A Raisin in the Sun

Okay, I’ll admit it. I did not watch the network television premiere of A Raisin in the Sun, Starring Rap Mogul Sean “Puffy” “P-Diddy” Combs, but in my defense I work nights and had my ass in bed. Besides, who wants to see a three hour movie about black folks picking grapes, placing them in the sun and waiting for them to turn into raisins? That shit ain’t realistic! I know we Picked cotton (and possibly peanuts), back in the day, but I never heard of us harvesting no grapes to make raisins.

No, no….I is just kidding. I don’t want yall thinking I’m all ig’nat and stuff. Actually I felt so bad about missing A Raisin in the Sun that I decided to do some research on it. The play was written by Lorraine Hansberry (which I knew), but what I did not know was that in made its debut, on Broadway no less, in 1959. Ms. Hansberry was the first black woman play write to have a play produced on Broadway. Not only that, but the play’s director, Lloyd Richards, was the first black director on Broadway... I know it seems like Oprah was the first but plenty of black folks did things before her ass.

In the same year in which it debuted, A Raisin in the Sun, was named the best play of 1959 by New York Drama Critics’ Circle. How about that for a play that consisted of an all black cast, with the exception of one white? The following year it was nominated for four Tony Awards including; Best Play, Best Actor in Play, Best Actress in Play and Best Direction of a Play. In 1961 A Raisin in the Sun was turned into a major motion picture featuring its original Broadway cast. So, of course it stands to reason that when Sean Combs brought it to television, he would follow suit and use the same cast he worked with in the 2004 Broadway revival. (Who knew that Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald received Tony Awards for their performances back then? Not I. Nor did I know that this play was adapted for television once before, in 1989, starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle (Damn! Damn! Damn!)
As a side bar, I think it was the first time that white folks got an inside look at how black folks lived. You know that shit is always interesting. Funny, how we went from proud, black people with a dream for something better, to angry ghetto thugs; still with a dream for something better but now we kill one another (In the movies I mean...In the movies), and white folks still think they are getting a legitimate look at the inside of black culture.

I remember having to read A Raisin in the Sun growing up. The thing that always stood out to me, when I read the book, was a poem by Langston Hughes, which preceded the play. C’mon, we all know it.
A Dream Deferred
by Langston Hughes

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?
I liked the fact that Mr. Hughes left this question opened for the reader to decide for himself the answer. I still have not decided the answer, and believe it or not, I have actually pondered over it for a many a years. You see, I have a dream deferred, but not from lack of trying. A dream that has been deferred since I was eighteen years old. I will say this; it does hurt to continue to go after something that you want and to never have it reach fruition. I won’t tell you what this dream in question is, but I will tell you that I often thought that if I died without accomplishing it I would feel like I died a failure (no matter what my other accomplishments). I guess that would fit the category of sagging like a heavy load, huh.
Anyway, anyone else suffer from a dream deferred? Wanna share?
-One Man’s Opinion. Peace.
I’m gonna write me a play. I think I’ll call it A Crack Rock in the Moonlight.