Lorraine Hansberry is coming home.
A life-size bronze sculpture of the Chicago native, civil rights leader and playwright best known for “A Raisin in the Sun,” is set to be unveiled Aug. 23 at Navy Pier.
The piece, made by Los Angeles-based sculptor Alison Saar, has been on a national tour since 2022, including stops in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Minneapolis, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco — as well as several historically Black colleges and universities.
The statue, titled “To Sit A While,” will be permanently housed in at the Pier site. It features a seated Hansberry and four empty chairs — an invitation for the public to come sit with the famed playwright.
“Navy Pier is thrilled to have been selected as the permanent home for ‘To Sit A While,'” said Erika Taylor, the Pier’s vice president of arts, culture and engagement. “We are honored to share the life and legacy of Lorraine Hansberry with over eight million guests a year. … This sculpture creates a literal and metaphorical space to reflect within the beauty of Polk Bros Park.”
The statue’s dedication ceremony is planned for 5:45 p.m. at the Pier, ending with an outdoor screening of the 1961 film version of “A Raisin in the Sun,” starring Sidney Poitier.
Hansberry, who was born on the South Side, was the first African-American woman to have a play — “A Raisin in the Sun” — produced on Broadway. The work has been translated into dozens of languages and performed on stages around the world including Chicago at the Beverly Arts Center in 2023 and Victory Gardens Theatre in 2019, . Court Theatre will be presenting a staging of the work as part of its 2024-25 season. Hansberry’s “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” was presented in 2016 at the Goodman Theatre.
Hansberry’s Chicago home on South Rhodes Street was designated a Chicago landmark in 2010.