Episode 54: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart: Tracy Heather Strain Shows Us a Different Side of Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry's reputation will always be inextricably bound up with her best-known work, A Raisin in the Sun. But who was the woman behind this landmark play? Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain explores Hansberry's life in her new documentary Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, which premieres on PBS on 19 January 2018. Tracy's film brings a new perspective to Hansberry, showing us not just the playwright who became the first African-American woman to have a play produced on Broadway, but also someone who was a political radical and who embraced her identity as a lesbian at a time when it was dangerous to do so. Tracy joins us to discuss her film and to give us new insights into this crucially important figure in American theatre.