Sculpture

Alison Saar’s work, entitled To Sit A While, will features the figure of Hansberry surrounded by five bronze chairs, each representing a different aspect of her life and work. The life-size chairs are an invitation to the public to do just that: to sit with her and think.

“So I invite you to take a seat. Congregate with friends to read poems or sing songs of resistance. Gather with strangers to share ideas and dreams. Come alone and be inspired by the brilliance of Lorraine Hansberry. Be inspired to find your own brilliance, be inspired to contribute to the Lorraine Hansberry Initiative to support women and non-binary artists of color, gift them the time and the space…to sit a while and think.”
-Alison Saar

Maquette of To Sit Awhile by Alison Saar.

The installation features five chairs representing different aspects of Hansberry’s too-short life and under-recognized legacy.

THE MODERNIST CHAIR recalls the chair Lorraine sat on while writing her plays.

THE OFFICE CHAIR represents her career as a journalist writing for Freedom magazine.

THE STOOL stands for her contributions as a feminist and early LGBTQ activist.

THE OTTOMAN evokes the one she sat on in Robert Kennedy’s living room while educating the politician on civil rights.

THE BENTWOOD CHAIR recalls Lorraine’s childhood home and A Raisin in the Sun.

Alison Saar 

Alison is a contemporary American artist who addresses ideas of race, gender, culture, spirituality, and humanity through her figurative sculptures and paintings. 

She was recently profiled in NPR’s story “She’s Challenging You: Alison Saar’s Sculptures Speak to Race, Beauty, Power,” is also the creator of Swing Low, The Harriet Tubman Memorial in Harlem. To Sit Awhile will solidify her standing as one of the preeminent creators of public art in our time.

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Alison Saar with her work.