If you miss the insightful discussions of the classroom or just love to read, this is your chance to discover thought-provoking books and meet new people while learning from some of McGill’s favourite professors without tests, papers, or evaluations!

"A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry

Presented by Sean Carney, Associate Professor of Drama and Theatre, Department of English, McGill University

In this classic play that confronts deep-seated issues of race, dignity, and self-determination, Walter Lee, a black chauffeur on Chicago’s South Side, dreams of a better life and hopes to use money from his father's life insurance settlement to open a liquor store. His mother, who rejects the liquor business, wants to use the money to buy a proper house for the family. Even as they are at odds with one another over their dreams and visions for the future, the family must also endure conflicts with the world around them.

Deeply committed to the black struggle for equality and human rights, Lorraine Hansberry would have had a long and brilliant career as a writer had her life not been cut short by cancer at the age of 35. "A Raisin in the Sun", the first play by a black woman to be produced on Broadway, won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Hansberry was the youngest writer - and the first black writer - to receive the award.

Sean Carney is an Associate Professor of Drama and Theatre in McGill’s Department of English. He is the author of "Brecht and Critical Theory: Dialectics and Contemporary Aesthetics" and has published essays in "Modern Drama", "Theatre Journal", the "Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism", "Theatre Survey", "Essays in Theatre", "ImageTexT", the "Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies and English Language Notes". He has directed students in three plays at McGill: "Orra" by Joanna Baillie, "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare and "Playhouse Creatures" by April De Angelis. He is currently writing a book about contemporary British theatre.