In February, a production of Lorraine Hansberry’s play “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, starring Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan. The same production, directed by Anne Kauffman, is now about to reopen on Broadway, where it’ll run until July 2. We used this opportunity to invite the director of the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust, Joi Gresham, to the podcast.

Joi, as you will hear, is a terrific storyteller, starting with her very close connection to Hansberry — even though they never met. She moves on to talk about the connection between “A Raisin in the Sun” and “Sign,” the evolving perception of Hansberry and her work, what running an estate involves, and what happened in 2004.

It’s always interesting to talk about a playwright’s legacy and how it changes over the years and decades. If you missed it, check out the episode with the Arthur Miller scholar Susan Abbotson in November. We hope to do more of those.

And of course, look up Peter’s preview of the BAM production of “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.”

In addition, Peter reviewed the production when it was at BAM.

More reading:

Imani Perry: “Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry”

Soyica Diggs Colbert: “Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry”

The documentary “Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart” is available to rent on Amazon.

Thanks to Christian Huygen for our theme music.

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