Dreams Deferred
By Vanessa Conde 

A dream is extremely fragile

It can be torn apart

It can shatter and fall

Or it can be a new start

You have to know how to express it

Because you can’t forget about a goal,

You can suppress it in your memory

But deep down it’ll be found in your soul

A dream deferred can’t be forgotten

It’s just locked up somewhere

We say we’ll initiate tomorrow

But we don’t realize if we put it off, we’ll get nowhere

A raisin in the sun is an example

If you take all their dreams that were dreamed

You’ll see they were put off,

And not one of them showed or gleamed

In their attempt to rise unto glory

A thing or two slipped

They let their dreams fade

Once they accidently tripped

That’s what happens to us too

We put aside what we want so badly

In fear it’ll never be accomplished

But as we pretend and nod gladly,

We don’t realize if we don’t try we won’t succeed

But not trying gives us a reason to fail

But our dreams don’t disappear

Due to the fact that they leave a trail

No matter how far we run to hide from it

It’ll always be by our side

It’ll follow us till the day we die

Unless we had really tried

Our dreams go in a little box

Locked up and saved for ourselves

They’re not for the world to see

And are put on the shelves

Our dreams hover around us

And shout till they are recognized

But we look past them

So we aren’t agonized

Our dreams are swept under the carpet

They accumulate particles of dust

And we leave them there hidden from the eye of company

Because we’re unsure of whom we can trust

There are those who pretend they don’t dream

Due to their countless insecurity

They refuse to reveal their wishes

And leave us with curiosity

I guess we can’t truly say what happens to dreams deferred

It’s different for everyone

It’s really a mystery whether we like it or not

It depends if the battle of dreaming is lost or won

This is a finalist in our A Raisin in the Sun Creative Response Contest. From April 17-19 you can visit our Facebook page to vote for this entry to win our grand prize!

Follow Your Dream
By David Kurkowski

You can also listen to this song on YouTube 

This is a finalist in our A Raisin in the Sun Creative Response Contest. From April 17-19 you can visit our Facebook page to vote for this entry to win our grand prize!

The Dreamer
By Mini Racker

Desire, such a feathery angel,
deserts the sarcophagus of my body.
I believed in the thing that no one sees.
One of water and writhing, I had waited.
One of lace and fire, I withdrew.

The creek tempted me that dwindling summer night,
that last August, when the leaves sung almost inaudibly,
turning the seasons,
and nor’easters dampened the earth
and the lapping of the water tampering with my heartbeat
like moss does with elm roots,
irrevocably, at its own pace.

My legs overhanging the bank, I weep
for the soft plop of the rain on the mud, pearls bursting
with what dignity.
Drops shimmering through the air, I’m
simmering here, simmering like something that never was, that
never will be—What if
I disappeared like the fishes,
burrowing their lips into the riverbed?

Without reverie, there is nothing but the brook and the rocks
And the blurred keening stars.
And some lost dream like time joint back on itself.
And a dim infinity of days ahead, billowing.

This is a finalist in our A Raisin in the Sun Creative Response Contest. From April 17-19 you can visit our Facebook page to vote for this entry to win our grand prize!

By Vladimir Castillo

You can also watch this video on YouTube.

This is a finalist in our A Raisin in the Sun Creative Response Contest. From April 17-19 you can visit our Facebook page to vote for this entry to win our grand prize!

By Lisette Vasquez

Intro: A dream deferred cannot be ignored for long. A dream is what motivates us to live, it gives meaning to life. A dream can only be changed or modified but never eradicated. Therefore, if an individual has no dream then that person has nothing to live for. My story outlines the dream of an immigrant family, a dream most of us might have; the American dream.

The first thing you should know about me is my name: Casey Vasquez. I am a young girl I am only fourteen but I had to become an adult before any of the American girls at my school. My family is foreign we are Mexican but my little brother and I were lucky enough to be born in the United States the land of freedom and opportunity. However, for illegal immigrant parents like ours, we weren’t living the American life every one craves for. My parents are hardworking, honest people. Everyday it breaks my heart to see them come from work tired, worn out, and hopeless. Everyday I ask myself, “Is this freedom?” Everyday I look in the mirror and see nothing. Everyday I miss the family I left behind in Mexico.

I can still recall the moment I said goodbye. My little brother, Irving, was in the car and I alone had to face the tears of my family. I hugged my grandfather and said goodbye not knowing that was the last goodbye I would ever say to him. My aunt did something that day that I would never forget. She pulled me aside and asked me for a favor. “Never forget your family. Never forget your country always remember where you are from.” I got into the car and drove off but I did not look back, I could not look back I had to keep moving forward and leave my home, my family, and poverty. I had to leave it all behind me and become something better no matter what I had to sacrifice. I felt a tear roll down my cheek and I slowly began to sob. “Are you okay Casey?” Irving asked me.

“I’m okay Irving,” I responded “I just don’t like leaving home.”

But leaving home is what I had to do. I had to sacrifice my culture to pursue my dream; to become a doctor. I got up and went to the bathroom to get dressed for school. I looked in the mirror as I do everyday and see what I always see; nothing. Dreams only bring up hope and eventually you’ll crash and burn you if you believe in them. I come from an immigrant family we weren’t allowed to dream we had other things to worry about. I wasn’t even sure why I kept trying to be a good student. I just knew I had to at least try be something better. I worked hard everyday and high school seemed to pass by very quickly. I began to feel as though I could actually reach my goal and achieve my dreams but I would always cast away such thoughts.

