ABOUT THE MONOLOGUE
Lonely was inspired by the life of the late playwright Lorraine Hansberry. I wrote this monologue for The 365 Women A Year Theatre Monologue Collection, which aims to promote the lives of theater women and empower and promote female playwrights around the world .
Hansberry became the first Black woman to be produced on Broadway with her play A Raisin in the Sun. She won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, making her the first Black American dramatist, the fifth woman, and the youngest playwright to do so.
One of the things that struck me from my research was how she had to navigate the intersectionality of her multiple identities as an African American woman, who was married to a man from a very different minority group, while knowing she was a lesbian at a time when it was necessary to conceal that part of her identity.
Sadly, she died of cancer at 34 years old. Had she lived longer, there is no doubt she would have had written many more powerful plays and inspired countless theater goers.
If you enjoy a monologue published in the BLACK WOMAN GENIUS project, we encourage you to reach out to the playwright to tell them so. If the playwright has not included an email address or website, let us know at info@nycplaywrights.org and we'll pass along your message.
EXCERPT FROM LONELY
~ Excerpt published by permission, all rights held by the playwright.
LORRAINE
“Raisin” is based on my family. No. We weren’t poor. My father founded a bank and had a real estate business. In thirty-eight, he moved us to a house in a White section of Chicago. The “welcoming committee” threw a brick in the window which got this close to my head.
She gestures about an inch with her fingers.
I was eight.
BEAT
After that, my parents felt they had no choice but to leave the country, so they moved to Mexico. I stayed in Chicago for high school. I was about to join them when Daddy died. And I know that racism is what killed him. I enrolled in the University of Wisconsin, but dropped out after I got a “D” in drama. I moved to New York and started writing for Paul Robeson’s paper “The Freedom”. We spoke out against racism, colonialism and oppression.
The night the play opened, all I wanted to do was get home before the reviews came out. After the final curtain came down, I stepped outside and people were lined up for my autograph! James Baldwin flew home from Paris to be there. We got to Sardis and all these White people cheered when I walked in the door.
All this should make me happy. But it doesn’t.