1
..I am the first to say that ours is a complex and difficult country and some of our complexities are indeed grotesque. We who are Negro Americans can offer that last remark with unwavering insistence. It is, on the other hand, also a great nation with certain beautiful and indestructible traditions and potentials which can be seized by all of who possess imagination and love of man. There is, as a certain play suggests, a great deal to be fought in America - but, at the same time, there is so much which begs to be but re-affirmed and cherished with sweet defiance. .Lorraine Hansberry
2
Write if you will: but write about the world as it is and as you think it ought to be and must be–if there is to be a world. Write about all the things that men have written about since the beginning of writing and talking–but write to a point. Work hard at it, care about it. Write about our people: tell their story. You have something glorious to draw on begging for attention. Don’t pass it up. Use it. Good luck to you. The Nation needs your gifts. Lorraine Hansberry speech, “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, ” given to Readers Digest/United Negro College Fund creative writing contest winners, NYC, May 1, 1964. .Lorraine Hansberry
3
Write if you will: but write about the world as it is and as you think it ought to be and must be–if there is to be a world. Write about all the things that men have written about since the beginning of writing and talking–but write to a point. Work hard at it, care about it. Write about our people: tell their story. You have something glorious to draw on begging for attention. Don’t pass it up. Don’t pass it up. Use it. Good luck to you. The Nation needs your gifts. Lorraine Hansberry speech, “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, ” given to Readers Digest/United Negro College Fund creative writing contest winners, NYC, May 1, 1964.Lorraine Hansberry