My senior year of high school was a year I would never forget. I had helped my parents to receive their citizenship and we were no longer unhappy. Maybe there was still hope. Maybe I could continue to dream and make my dreams a reality. It was a glorious day the day that I got accepted into medical school. I felt as though a great weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. My parents hugged me with tears in their eyes and began to tell me how proud they were of me. I felt so happy and we all knew from that instant that our lives would change. Graduation day was a beautiful sunny morning. I was anxiously waiting for my name to be called so that I could walk up and receive my certificate. When I did I looked at the crowd and saw my family. Irving had grown so much and at that moment I realized that I could make a difference in his life. I could help him make his dreams a reality. I noticed my parents were carrying some suitcases which I found odd. After the ceremony ended I walked over to them to discover that we would be going to Mexico that same day during the whole summer. I was so happy at the thought that I would be able to return that I cried. My tears rolled down my face and onto my dress. I got into the car and immediately remembered that there was something I wanted to do before we departed. My parents agreed to drive back to the house. I walked in thinking about how many memories I had made here. Several thoughts were running through my mind and I found myself in the bathroom. I decided to go look at the mirror and I looked at my reflection. Not only did I see that but I also saw something else; success.

This is a finalist in our A Raisin in the Sun Creative Response Contest. From April 17-19 you can visit our Facebook page to vote for this entry to win our grand prize!

We Are Such Stuff
By Evan Meyer

Waking in the morning,
The dream you had in the night
Tarries – within your grasp
But oh so fragile and immaterial.

Lie still and capture the memory
Rehearse each image and thought
Prompt them from potential to actuality
And you may be able to arise
Without losing the play, the thing.

But fail to gently gather in
That wisp of smoke
And your first motion
In another direction
Sends it flying for the wings.

Oh, I had such a dream last night
But the curtain has fallen
And there will be no encore.

This is a finalist in our A Raisin in the Sun Creative Response Contest. From April 17-19 you can visit our Facebook page to vote for this entry to win our grand prize!

Throughout our production of A Raisin in the Sun, we’ve been learning about the inspiration for the production, and how this landmark play has influenced other artists. Here are three interesting stories we wanted to share with you.

Lloyd Richards, a director, a gentleman, and foster father to generations of American playwrights.
Richards directed the first production of A Raisin in the Sun in the 1950s. He also mentored Walter Dallas, the director of the Arden’s production. Walter dedicated his work on this show to Richards. Read more about this extraordinary theatre artist and man in this article, reprinted with permission from Dramatics Magazine, published by the Educational Theatre Association.

Lorraine Hansberry, her Chicago Law story
Did you know that A Raisin in the Sun is inspired by real events that happened in the playwright’s life? Read the details of Lee vs. Hansberry, 1939 on The University of Chicago Library News.

Hansberry’s Long shadow in “Raisin Cycle”
Clybourne Park, which the Arden produced in 2012, isn’t the only new play that leases characters from A Raisin in the Sun. At Baltimore’s Center Stage theatre, they are premiering Beneatha’s Place. Read all about it in this article from the Washington Post. 

Have you read something else about A Raisin in the Sun you’d like to share with us? Post it in the comments section here!

By Alison Roberts, Costume Designer

I had a wonderful time designing the costumes for the Arden Theatre Company’s production of A Raisin in the Sun. I had been looking forward to not only working on it, but seeing it ever since it was announced as part of our season. I love the play immensely. I read it for the first time in high school and was struck by how much I could relate to the characters (especially Beneatha) even though my life bore little resemblance to theirs. That is the mark of good writing and that is always the best place to start when making theatre.

Peterson Townsend as George and Jaleesa Capri as Beneatha, with her newly cropped hair. Photo by Mark Garvin

That’s not to say the show didn’t provide me with challenges; it most definitely did. I had to research a lot about the early 1950’s, what it was like to be an African American living in the South Side of Chicago back before the civil rights movement really started, and work with the director, Walter Dallas, to make sure I was bringing his vision of the play to life. Each character had a story to tell and it was my role to use clothing to tell it. A big part of one the character’s story is her hair- specifically whether to continue to straighten or “mutilate” it as another character puts it, or cut it and let it be natural. By cutting her hair, she makes a very bold statement about who she is.

Why is it so bold? Well, from the turn of the century on, women of color were expected to straighten their hair using heated combs and various hair treatments. Mme C.J. Walker and G.A. Morgan popularized this technique.

Women were happy to have a way to make their hair more manageable and as this ad from 1901 suggests, more like white women.

For women of this time, straightening the hair was a good way to feel more attractive and to be more accepted by the majority. Assimilation was the way to do it. This seemed to be the only acceptable hairstyling through1900-1960’s (when chemical hair-straighteners were introduced).  Here are some examples of hairstyles of the 1950’s when the play takes place. These women would be what the characters would consider the standard of beauty.

Around the time that the play was written, the idea that assimilation wasn’t the only way was just starting to take hold.  African Americans were starting to look to their roots figuratively and literally to get a sense of a true identity; not just one that one adopted from white culture. This went along with the civil rights movement. Here are a few examples of promoting natural hair. Interestingly, the 1960’s and 1970’s saw resurgence in wig wearing for women of all races.

Lorraine Hansberry, pictured below, was making a statement by having a character in A Raisin in the Sun cut off her straightened hair. It took a brave woman to be the first in the 1950’s to do it.   By researching not only the clothing of the time period, but the political and social movements of the time, I can fully express the intentions of the playwright and the essence of the characters.