During a time in America when no women, including African American women were encouraged to speak their minds, Lorraine Hansberry was chasing her dreams. She chased them, caught them and committed them to paper by writing one of the most poignant, endearing, and inspirational plays in American history. The time was the 1950's, and the name of play, A Raisin in the Sun was taken from a line of the Langston Hughes poem called:

Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over -
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

You might say that Lorraine Hansberry's childhood was unique. Her parent's home was often visited by distinguished African Americans such as W.E.B. Dubois, Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson and the very famous poet above, Langston Hughes! Lorraine made it clear how influential Langston Hughes had been in her life by writing an entire play based on the ideas in his poem.

A Raisin in the Sun asks its audience to consider such themes as racial discrimination, assimilation, generation gaps and dreams. Every character in Lorraine's play has a dream. Walter wants to be a successful business owner, Beneatha, wants to be a doctor, Ruth wants a house for her family, and Mama just wants a garden to grow her little plant. By connecting her play to Hughes' poem Harlem, Lorraine asks her audience to consider what happens to a dream deferred? What happens when we put them off for another day? The poem is symbolic of the absolute urgency her characters feel to make their dreams a reality. In reading A Raisin in the Sun, we realize Lorraine is showing us that even though we may not see how, there is more than one way for a dream to come true, but like the characters in her play, the consequences of putting off your dreams could be dire!

I can understand why Lorraine was so impressed by Harlem. The imagery allows us to experience how different people might feel if they put off their dreams. The poem is saying that without our dreams, we may rot, we may fester. We may just shrivel up and die! Not one image suggests hope or encouragement. Dreams are delicate and fruitful until they ignored.

Lorraine faced a great amount of adversity in her life as an educated African America woman, and yet she became the first black female playwright to see her play on Broadway! And this was during the civil rights movement when blacks and women were still fighting for equal rights! It's understandable why dreams were such an important theme in her work and in her life. Lorraine read this poem by her father's famous friend and became forever inspired and forever committed to making her dreams come true. Thanks to her poetic muse, Lorraine's dreams were not deferred!

Make Lorraine Hansberry your muse and your inspiration to make your dreams come true! Or find a poem or book that lights your dreams on fire and write to inspire others! And don't forget to tell us about it!