Playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s writings emerged from the World War II and 1950s feminist community that paved the way for the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Kathlene McDonald , Associate Professor of English at City College of New York, traces these influences by looking at Hansberry’s nonfiction essays and letters to The Ladder. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Twice Militant: Lorraine Hansberry's Letters to "The Ladder," this talk provides a “twice militant” framework for reading Hansberry’s plays.