Why read To Be Young, Gifted and Black?

Book cover of To Be Young, Gifted and Black

Book description

“Anyone who has ever wondered what it really means to be Black will find the answer in this book.”—MINNEAPOLIS TRIBUNE

To Be Young, Gifted and Black is a special kind of autobiography, in a very special voice. Both the story and the voice belong to a young woman from Chicago…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked To Be Young, Gifted and Black as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Heather Shumaker

Author

There’s nothing like reading a gifted author. This is Lorraine Hansberry (playwright of A Raisin in the Sun) in her own words. Lorraine died tragically young. There are many biographies about her, but her own words shine.

It’s a strange autobiography, compiled after she died and mixed with journal writings as well as unfinished plays.

What strikes me most about her is her sharp intelligence and the aching in my heart for the works she left unfinished. We get a glimpse of them here.

From Heather's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Clarence B. Jones

Author

Lorraine Hansberry and her husband Robert Nemiroff were college friends of mine.

Lorraine had a way with words, a sense of justice, and deep compassion. Her Raisin in the Sun made Broadway history. The collage approach to the material in To Be Young, Gifted and Black I’ve found is completely in keeping with the diamond-sharp artistic mind of the woman I knew.

From Clarence's list on the realities of being Black in America.