The Lillys’ Lorraine Hansberry Initiative Sculpture, To Sit A While by Alison Saar

The national tour of The Lorraine Hansberry Initiative’s To Sit A While art exhibit will be on display in Gloria Molina Grand Park for nearly three weeks. Hansberry was a playwright, journalist and activist whose play A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway. The iconic production was revived on Broadway in 2004 and 2014. To Sit A While, by sculpture artist Alison Saar, features the figure of Hansberry surrounded by five bronze chairs, each representing a different aspect of her life and work. The life-size chairs are an invitation to the public to do just that: to sit with her and think. The sculpture will be permanently installed on the South Side of Chicago, Hansberry’s childhood home, in 2024. The Lorraine Hansberry Initiative also encompasses a $2.5 million endowed fund for women and non-binary writers of color enrolled in graduate dramatic writing programs. The writers receive $25,000 a year to help alleviate their burden of living expenses and ensure that they have protected time to actually write and can take full advantage of their education.

This installation honors the great American playwright Lorraine Hansberry. The title comes from a line in her play, A Raisin in the Sun— “Never be afraid to sit a while and think.” In 2022, more Black and more female writers were produced on Broadway than ever before. The chairs represent Hansberry’s work as a playwright, journalist, and civil rights activist for Black, female and queer voices. The Lorraine Hansberry Initiative is a project created by The Lillys, an organization dedicated to women in theater.