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?

This short poem by Harlem Renaissance giant Langston Hughes, “Montage of a Dream Deferred” serves as the inspirational launching point for a classic work of American theater and film, “A Raisin in the Sun”. Lorraine Hansberry penned this play, inspired by her own family’s fight against racism and segregated housing in Chicago.

Our own beloved Sidney Poitier starred in the groundbreaking Broadway play and then assumed the role of Walter Lee Younger in the 1961 movie version, directed by Daniel Petrie. Poitier’s performance stands as one of his finest over an illustrious fifty-year career.

Walter Lee’s anguish, tortured love, anger and frustrated ambition are powerfully realized in a film about the struggle to be black and matter in America. Interestingly, in 1963 Lorraine Hansberry had an enraged reaction to a photo from Birmingham Alabama in which a white police kneeled on a black woman’s neck.

‘Just how much has changed?’ we can rightly ask.

Please join us on Thursday, February 24th @ Fiona’s Theatre at 6:30 pm for this special screening in celebration of the life and work of Sidney Poitier. This and all screenings are free and open to the public. Space is limited. Proof of vaccination is required and COVID-19 protocols will be strictly enforced.