Tune into Out-FM on Tues., March. 28 & from 8:00-9:00pm, on 99.5 FM WBAI/NY or listen live at https://www.wbai.org/listen-live/
Press Play button to stream, or green download button below to download the sound file of the program.
Author and activist Lorraine Hansberry
Tune into Out-FM on WBAI, 99.5 FM in New York or wbai.org, this Tuesday, March 28, from 8-9 PM EDT, for an encore program about the brilliant Black playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who died in 1965 at age 34. Hansberry was a far more committed feminist and socialist than popular culture has portrayed – and was also a lesbian who wrote fierce pro-feminist though anonymous letters to a leading lesbian magazine. This broadcast will include Bob Lederer’s interview last fall with Professor Bettina Aptheker, author of Communists in Closets, which includes a chapter on Hansberry. Professor Aptheker explains how Hansberry was schooled by what she calls the Black communist intelligentsia surrounding the Party in the 1950s. This program will include excerpts from WBAI’s 1967 documentary titled "Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words," courtesy of the Pacifica Radio Archive. You’ll hear excerpts from major Hollywood names, including Paul Robeson, paying tribute and reading Hansberry’s writings.
We’ll encourage listeners to show their support for Out-FM and WBAI by making a donation at one of three levels:
• For a $100 donation, you’ll receive the WBAI Women's History Audio Collection, a jump drive that contains 79 hours of recordings, showcasing Women's History through restored audio recordings dating back to the earliest days of community radio broadcasting in 1949. This thorough compilation is culled from over six seasons of Pacifica Radio Archives’ weekly radio program From the Vault and beyond.
• For a $50 donation, you’ll receive an electronic version of Dr. Aptheker’s book, Communists in Closets. Aptheker's book explores the history of non-heterosexual people in the Communist Party USA, which banned lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from membership between 1938 and 1992. The book includes an in-depth chapter on Lorraine Hansberry.
• For a commitment to donate $15 a month or more, you can become a BAI Buddy (in the name of your favorite show – hopefully Out-FM!). This will keep a steady lifeline of monthly funds flowing into WBAI to cover our basic operating expenses. We’ll thank you by sending you a copy of the Women’s History Audio Collection on a jump drive.