Theatre

Vaudeville

Playwright

Ahhh, "to be young, gifted, and Black"! Hansberry was a dynamic playwright and the first Black woman author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best-known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, has been considered one of the greatest plays of the 20th century.

Known as the "Queen Mother" and "Matriarch of Black Dance", Dunham (1909-2006) pioneered a new form of artistic expression by fusing her anthropological studies of Caribbean cultures with modern dance techniques, creating the Dunham Technique which is still widely taught today. She formed one of the first black ballet companies, the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, through which she showcased the beauty and power of the Dunham Technique's African diasporic dance movements. One of the company's celebrated works was the 1948 piece Caribbean Rhapsody, which featured a remarkable performance by the then 21-year-old Eartha Kitt. The company also achieved acclaim through Broadway and Hollywood performances that brought the Dunham Technique to global audiences.

Actress and Singer, Lyric Sooprano

Federal Theatre Project

Playwright

Playwright

Singer

Actress, comedian, author, singer, and host, Goldberg (1955) was the first Black woman to earn EGOT status (2002)—winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award.