The Raisin Cycle Book Club

Examine the classic American play A Raisin in the Sun and its unofficial sequel through the lenses of urban migration and change.
About this Event

Join the West End Museum and the Museum of African American History for a discussion series on two plays that examines the cycle of Black migration, white flight, urban renewal, displacement, and gentrification in Chicago’s changing neighborhoods.

First, read Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play A Raisin in the Sun, a Black family drama set on the South Side of Chicago. The Younger family lives in poverty, but when a life insurance payment offers them a chance to change their situation, they face the question of how to achieve their deferred dreams. Do they invest in business, education, or a home in a white neighborhood? Discuss how redlining, poverty, and neglect of urban neighborhoods has affected Black communities.

Next read Bruce Norris’s Claybourne Park, a new perspective on Hansberry’s story that follows a white family selling their home in a quiet neighborhood in Chicago. It soon becomes clear that they are selling to the Younger family prompting discussions on block busting, white flight, the American Dream, and what happens when the cycles of urban change come to affect the same house and communities.

This two part book club is open to all.

Reserve a free ticket to join with your own copies of the plays or select paid tickets and pick up copies of each book at the West End Museum.