reception. The documentary features interviews with the play’s original cast members, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Louis Gossett, Jr. and Glynn Turman, director Lloyd Richards, producer Phil Rose, supporter Harry Belafonte as well as writer Amiri Baraka along with excerpts from the 1961 Hollywood movie.

The play emerged during the burgeoning modern Civil Rights Movement. Leveraging her increased prominence, Hansberry, along with a circle of artist/activist friends such as James Baldwin and Nina Simone, became a fierce advocate. She particularly admired the more militant youth sector such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She raised funds for SNCC and wrote the text for their book, The Movement.

Movie Trailer