Aishah Rahman facts for kids
Aishah Rahman (born November 4, 1936 – died December 29, 2014) was an American writer, teacher, and playwright. She was famous for her part in the Black Arts Movement. She also wrote many plays that showed different parts of Black life and culture.
Growing Up and School
Aishah Rahman was born Virginia Hughes on November 4, 1936, in New York City. She grew up in Harlem in foster care. Church was very important to her. She spent her free time visiting different churches.
When she was in sixth grade, she wrote her first play. It was about germs for National Health week! She went to George Washington High School and finished in 1954. Aishah loved dancing and was very interested in jazz music.
Rahman said that theater helped her a lot when she was growing up. She sometimes had trouble behaving, but in theater, her outgoing personality was celebrated. She studied at Howard University and Goddard College. In 1992, she became a professor at Brown University, teaching writing and literature. At Brown, she helped create a collection of plays called NuMuse.
Her Career and Works
Aishah Rahman was very active in the Black Arts Movement in Harlem. This movement was about celebrating Black culture and art. She took part in many events, like a protest in 1961. Because she grew up in Harlem, she felt a strong connection to the people and the idea of a "black aesthetic," which means a special Black style in art. She wrote many essays about this movement.
The Black Arts Movement helped Rahman become a well-known Black playwright. She was inspired by writers like Adrienne Kennedy and Amiri Baraka. Jazz music also had a big impact on her work. The rhythm and flow of jazz were important to how she structured her plays.
Rahman wrote many plays. Some were dramas, like Unfinished Women Cry In No Man's Land While a Bird Dies in Gilded Cage. Others were musicals, such as Lady Day A Musical Tragedy. Her plays were performed in famous theaters like The Public Theater and at universities across the United States.
She received many awards and grants for her playwriting. These included a special award from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Doris Abramson Playwriting Award.
Besides writing plays, she was a professor at Brown University. She also worked on a documentary film about how performance can be a way for people of African descent to show strength and resistance around the world. In 2001, she published her memoir, a book about her own life, called Chewed Water. It tells about her childhood in the Harlem foster care system.
Aishah Rahman had two children, Yoruba Richen and Kevin Brown. She also had two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She passed away on December 29, 2014, in Mexico.
Plays and Books by Aishah Rahman
Here are some of Aishah Rahman's important works:
- Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy (1972): This was Rahman's first play. It was set in the famous Apollo Theater in New York City. The play was about the life of the jazz singer Billie Holiday.
- Unfinished Women Cry In No Man's Land While A Bird Dies In A Gilded Cage (1977): This play was first performed in 1977. It takes place on the day jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker died in 1955. The story follows five pregnant teenage girls who are deciding what to do about their babies. Parker's death connects their stories.
- The Tale of Madame Zora (1986): This was Rahman's first musical. It was based on the life of writer Zora Neale Hurston. The music in this play was heavily influenced by the blues.
- The Mojo and the Sayso (1987): This play tells the story of the Benjamin family. It talks about serious issues like unfair treatment by authorities.
- The Opera of Marie Laveau (1989): Rahman created this opera about a voodoo queen with composer Akua Dizon Turre.
- Chiaroscuro (2010): This play is set on a cruise ship. It explores the issue of colorism, which is when people are treated differently based on their skin tone within the same racial group.
- Chewed Water (2001): This is Rahman's memoir. It shares details about her childhood growing up in Harlem while in the foster care system.
