MGH & Studs Terkel: Episode 2: Lorraine Hansberry

MGH & Studs Terkel: Episode 2: Lorraine Hansberry

Author: Eric Marcus October 15, 2020 Duration: 21:09
In 1959 Lorraine Hansberry became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. Soon after "A Raisin in the Sun" made history, the 28-year-old writer and activist talked to Studs Terkel about racial and gender inequity and the role of art in confronting difficult truths about our world. Visit our episode webpage for background information, archival photos, and other resources. For exclusive Making Gay History bonus content, join our ⁠Patreon community⁠. ——— To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eric Marcus brings voices out of the past and into the present with Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive. This isn't a dry historical lecture; it's a collection of intimate conversations, built from rare archival recordings that many thought were lost. Each episode feels like sitting down with someone who was there, offering a personal window into the pivotal moments and everyday struggles that have shaped the LGBTQ community. You'll hear from towering figures of the movement alongside people whose names you might not know-ordinary individuals who displayed extraordinary courage. These are the witnesses, the champions, and the quiet heroes whose stories form the bedrock of this history. Listening, you get the raw, unvarnished emotion in their own words, from the fear and defiance of early activism to the hard-won joys of living authentically. The podcast moves across decades, connecting personal diaries, long-shelved interviews, and firsthand accounts into a powerful, human tapestry. It’s about more than just events; it’s about the lived experience, the culture, and the personal health-both mental and physical-of a community fighting for its place. Through these oral histories, the archive becomes a living, breathing conversation, ensuring that this vital history is remembered not as abstract facts, but as the deeply personal stories it truly is.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
Podcast Episodes
Revisiting the Archive: Episode 13: Larah Helayne & Jean O’Leary [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:21
When high schooler Larah Helayne heard MGH’s episode with Jean O’Leary, it changed the course of her life. Plans to become a nun gave way for a new role as an LGBTQ trailblazer. In this season finale, we celebrate the hi…
Revisiting the Archive: Episode 12: Bayard Rustin [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:56
Making Gay History stands with the countless Americans protesting systemic racism and the deaths of Black and brown people at the hands of the police. And we draw inspiration from civil rights heroes like Bayard Rustin,…
Revisiting the Archive: Episode 11: Larry Kramer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:02
June 25, 1935 - May 27, 2020. In the early ’80s, author and playwright Larry Kramer was one of the first people to sound the alarm about AIDS. He became one of the loudest voices in the fight against the epidemic, callin…
Revisiting the Archive: Episode 10: Perry Watkins [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:43
When Perry Watkins was drafted in 1968, he assumed the Army would reject him for being gay. They didn’t. When they got rid of him after 15 years of service, he fought back. As we face the systemic inequalities Covid-19 h…
Revisiting the Archive: Episode 9: Joyce Hunter [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:49
In 1939 Joyce Hunter was born into a world so hostile it’s a wonder she wasn’t crushed. Instead, the challenges and brutality she faced proved to be the launchpad for an expansive life of pioneering activism and accompli…
Revisiting the Archive: Episode 8: Morris Foote [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:11
In late 1955, the police of Boise, Idaho, started a sweeping investigation into an alleged “homosexual underground.” Fearing arrest, Morris Foote fled town, not to return till 20 years later. A story of Pride from the U.…
Revisiting the Archive: Episode 7: Ellen DeGeneres [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:43
Today, Ellen DeGeneres needs no introduction. But as she explained in a 2001 MGH interview, her very public 1997 coming out took a dramatic professional and personal toll. When life goes off the rails, there’s no knowing…
Revisiting the Archive: Episode 6: Kay Lahusen's Gay Table [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:31
When did you make gay history? Join host Eric Marcus, pioneering photojournalist Kay Lahusen, and a group of LGBTQ history-making elders for their monthly retirement community dinner. Happy memories from the recent pre-p…
Revisiting the Archive: Episode 5: Vito Russo [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:06
Vito Russo’s legacy—as a film historian, activist, and cofounder of GLAAD and ACT UP—is hard to overstate. In this 1988 interview, legacy was also very much on Vito’s mind: It was the height of the AIDS epidemic, which h…